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The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Selections Annotated and Explained Russell McNeil, PhD Editor, Malaspina Great Books In 1862 the English literary critic and poet Matthew Arnold described Marcus Aurelius as "the most beautiful figure in history." The Stoicism of Aurelius is grounded in rationality and rests solidly on an ethical approach rooted in nature. Stoicism promises real happiness and joy in this life and a serenity that can never be soured by personal misfortune. This philosophy has universal appeal with practical implications on problems ranging from climate change and terrorism to the personal management of sickness, aging, depression and addiction. I truly believe that the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius has much to offer us now...(Click on book cover for more)

Category:	Baroque Art
Name:	Nicolas Poussin Baroque Art
Birth Year:	1594
Death Year:	1665
Representative Image:
Biography, Lectures, and Research Links:	Biography Blog Nicolas Poussin SEARCH NOW: by title by author Find your favorite art: barewalls.com French painter, b. at Les Andelys near Rouen in 1594; d. at Rome, 19 November, 1666. His early history is obscure; his father had been a soldier, his mother was a peasant. In 1612, Varin, a wandering painter, brought him to Paris, where he experienced great distress. In despair he tried his fortune in the provinces but nothing remains of what he did at that time in Poitou and later with the Capuchins at Blois, as well as the six pictures he painted in eight days for the Jesuit college at Paris. He studied under Varin, Lallemand, and Ferdinand Elle, but they had no share in his development. The French school was then in a languid condition. The religious wars of the time rendered abortive the attempt of Francis I to inaugurate the Renaissance, and Henry IV had other things to engross his attention besides the arts. His successor sought rather such foreign artists as John of Bologna, Pourbus, and Rubens. At this juncture Poussin learned of some engravings by Marc Antonio after Giulio Romano and Raphael. This was his road to Damascus. Antique beauty was revealed to him through the works of these sons of Italy and thenceforth he lived in the past. All modern civilization seemed barbarous to him. His experience was an illumination, a veritable conversion. Henceforth he had no rest until he found the fatherland of his heart and his ideas. Three attempts he made to reach Rome. Compelled to return to Paris he there encountered Marini, the famous author of the "Adonis", who contracted a warm friendship for the enthusiastic boy: "Che ha", said he, "una furia di diavolo". With him he finally reached Rome in 1624; but Marini died within a few months and Poussin was alone in a strange city, helpless, ill, without means, and reduced to doing hack work. The poor artist then met a countryman, the cook Dughet, who took pity on him, sheltered and cured him, and whose daughter he married (1629). At the time of his arrival at Rome the school was divided into two parties, that of the mannerists who followed Guido, and that of the brutal naturalists who followed Caravaggio, both in Poussin's opinion quackery, equally dishonest and remote from reality. He detested the affected airs of the fashionable painters, their sentimentality, their insipidity, their ecstasy. Nor was he less hard on the affectation of the "naturalists and their partiality for ugliness and vulgarity". He called Caravaggio's art "painting for lackeys", and added: "This man is come to destroy painting". Both schools sought to execute more beautifully or more basely than nature; Art was endangered for lack of rule, conscience, and discipline. It was time to escape from caprice and anarchy, from the despotism of tastes and temperaments. And this was what Poussin sought to achieve by his doctrine of "imitation". To imitate the antique was an approach to nature, to learn conformity with reality, to recover life in its most lasting, noble, and human forms. Such at least was the doctrine and faith which he practised unceasingly in his works and letters. For this he became an archaeologist, a numismatist, a scholar. He used scientific methods, measuring statues, consulting bas-reliefs, studying painted vases, sarcophagi, and mosaics. Every point was based on an authentic document. In this he was doubtless influenced by a certain narrowness and misunderstanding of the claims of realism. To a certain extent his art is for the initiated, the taste for it requires culture. More, this pure ideal implies a singular anachronism. Poussin presents the strange case of a man isolated in the past and who never descended in history lower than the Antonines. By his turn of mind this man of austere virtue was scarcely Christian. He rarely painted scenes from the Gospel. His Christ is certainly one of his weakest types. Let me dare to say it: as an artist Poussin thinks somewhat like a Leconte de Lisle or like the Renan of the "Priere sur l'Acropole". Poussin had no desire to see the modern world. He left but a single portrait, his own. He is wholly expressed in Bernini's words: "Veramente quest' uomo à stato grande istoriatore e grande favoleggiatore". He was a great historian, a great teller of fables, an epic poet, in a word the foremost of his time and one of the foremost of all time. His works are very numerous. The first group contains subjects borrowed from sacred and profane Antiquity. Among these to mention only dated works are: "The Rape of the Sabines", and "The Plague of the Philistines" (1630, Louvre); "The Testament of Eudamidas" (Copenhagen); "Hebrews Gathering Manna" (1639); "Moses Rescued from the Waters" (1647); "Eliezer and Rebecca" (1648); "The Judgment of Solomon" (1649); "The Blind Men of Jericho" (1650); "The Adulteress" (1653); all these last-named pictures are at the Louvre. To these must be added the important double series of pictures known as the "Seven Sacraments". The first, painted (1644-8) for Cavaliere del Pozzo, is now at the Bridgewater Gallery, London. The second is a very different variation of the former and was painted for M. de Chantelou, his correspondent and active protector. It is now in collection of the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir Castle. This historical portion of his work seems to have been most in favour with his contemporaries. It immediately became classic and it is certainly filled with the highest beauty. Despite their high and strong qualities, however, these works no longer attract us, for we often find therein an intellectual affront, a something too literary or too rationalistic which seems to us foreign to the genius of painting. But that this was relished by the French of the seventeenth century is shown by their commentaries on these works. The description of the two pictures "Eliezer" and the "Manna", fills forty quarto pages in Felibien. Apart from these historical scenes which "relate" and "prove" there is a purely lyric side. In it are evident the wonderful skill of the designer and the poet, detached from any attempt at anecdote or "illustration". Such were the "Bacchanalia", the "Triumph of Flora", the "Childhood of Jupiter", which do little more than repeat the theme of the joy and beauty of living. Here Poussin's genius freed of all restraint can only be compared to that of great musicians such as Rameau or Gluck. Properly speaking it is the genius of rhythm. This is his true sphere, as original as that of any master, and the inexhaustible source of his emotion and poetry. In a sense his work may be considered as a ballet. This was his idea in his famous letter on the modes of the ancients, who distinguished as many as seven, the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Hypolydian etc. "I desire", he added, "before another year to compose a picture in the Phrygian manner". This phrase would have aroused less amusement if Whistler's works, with his "symphonies", "harmonies", "nocturns", and "sonatas", had been known. But this music of painting which Whistler made chiefly a matter of colour seemed to Poussin a question of movement. For him it meant life understood as a dance which the Greeks made a science. Finally the landscape becomes more and more important in this lyrical or poetical side of his work. Nature accompanies with its profound harmony the human sentiments which transpire on its surface, the persons are merely a melodious figure outlined against the chorus of things. As a landscape artist he is without a peer, unless it be Titian. Constable finds something religious in his landscapes; in fact, when contemplating his "Polyphemus" or his "Cacus" (St. Petersburg), it is easy to understand (what no one since Virgil has felt) the naturalistic and mysterious origin of myths. Beyond doubt this is something far removed from the pious Franciscan tenderness as it finds expression in the "Canticle of creatures"; it is rather the religion of Epicurus or Lucretius, which teaches conformity with the ends of the universe and as supreme wisdom counsels harmony with the rhythm of nature. Towards the end of his life Poussin seems to have renounced the personal or dramatic element. His last works, the "Four Seasons" of the Louvre (1664-65), are simply four landscapes which please by variety of sense. Like the ancient sage the master leaves history and psychology, and devotes himself simply to music. Between 1624 and his death he was absent from Rome only once (1641-2) at the command of Richelieu, who summoned him to Paris to superintend the work at the Louvre with the title of painter to the king. This journey was otherwise unfortunate. The artist was misunderstood by the painters, who soon succeeded in driving him away. All that remains of this period are two large pictures, a "Last Supper", very mediocre, painted for St. Germain en Laye, a "Miracle of St. Francis Xavier", painted for the Jesuit novitiate, and a ceiling, the "Triumph of Truth", painted for Richelieu's chateau at Rueil. These three canvases are at the Louvre. On his return to Rome Poussin found his authority much increased by his official title. He lived not far from the Trinita de Monti in a little side street where he had as neighbors Claude Lorrain and Salvator. Among artists he exercised a singular influence. Nearly all the Frenchmen who came to Rome to study, from Mignard to Le Brun and Sebastien Bourdon, not to mention his brother-in-law Gaspard Dughet (called "Guaspre"), imitated him and claimed him as master; but as usual none of them understood him. In his century he was an isolated genius, but his glory has not been useless to us; it shone more brilliantly in the decadence of the Italian school and it gave to the French school what it had hitherto lacked - titles and an ancestor. [Adapted from Catholic Encyclopedia (1911)] The Great Books: Nicolas Poussin Please browse our Amazon list of titles about Nicolas Poussin. For rare and hard to find works we recommend our Alibris list of titles about Nicolas Poussin. Post Comments, Questions or Suggestions! This database is maintained by Malaspina Great Books.
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	Malaspina Great Books Lecture Series Lecture on Baroque Art Russell McNeil, PhD (Copyright 2005) [Malaspina Great Books Exclusive] What is Baroque art? Formally, Baroque art applies to the era in art history that dominated most of arts of the seventeenth century--the enlightenment -- or, what we call the Age of Newton. The era is differentiated from earlier periods by the currents of individualism and nationalism -- currents which are fundamentally a product of the ideas emerging as a result of the development of printing around 1450. In general, Baroque artwork is elaborate, energetic, and passionate--whatever that means. The use of curves and detail are characteristic of the movement. Baroque is often associated with dynamic and rich images of textured, flowing robes. The Baroque period is also strongly associated with religious art since much of its impetus was given by the Catholic Counter-Reformation. But not all Baroque work is related to religious symbolism. Most of what I will show you here is not religious. The term Baroque by the way can also be used with reference to art of any time or place that shows the sorts of qualities I will talk about here. In the period called Baroque those qualities dominated the art of the era. Before I do that let's look for a moment at what Baroque art is not. That context might help in seeing some of those qualities that are Baroque. Leonardo's da Vinci Virgin and Child with St. Anne This is Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin and Child with St. Anne. It contains all of the elements of Renaissance idealism. There's harmony and technical balance in the construction. Notice for example how the figures are grouped into a cone or pyramid. Da Vinci has pulled out all of his artistic tricks in this work: in the forms, colours, light and shade, proportions, anatomy. All of these he handles with total control. The human figure has reached a peak of idealization anatomically and aesthetically. I really love this work. And I think it is quite possible to enjoy this work whether or not you identify with the religious symbolism. And, the piece certainly has emotional content too. All renaissance art does -- but the emotional content is of a different sort from the Baroque -- on a different plane. I can see and be moved by the clear ties between the mother and child and the warm loving connection evident here, but, these connections do not remind me of the sorts of personal loving mother-child connections we know from our lives -- these are idealized. Michaelangelo Sistine Chapel Detail This detail of Michelangelo's familiar Adam from the Sistine chapel (above) conveys a strong message of Renaissance idealism. This moment -- the Creation shows Adam lying on a bare landscape and carries with it the very instant of creation: the whole human story is about to begin. Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa I like to call this work proto-baroque. Leonardo's Da Vinci's La Joconde or Mona Lisa is of course Renaissance in every respect -- and the work represents a tour de force for da Vinci. It is perfect. The sfumato technique da Vinci used in this work seemed absolutely miraculous to da Vinci's contemporaries. The painting was built from gossamer thin layers of glazes so light that the entire work seemed to glow from within. Yet, as idealized and perfect as this work was -- it fascinated and fascinates still because in one important respect it is NOT renaissance. The subject here, Mona Lisa herself, is not a divine character. She is no angel. The so-called "enigmatic smile" raises questions about this woman's human psychology. What is she thinking?; what does she know?. It's as if da Vinci in having depleted all of his tricks, teases us with something new. He reveals a new dimension in art -- a dimension that will flourish during the Baroque era. Giorgione Tempest (1505) Da Vinci wasn't the first renaissance artist to introduce -- or tease -- with non-renaissance elements. Giorgione's idyllic scene here -- called the Tempest -- is also Renaissance in all respects except that this work is designed to convey a mood. There is an uneasy anticipation conveyed here: the idyllic is about to be overtaken by an ugly storm. The idea of creating mood in art had, until Giorgione, been a trick used by the poet, here a painter is trying to do the same thing. Appealing to classical Greek inspiration, Renaissance painters in search of new inspiration, attempted to emulate in their paintings some of the tension and dramatic qualities discovered in late classical Greek sculpture, particularly the twisting violent figures of the Laocoon group. Laocoon group These 2nd century BC works were unearthed early in the 16th century and first identified by the young Michaelangelo and became the powerful source of his later inspitation. The work also provided inspiration for a mode of painting that came to known as Mannerism. Mannerism is still renaissance, but renaissance with flair. Parmigianino Virgin with the Long Neck (1535) This is the Mannerist result. Parmigianino's intent is to improve on the ideal through his twisting exaggerations, the elongation of the human form and overstated expressions arranged in irregular configurations. Leonardo da Vinci Last Supper (1497) We are all familiar with Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper -- degraded and as badly restored as it now is. It is nonetheless one of da Vinci's greatest achievements. How then could a Renaissance imitator ever improve on this? Well, by allowing other but still permissible classical conventions to enter into the work, Tintoretto did something new. This is his Last Supper -- executed a one hundred years after da Vinci's monumental achievement. Tintoretto Last Supper (1592). This was probably the last Renaissance gasp. Something quite new is about to happen to the world of art -- and seems imminent in Tintoretto's work. Christ in this work is at the centre -- but the table is at an angle. The overall effect is artificial, unreal, unearthly -- notice too how the everyday mixes with the supernatural. The work below, Bernini's David, is truly Baroque. Bernini David Contrast Michaelangelo's David with Bernini's. While Tintoretto's work is artificial, Bernini's is natural. Michelangelo's David represents a classical ideal but Bernini's is more recognizable. Bernini's David might might easily have played rugby. He certainly is not to be confused with the gods. This is a regular guy. The work is also more dramatic, more violent, more sensuous that the other. The baroque was influenced by many developments and people. The counter-reformation was a major impulse in the South; in the North it was a spirit of absolutism -- an influence of Hobbes. In North and South the winds of the new sciences and new rationalism -- currents from Galileo, Harvey, Bacon, Newton and Descartes had enormous impacts on art -- not so much in the production of art with "scientific" subject, but art that reflects the importance behind the new science and rationalisms -- namely the radical break with tradition and authority the new sciences brought. Both camps were fascinated with violence -- spawned by the wars of the times. What is particularly fascinating about this new world is that both camps -- the traditional Catholic and the new enlightened spirit of rationalism responded in spades -- with neither side really a clear winner. Both produced spirited work and both currents continue to influence art right on down to the present day. But, if there was a precise instant in time where the break with the renaissance occurred, it may have been here in this amazing work by Caravaggio painted just 6 years after Tintoretto's Last Supper. Caravaggio Supper at Emmaeus (1598) Caravaggio broke the mold. Never before had the world seen a Christ depicted in this way: a disheveled, haloless, well-fed, beardless man sitting in a completely natural and convincing space amongst men with weather beaten faces, red noses, and torn clothing. Gone completely is the artificiality of the Tintoretto's image. Here the table is set, but the food is familiar; the apples are worm eaten. No idealist painted this image. The leaves are dying. The conversation is animated -- contentious -- the man in the foreground seems set to leap from his chair. And the chair isn't even fully in the picture. It is cut off -- and deliberately so by Caravaggio in a novel attempt to bring the action out of the picture and into our space. There is much that is new. And for viewers accustomed to renaissance convention, this image is disturbing and even subversive. Caravaggio Death of a Virgin (1606) If Christ's image shocked, this image electrified. This is Caravaggio's Death of a Virgin. What was Caravaggio up to? Notice the theatrical use of light and shade. Light falls onto the subject from the side -- like a spotlight . Look at the despair in the figures gathered around the body. Most of the image is covered in the gloom of haunting darkness. There is little that is ideal here -- but most radical of all -- the model Caravaggio used to create his image of the dead virgin was in fact, the swollen body of a murdered prostitute just recovered from the Tiber river in Rome. There's no wonder Caravaggio's patrons got twitchy. He knew what he was up to. This is clearly political art. Caravaggio lived hard and died young. Caravaggio David with Head of Goliath In fact he was dead at 36. Caravaggio's David with the head of Goliath contains Caravaggio's only self portrait -- the head here is none other than that of the artist! Artemesia Gentileschi Judith and Maidservant This is the image that launched a thousand Murder Mystery book covers in the 20th century: Gentileschi's Judith and Maidservant. It is one of a sequence of works painted by Gentileschi on this theme. The head in this image is hidden from view just after the maid stuffs it in the sack. The hushed candlelit atmosphere might seem a bit theatrical to us now, but it was quite effective in its day. Artemesia Gentileschi Self Portrait The physical similarity between the Judith in the painting and Gentileschi in her self-portrait is no coincidence. Gentieschi -- as a woman -- was not permitted to use live models as subjects -- so, she used her own body as model in many of her works. Bernini Ecstasy of St. Teresa (1645) Here is one the Baroque's most powerful religious moments: the Ecstasy of St. Teresa -- this is Bernini's attempt to capture in starkly human terms a mystical experience described by Teresa in her hand as follows: Beside me appeared an angel in bodily form. In his hands I saw a great golden spear and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he pulled it out I felt that he took them with it, and left me utterly consumed with the great love of god. The pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans. This is not a physical but a spiritual pain. Though the body has some share in it--even a considerable share. Spain The Baroque in Spain emphasized another side of life. This is Velazquez woman cooking eggs. Velazquez Woman Cooking Eggs Velazquez like Gentileschi painted in a Caravaggio style -- brutally naturalistic particularly in his use of light and shade -- chiaroscuro -- but unlike Caravaggio, Velazquez's emphasis is on the more pleasant side of life. I enjoy the quote of Velazquez in your package: "I would rather be the first painter of common things than the second in higher art." Velazquez Maids of Honour (1619) This is one of the baroque's most admired group paintings. We have six pairs of eyes. The subject in the painting seems to be Princess Marguarita -- but is it? What is in the mirror? Who are the real subjects? Is the subject art itself? Or is it the artist? France The influence of Caravaggio is seen in this deliberately smooth, poetic and simple work by French artist Georges du Mesnilde la Tour. The work is natural and beautiful but not at all real. Georges du Mesnil de la Tour New Born Flanders In Catholic Flanders -- what is now the South of Holland -- realism and naturalism are combined. Ostade Three persons Smoking/Drinking in interior Also from Flanders -- and one of the most successful and wealthiest painters of the era -- if not all time was Peter Paul Rubens. This is his Garden of Love. Rubens Garden of Love Here myth and Reality unite in an almost promiscuous tribute to life's pleasures. This extravagant, sensuous, vibrant work is pure Baroque -- I think in the sense that most people now sense what Baroque art is all about. This painting had a special meaning to Rubens -- who although 60 years, he had just married a 16 year old woman -- Rubens died just two years later. Rubens Rape of the daughters of Leucippus (1616) If the Garden of Love is pure Baroque -- this is pure Rubenesque. The treatment of the mythological assault is said to have inspired two centuries of Western art. Rubens was infatuated with classical antiquity -- as well as a leading creator of religious art. His voluptuous treatment of the female form also defined a standard for female beauty that endured for many centuries. A renaissance treatment of such a scene would be far less naturalistic -- far more sculpturesque -- the subjects far more idealized -- than this airy, energetic, clearly violent treatment. The result I think is a deeper connection with the brutality involved -- and a more visceral response to the subject matter. This subject might involve a mythological event -- but it is also the sort of thing that could happen to us on the human plane. It too is a political and social statement. Holland The Baroque in the North of Holland took a decidedly different turn. This Protestant area was extraordinarily liberal and cosmopolitan and wealthy. Vermeer Milkmaid A healthy middle and merchant class thrived there and there developed a strong demand for art -- art created expressly for the home: interiors, still-life, landscapes and portraits -- the artist was also free to do what he or she liked -- paint first -- sell later. So in many respects Dutch art reflects the society from which it emerges. Vermeer Letter The rooms are clear, uncluttered. The furniture is carefully chosen; the style is realistic in every detail; the overall impression is almost photographic. This landscape -- Jewish Cemetery is by the Great Dutch Landscape painter van Ruisdal. Van Ruisdal Jewish Cemetery (1655) This imaginary melancholy scene formed the basis of the romantic notion of the sublime -- a hundred years later. The scene conveys the idea that nothing endures: ancient crumbling graves, a medieval ruin -- all crumble in the face of time and the elements. Here is another dramatic and emotional landscape by Wynant. Jan Wynant Landscape Dutch seascapes are thematically similar to Dutch landscapes. This is Storck's Four days Battle. Abraham Storck Four days Battle This image depicts a real marine battle. Storck would have been here and was hired to record the events -- as one of the first true war artists. I will focus lastly an the greatest genius of Dutch Baroque art -- Rembrandt. Rembrandt was strongly influenced by Caravaggio. The artist fought fiercely for personal autonomy and always choose his own subject matter. Rembrandt Anatomy Lesson Rembrandt Night Watch (1642) What I find endearing about Rembrandt was his absolute refusal to cater to populist crutches. Flamboyance sells. But Rembrandt rejects flamboyance. Rembrandt has rejected the cult of beauty. He did only what he wanted to do and ignored both the critics and the winds of popular taste. Nothing grand lasts forever. The Baroque impulse had run its course -- for the time being at least. As time changes so does art. But the period immediately following the Baroque saw the development of a gratuitous style whose only virtue was being "pretty!" This style, Rococo, was associated with the reign of Louis XV -- the Sun King. This is art that delights, but never excites. Watteau Homage to Love (1720) This art was intended to entertain -- and little else. No social, religious, or political messages are found or intended. Nothing this art contained would ever invade delicate sensibilities. It is gratuitous art at its frivolous best -- analagous to elevator music or a Harlequin Romance; today art from this "entertainment only" genre is available at any suburban mall. This is art that works well in hotel or motel rooms -- establishments that began to flourish for the first time in this period. Nothing good lasts. The Baroque ended with a whimper.
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