Caravaggio and Poussin

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews and discusses the works of Michelangelo da Caravaggio and Nicolas Poussin. According to the paper, Caravaggio and Poussin were not contemporaries but have been linked in art history because of the criticisms Poussin made of Caravaggio and because of the differences in approach seen in their aesthetic ideas and the works they produced following those ideas.

From the Paper:

"These latter two works are very different renditions of their subject, though there are similarities in the symbols used. Both figures have leaves twining around their heads. The da Cortona work shows a much younger Bacchus, a child, with bunches of grapes in hand. The Caravaggio presents an adult Bacchus drunk from the wine in the goblet he holds in his left hand, and grapes and other fruit are visible in a bowl in the foreground. The Bacchus of Caravaggio is a dissipated adult, and Caravaggio renders this scene with considerable realism. The expression on the face shows how drunk this Bacchus is and how less than ideal this makes him."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Alpatov, M. "Poussin Problems." The Art Bulletin 17(1)(March 1935), 4-30.
• Carrier, David. "The Flight into Egypt: Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)." The Art Bulletin 80(1998), http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001405516.
• Keates, Jonathan. "Dazzling Art but Dark Artist." The Spectator (February 17, 2000), http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200002/ai_n8882024.
• Panofsky, Dora. "Narcissus and Echo; Notes on Poussin's Birth of Bacchus in the Fogg Museum of Art." The Art Bulletin 31(2)(June 1949), 112-120.
• Pontynen, Arthur. For the Love of Beauty: Art, History, and the Moral Foundations of Aesthetic Judgment. Transaction Publishers, 2006.

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