Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice

Nicolas Poussin painted this work for his longtime friend and patron Jean Pointel, who was a rich banker in Paris. Pointel also was a member of the libertines,{{clarify|date=November 2013}} a circle which Poussin himself frequented. It was in Pointel's collection, which had many works by Poussin, but was stored away after the political climate in Paris changed. In its place Poussin`s landscape with snake and dying man, was hung in Pointel`s private collection.{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

Poussin places the story of Orpheus in the Campagna Romana (Roman countryside): the Castel Sant'Angelo and the Torre delle Milizie ("Tower of the Militia") figure in this painting, borrowed from the landscape of the Eternal City.{{citation|title=Nicolas Poussin's Landscape Allegories|first=Sheila|last= McTighe|publisher=Cambridge University Press| year=1996|

isbn=0-521-48214-3}} Dense smoke pours from a fire which devastates the Castle, and darkens a sky already overcast with sombre clouds. The fall of the light divides the landscape diagonally into bright and dark areas – a division clearly seen on the Torre delle Milizie.F. Negri Arnoldi, Storia dell'Arte, Fabbri Group (1990), Vol.3, pp.260-262, {{ISBN|978-88-450-0735-4}}. See also, {{citation|last=Mérot|first=Alain|title=Nicolas Poussin|year=1990|publisher=Abbeville Press|isbn=1-55859-120-6}}

Many of Poussin's pictures have darkened, mainly as a result of a red underpainting which has begun to show through the colours. The Orpheus, however, is free of this: it has kept its original transparency even in the darker passages, and the whole painting is in a particularly fine state of preservation.{{citation|title=Nicolas Poussin 1584-1665|first1=Richard|last1= Verdi|first2=Pierre|last2=Rosenberg|author-link2=Pierre Rosenberg|publisher=Royal Academy|year=1995|isbn=0-302-00656-7}}

This work by Poussin remains cryptic and there are various opinions about its possible interpretation.

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• List of paintings by Nicolas Poussin
• Baroque painting
• Et in Arcadia ego

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{{Reflist}}

• {{citation|doi=10.2307/427435|title=An Essay on Poussin|first=Curtis O. |last=Baer|journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism|volume= 21|year=1963|pages=251–261|issue=3|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|jstor=427435}}
• {{citation|title=Nicolas Poussin: Dialectics of Painting|first=Oskar|last= Bätschmann|publisher=Reaktion Books|year= 1999|isbn =0-948462-43-4}}
• {{citation|title=Poussin's paintings: a study in art-historical methodology|first=David|last=Carrier|publisher=Penn State Press|year=1993|isbn=0-271-00816-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/poussinspainting0000carr}}
• {{citation|title=Landscape into art|first=Kenneth|last= Clark|author-link=Kenneth Clark|publisher=Beacon Press|year=1961}}
• {{citation|doi=10.1002/1531-8257(200003)15:2<328::AID-MDS1021>3.0.CO;2-Y|title=The movement disorder of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)|first1=Patrick|last1= Haggard|first2=Sam|last2= Rodgers|journal=Movement Disorders|

volume =15|pages=328–334|url=http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/76510330/abstract|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130105073553/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/76510330/abstract|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-01-05|pmid=10752587|year=2000|issue=2|s2cid=43216258 |url-access=subscription}}

• {{citation|title=Nicolas Poussin's Landscape Allegories|first=Sheila|last= McTighe|publisher=Cambridge University Press| year=1996|

isbn=0-521-48214-3}}

• {{citation|last=Mérot|first=Alain|title=Nicolas Poussin|year=1990|publisher=Abbeville Press|isbn=1-55859-120-6}}
• F. Negri Arnoldi, Storia dell'Arte, Fabbri Group (1990), Vol.III, {{ISBN|978-88-450-0735-4}}
• {{citation|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1998|isbn=0-521-64004-0

|title=Commemorating Poussin: Reception and Interpretation of the Artist|first1= Katie|

last1= Scott|first2= Genevieve|last2= Warwick}}

• {{citation|title=The artist grows old: the aging of art and artists in Italy, 1500-1800|first=Philip Lindsay|last=Sohm|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-300-12123-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/artistgrowsoldag0000sohm}}, Chapter 3. Poussin's hands and Titian's eyes
• {{citation|title=Nicolas Poussin 1584-1665|first1=Richard|last1= Verdi|first2=Pierre|last2=Rosenberg|author-link2=Pierre Rosenberg|publisher=Royal Academy|year=1995|isbn=0-302-00656-7}}

{{Commons category|Orphée et Eurydice - Poussin - Louvre INV 7307}}

• [http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=2145 Orphée et Eurydice at the Louvre] {{in lang|fr}}
• [http://delapeinture.com/2010/03/04/orphee-et-eurydice-de-nicolas-poussin/ Orphée et Eurydice by Poussin], on website delapeinture.com {{in lang|fr}}
• [http://www.artble.com/artists/nicolas_poussin Nicolas Poussin Biography, Style and Artworks]
• [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={2E8D0192-D6B3-4475-83B2-B2AF77FD47A0} Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions] at the [http://www.metmuseum.org/ Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]
• [http://www.nicolaspoussin.org 92 works by Nicolas Poussin]
• {{CathEncy|wstitle=Nicolas Poussin}}

{{Nicolas Poussin}}

{{Orpheus and Eurydice}}

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Category:Mythological paintings by Nicolas Poussin

Category:1650s paintings

Category:Paintings in the Louvre by French artists

Category:Landscape paintings

Category:Paintings of Greek myths