Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Steven Levine on Facebook yesterday, contemplating Poussin’s The Adoration of the Golden Calf (1633-34) at the National Gallery in London:

(#1) [SL:] Those golden idol worshipping Israelites were pretty hot. I didn’t learn this in Hebrew school

Note: Poussin’s canvases are mostly huge — far too large to be appreciated properly in reproductions like the ones I’m giving you — and sprawling, crowded with characters (voluptuous women and studly men plus, where appropriate, adorable cherubs) in motion in an assortment of encounters, the whole scene illustrating some biblical or mythological theme, set in a wild natural landscape under a dramatic sky. (The celebration of the picturesque famously characterizes the Romantic movement in the arts, but in Poussin it flourished in the Baroque.)

Now: notes on Poussin; then on his religious painting on the Golden Calf theme in #1; then on to a mythological painting, Acis and Galatea; to a mythological painting in which six different encounters on a single theme (metamorphosis into a flower) are gathered together: The Empire of Flora; and, finally, to a mythological painting focused on sheer physicality: Bacchanale.

Then I will digress to Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party, evoked for me by Poussin’s character-packed canvases. Then from Poussin’s surname, I drift to the tasty French dish poussin, and from this young chicken (typically roasted), I drift further to other chickens, young men considered as desirable sexual objects. Which brings us back to those steamy Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf. It’s the curse — or gift — of the associative mind.

About the artist. From Wikipedia:

Nicolas Poussin (June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was … a leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a small group of Italian and French collectors. He returned to Paris for a brief period to serve as First Painter to the King under Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, but soon returned to Rome and resumed his more traditional themes. In his later years he gave growing prominence to the landscape in his paintings. His work is characterized by clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. Until the 20th century he remained a major inspiration for such classically-oriented artists as Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Paul Cézanne.

… Each of Poussin’s paintings told a story. Though he had little formal education, Poussin became very knowledgeable in the nuances of religious history, mythology and classical literature, and, usually after consulting with his clients, took his subjects from these topics. Many of his paintings combined several different incidents, occurring at different times, into the same painting, in order to tell the story, and the affetti, or facial expressions of the participants, showed their different reactions. Aside from his self-portraits, Poussin never painted contemporary subjects.

Looking ahead a bit, I point out Poussin’s use of aligned postures, gaze, and facial expressions to pick out the component encounters in a crowded scene, a technique that called to my mind the composition of Renoir’s remarkable Luncheon of the Boating Party.

About the Golden Calf. From Wikipedia:

The Adoration of the Golden Calf is a painting by Nicolas Poussin, produced between 1633 and 1634. It is held in the National Gallery, in London.

It depicts the adoration of the golden calf by the Israelites, from chapter 32 of the Book of Exodus. It was made as part of a pair of paintings (the other being The Crossing of the Red Sea) commissioned by Amadeo dal Pozzo, Marchese di Voghera of Turin, a cousin to Cassiano dal Pozzo, Poussin’s main sponsor in Rome.

… The painting’s subject follows an event described in the Book of Exodus, chapter 32: during Moses’ ascent to Mount Sinai, Aaron gatherred the people’s gold to build a Golden Calf, an idol inspired by the Egyptians deities, despite the prohibition of the third commandment of the Decalogue. Moses, returning back with Joshua, discovers the scene of idolatry, lifts the tablets of the Law to break them.

The canvas shows the Golden Calf, placed on a base surmounted by an ornate pedestal, slightly at the left of the center of the composition, … surrounded by a farandole of female and male dancers, on the left, and a kneeling crowd, on the right, leaning and listening to Aaron, who appears dressed in white. The decoration of the painting includes two trees on either side, a dry one on the right, and another bearing foliage on the left, in the direction of the two men descending from the mountain, Moses and Joshua. Moses, who holds the tablets of the Law above his head, is about to break them, in outrage over the idolatry of the people.

Now to three mythological subjects.

Acis and Galatea. From my 5/3/22 posting “A moment of joy on waking up”, on Handel’s Acis and Galatea, with a section on Poussin’s painting of A&G and on Poussin himself:

(#2) From the National Gallery of Ireland online collection site:

This arcadian [AZ: and sex-drenched] scene was inspired by a story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book XIII). In the foreground, the lovers Acis and Galatea embrace, as tritons and nereids frolic [AZ: frolic isn’t the word I would have chosen] in the waves. Behind them, the one-eyed giant Polyphemus sits on a promontory overlooking the sea. He plays a love song to Galatea on the syrinx. Winged amorini hold drapery to shield the ill-fated couple from his view. In Ovid’s poem, Polyphemus, whose ardour for Galatea was unrequited, hurled a rock at Acis in a jealous rage and killed him. While the mood in the foreground of the painting is playful and sensual, the isolated figure of Polyphemus and the dark clouds overhead convey a sense of pathos and foreboding.

[AZ: A nereid is a sea-nymph (much like a mermaid); a triton is the male counterpart; amorini are cupids / cherubs; a syrinx is a set of panpipes.]

Or, Acis and Galatea Host a Bacchanale.

(#3) From Wikipedia:

The Empire of Flora is an oil painting by Nicolas Poussin, dated to about 1630 or 1631, which is now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.

This subject is taken from the fabulous stories of the individuals metamorphosed into flowers who are here represented as engaged in those acts which preceded their change. In the centre of the group are Narcissus and Echo; the former is bending over a vase of water, sighing with love of his own image; the latter sits by, gazing on him with enamoured eyes. Beyond these is Clytie viewing with rapture the God of Day pass in his refulgent chariot through the heavens. On the left is Ajax, disappointed in his ambition, perishing on his own sword. In the opposite side is Smilax lying on the lap of Crocus; and a little retired from these is the young huntsman, Adonis, with a spear in his hand, and two dogs near him; and still more remote stands the beautiful Hyacinthus. In the midst of these, Flora is seen dancing in exulting triumph, scattering flowers over the pining lovers around her. Several cupids, linked hand in hand, are behind the goddess, and a solitary one lies close to the front with a bunch of flowers in his hand. The scene exhibits the parterre of a garden surrounded with bowers.

Six flower-metamorphoses in the composition: (1) narcissus; (2) heliotrope (Clytie was transformed into a heliotrope); (3) a red flower (sprung from Ajax’s blood); (4) smilax; (5) crocus; (6) hyacinth.

Readers might not be familiar with the smilax plant. Here are the leaves and berries of common, or Mediterranean, smilax, for which the prickly vine is largely known:

(#4) Smilax aspera (Wikipedia photo)

And its flowers:

(#5) Flowers of common smilax, aka catbrier or greenbrier (from the Flowers of India site)

(#6) From the Prado Museum site:

This is a traditional scene from the iconography of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. It depicts his meeting with Ariadne on the island of Naxos. The god rides a chariot pulled by lions, and helps his future wife, who was abandoned by Theseus, to climb aboard (Ovid, Metamorphoses, VIII). They are accompanied by Bacchus’s habitual retinue of bacchants, satyrs and menads, led by Silenus on a donkey. The scene is framed by vegetation, with the sea in the background [AZ: and another dramatic sky]. Titian’s influence stands out here, as in other works by Poussin, and his interest in details and in rendering the finest qualities of secondary elements … This painting was listed in the collection of King Felipe V at the Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, and was moved from there to the Prado Museum in 1829.

Association: Poussin to Renoir. A crowded scene in which an assortment of couples interact with one another, their relationship shown by the alignment of their bodies, their gaze, and their facial expressions. Characteristic Poussin, on a huge, sprawling, scale. And, in close-up, the composition of Auguste Renoir’s great Impressionist work Luncheon of the Boating Party:

(#7) “Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens [Flemish Baroque, 1577-1640] [and Poussin, French Baroque, 1594-1665, and] Watteau [French Rococo, 1686-1721]” (Herbert Read, The Meaning of Art)

From Wikipedia:

Luncheon of the Boating Party ( French: Le Déjeuner des canotiers) is an 1881 painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir … It is now in The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. It shows a richness of form, a fluidity of brush stroke, and a flickering light.

The painting, combining figures, still-life, and landscape in one work, depicts a group of Renoir’s friends relaxing on a balcony at the Maison Fournaise restaurant along the Seine river in Chatou, France.

Association: Poussin to poussin. Purely phonological, taking us from the painter to the ‘chicken killed young for eating’ (NOAD), specifically a very young chicken — a very early spring chicken — roasted in the fashion of game hens, as here:

(#8) From the BBC Good Food site, “Roasted poussin with oregano, orange & sherry”, four of them, by Mary Cadogan

Association: poussin to gay teens. One kind of chicken (the domestic fowl and their meat) to another kind of chicken (teenage boys viewed as objects of or actors in gay sexual desire, especially with adult men). Another phonological association.

Here I had intended to show cute teenage boys kissing, cuddling, etc. with one another (to avoid the ick factor of teen-adult sex) and there’s a rich vein of films and videos with loving teens, but apparently all the images require a fee for use, so I’ve forgone the visuals. Use your imagination.

Full circle. Viewing teenage boys as desirable sexual objects or actors brings us back to those Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf (in #1), who Steven Levine noted were decidedly steamy (though studliness was surely not part of the idolatry package). Associative thinking takes you to strange places.

Meanwhile, have a bite of poussin.

 

This entry was posted on December 4, 2024 at 11:53 am and is filed under Art, Facial expression and gesture, Gaze, Gender and sexuality, Language and food, Language and plants, Language and religion, Language of sex, Myths, Signs and symbols. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.