POUSSIN, Nicolas
(b. 1594, Les Andelys, d. 1665, Roma)

Landscape with Polyphemus

1648
Oil on canvas, 150 x 199 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

This picture marks the beginning of Poussin's final period, that in which poetry rises to an all-embracing feeling for the world - still, however, interpreted through a mythological guise.

The subject was borrowed from "Metamorphoses" by Ovid. A terrible one-eyed giant Polyphemus anamoured of nymph Galathea is singing of his love on a pipe.




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