Landscape with Polyphemus
Landscape with Polyphemus (Paysage avec Polyphème) is a 1649 oil painting by French artist Nicolas Poussin. It is held in the Hermitage Museum, in Saint Petersburg.
| Landscape with Polyphemus | |
|---|---|
| French: Paysage avec Polyphème | |
 | |
| Artist | Nicolas Poussin |
| Year | 1649 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 150 × 198 cm |
| Location | Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg |
Theme
The painting refers to a Spanish literary work La Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea and Ovid's Metamorphoses.[1] It was commissioned by French banker Jean Pointel[2] and depicts characters from Greek mythology. In the foreground pictured are semi-nude nymphs watched by satyrs hidden in the nearby bushes. On green fields behind them people listen to music played on a flute by the Cyclops Polyphemus, who appears to be blended into rocky mountains in the background.
History
In 1722 the painting was acquired for the Spanish king Philip V by Andrea Procaccini, a student of Carlo Maratta.[3] Later, it was part of the collection of a French marquess who sold it in 1772 to a Russian prince, with the help of Denis Diderot, in order to pay a gambling debt.[4] It is now located in Saint Petersburg as part of the Hermitage Museum's collection.[5]
See also
References
- Paulino Arguijo de Estremera (2015). Falsa identidad (in Spanish). Tau Editores. ISBN 9788416398256. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
- Anthony Blunt (1945). The French Drawings in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle. London: Phaidon Press.
- Miguel Morán Turina. "Colección de Felipe V" (in Spanish). www.museodelprado.es. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
- Youri Zolotov, Natalia Serebriannaïa, Nicolas Poussin, Parkstone International, 2018 (read on line in French). See also Paysage avec Polyphème, copie d'après Nicolas Poussin in the Collection database of the Louvre museum.
- "Art works: Landscape with Polyphemus". www.hermitagemuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-05-25.