POUSSIN AND HIS WORKS. III. WE left Poussin at Paris, enjoying the well-merited honours which the French court bestowed upon him. Other distinctions were yet in store for him. The king, wishing to mark in a particular manner his esteem for the artist, appointed him his chief painter, the superintendent of all his galleries, and the director of the restorations of the royal palaces. In addition to his other works, he was required to furnish eight large cartoons, which were to be executed in tapestry for the royal apartments. To facilitate the prompt execution of this work, Poussin was permitted to repeat on a larger scale some of his compositions already known, such as "The Manna in the Desert," and "The Striking of the Rock." He was also commissioned to adorn the great gallery of the Louvre, and to decorate that vast building according to his own taste. Although the greater part of these projects could not be executed by one man, however great his industry and skilful his assistants, yet the presence of Poussin at Paris was highly beneficial to French art. He furnished a large number of plans for restorations and decorations; he introduced casts of some of the most beautiful works of antiquity, which seemed to him to be alone worthy of serving as models for sculpture and architecture; he proposed to cast in bronze the colossal statues of Monte Cavallo, and to place them at the gate of the Louvre. In short, all that the liberal genius of Francis the First had conceived, Poussin was willing to execute. An artist of repute was sent to Rome to carry out the suggestions of Poussin, and in a short time moulds, taken from some of the finest works of sculpture and architecture in Rome, were sent to Paris, and careful copies of some of the most celebrated pictures in Italy were executed. But by degrees, the enthusiasm which the presence and plans of Poussin had excited grew cold; as it was natural it should do, when his patrons had no higher feeling than vanity to gratify. The favours which he had already received excited the envy of his rivals in art, and they constantly opposed his designs and thwarted his plans. His time was wasted in defending himself to his patrons, who could scarcely appreciate the merits of the questions at issue; and who did not hesitate to waste his time in employments which were beneath him. He was ordered to design frontispieces for the books printed at the royal printing-office. The first that he furnished was that to the Bible, printed early in 1642, commonly known by the name of The Bible of Sixtus the Fifth; and he afterwards designed those for the Horace and Virgil, printed about the same time. The following extract from one of his letters to Del Pozzo, dated the 20th of September, 1641, will best show the nature of his employments. He says: I am labouring without intermission, sometimes at one thing, and sometimes at another. lingly, but that they hurry me in things that require time I should do this wiland thought. I assure you, that if I stay long in this country, I must turn dauber like the rest here. As to study and observation, either of the antique or of anything else, they are unknown, and whoever wishes to study or to excel must go far from hence. The stuccoes and painting of the great gallery are begun after my designs, but very little to my satisfaction, because I can get no one to second me, although I make drawings both on a large and a small scale for them. I have put "The Last Supper" in its place, that is, in the chapel of St. Germains, and it succeeds very well. I am now at work upon the picture for the noviciate of the Jesuits; it is very large, containing fourteen figures larger than nature, and this they want me to finish in two months. This picture was finished at the prescribed time, and the admiration it met with was the first signal for all who envied Poussin's good fortune and reputation, to commence those persecutions against him which ren dered his abode in Paris disagreeable, and at length drove him from it. Vouet and his party found themselves neglected, and they brought all kinds of accusations against Poussin respecting his style of painting and his method of directing the public works entrusted to him; and although the king, the queen, and Cardinal Richelieu, continued to be friendly, yet Poussin was evidently disgusted with the constant turmoil in which his opponents contrived to keep him, as well as the employment which his patrons gave him. In another of his letters he says:-" The employment given me is not so important, but that they take me from it to superintend new designs for tapestry. I wish they would give me something to do where lofty and noble designs could be employed; but, to say the truth, there is nothing here that deserves staying long for." Again, in another letter, he writes:-" They employ me for ever in trifles, such as frontispieces for books; designs for ornamental cabinets; chimney-pieces, bindings of books, and other nonsense." In the midst of all this dissatisfaction, Poussin's thoughts turned fondly towards Rome, and he became at length so impatient to return to his family, that he applied for leave of absence, which he obtained on condition that he returned as soon as he had put his affairs in order. Before quitting Paris, he executed his picture in which Time liberates Truth from the attacks of Envy, Hatred, and Malevolence, a memorial of the vexatious contests in which he had been engaged, and of his sense of the verdict of posterity in his favour. After an absence of two years, Poussin again entered Rome, towards the end of 1642. His return was welcomed as a sort of triumph. The favours which he had received from the French court seemed in the estimation of many to exalt his talents; every one wished to see him, to congratulate him on his brilliant success; he alone was the only one not dazzled by the favours of fortune; that same philosophy which formed the basis of his character, saved him from indulging in pride or vanity, which perhaps every one but himself would have excused. He found in his humble home an affectionate wife; he enjoyed the esteem of a few sincere friends, and this state of happiness, contrasted with the disagreeable cabals of the court, rendered him averse to return to Paris. His first employment after his return was to fulfil the engagements he had contracted in France. He finished the "Sacraments" for M. de Chantelou, a series of pictures which, for a long time, formed one of the principal attractions of the Orleans collection; they were purchased by the late Duke of Bridgewater, for the sum of four thousand nine hundred guineas, and are now in the collection of Lord Francis Egerton. Poussin also painted at this time his beautiful picture of "Rebecca at the Well," which is full of truth, grace, and beauty. It was not long after Poussin's return to Rome that Louis the Thirteenth and the Cardinal de Richelieu died; and M. Desnoyers, his chief patron, having rebeen engaged were superseded by political troubles; and tired from court, the public works in which Poussin had feeling himself thus released from all his engagements, Poussin no longer thought of returning to Paris. Being free from all anxiety, he resumed his simple frugal mode of life, and devoted all his time to the exercise of his art. ambition and of fortune, but such a man could not sink He had just quitted the frontiers of in his modest dwelling at Rome, than under the gilded into obscurity: his reputation shone with greater lustre roofs of the Louvre. There, during the long period of three-and-twenty years, he continued to produce his admirable works, finishing them with the greatest care, and never allowing them to leave his hands until he was fully satisfied with them. In appreciating the value of his own pictures he displayed singular disinterestedness. price, and marked it at the back of his picture, and if He always fixed the the purchaser, finding it too moderate, sent a larger sum, the surplus was always returned. He was also in the habit of accompanying each picture, when he sent it home, by a letter, explaining his reasons for the particlar manner in which he had treated the subject, thus answering beforehand whatever criticism it might meet 'vith. Although he worked with great assiduity, he could scarcely supply the demand for his pictures. He often refused to accept commissions for pictures unless a very distant time (often several years) were named for their completion. His mode of life was very regular, and so simple, that he almost dispensed with domestics. The Cardinal Massimi having paid him a visit, remained with him till dark. Poussin having no footman, took a lamp to light his guest to his carriage, who said to him, "I am sorry for you, M. Poussin-you have no footman." "And I," said Poussin, "am still more sorry for your excellency, because you have so many." On another occasion, a person of quality having shown him a picture of his own painting, Poussin said to him, "Ah! my lord, you only want a little poverty to become a good painter." The judicious distribution of his time was one of the main causes of Poussin's success, and of the very large number of carefully finished works that he left behind him. He was accustomed to rise early, and to walk for an hour or two among the most picturesque parts of Rome and its environs; but he generally limited his walk to the terrace of the Trinità de' Monti, and to the gardens of the Medicis near his house. Then shutting himself up in his study he worked till mid-day. After dinner he painted again during some hours. He seldom admitted any one to his painting room. In the evening his friends used to wait for him on the terrace, and thus surrounded by such men as Claude Lorraine, Gaspar Poussin, Charles Le Brun, and other painters of eminence, and by noble Romans who courted his society, and followed also by strangers who, attracted by his reputation, were curious to see him and to converse with him, he chatted friendlily with every body, and listened willingly to the remarks of others. His own discourse, though directed chiefly to grave and philosophical subjects, was received with attention and respect; he often spoke of the principles of his art with so much clearness, that they were appreciated even by those who were not artists. He had none of the pretensions of a professor; whatever he said was said naturally, and apparently without premeditation; but his words were well chosen, and always to the purpose. He was asked one day what was the chief benefit he had derived from his extensive reading, and what he regarded as his best knowledge? "How to live well with all the world," was his answer. Poussin was of opinion that painting and sculpture were but one and the same art, and differed only in the means of execution. He has left proofs of this assertion in some figures of Mercury which he modelled, to adorn the country house of M. Fouquet, by which it appears probable that he would have been as excellent as a sculptor, as he was great as a painter, if he had overcome the mechanical difficulties of the art. This talent was of the greatest assistance to him in the execution of his pictures. The genius of Poussin seems to have gained vigour with age. Nearly his last works, which were begun in 1660, and sent to Paris in 1664, were the four pictures allegorical of the seasons, painted for the Duc de Richelieu. Early in the following year he was slightly affected by palsy, and the only picture of figures that he painted was the "Samaritan Woman at the Well," which he sent to M. de Chantelou with a note, in which he says, This is my last work; I have already one foot in the grave." Early in 1665 his wife died. He had already become paralytic, and the loss of one who had so long been his most affectionate companion and friend, seems to have hastened his death. When he wrote to M. de Chantelou to apprise him of his great loss, he was so feeble that he was occupied with his letter during the intervals of ten days. Some of his letters were written by his brother-in-law, from his dictation. From one of them, dated the 28th of October, it appears that he was suf fering from the progress of a very painful disease. His understanding, however, continued unimpaired until the 19th of November, when he expired about mid-day, in the seventy-second year of his age. By his will, made two months before his death, he forbade any unnecessary expense at his funeral, and disposed of his property, which amounted to about fifty thousand crowns, as follows:-one thousand crowns to the relations of his wife; the like sum to his niece, Frances Le Tellier, residing at Andelys; and he appointed his nephew, Jean Le Tellier, residuary legatee. Never perhaps was a private man more deeply regretted than Nicholas Poussin. The tempered vivacity of his conversation, the affectionate regard with which he treated his giving offence, and the easy unostentatious manner in which friends and relations, the modesty which prevented his he loved to discourse upon his art, rendered his society invaluable, both as a man and a painter. His death caused a general sensation in Rome, his adopted country. All the friends of art assembled to accompany his remains to the church of San Lorenzo, in Lucina, where he was buried. In his person Poussin was tall and well proportioned, and of good constitution. His complexion was olive, his hair black, but it became very gray towards the end of his life; and his look both dignified and modest. his eyes were blue, his nose rather long, his forehead large, The character of Poussin as a painter is given by Reynolds, who, after describing the style of Rubens*, says: Opposed to this florid, careless, loose, and inaccurate style, that of the simple, careful, pure, and correct style of Poussin, seems to be a complete contrast. Yet, however opposite their characters, in one thing they agreed; both of them always preserving a perfect correspondence between all the parts of their respective manners, insomuch that it may be doubted whether any alteration of what is considered as defective in either, would not destroy the effect of the whole. Poussin lived and conversed with the ancient statues so long, that he may be said to have been better acquainted with them than with the people who were about him. I have often thought that he carried his veneration for them so far, as to wish to give his works the air of ancient paintings. It is certain that he copied some of the antique Palace at Rome, which I believe to be the best relique of paintings, particularly "The Marriage" in the Aldobrandini those remote ages that has yet been found. No works of any modern have so much the air of antique painting as those of Poussin. His best performances have a remarkable dryness of manner, which, though by no means to be recommended for imitation, yet seems perfectly correspondent to that ancient simplicity which distinguishes his style. Like Polidero, he studied the ancients so much that he acquired a habit of thinking in their way, and seemed to know perfectly the actions and gestures they would use on every occasion. Poussin in the latter part of his life changed from his dry manner to one much softer and richer, where there is a greater union between the figures and ground, as in "The Seven Sacraments" in the Duke of Orleans' collection; but neither these, nor any of his other pictures in this manner, have in England. are at all comparable to many in his dry manner which we The favourite subjects of Poussin were ancient fables; and no painter was ever better qualified to paint such subjects, not only from his being eminently skilled in the knowledge of the ceremonies, customs, and habits, of the ancients, but from his being so well acquainted with the different characters which those who invented them gave to fancy in his Satyrs, Sylenuses, and Fauns, yet they are not their allegorical figures. Though Rubens has shown great that distinct separate class of beings which is carefully exhibited by the ancients, and by Poussin. Certainly when * A notice of Rubens and his Works will be found in the Saturday Magazine, Vol. XX., pp. 77, 193, and 217. such objects of antiquity are represented, nothing in the picture ought to remind us of modern times. The mind is thrown back into antiquity, and nothing ought to be introduced that may tend to awaken it from the illusion. Poussin seemed to think that the style and the language in which such stories are told, is not the worse for preserv ing some relish of the old way of painting, which seemed to give a general uniformity to the whole, so that the mind was thrown back into antiquity, not only by the subject, but by the execution. If Poussin, in imitation of the ancients, represents Apollo driving his chariot out of the sea, by way of representing the sun rising, if he personifres lakes and rivers, it is nowise offensive in him, but seems perfectly of a piece with the general air of the picture. On the contrary, if the figures which people his pictures had a modern air or countenance, if they appeared like our countrymen, if the draperies were like cloth or silk of our manufacture, if the landscape had the appearance of a modern view, how ridiculous would Apollo appear instead of the sun; an old man, or a nymph, with an urn, to represent a river or a lake. Another eminent but severe critic thus notices Pous sin : Though Poussin abstracted the theory of his proportions from the antique, (says Fuseli,) he is seldom uniform and pure in his style of design; ideal only in parts, and oftener so in female than in male characters, he supplies, like Pietro Testa, antique heads and torsos with limbs and extremities transcribed from the model. As a colourist he was extremely unequal. In "The Deluge," and "The Plague of the Philistines," he transfused the very hues of the elements whose ravages he represented, whilst numbers of his other pictures are deformed by crudity and patches. The excellence of Poussin in landscape is universally allowed, and when it is the chief object of his picture, precludes all censure; but considered as the scene or background of an historical subject, the care with which he executed it, the predilection which he had for it, often made him give it an importance which it ought not to have; it divides our attention, and from an accessory, becomes a principal part. As star that shines dependent upon star As to the deep fair ships which though they move Such to this British Isle her Christian fanes, WORDSWORTH. THE best defence is not to give offence: MANY men have been heroic in exploit; few in endurance. Pride tells them that, to act, they must be doing something. And yet the greatest action of the whole history of the whole world is the Passion of Christ; an action almost as much surpassing all others in its heroic magnanimity, as it surpasses them in the extent, the momentousness of its consequences.-Guesses at Truth. THE STALE-MATE AT CHESS. IN selecting the games which illustrate our Easy Lessons in Chess, we have preferred to give such as are decided in favour of one of the players, rather than drawn games, which, however instructive to the advanced player, are not so interesting to the young student. A similar rule has been observed in respect of the Chess Problems: those in which one of the players is required to draw the game within a given number of moves being of less general interest, but of a far more refined and difficult nature than problems in which a check-mate is to be achieved. So also a A drawn game is one in which neither player can check-mate the other; and there are various methods in which a game may thus be drawn. For example, when party would be dangerous or fatal, and therefore both the position is such that an alteration in it by either players persist in making the same move. game is drawn when one of the players has what is called a "perpetual check;" that is, when not being able to give check-mate, he can nevertheless check the adverse king at every move, without his being able to escape therefrom. In the third place, a game is drawn when neither player has a mating power; thus K. and B. or K. and Kt. cannot alone mate the adverse K. So also if one or both of the players have mating power but not the means of using it; or the stronger party have mating power, and not know how to use it: in such cases the game may be declared drawn, subject, however, to the condition made in the Twenty-second Law*. stale-mate; that is, one of the parties having to move Lastly, a game may be drawn by what is called has no piece or pawn to move, or which can be moved, and his K. is so situated, that not being in check he cannot move to any square without going into check. It is to this interesting point that we now wish to direct the young student's attention. A distinguished correspondent has favoured us with the following interesting anecdote :— I am amused at some of the Chess Problems in your Magazine; and they have recalled to my mind one which I should like to lay before your contributors; but unluckily it is like Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which he had forgotten, and wanted his sages to tell him the dream as well as the interpretation. I was playing many years ago with a gentleman who was a little my superior, while another, of perhaps equal skill, was at whist at another table; (we were none of us great players, but pretty good as ordinary men.) I was, after a hard struggle, nearly beaten, and beyond all reasonable hopes of giving a check-mate; but from the very curious situation of the men, (I had two or three pieces left, and some pawns,) I was in the way to get a stale-mate; my adversary remarked it, and so did I and the lookers-on, and he played several moves with great caution, to avoid it; but at last he did give stale-mate. A shout of exultation from the by-standers having called the attention of my other friend, he was told what caused it, and treated the whole matter with contempt, saying that it was a mere accident, a stale-mate never happening but through mere oversight; we all assured him that though it was usually so, this was a very remarkable case indeed; but as he was still incredulous, I told him he should try, and replaced the men. "Now," said I, "the problem is, to give me check-mate, and avoid stale-mate, of which there is a danger; play." He did so, and forewarned as he was, he gave me the stale-mate the third move; then there was a shout! I have often regretted since, that I did not immediately take a note of the positions; I have tried to do so since, but have not succeeded. Can any of your contributors? All that is required is to place the men so as to make it difficult to avoid stale-mate. The very curious point referred to in the above communication sometimes occurs at chess. Indeed, it may be desirable to court a stale-mate, and this is done by the skilful player when the condition of his game is such that not being able to win it he seeks to draw it, either by a perpetual check, or by playing for a stale-mate. We know one player who is so very skilful in getting his adversary to give stale-mate, that he often prefers to determine the game in this manner to winning it, and some of his positions are highly ingenious. At one time when the party who received the stale-mate won the game, this course might have been desirable, but now that a stale-mate always makes a drawn game, such a system of play cannot be defended except for the sake of its ingenuity. in some positions it is difficult to avoid giving staleIn the annexed examples will be shown: 1. That The Laws of Chess are given in Saturday Magazine, |