Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
The Inspiration of the Poet is one of Poussin’s most classical compositions and one of his most personal. Apollo, god of poetry and music, sits at the centre with his lyre, crowning a young poet who kneels before him. To the left, Calliope, muse of epic poetry, holds a scroll; above, a putto offers a cup of water from the spring of Hippocrene. The scene is set in a grove, with a landscape receding to the right.
Poussin built the picture out of clear, legible shapes: the figures are arranged in a shallow frieze, the drapery falls in simple folds, and the colours are limited to reds, blues, ochres and greens. Every gesture is deliberate, and the composition is designed to be read rather than felt. It is a painting about the making of poetry, and it is also a statement of Poussin’s own artistic creed: inspiration comes from order, study and the example of antiquity.
The painting was made around 1629-1630, early in Poussin’s Roman career, and it was probably commissioned by Cardinal Barberini or by a member of his circle. It entered the French royal collection in the seventeenth century and has been in the Louvre since 1793.
Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was born in Normandy and spent almost his entire working life in Rome, apart from two unhappy years in Paris as First Painter to Louis XIII. He was the founder of French classical painting, and his rigorous compositions, based on the study of antique sculpture and of Raphael, became the model for the French Academy for two centuries.
Poussin’s early Roman years were spent in the circle of Cassiano dal Pozzo and Cardinal Barberini, in an environment of antiquarian scholarship. The Inspiration of the Poet reflects that world: it is a painting made for a patron who would recognise Apollo, Calliope and the Hippocrene spring without explanation. Its later arrival in France made Poussin the founding father of the French classical tradition.
Richelieu Wing · Level 2 · French Paintings, 17th Century
The Louvre is divided into three wings — Denon, Sully and Richelieu — reached from the hall beneath the glass pyramid.
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