Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 104. (Budapest, 2006)

ANDREA GZÉRE: Nicolas Poussin's Allegory in the Collection of Drawings in Budapest

The left-hand side of the composition is populated by a bacchanália scene: a satyr feeds a bunch of grapes to a seated man; to their left, a figure lies on the ground languid, a pitcher hung above him. His posture can be traced back to the antique statue known by the name the Dying Gaul.

u Behind them, a figure wearing a garland and holding a vine-branch

—perhaps Bacchus himself

—appears. The composition continues toward the centre with unclothed reclining figures: the man depicted from behind and closest to the foreground turns his head toward the view

r

er wdth a despondent expression, practically screaming

—there is not one such accentuated figure, looking out from the picture in any of the Adarino drawings'

2

—while the lying woman depicted in frontal view turns her head back toward the figure standing at the centre of the composition, bending forward. In our opinion, the virtually theatrical gestures of these figures aid in the interpretation of the work (fig. 2). On the right-hand side of the 2 NICOLAS POUSSIN, ALLEGORY OF THE FUTILITY OF HUMAN LIFE (DETAIL). BUDAPEST, MUSEUM OY FINE ARTS