Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 104. (Budapest, 2006)
ANDREA GZÉRE: Nicolas Poussin's Allegory in the Collection of Drawings in Budapest
there is no integral connection between the individual groups. There is, nevertheless, a w r ell-balanced rhythm in them, with a hidden symmetry manifest between the groups of three on the left and right. The prophet in the centre is encompassed by three reclining figures on three sides, who thus accentuate his figure. The background architecture of the left-hand side, meanwhile, guides the eye diagonally from the upper left corner toward the central figure, the prophet regarding the tombstone. A small plaque also hangs over the stones, evidently for some sort of inscription. The background of the right-hand side is closed by a garden wall, decorated with arched niches and Priapus hermae —in connection with the theme of erotic love of Venus lying before them. The Budapest drawing is an elaborated autonomous w r ork, well thought-out in every detail, whose choice of subject matter may have been elicited by various motivations. It is common knowdedge that Poussin suffered from syphilis, which took a turn for the worse just in 1629—when, in search of a cure, his Roman patron, Cassiano del Pozzo, librarian of Cardinal Barberini, turned to his friend, a doctor practicing in Bologna, in a letter asking for advice. 2 ' This was perhaps the most direct motive. Tradition dates his self-portrait of bitter expression to this time (fig. 4). 24 But the recent death of his closest friend, the poet Marino, and his own melancholy humour and outlook on life would also provide ample explanation for this choice of subject matter, of which the Budapest drawing comprises the most original formulation in his oeuvre. Whilst the message unfolds before us in a daringly novel combination, the Poussinian drawing style had not yet matured entirely: the interlocking forms are still rounder, with no sign yet of hardening cubic shapes, the abstraction that would become typical of the artist later on. His intellectual maturity and original artistic views, however, were already evident. Andrea Cze're is Scientific Director, Museum ofFi?ie Arts, Budapest. NICOLAS POUSSIN, SELF-PORTRAIT. LONDON. BRITISH MUSEUM
