Art Of The Day Weekly

Poussin against the fanatics

PARIS – This is undoubtedly a daring exhibit. It brings together a painter known for being "difficult" (Poussin) and a subject that will not please everyone (religion). Of course there will be assumptions, suppers and extasies, as well as Saints in in rather uncomfortable situations (such as the large Saint Erasmus brought in from the Vatican whose intestine is rolled out on a cabestan). But the exhibit also suggests a second reading, that of a Poussin, whose exégètes often wonder whether he was a non-believer or a devoted Christian, offering a form of open, peaceful and enlightened religion. As long as we believe in a comparable version of Humanity, the gift of oneself, the veneration of the good deeds of Nature, in which characters as varied as Diogenus or the Greek strategist Phocion could be included. The exhibition includes works from the very rich collection of the Louvre (the "museum with forty Poussin"), las well as works rarely seen or recently rediscovered such as the Death of the Virgin from the church of Sterrebeek in Belgium or the Landscape with three monks from Belgrade.
• Poussin et Dieu at the musée du Louvre, from 2 April to 25 June 2015.

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