Parnassus

1630

Gives up monumental commissions

In 1630 the commission headed by Domenichino and d’Arpino gave the decoration of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception in San Luigi dei Francesi to the Lorrainer Charles Mellin, not to Poussin. After that he firmly renounced the monumental genre and turned to “cabinet painting” for private patrons.

1630

Patron: Cardinal Camillo Massimo

Thanks to his earlier patrons, Cassiano dal Pozzo and Giulio Rospigliosi, in 1630 Poussin gained a powerful patron in Cardinal Camillo Massimo: the cardinal visited him in his studio after a serious illness, and the painter gave him a self-portrait drawing with a dedication. They worked together until Poussin left for Paris in 1640.

9. srpna 1630

Married: Anne-Marie Dughet

1630s

Cassiano dal Pozzo — his chief patron

Poussin’s flowering coincided with his complete abandonment of church commissions: he gathered a circle of patrons around him but strove for independence, accepting commissions from connoisseurs without binding himself to any of them permanently. The most important was Cassiano dal Pozzo; in the surviving correspondence the relationship comes close to servitude, although the painter did not live in his house.

1630s

Brother-in-law Gaspard Dughet — his first pupil

After the wedding Poussin went on living in the house on the Via Paolina; with him lived Anne-Marie’s brother Gaspard Dughet, the future well-known landscape painter, and from 1636 his younger brother Jean. Poussin became Gaspard’s first teacher, and Gaspard later took his surname; the marriage seems to have been a happy one, but childless.

1632

Elected to the Academy of St Luke

In 1632 Poussin was elected a member of the Academy of St Luke — two years after he had given up monumental commissions for cabinet painting.