Cupids and Geniuses

1620s

The Cavaliere Marino takes the painter under his wing

Poussin’s work caught the attention of the Italian poet Cavaliere Marino, then living in France; his patronage let the thirty-year-old painter work in peace. According to Bellori the poet took him into his house and helped him with the invention of subjects and the rendering of emotion, and in Marino’s house Poussin gained access to a library with treatises by Alberti and Dürer and manuscripts and drawings by Leonardo.

c. 1629

A grave illness: the Dughet family nurses Poussin

Around 1629 Poussin fell gravely ill and was nursed by the family of the French pastry-cook Dughet; on recovering he became engaged to the eldest daughter, Anne-Marie. The wedding in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina took place on 1 September 1630.

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. August 1630

Married: Anne-Marie Dughet

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.