Landscape with Polyphemus
Painting by Nicolas Poussin
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Landscape with Polyphemus (Paysage avec Polyphème) is a 1649 oil painting by French artist Nicolas Poussin. It is held in the Hermitage Museum, in Saint Petersburg.
| Landscape with Polyphemus | |
|---|---|
| French: Paysage avec Polyphème | |
| |
| Artist | Nicolas Poussin |
| Year | 1649 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 150 × 198 cm |
| Location | Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg |
Theme
The painting refers to a Spanish literary work La Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea and Ovid's Metamorphoses.[1] It was commissioned by French banker Jean Pointel[2] and depicts characters from Greek mythology. In the foreground pictured are semi-nude nymphs watched by satyrs hidden in the nearby bushes. On green fields behind them people listen to music played on a flute by the Cyclops Polyphemus, who appears to be blended into rocky mountains in the background.
History
In 1722 the painting was acquired for the Spanish king Philip V by Andrea Procaccini, a student of Carlo Maratta.[3] Later, it was part of the collection of a French marquess who sold it in 1772 to a Russian prince, with the help of Denis Diderot, in order to pay a gambling debt.[4] It is now located in Saint Petersburg as part of the Hermitage Museum's collection.[5]