Description
Book SynopsisPoussin’s Women: Sex and Gender in the Artist’s Works examines the paintings and drawings of the well-known seventeenth-century French painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) from a gender studies perspective, focusing on a critical analysis of his representations of women. The book’s thematic chapters investigate Poussin’s women in their roles as predators, as lustful or the objects of lust, as lovers, killers, victims, heroines, or models of virtue. Poussin’s paintings reflect issues of gender within his social situation as he consciously or unconsciously articulated its conflicts and assumptions. A gender studies approach brings to light new critical insights that illuminate how the artist represented women, both positively and negatively, within the framework in his seventeenth-century culture. This book covers the artist’s works from Classical mythology, Roman history, Tasso, and the Bible. It serves as a good overview of Poussin as an artist, discussing the latest research and including new interpretations of his major works.
Trade Review"There is a great book to be written on Poussin’s women: the goddesses, saints and ordinary mortals who populate an œuvre marked by drastic metamorphoses of style and subject. Troy Thomas is to be applauded for recognising this fact, as well as for his contributions to scholarship on the artist over a long career [...]"
- Emily A. Beeny,
The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 163, No. 1422
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Part I: Violence and Virtue in Poussin's Representations of Women
Part II: Poussin's Women-Cultural and Social Frames
Part III. Paintings and Drawings
1. Predators
2. The Lustful-Triumphant, Impulsive, Spying, Conquered
3. Lovers-Genuine, Controlling, Unrequited, Jealous
4. Killers, Transgressors
5. Victims I-Killed, Assaulted
6. Victims II-Voiceless, Deceived
7. Heroines, Great Ladies
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
