1994 Articles

Poussin et Sienne

Freedberg, David A.

The harmonious relation may seem unexpected. After all, and in a general way, even in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Sienese tradition in painting seems incompatible with everything we know of Poussin's style, in particular with the austere classicism of his later works. And, of all the cities of Italy, in the seventeenth century, it is certainly not Siena that one would first think of as a possible center of patronage. But, as always in art history, it is impossible to predict the strength and whims of individual taste.