Poussin's Notes on Painting

At the end of his life of Poussin, Bellori prints a number of comments on painting which he claims to have seen in Poussin's writing when they were in the library of Cardinal Massimi. The latter showed them to Pierre le Maire, who apparently handed them on to Bellori.' These notes are important to students of Poussin, as they contain a more considered statement of an approach towards painting than any to be found in the artist's letters. Up to the present critics have always accepted them as original writings of Poussin and have treated them with corresponding respect. But it is the purpose of the present article to show that they are rather notes made by Poussin on his reading. This being the case, we are still entitled to regard them as relevant to the artist's views, but we must use them with circumspection. Poussin no doubt often copied down passages which agreed with his own opinion, but he may also have noted other sections in order to refute them. Without further evidence, therefore, it is only safe to assume that the notes deal with subjects which interested Poussin, not that they necessarily express his own views on these subjects. We know from various sources that Poussin intended to write a book in which he would have expressed his theories about the arts, but that he never came to the point of composing it. On the other hand he certainly made notes for it, to which he refers in a letter written in 1650 : "J'ai aussi cru de faire mieux de ne pas laisser voir le jour aux avertissemens que je commences a ourdir sur le fait de la peinture." ' Bellori's account of the matter is more explicit : "Ebbe egli sempre in animo di compilare un libro di Pittura, annotando varie materie, e ricordi secondo leggeva, o contemplava da se stesso con fine di ordinarli, quando per l'eth non avesse piii potuto operare col pennello."3 Sandrart, who knew Poussin when he was in Rome between 1627 and 1635, confirms this description of the artist's methods: "Er war sonsten auch von gutem Discurss, und hatte stets ein Biichlein, worein er alles n6thige, so wol mit dem Umriss als auch Buchstaben aufgezeichnet, bey sich."' Poussin, therefore, was in the habit during his life in Rome of jotting down on paper his own ideas on painting and also notes on what he read. On the other hand he never embarked on the composition of the book which he intended to write, presumably because he found that he was still able to paint, though with some difficulty, till the last days of his life. After his death some of his friends thought that he had left behind writings on the arts, and Chantelou wrote to make enquiries on this subject of Poussin's brother-in-law, Jean Dughet, who replied that the artist had only left certain extracts which Dughet had made for him from the works of Matheo Zaccolini and Witelo on optics and perspective. Fdlibien, who quotes this letter, comes to the following conclusion : "Vous