Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French
Sublime Poussin (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics Series) FROM THE PUBLISHER
Louis Marin considered the paintings and the writings of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), painter and theoretician of painting, an enduring source of inspiration. Since Marin did not live to write his proposed book on Poussin, the ten major essays in this volume will remain his definitive statement on the painter who inspired his most eloquent and probing commentary. At the center of Marin's inquiry into Poussins art are the theory and practice of "reading" paintings. Rather than explicate Poussin's work through systematic textual and iconographic analysis, he sets out to explore a cluster of speculative questions about the meaning of pictorial art: Can painting be a discourse? If so, how can that discourse be deciphered? At his death in 1992, Louis Marin was Directeur d'Etudes at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Originally published in French in 1995 by Editions du Seuil. At his death in 1992, Marin, an eminent scholar and critic, was affiliated with the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. This volume comprises ten translated essays on the paintings and writings of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), the painter and theoretician of painting to whom Marin returned most consistently over the years. Among the topics: the tempest as a major figure of the sublime in Poussin's work, the presence of ruins in the paintings, Poussin's use of the concept of metamorphosis, and the frequent presence of sleeping bodies in the work. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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