The Finding of Moses Painting by Nicolas Poussin
Formal Analysis of Work by 17th-century French Painter
Aug 19, 2009
The individual elements of the paiting The Finding of Moses by Nicolas Poussin are combined in a way that makes it easier to identify the main characters and to recognize the narrative sequence. Such legibility of a multi-figured history painting was important in making the grand historical theme accessible to the audience.
Composition
The group of female figures gathered around the baby dominates the foreground. Facing inwards, they form a protective circle enlosing the baby at its centre. The centrality of the infant is enhanced by the overall geometrical structure of the picture, where individual elements are incorporated within a series of triangular or pyramidal compositions placed symmetrically in relation to one another. The whole group is encompassed by the large pyramid and further subdivided into two smaller equal triangles.
The child lies at the centre of the large pyramid and at the intersection of the two smaller pyramids. These divisions emphasize the child's centrality and importance to the story as well as the contrast between the two subgroups: the one on the left brightly lit, the one on the right in the shade.
Light
Direct light enters from the left front and falls on Moses, literally highlighting his importance. Light creates the illusion of bodily volume and depth, evident in the fold of the draperies.
Rich Colours
The distribution of colours contributes to the overall balance of the design. By linking the patches of individual colours there can be found further triangular shapes. Colour unites the whole with the bright colours echoed in the less pronounced shades in the background. The combination of complementary warm and cool hues (red-green, yellow-blue) creates strong effect on the viewer as though they were competing for our attention. The warmth of the red garment seems to bring out one of the figures and the whole scene closer to us in order to invoke drama.
Human Drama: Pose, Gesture, Expression
All the figures are positioned on a line parallel with the bottom edge of the painting and close to the picture plane giving a sense of immediacy. The spectator's viewpoint is level and central with the group so that he or she is drawn into the scene.
The poses, gestures and expressions of the women surrounding Moses also help to create the narrative order. Women's gaze directed at the child, their wide open eyes and slightly parted lips suggest surprised delight. One of the sitting handmaidens holds the baby and looks up to the woman in the saffron robe, the Pharaoh's daughter.
She stands upright, dignified and composed, her appearance and pose betraying her authority and high status. The girl is perhaps Moses' sister pleading for the child's life, now in the hands of the Pharaoh's daughter. However, the lady's facial expression and her gesture reveal her compassion and reassurance: she smiles and extends her arm towards the child.
Dramatic Movement and Dignified Stillness
There is balanced combination of stillness and movement. While the sitting and standing figures suggest tranquility, the figures on the left are captured in the moment as they advance toward Moses, leaning forward. The two figures carry a sense of motion the most: one pulling the weight of her friend and looking away from the child in physical strain, the other struggling to climb onto the rock and looking directly at the viewer. The richly folded fluttering draperies also add dynamism by indicating the handmaidens' rushed arrival and excitement.
Legibility
By combination of these formal devices, Poussin constructed a design based on balance, symmetry and clarity with mathematical precision and thus created effect of calmness, stillness and tranquility enlivened by slight suggestion of movement and emotion.
Sources:
- Gill Perry and Colin Cunnigham: Academies, Museums and Canons of Art, Yale University Press
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