The
Ranums'
Panat Times
Volume 1, redone Dec. 2014
Servitude and Friendship in the letters of Poussin and Chantelou
with a weak Coda on Chantelou as an art critic
Introduction
In his Poussin and France (New Haven, 2002), Todd P. Olson seems to assume that the painter is writing to his Parisian patrons exactly what he thinks about the rebellions going on in France. The author of a dedication usually uses glowing and flattering phrases when he writes about the person from whom he hopes a purse will be forthcoming. He may also allude to shared hopes about the current political scene. Do we dare interpret such prose as sincere? Even today we often turn our thoughts to please our correspondent, or we simply do not mention points of known possible disagreement.
Instead of reviewing Olson at this point, however, it could be more interesting if I offered a close reading of the Poussin-Fréart correspondance from the Jouanny edition of 1911. I shall also reread Fréart's Journal in order to pull out whatever he says about Poussin and painting. I shall take as my inspiration J.M. Najemy's Between Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori Letters of 1513-1515 (Princeton: PUP, 1993).
I have no chance to come up with a result as interesting s Najemy's, since Fréart's letters are missing. However, Fréart had the habit of briefly summarizing each letter he received from Poussin, so I shall have something to go on. I shall usually cite letter numbers rather than page numbers.
Let's call this:
Serving Many Masters,
which is divided into three sections:
1) A typology of early-modern friendship in Poussin's correspondence
2) The language of service in Poussin's letters
3) Chantelou on Painting
1) A typology of early-modern friendship in Poussin's correspondence
Poussin's letters, like most letters by his contemporaries, are framed in a discourse of service. Saying that you are a "servant," a "humble servant," and that you are "willing to serve" or have a "duty to serve" is so prevalent in social relations that historians rarely note it. "Formulaic," as Barbara Stephenson characterizes these bits of letters in The Power and Patronage of Marguerite of Navarre (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), chapter I; and the discourse of Poussin's letters certainly is that. But in some cases there are additional remarks that suggest that the writer is doing all he can to be candid, sincere, and fully expressed in a formula. Poussin was an autodidact who became very learned in a Humanist culture. He also navigated the social and courtesy rules of both Rome and Paris, no mean achievement. His social relations included cardinals, papal nephews, fellow artists, merchants, judges, and lesser government officials. He was punctilious about titles, addresses, salutations, as were most of his contemporaries, because he believed that they expressed the honor and dignity of the person.
Historians have long recognized that Poussin and Fréart became friends, not just a painter and someone who commissioned his paintings. We shall bear down on the expressions of friendship, evaluate them, and relate them to the discourse of service. The relationship evolved and certainly became more central to Poussin or did he simply want Fréart to believe that? Some of Poussin's other friends appear in the letters: they are called that by the master. At one point there is a pique of jealousy between Pointel and Fréart, well-known to specialists, that required careful "management" on Poussin's part.
Some specific codicological questions also need answers. Did Poussin fill the paper with his letter, and then scrawl the closing in smaller letters, and his signature in still smaller letters, as a sign of deference? There is evidence that this practice, like having large spaces above as a mark of respect after the name, was occurring in the seventeenth century. Form in friendship may be less evident than form in other social relationships. Unfortunately I've not seen a photo of Poussin's letters reproduced in any scholarly work. Jacques Thuillier, it is true, describes the hand in his biography of Poussin (Paris: Fayard, 1988, p. 261). This issue should not be ignored, nor should it stop us from going "into the text," since the Jouanny edition is so strong.
But before turning to some close readings, another remarkable study of service must be noted. Elizabeth Gonzales, in her Un prince en son hôtel; les serviteurs des ducs d'Orléans au XVe siècle (Paris: La Sorbonne, 2004), analyzes "des vocables pour un groupe," presents the semantic fields of domus, maison, serviteurs, and offers recognition to the pioneering work of Bernard Guénée. Charles VI wrote in 1412: "Les officiers, serviteurs, et familiers d'icelle nostre compaigne, sont principalement à nous, et par nous retenuz et mis en son hostel et service." (p. 84) It may be difficult for us to accept that a similar remark could be made about maisons, royal and lesser, in the seventeenth century, but that is the case.
Let's take another example, this time from C.C. Malvasia's life of Guido Reni (University Park: Pennsylvania State Press, 1980), translated by C. and R. Enggass:
"The Spanish ambassador very nearly took swift revenge on him, but after considering that Guido, although not part of the pope's household, had, however, been brought to Rome and kept and protected by him." (p. 79)
I deliberately selected an example in translation, in order to assert
that the social relations under study here may have distinct variations
over time and place, but were nonetheless stable.
And to build up
the reader's familiarity with, and his sense of the richness of meaning
in the terms service and friendship, here is a passage from Chantelou's
Journal, ed. by M. Stanić (Paris: Macula L'Insulaire, 2001), p.
162.
"Je lui [Bernini] ai dit qu'il pouvoit se souvenir que, dès le commencement, je n'avais pas voulu que mon frère le vint saluer, ni qu'il vit les dessins du Louvre; que la raison qui m'obligeait à cette circonspection et à garder ces mesures était que defunt M. de Noyers, dont j'étais parent, avait été Surintendant des Bâtiments, et que j'y avais eu de l'emploi sous lui; que mon dessein était d'en ôter la pensée à M. Colbert que je voulusse m'y avantager de mon chef; qu'il pourrat bien se reposer sur moi de ce qu'il ne peut pas faire lui-même dans les bâtiments, où j'ai, comme il voit, quelque intelligence, n'était que j'ai une charge [maitre d'hôtel] qui me donne un peu d'accès au Roi, et que la maxime des ministres, sans savoir quelle est la sienne, est de ne vouloir jamais se servir de gens qui ne dépendent absolument d'eux et aient un autre appui que le leur ...."
This summary of the history of de Noyers' royal service, and that of his cousins, reveals the extreme delicacy of relations at the highest level of the government. It is this same delicacy, and of course sincere praise and critical appreciation for Poussin's paintings, that is the foundation for the great expatriate artist's friendship and loyalty toward Chantelou.
Let's take another example. Mazarin came to France and charmed both Richelieu and Louis XIII, no easy feat. Here is how (Georges Dethan, Mazarin et ses amis, Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1968, p. 263) Mazarin described his first encounter with the Cardinal to Sublet's colleague, Secretary of State Chavigny:
"A M. de Chavigny
Rome, 21 janvier 1639
Qu'il me soit permis de vous raconter une chose de rien, une bagatelle qui se rapporte à ma situation présente. Colmardo avoit vingt-deux ans, il était revenu d'Espagne très affectionné aux dames de ce pays, à Rome il était intimement lié au duc de Palliano, avec lequel il se trouvait sans cesse. Il n'avait jamais, de la manière la plus absolue, fréquenté aucun Français quand un serviteur du duc de Parme, qui avait réputation de grand astrologue, lui demanda un jour pourquoi il se donnait tant de mal à servir les Espagnols, alors que tous ses avantages et sa grandeur il devait les recevoir de la France. Et après, notamment, il dit à mon père, dont il avait su le lieu de ma naissance, que Colmardo serait cardinal avant d'avoir quarante ans. Mais je ne fis aucun cas de ce présage.
J'avoue toutefois que la premiere fois que je vis l'Éminentissime Cardinal-Duc à Lyon, je m'en souvins et je résolus de me consacrer à lui entièrement, car il m'engagea à le faire avec mille courtoisies et les bons traitements dont il usa envers moi. Et toujours depuis j'ai voulu recevoir tout mon bien de Son Éminence, ce que je vois présentement si bien accompli qu'il ne reste rien à désirer à Colmardo en ce qui concerne Son Éminence.
J'ai voulu vous raconter cela pour que vous voyiez les rencontres que font parfois ceux qui contemplent les étoiles."
Consacrer is a strong word, especially as it is tied to a resolve for a pursuit of a unique dependence on the Cardinal. (Colmardo was Richelieu's nickname for Mazarin!)
Here is what Mazarin had written some five years earlier to Cardinal Antonio Barberini:
"Au cardinal Antoine Barberini
Paris, 21 novembre 1634
A mon arrivée à Paris, je reçois quatre lettres de Votre Eminence, l'une du 19, une autre du 20 et deux du 21 du mois passé, avec une demi-feuille de message chiffré. Elles m'ont libéré de toute inquiétude, étant assuré de sa bonne santé et voyant avec quels excès de grâces Votre Éminence me fait la faveur de me dire qu'elle m'aime comme un serviteur véritable et de confiance. J'ai lu dix fois ces lettres et, chasque fois que j'aurai à soulager mon esprit oppressé par quelque ennui ou déplaisir, je les relirai, protestant de ne prétendre en ce monde que de mourir vrai serviteur de Votre Éminence et de donner ainsi lexemple d'un homme reconnaissant et affectionné.
Je ne demande en grâce à Votre Éminence que de bien vouloir me faire dire tous les six mois qu'elle est satisfaite de moi, et, pour le reste, qu'elle emploie toutes ses autres faveurs à acquérir des serviteurs, car je dmeurerai le sien tant que je pourrai l'être physiquement. Votre Éminence sait combien je veille sur moi-même et jusqu'où vont mes forces, pisque c'est elle qui m'a donné celles que je possède; quand elle ne doute donc pas que ses ordres ne soient exécutés avec cette ponctualité qui est le signe de mon dévouement.
J'avoue avoir une vaine gloire en recevant tant de lettres si longue est pleines des plus signalées faveurs qui se puissent désirer et je rougirais de les recevoir, sachant ne pas les mériter, si ce n'était pas ajouter des mérites à votre générosité que de faire jouir de ses effets jusqu'à ceux qi n'ont de remarquable que leur volonté de servir Votre Éminence. Mais de grâce, ne m'écrivez pas tant de choses de votre main et sachez qu'en me disant: sois joyeux car je t'aime [sta allegramente, per che ti voglio bene], vous me faites obtenir tout ce que je désire en ce monde." (pp. 277-278)
It would be a mistake to infer that I think that there was only one discourse of service, and that the boundaries between service, friendship, and love were trans-historical. Not at all. But social hierarchies still probably framed these discourses more in the seventeenth century in France, than earlier and elsewhere, principally because the Monarchy legislated more and more specifically what it meant to be noble. Robert Descimon's brilliant publications have elucidated this social-juridical scientizing. Loyseau's Traité des offices was an attempt to set down this social-juridical process in law.
At this point it is important to return to Francis Haskell's research on the search for "enjoying" servitù particolare (Patrons and Painters, New York, 1963, pp. 6-8), a relationship which assured honor, a chance of a more steady income, residence in many cases, and critical dialogue about their work. To be sure, patrons disappointed, failed to keep their word, and delayed payment of pensions. But what I am after here is the ideal of the patron-protector-servant relationship, and just how it combined with friendship, or underlay it. A close reading of Poussin's letters to dal Pozzo and to the Chantelou should shed light on at least one or two relationships.
A protector is not the same as a patron. Richelieu offered to "protect" the men of letters who would become the royally chartered French Academy. And what about "particolare," a word found throughout the correspondence of the period, to indicate claims to a special relationship, or a uniquely close, even intimate relationship?
Not the same as the "first" that might precede a household title. The royal brevet that Sublet had drafted for Poussin qualified him as "First painter in ordinary to the King." The adjective "particulier" probably was reserved for princely households and lesser-ranking ones. E. Griselle's Maisons de Louis XIII (Paris: Editions de Documents d'histoire, 1912) gives the following officers or householders who were premier, that is, occupied this sort of top position: aumônier, gentilhomme de la chambre, maître d'hôtel (which was Chantelou's duty, by quartier), pannetier, tranchant, écuyer, médecin, valet de chambre, chirurgien, and barbier. There were other painters, but none was premier, as Poussin would become (see items 6078 and 6080). When Chantelou addressed a letter to Poussin, he most probably gave him the qualité of premier peintre ordinaire du roi, and Poussin expressed satisfaction about it: "Je vous supplie de toutes mes forces de ne changer jamais la qualité dont il vous plaist m'honnorer au commencement de vos lettres à cette fin que je m'en glorifie partout." (Jouanny, p. 189). There is an intensity of feeling here on the part of an artist who reflects constantly on the relations between words and actions, the powers of images in both. Poussin seems to need recognition and honor from someone who not only has authority in the government but also knows about art and the ways of artists. He is patriotic. The recognition by Roman cardinals and other patrons had been crucial, and it will continue to be, but he yearns for something more, something beyond patrons and protectors as mere commissioners. When Sublet is disgraced, Poussin hopes that he will be returned to office by the Regent, "affin que la posterité puisse voir quelque signe de grandeur en Nostre Nation" (p. 249). Only the king his sovereign, and the king's officers, seem to be in a position to fulfill these needs. We shall see that reputation and honor were more important to Poussin than money. This is not to suggest that he was not a Norman in certain cases where the subject of money came up. His efforts to paint "quelque[s] tableau[x] de reputation si je peus" reveal his belief not just in a hierarchy of genres, but in quality and superiority (p. 255).
Let us proceed, then to:
— explore the language of service in Poussin's letters to Chantelou;
— relate this (more briefly) to the language of service in his letters to Cassiano;
— pull together all the elements in Poussin's very specific ideal of philosophical friendship as found through a close reading of his letters to Chantelou; and,
— in conclusion, dare to propose some thoughts about his work that complement E. Cropper and C. Dempsey's book.
(Read Orest's review of Cropper and Dempsey on Poussin)
While Blunt suggested the importance of Stoic thought for understanding Poussin (Cropper and Dempsey recognize and build on this), he was also largely responsible for launching a social interpretation one whose vagaries continue to be extended, despite hard fact. Let's give Poussin the last word here, as recorded by Félibien:
"... qu'il ne désirait y retourner [en France] qu'aux conditions de son premier voyage ... Qu'il n'irait jamais à Paris pour y avoir l'emploi d'un simple particulier quand on lui couvrirait d'or tous ses ouvrages" (Vies de Poussin, ed. S. Germer, Paris: Macula, 1994, p. 185).
2) The language of service in Poussin's letters
Poussin's cautious commitment to serving his king came along incrementally, but with no significant reversal, as the focus of his ideal of the patron became clear in his relationship with Chantelou. In letter 6 (February 1639), he declares himself ready to obey promptly and is ready to "servir mon Roy et mes bienfaiteurs." In letter 9, having referred to himself to Sublet as a "débile sujet," Poussin writes "... si ce n'étoit que le servage que nous devons à nos Rois est une liberté de nos droits vous promettrés d'estre plus vostre, puisque déjà vous m'avez donnés."
In his May 8, 1640, Instruction to Chantelou (letter 17), Sublet says: "Lesd. Sieurs Poussin et François s'estans laissés entendre que la principale cause de leurs retardemens estois l'apréhention qu'ils avoient des changemens et inconstances de la France." Up to this point, service has little that is coercive about it; but in his letter of August 13, 1640 (letter 18), de Noyer suggests that someone might point out to Poussin that "kings have very long arms," an expression so frequently commented upon. A month later (letter 19), he instructs Chantelou, who is in Rome, to "give secret orders" and to trick Poussin into accepting money, thereby making the painter indebted to the King and more or less forcing him to return to France. These instructions were prefaced by a remark about how "our enemies" are undermining everything that Chantelou is doing in Rome. Sublet also suggests that these secret orders should involve the connivance of Poussin and François: "that you leave secret orders agreed to with those who might have enough courage (coeur) to come to France, ... and you will work out with them whether you can make them take money that would oblige them to come." How much of all this did Chantelou reveal to Poussin? Did the painter become engaged in a political skirmish over artistic patronage and planning? We shall see that friendship means trust and sharing secrets. Patriotism also adds a civic dimension.
If Poussin became engaged in the Parisian battle over art policy, the notions of servitude in his letters remain meaningfully formulaic, not more. In the letters, the evolution of the language of servitude, its nuances, as well as indications of reflection about it on Poussin's part, tends to weaken the assertion that it becomes routine formulaic. Let's turn to these variants. Chantelou does not remark on them, but he does note exceptional expressions of love, affection, and morality (our subject, after the subject of servitude):
# 84 "... la dévotion que j'auroi toutte ma vie de vous servir ..."
# 84 "... je me consolerei si j'ay le bonheur de vous servir ..."
# 104 " ... que la proposition que je vous ay fette touchant les Sept Sacrement vous a esté àgré aussy me vas-je préparer à vou bien servir, et laissant à part les autres choses que j'avois pensé vous faire."
# 110 "... je me contenterois bien d'avoir de vos nouvelles lors qu'il est question de vous servir."
# 114 "... je vois assés le soin quil vous plaist prendre des interrest de vostre serviteur. Je vous supplie que cette bonne affection vous dure autant comme la dévotion que jei de vous servir."
# 119 "... je desire vous rendre conte d'un obole comme il est de mon debvoir et commandés moy sans m'epargner sependans que je vois car après moy il ni a personne qui vous servira de si bon coeur."
# 122 "... l'honneur que vous me fettes en vous voulans bien souvenir de moy de qui la servitude que je vous ay vouée estoit demeurée infructueuse jusques à cet heure quil vous plaist m'honorer de vos commandements. en desirans que je vous serve ...."
# 123 "La promesse que je vous avois fette de vous finir deux de vos Sacrement par an ne dérivoit que d'une volonté particulière que j'aurei tousiours de vous servir ...."
# 156 "Pourquoy esse que jei employé tant de temps tant courur dessà et delà par chaud et par froid pour vos servises particuliers si se n'a esté pour vous témoigner combien je vous honnore. Je n'en veux pas dire davantage il faudroit sortir des termes de la servitu[de] que je vous ay vouée."
# 161 "... je vous suis et serei tousiour trèshumble serviteur que je vous suis extrêmement obbligé que je vis et mourei tel. Sependans je vous fés trèshumble révérense."
# 173 "... et vous confirmer que par icelle l'extrême désir que jei de vous servir et que je va me disposant autans comme je peus à l'exécusion de ce que vous désirés de moy et je veux bien que tout le monde sache que vous pouvés tout sur moy ...."
# 176 "... vous me fettes des reproches que autrefois vous m'aves fettes les quelles ne m'ont aucunement altéré parcque je peus (pourvu que je vive) vous oster tout le soupson que vous pourriés avoir de la Servitu que je vous proffesse mais se pendans ne trouvés point mauvais si encore je fais part de mes ouvrages à quelcun de mes amis tout ce qui va d'un costé n'est pas bien. Vous dittes que la promesse que je vous ay fette n'est point de la qualité de celles qui se peuvent atendre avec modération. mais ausy ne faut il vouloir que se qui se peut. La tortue ne sauroit suivre l'ègle. par celle que je vous escrivis en datte du vint et deuziesme d'aust vous aués veu de quelle sorte je vous respecte et combien je suis vostre. Car nul autre que vous ne m'auroit jamais fés promettre ce que je vous promis pour monsieur Pucques me trouvant engagé à plus d'une vinteine de personnes de qualité. ausy la response quil vous a pleu me faire sur icelle me témoigne bien ce que vous m'escrivés par la première que les imaginations que vous avés de moy ne vous viennent que par Intervalles. Si vous voulés considérer toutte choses sans passion elle ne vous reviendront jamais."
# 198 "... je ferei mon possible à ce que vous soiés servi il ni a que la longueur du temps que je crains que ve vous dure trop ...."
# 208 [after writing that he can no longer paint:] "voiés je vous suplie en quoy je vous peus servir en cette ville et commandés moy qui suis de toutte mon ame ... votre trèshumbe et très obeissant serviteur."
# 209 "... du plaisir que vous m'avez fait de n'avoir point reveillé le premier désir qui étoit né en M. le Prince d'avoir de mes ouvrages. Il étoit trop tard pour être bien servi."
It would be imprudent to draw conclusions at this point about the
importance of servitude for Poussin, except to remark that there is a
complexity of feeling expressed, that ranges far beyond the formulaic in
any sense of simple routine.
The imbrication of servitude and amitié
already seems evident. What follows is a typology of early-modern
friendship that will be refined and confirmed by specific passages from
the correspondence of Poussin and his friends.
3) A typology of early-modern friendship in Poussin's correspondence
This little study is dedicated to my dearest companion and friend, Patricia, not because it is a chef d'oeuvre, but because it touches the intimate trans-historical relation that is friendship. My life has been deeply enriched by her presence in it. Memories of other friends also come to mind: Philippe Ariès, le comte d'Adhémar de Panat, Georges Dethan, Douglas Gordon, and the one whose death still causes pain, Gérard Defaux.
* * *
Late in life, and very sick and without friends in Rome [sic], Poussin asks Chantelou to remember the "signes d'amitié" that he, Poussin, has received from him in the past, out of your "goodness and without interest." (p.453) What could these signs have been? Chantelou does not really record his own feelings in the little résumé phrases he put on the letters he received from Poussin, though there are hints of his feelings.
Though it would be dangerous to infer too explicitly from Chantelou's letters to Bernini, from what he writes Bernini after the latter's return to Rome, it is nonetheless possible to suggest the very sensitive, indeed remarkably free and intimate friendship in Chantelou's letters to Poussin, with whom he was better acquainted than with Bernini.
On January 1, 1666 (BNF, ms. italien, 2083, fol. 183, as edited by Stanić, p. 406):
"Je vous assure, Monsieur, mon très cher ami (permettez-moi la liberté de ce nom, dont j'ai traité vingt années durant l'illustre défunt Poussin, que je [m]'oublierais [plutôt] moi-même que d'oublier Monsieur le cavalier Bernin, la gloire du siècle. ... je m'offre de rendre bien soigneusement nos lettres et ferai ici tous les offices de serviteur et fidèle ami, vous n'en devez pas douter."
Then, in a letter dated February 24, 1667 (ibid., p. 408), Chantelou banters:
"Pour le reste, Mme de Chantelou ma femme, qui fait de l'estime qu'elle a pour vous un véritable culte comme elle le feroit pour moi-même, vous prie de continuer à lui manifester des gages de vostre amitié, dont je peux vous assurer ne pas me picquer de jalousie ...."
On first reading this seems to be a quite heavy attempt at courtly wit — something that Monsieur Jourdain might write — but Chantelou conveys sincerity and supportive conviviality in his prose. He was someone who knew how to be genuine while holding creative persons in the highest esteem. And Poussin's references to "baisemains" in his lettres to Chantelou's wife suddenly take on more meaning, as we read this mock courtly banter about the jealous spouse.
But let us take an inventory of Poussin's expressions of friendship toward Chantelou and his other friends. Recall that never once does the word "ami" appear in a salutation or a closing phrase, nor is the noun "amitié," in its full unmodified meaning, declared. We are confronted by something that is measured out quite candidly by Poussin. But to the typology:
—When Chantelou is traveling, Poussin fears for his friend's life.
— Each must act without self-interest.
— One can and must be candid with a friend and have no secrets; confiance must be sufficient to permit this. Ability to speak or write from the heart.
— A false modesty is conveyed, to be rejected or refuted by the friend, when Poussin often refers to his work as unworthy, his "bagatelles."
— He consoles a friend who has lost a friend.
— The friend's departure leaves a mood of inability to make a decision (irresolution).
— Letters are themselves "dear" (très chers).
— Absence of news provokes concern, even doubt about the relationship; produces anxiety.
— Financial matters must be secondary, confiance means leaving it up to the friend to make sure that a service or a work is fairly remunerated. Disbursing a friend's money requires trust.
— Jealousy provoked about whether or not one is a best friend must be overcome by candor.
— Candid badinage about seeing or frequenting beautiful women.
The idea of friendship must be confirmed by words and deeds, though as an ideal it may almost become more important than anything the friend does or says. A friend can anticipate what his friend will think or say (about a picture).
Poussin had a handful of lifelong friends, and they perhaps have nothing in common except a studied love for the artist and his work. We will never know whether his friendship with Chantelou was the most philosophical or not. The references to Lemaire, Pointel, Girard, Serisay, and Stella, as "friends" or "dear friends," will not be explored, but they are of significance since Poussin does not use words loosely. Similarly, the letters to the dal Pozzo brothers are peppered with references to "patron," "protector," and "master," along with expressions of affection and some friendship. Did he use the same words with Massimi? By a parallel that is interesting, the Fréart brothers, like the dal Pozzo, share affection proffered by Poussin in letters addressed to the one or the other brother.
But it is Paul Fréart who has the intensifying friendly relation with Poussin, to which we now turn. Paul Fréart's hand, as we see it from a letter to Bernini reproduced by I. Pantin, Les Fréart de Chantelou (Le Mans: Création et Recherche, 1999, pp. 131-132, and his will and inventory after death, pp. 154-156) is that "modernist" writing that prefigures that of the eighteenth century, with just an occasional slip back to the archaic cursive e known as the "round" e. Let us proceed chronologically, letting the reader ponder the evolution in the relationship and, if desired, confirm or nuance the above typology:
"Monsieur, je ne scaurois par où commencer à vous témoigner comme je me sens vostre obligé. Je ne pourrois jamais l'exprimer, quand bien ce seroit mon mestier que de bien dire. Cela est la cause que je désire extrêmement d'estre plus proche de vous, affin d'avoir plus de commodité de vous faire voir[s] mes ressentiments." [# 6, 1639]
There are feelings that Poussin seems unable to put into writing; he feels a need to be near Chantelou. Sublet's early letters to his Fréart cousins and to Poussin are also filled with quite relaxed, easy prose. Sublet says he is a "véritable ami" to Poussin. The painter is careful to take into account the fact that his letters will be parsed not only by Chantelou but by Chantelou's brother, Sublet, and Richelieu and perhaps by the King. His sentiments are more reserved prior to Richelieu's death (in December 1642), and Sublet's disgrace (March 1643). But these are precisely the moments when the friendship became firmly grounded in confiance, that is, when Poussin was in Paris and in frequent contact with Chantelou. Humanist that he was, Poussin, I speculate, also became a pedagogue. We see that already in the way he taught Chantelou to read La Manne, the painting he completed before making the journey to Paris. The artisan-artist is a teacher almost always. In the hours they spent together during the Paris visit, and then during Chantelou's stay in Rome, Poussin may have trained him not only to "read" his paintings, but also, perhaps, to identify the works of other painters. (Chantelou was pleased with himself in this regard, in the Bernini Journal, pp 97-90.)
The formal eulogy addressed by one friend to another is also very typical of Humanist culture. One could imagine Reubens offering one to Lipsius. Poussin's Latin eulogy for Massimi reveals another dimension to his idea of friendship, one that is linked to and confirms the philosophical ideal of friendship in his expressed love for Chantelou (Olivier Bonfait, "Ut pingerem perpetuas virgilias ... Un éloge de Poussin adressé à Camillo Massimi," Colloque: Académie de France à Rome, Paris: Réunion des Musées nationaux, 1996, pp. 45-65).
Did Poussin have help on the Latin? If he did, the text may be no less sincere. We can be certain that Poussin strove to say what he meant. It reminds us of the difficulties in interpreting Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Epitaphium Carpentarii (Françoise Waquet, Bulletin Charpentier, Jan. 1993, reprinted in Marc-Antoine Charpentier, un musicien retrouvé, coedition of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and Editions Mardaga).
A deliberate moment of teaching by Poussin is when he recounts to Chantelou the relations between the sounds of the words in Virgil and the emotions expressed; and of course, in the entire discussion of the Modes. It is tempting to search Montaigne for passages that might have inspired Poussin, but that would take us from the subject here. So would any attempt to verify whether or not Poussin "taught" Chantelou during the latter's visit to Rome or, for that matter, during Poussin's visit to Paris. Bernini's discourse to any and all who came to watch him sculpt the bust of Louis XIV is certainly "teaching"; but there remains the poised severity of the Poussin self-portrait destined for Chantelou, to be interpreted as friendly pedagogy. The artist's expression is not familiar or relaxed. Poussin puts on all the airs of a learned painter. What was he trying to convey or teach? There is a range beyond Chantelou France, glory, reputation and for which Chantelou was largely a medium. I picked up Gérard Defaux's Montaigne et le Travail de l'amitié (Orléans: Paradigme, 2001) and contemplated its cover, with its enlarged photograph of a passage from the Essays, with numerous cross-outs: "Nul n'est mal long tem[s] qu'a sa coulpe fau[te]. Qui n'a le corage ceur de souff[rir] ny la mort ny la vie qui [ne] veut ny resister ny fu[yr], qu[e] luy fairoit on?." We learn that, from the earlier to the later draft, coulpe was changed to faute, corage to coeur. One can imagine Poussin saying this phrase, which is so true yet so paradoxical and saying it with an expression that conforms to the painting for Chantelou. The time for learning about painting and, for that matter, about life is, or could be just about over: a final lesson is at hand. The title-less book (or be-ribboned folio) is the book of life (Last Judgment, Albi). The ribbon may be there to deny the interpretation that follows. Those who see the self-portrait for Pointel as more relaxed, more intimate, fail to confront the possible interpretation of the self-portrait painted for Chantelou, namely that "to philosophize is to learn to die," and that this is the lesson Poussin wishes to reaffirm to his friend. Pointel may not have had a philosophical friendship with the master. He bought and sold pictures, and he may just not have had a sense that his materiality was incarnate in his collection.
# 6 Poussin expresses feelings: there is the build-up of a desire to thank Chantelou, and to "faire voir mes resentiments."
# 27 Poussin is in Paris, Chantelou at Rueil, in April 1641: "Je vous supplie luy faire trouver bon la bonne inclination que vous avés pour vostre serviteur, m'assure [sic] de cette grâce vous assurant (Monsieur) que si journellement je resois de vous de nouvelles faveurs et si mon peu de pouvoir ni peut correspondre au moins ma bonne affection est devenue si grande qu'elle ne pourra jamais être surmontée d'aucune autre." In this letter there are elements not only of friendship but also of love inclination, faveurs, affection that seem entirely sincere, and a response to the friendship and love that Chantelou is expressing for him.
# 30 Poussin thanks Chantelou for his "gracieuse lettre," and for the muid de vin that has been delivered. In her brilliantly learned The Gift in sixteenth-century France (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 2000), I, Natalie Zemon Davis (read Orest's review of this book) explores the "spirit of gifts" as part of the large social, cultural and religious framework that was certainly still strong in Poussin's day. I shall not expatiate on this very important theme here. Nor should the theme of Poussin's having the courage to ask Chantelou, and through him Sublet and Richelieu, to support individuals seeking abbeys or other posts (as described in letter # 35); but these are a sign of friendship as the confiance builds up that the "other" will not be offended. This will be reciprocated after Poussin's return to Rome, when Chantelou has him purchase and send busts, gloves, and lute strings. In fact, Chantelou has an open account in Rome with Poussin!
# 42 August 1641, Chantelou wrote on the letter, en résumé: "Cette lettre mérite d'être vue" because of all the artistic advice it contained. Poussin writes: "Et si vous avés le loisir de vous resouvenir de vostre bon ami Monsieur de Chevalier du Puis, je le pourois assurer de la continuation de vostre chère amitié." The point is the post for Mondin, mentioned in # 35. Here the terms of friendship seem to be what Stephenson calls "clientage," and quite familiar.
Before departing for Paris, Poussin often referred to his poor health. It was not always clear whether health was an excuse for not making a long and dangerous voyage. But in # 47 (September 1641), Poussin tells Chantelou of the health problems that affect his ability to work. A friend is interested in every detail about one's health. For the rest of his life, Poussin will share very detailed information about his with Chantelou.
# 48 to Cassiano, reveals something of the delicacy that is required of Poussin in his relations with both Chantelou and Cassiano. Chantelou has had some copies of Raphael's paintings made that were to be gifts to Cassiano. As the intermediary, Poussin discovers that the works have been damaged. He writes Cassiano suggesting that, in his thanks, he not mention the fact to Chantelou, the donor, because "l'intenzione di chi l'offerisce è bonissima." It is tempting to assert that such sensitivity is grounded on Seneca's writings about gifts and gratitude, where, of course, it is the intention that is the gift, not the object. (Oeuvres, trans. by Malherbe and du Ryer, Paris: Sommaville, 1659, On Bienfaits.) True, such language might be found in everyday speech as well, or in the writings of Early-Modern moralists.
# 50 There is Humanist thought about rank: "Il est bien vray que la fortune en ce qu'elle va fesant ne scait jamais ce quelle fet fesans les prince d'un coeur petit et ravallé et les gentilshommes d'une Ame Royale. Moy qui vous donne telle louange considérant vostre Magnanimité je vous célèbre encore pour homme de tant de bonté .... Qui n'est point né prince ce monstre tel par les nobles actions de qui la nature la orné et celuy qui est né grand seigneur et ne fait rien de convenable à sa naissance ... je dis et je vous jure Monsieur que si je n'estois pas moy mesme je croirois d'estre vous qui havés converti l'amour et la révérence que je vous porte en lobligation que je vous doibts." Synthesis or imbrication of the language of servitude with that of friendship? Poussin searches for the mot juste. He feels awkward and unsure of himself, but like the Peasant from the Danube before the Roman Senate (La Fontaine, Fables, XI, 7), he is eloquent. As I pulled down Marc Fumaroli's splendid edition of the Fables to check the reference my upset over his extending this same humanist moral about the prince to Fouquet came to mind. (Read Orest's review of Fumaroli's book about La Fontaine.) I am afraid that my doubts about Fouquet's magnanimity remain. His "intéret" always seemed so obvious, as a would-be grand.
# 56 Chantelou has remarked on the belles filles he has seen in Nîmes, and Poussin replies: "Les belles filles que vous avés vues a Nimes ne vous aurons je m'assure pas moins délecté l'esprit par la vue que les belles collomnes de la maison quarée veu que celles ici ne sont que des vieilles copies de cellelà." Herodotus's observations about women's beauty and dress during his travels, became a topos in Humanist-inspired travel literature; but Poussin teaches by a "first thought" of his own, a relation between the body and architecture that is primordial. In the same letter, Poussin declines to write Sublet because: "Je me trouve trop débile et de trop peu d'ornement de parolles pour un personnage si délicat." His increasing candor in his correspondence with Chantelou becomes revealing in the light of these frequently stated feelings.
# 75 Poussin takes leave of Paris and is unhappy that he cannot personally say goodbye to Chantelou: "... il faut qu'une feuille de papier face set office pour moy. Monsieur je vous dis donc adieu. Adieu mon cher protecteur adieu l'unique amateur de la vertu adieu Cher Seigneur qui mérités d'estre honnoré et admiré. adieu jusque à tant que dieu me donne la grace de revoir vostre benigne face." In the résumé Chantelou added to the letter, he wrote: " ... termes qui sont plains damour et destime singuliere." Ever the royal official, Chantelou nonetheless noted Poussin's expressions of love. In so doing, he permits us to suggest that these expressions were sincere and went beyond the routine or the formulaic.
# 78 Poussin shows his fears about Chantelou's travels: "... mes alarmes ne l'ont pas esté moindres lorsque je vous ay veu ambarqué ... car ne croiés pas que vostre persone me soit moins chère que tout ce que vous portés, quelque pretieux quil soit."
# 83 After repeating these fears about travel, he admits, re the news of the King's death and of Sublet's "retraicte" (disgrace), " ... deus choses qui musent fet mourir de déplaisir ... den le peu de repos quil a pleu à dieu me prolonger je nay peu éviter un certain regret qui ma percé le coeur ... en sorte que je me suis trouvé ne pouvoir reposer ni jour ni nuit." There is a refrain about the evil, misery, and disgraces that occur all the time, and that it is bette to laught to to complain (soupirer), followed by the well-known: "Nous n'avons rien en propre nous tenons tout à louage." The letter closes: "... il ni a personne qui chérisse tant que vous et vous seront tousjours obligés et affectionnés."
# 84 After noting the embarras of life, Poussin writes: "Le repos et la tranquillité de l'esprit que vous pouvés posséder se sont des biens qui n'ont point d'esgal Finallement vous ne debvés pas mettre la perte de ma conversation au nombre d'un seul point de disgràce. C'est bien moy qui me doibs plaindre de ne jouyr de vostre douce presense." Then Poussin asks what he can do to give Chantelou pleasure: "... vous assurant bien que je vous serviray de tout mon coeur, pour cet effet je m'engagerai avec personne affin de demeurer le vostre tout entier," a thought not very different in its emphasis of the uniqueness of the relationship from what we found in Mazarin's letters to friends.
# 86 Poussin writes: "Quand vous m'aurés envoyé la mesure de vostre petit tableau de Raphael, je tascherai à vous servir le mieux qu'il me sera possible. Pour ce qui est de mon interst, je n'en parlerei jamais. Je vous demande pardon de ce que j'en dit." This is not the place to explore the meanings of interest, but it is the almost taboo of it that is often encountered in sources about friendship. There is an ideal of friendship that, by his emotions, Poussin feels he must be free to pursue; he must be confident that Chantelou will pay him fairly, but without Poussin having to set fees or price. It is almost as if money were a polluting element to intimate friendship. In the letters that Renaudot the physician received from patients in the 1680s, there is mention of gifts of wine, firewood, etc., almost as if the gift were intended to reduce or eliminate the doctor's fees-for-service. These patients were Renaudot's friends. And very importantly, Poussin is very economical about spending the money that Chantelou has on account with him.
# 87 Poussin remarks: "Quant ausy j'aurei fet quelque chose de bon goust je vous le dédirei n'ayans point d'autre gloire ni de plus grand plaisir que de vous servir." A work that is dedicated requires thanks and obligation in return. This can prompt a recompense, obviously. A "faveur" is something (p. 214) that also obliges. In writing about Thibaut, p. 218, Poussin portrays himself. The money that Chantelou has given him has revived him, but there is also the affection toward him that counts (it will be withdrawn!).
# 91 After a summary account, and announcing that the Ravissement de St Paul is finished, he writes: "Vous permettrés que j'en prengne cinquante escus mais quand vous l'aurés veu si vous jugerés que ce soit trop je vous referei le reste sur autre chose."
# 92 Poussin describes his joy upon learning that Sublet has returned to the government. He seems sincere, but he is cautious too, as he is not certain that "the news will be confirmed." It was not. The important point here is grasped by Olson's general interpretation. Here Poussin is engaged; he does not persist in his customary cynical distance from "affaires." He is derogatory about minsters and others, badly wrong about papal politics (he thought that someone better, i.e., more favorable to France, could be elected upon the death of Urban VIII, but the pro-Spanish party won). The contrast between the engagement over Sublet and the cynicism about just about all other politics was, of course, related to the fate of Chantelou and the artistic program fostered by Sublet and the Fréarts.
As for the cynicism about the political, while not our subject, recall what Montaigne writes:
"A voir nos guerres civiles, qui ne crie que cette machine se bouleverse et que le jour du jugement nous prent au collet, sans s'aviser que plusieurs pires choses se sont veuës .... Mais qui se presente, comme dans un tableau, cette grande image de nostre mère nature en son entiere majesté; qui liet en son visage une si generale et constante varieté ...." (Book I, 26)
It might be worthwhile to pull out all of Montaigne's uses of the painting metaphor (perhaps this has been done: if only my dear friend Gérard Defaux were still here, I could ask this question and have the answer immediately); but my point here is, that the sense of distance and cynicism about the political in Poussin might have been nourished by reading Montaigne. Yet when he calls those who govern "larrons," there is something more "populaire" and Frondeur.
# 92 The salutation to Chantelou reads: "Monsieur et trèscher Maistre."
# 93 Here his initial concern about Sublet turns to a distinctly philiosophical view: "Jei grande envie sur les Nations lesquelles ne pouvant exprimer de vive vois les plus hautes conceptions de leur esprit ont inventé certaines figures par la force desquelles il peuvent à autrui faire concepvoir ce quils ont en intellect si j'avois se pouvoir facillement en ce petit espase de papier vous pourriés mesurer de la joie que jei euë ...." There is more than a rhetoric of silence here: Poussin sees himself as the giver of "figures" to the French. His frequent remarks about lacking words to express his thoughts are not just a figure of speech, they are a philosophical view sustained by expérience (Montaigne's sense). Autodidact that he is, Poussin nonetheless knows his mind.
# 95 Poussin assures Chantelou that "Monsieur Pointel mon bon ami et vostre serviteur" will receive a picture, and that the freight from Lyon is due him. The painting is the Saint Paul: "il vous [Chantelou] plaira sans me flatter m'en dire vostre oppinion quand vous l'aurés veu affin que si je ne vous ay bien servi je m'efforse de mieux faire à l'advenir." The little circle Pointel, the Fréart brothers, the dal Pozzo brothers, who are all acquainted are, or have been buying Poussin's works. All are "amis"; some are a "bon ami" to the others, and in other cases, "cher ami."
# 96 Poussin writes: "La mesme [lettre] me rejouit et me console doublement quand par les termes que vous usés en m'escrivant je cognois assés évidamment qui vous plaist me conserver en l'onneur de vos bonne grâce et de vouloir bien que je vous honnore de tout mon coeur." In the next paragraph, he continues: "Je vous remercie infiniment de la promesse que vous me fettes de vous souvenir de mes interrest si les affaires s'accommodes. Le reste que vous désirés de moy assurés vous Monsieur que j'ay renonsé à moymesme pour estre tout vostre." He ends by saying that he had momentarily had a "vision" about asking Cardinal Mazarin's secretary to help with shipping some cases, but that he henceforth "will be strongly impeded from it." Does Poussin understand Mazarin to be impeding Sublet from reassuming his duties, and therefore does not wish to see the Fréart brothers beholden to him? (Before leaving # 96, note the false modesty when Poussin writes: "Du reste vous vous consolés de peu de chose quand vous m'assurés que mes bagatelles vous seront agreables au lieu des choses qui n'ont point leur pareil au Monde.")
# 97 There is a reference to Chantelou's "libéralité" in paying for the Saint Paul. Chantelou sent the money before having seen the painting: thus the friend:patron anticipates and goes beyond market value to make a "libéralité." All Poussin can do in return is: " ... quand vous l'aurés veu alors vous pourrés dire peut estre qu'il [the Saint Paul] vous couste beaucoup J'atens ses reproches de vous. Mais avec le temps nous en paierons l'amende." As in fencing, the parrying is returned. To call this courtly would be unhistorical; to call such a verbal exchange trans-historical discourse of friendship and service would be more appropriate. Montaigne says (I, 28):
"Si en l'amitié de quoy je parle, l'un pouvoit donner à l'autre, ce seroit celuy qui recevroit le bien fait, qui obligeroit son compagnon. Car cherchant l'un et l'autre, plus que tout autre chose, de s'entre-benefaire, celuy qui en preste la matiere et l'occasion est celuy-là qui fait le liberal, donnant ce contentement à son amy ...." (This passage comes just before the Eudamidas narrative that most likely inspired the painting now in Copenhagen. )
# 98 Poussin assures Chantelou that "... rien ne vous manquera jamais et sepandans que j'aurei la vie je ne cesserei de désirer d'estre entièrement vostre, cependans je vous suplie me continuer l'honneur de l'affectin qu'il a pleu jusques à présent me témoigner."
# 100 As a résumé Chantelou wrote: "Il fait un grand préambule pour me persuader ce que je devrois désirer avec passion," that is, the Seven Sacrements, the second series on the subject by Poussin. Chantelou accepts and goes forward, as a friend, not insisting on some other idea once Cassiano had declined to allow his series to be copied. Chantelou does what a friend should do. He also reacts to Chantelou's absence: "... depuis vostre départ j'ay esté dans une perpetuelle irresolution ...."
# 101 Poussin refers to the disastrous results of Sublet's disgrace and hopes that things will change: "... que la postérité puisse voir quelque signe de grandeur en Nostre Nation. Mais mon cher Maistre nous sommes en un étrange ciècle ...."
# 106 "... vos nouvelles me consolent infiniment l'esprit," writes Poussin. In # 110 he again brings up the subject of consolation in general: "Je voudrois bien pourtant estre capable de vous consoler par quelque moyen. mais mon talent est de trop petite estendue, ne pouvant fere autre que jetter quelques souppirs avec vous." In # 155 (I jump ahead just to complete the theme), he again says that he lacks the words to be a consolation to a friend who has lost a friend; but then he goes on and does it anyway by saying: "Vous avés souffert généreusement d'autres secousses que celle si que le temps (seul médecin de telles maladies) vous a rendue suportables. Se mal present se passera de mesme. Sepandans je vous ay apresté un Souper où est représenté celuy qui nous a montré comment il faut souffir toutes choses ...." In # 154, written in early September 1647, he had predicted that the Cesne de Crist would be finished in late October. The letter of consolation (# 155) announcing the Souper was written in early November. Thus Poussin consoles his friend more by a picture than by his weak (he thinks) words. It is not accidental that the boundary between philosophy and personal belief is broken down when it comes to consolation.
Briefly now, just to confirm what has already been read, let's go
back to letter # 110: "il n'est nullement de besoin de me donner de la
stimulasion à finir avec amour et soin les ouvrages que je vous ay
commensées. L'amour que jei pour vous et l'envie de bien faire ne
peuvent estre augmentés par nul moyen. Touttefois si l'artifice n'arive
à un degré de perfection tel comme vous le dépeignés en l'imagination
n'en accusés autre que l'excellenses de vos belles idées ...."
Elsewhere in # 110 Poussin says that all his letters do not have to be
answered. The coercive behavior of the French ambassador described in
the same letter makes it clear that protection is socially and
politically very important. He ends by referring to the "tessor" [read:
trésor] de vostre Amitié ...."
# 116 Poussin says: "... comme je vieillis je me sens au contraire des autres, enflammé d'un grand désir de bien fere et particulièrement pour vous qui estes mon idole."
# 117 He writes: "Vous m'ordonnerez [ce qui vous plaira] le payement du susdit tableau en la facon qu'il vous plaira. Je scais bien et ne doubte point que vous me donnerés courage de faire la suitte avec amour et plaisir."
# 119 Poussin again declares his love for Chantelou: "Si j'eusses eu le bonheur de vous revoir encore une fois en cette ville je n'aurois plus eu de regret de mourir o dieu quelle joye jaurois eüe de revoir encore une fois la personne que j'aime et honore sur tous les hommes du monde." If there was consolation in the sacrament of the Eucharist, there is dark humor in Extreme Unction: "... vous le recepverés non pas d'un prebtre mais du messagier de Lyon." Then he reflects: "... j'ayes eu révélation de vostre désir, car tout a esté fet devant que d'avaoir repseu vos dernieres." There are other letters where some sort of telepathic communication is mentioned.
# 120 Poussin asks for Chantelou's sentiment "sans flatterie."
# 121 He again expresses concern about Chantelou's health.
# 122 Pointel is called a "loyal ami."
# 127 Poussin promises two pictures a year for the Sacraments series, and ends: "car je suis trèsbien resolu de ne m'engager plus avec personne que avec vous à qui je serei toutte ma vie ... vostre trèsobéissant Serviteur."
# 128 Chantelou wrote en résumé: "quil servira mon frère mais à mes despens." The tension over claims to unique friendly relations not only occurred between Pointel and Chantelou, but also, as we see here, between the Fréart brothers. Montaigne argues that one can have only one unique friend. While Poussin pursed a unique friendship with Chantelou, he nonetheless had several other close friends who meant a lot to him. As Scarron found out, there were limits to how much Poussin would work for the friend of a friend. Poussin scorned Scarron's writings as a philosopher might (Montaigne is very negative about les Amadis), but in the end, thanks to persistence and to Chantelou's help, Scarron got a painting from the master.
# 131 There is more on consolation. This time it is prompted by Sublet's death. Poussin's thought has much of the tender rigor constantia of the neo-Stoic, but there are oblique but clear allusions to Christian thought. In this case he remarks: "... il ne faut point pleurer les bienheureus." Sublet had been very devout. Was his cultural program as surintendant inspired by, or suggested by the Jesuits? There were members of the Order who could almost be considered Gallican, in that they contributed enormously to the flowering of French culture (e.g. Rapin) and the French Monarchy (de la Chaize), and seemed not to worry about what Rome thought of their activities.
# 133 Poussin writes: "Vous ne devés pas croire que je prétende plus grand récompense du dit tableau pour i avoir plus de figures .... Je ne prends pas garde à si peu de chose ... Si vous plaist donc me traicter comme par le passé je serei content et très satisfet." There are many indications that, in other instances, the number of figures did influence the price. He says it takes him a day to do a head! In establishing prices, artisans typically count as piece-work (our menuisier at Panat charged by the step when building a stairway), but here it is Poussin's friendship for Chantelou that gives him confidence about the sum Chantelou will give him.
# 138 Poussin writes: "Vostre derniere lettre m'a ravi le Coeur," and he concludes by saying that "je ne m'aresterei pas davantage à répliquer sur les louanges que vous fettes sur le tableau ...." Poussin accepted Chantelou's praise because it involved (or so it seems) a synthesis of sentiment and judgment.
# 147 Chantelou apparently was disappointed by Le Baptême and wrote something that permitted Poussin to infer or deduce this. Poussin sensed the criticisms about it that had been made by painters in Rome, and he perhaps let Chantelou over-interpret that his taste, too, is not unlike the taste of those (le vulgere) who fear that a change of manière will reduce the painting to an estampe!
# 156 It is precisely at this moment, when Poussin replies to Chantelou's fit of jealousy, he writes: "Je n'en veux pas dire davantage il faudroit sortir des termes de la servitu que je vous ay vouée. Croyés certainement que je fet pour vous ce que je ne ferai pour personne vivante." Pointel has given Chantelou the Moses, and Poussin writes that it is the subject that, in its way, has provoked the upset. What was right for Pointel is not right for Chantelou. There follows quite a caustic discussion about how to interpret painting. Just before his famous discussion of the Modes, Poussin remarks that Chantelou has been "précipiteus dans le judgement que vous avés fet de mes ouvrages." In his résumé, Chantelou does not mention this verbal charge that he has received from the painter. After his presentation of the Modes, Poussin ends the letter in this way: "Car bien que vous soyez trèsintelligent en touttes choses je crins que la pratique de tant d'Insensés et Ignorants qui vous environnent ne vous corrompent le jugement par leur contagion."
# 157 Whatever Chantelou had written, in a jealous fit, about the Moses painted for Pointel, it unleashed this reply from Poussin: "... je vois que vous demeurez ferme en l'oppinion que vous aviés que j'aye servi M. Pointel avec plus d'amour et de dilligense que vous." Having asserted that Pointel is not as "intelligent en Peinture" as Chantelou, the painter makes another rejoinder: "... j'observerei dilligeamment ce que vous aimés tant ès choses que possèdent les autres, puis que je ne trouve point d'autre moyen de m'entretenir en bonne oppinion de vous estre le plus affectionné serviteur de tous les hommes comme en vérité je vous suis."
# 182 (leaving chronological order for a moment) The friendship not only survived but became stronger as a result of this fit of jealousy. However, Poussin will not forget it and will carefully prepare the reception of Poussin's self-portraits by Pointel and Chantelou. They were shipped in the same packing case, and Chantelou must not open the one painted for Pointel first! These self-portraits are another result of friendship, of course. Poussin had not wanted to paint them (at any rate that is what he says!), but the differences between them is very revealing of how the painter conceptualized the two friendships. The self-portrait for Chantelou is more "intellectual," in the sense of book-learning; the one for Pointel is more familiar. Received scholarly opinion has it that Chantelou was the first to request a self-portrait. This almost contradicts Poussin's phrase about Chantelou's wanting what others wanted. Did Pointel make the request, orally or through an intermediary, prior to Chantelou? The point is interesting only for what it reveals about Chantelou the follower. When Poussin seeks to paint a "tableau de réputation" for him, he seeks for a subject by reading. Through conversation, Chantelou seems to have hinted what would please him. The master wished to paint what he wished, but a friendship inspires ideas and projects. But paintings are not my subject! Back, briefly, to the chronology.
# 162 This is a letter of consolation prompted by Voiture's death.
# 163 There is an allusion to the Fronde: the fall of a villain pleases Poussin, and he impatiently waits for others that "should follow." Partcelli d'Hemery had been disgraced on June 9, 1648, and Poussin's reply is dated August 2. His Frondeur sympathies are evident. His hopes for other disgraces could only mean Mazarin's!
# 166 The letter begins: "Je n'oserois doutter de vos jugemens et ne me peus assés asseurer sur les louenges que vous me donnés. L'honneur que vous me fettes de m'aymer peut faire comme les lunettes qui font voir les choses plus grandes quelle ne sont." He continues by asserting that Chantelou's applause is too greast for a work of little merit (it was painted for Chantelou's brother). His confiance is shaken, but it has not yet impeded candor!
There is so much more here, but we already have evidence of a remarkable philosophical friendship vowed by the painter to the royal official.
# 182 Poussin resolved the dilemma posed by claims of a unique friendship by assuring Chantelou about the self-portrait destined for him: "... vous en serés le juge de l'un et de l'autre;: mais je m'assure de vous avoir tenu en promesse que je vous ai faitte car celui que je vous dédis est le meilleur et très bien resemblant ... et vous prie de croire que l'original est autant votre, comme la copie, ... vostre très humble et très obéissant Serviteur." About these self-portraits, Poussin also comments: "... mais de tâcher à satisfaire à ses amis c'est une chose qui sied bien à un honnête homme." Here Poussin expresses the heart of Humanist thought about the virtuous individual. His reading and pondering of the entire corpus of antique ethical thought (Aristotle, Plutarch, and Cicero, in particular) and, of course, Montaigne (II, 12, and III, 5) could prompt him not only to write this, but even to become what he is (it is ontological at this point, not social). And Humanist that he is, Poussin is continually teaching Chantelou how to be a friend.
# 199 Poussin writes: "Nostre bon ami Mr. le Chevallier du Puis est décédé et nous travaillions à sa sépulture." There is a serenity grounded on an understanding of the natural order of things.
# 204 Poussin announces what will be the last work by his brush: "... après y avoir emploié toutte mes forces et ne pouvant plus au moins considerés la bonne volonté que jei tousiours euë de vous bien servir, et souvenés vous des signes d'amitié que jei en plusieurs occasions repcue de vostre bonté et sans interest. J'espère que vous me les continuerés jusques à ma fin où je touche du bout de mon doid. Je ne peus plus."
# 208 Poussin asks Chantelou to look over the bequest he has made to his relatives in Normandy, who are not accustomed to handling large sums of money.
# 211 In this final letter, there is an apology for what un "misérable étourdi nepveu" has done. His "repos" has been troubled by this. He ends the letter: "Je vous viens demander escuse d'avoir tant tardé à confesser que vous estes seluy à qui je suis le plus obligé et redevable qui estes mon refuge, et à qui je serei tant que je vivrai, Monsieur, vostre treshumble et trèsobligé Serviteur Le Poussin."
My choices of which phrases to quote cannot do justice to what can only be characterized as a sublime and edifying correspondence.
Chantelou's friendship gave Poussin a fulfillment of an ideal that he had perhaps observed and that he certainly had read about. These letters rank among the great correspondence in Western culture. They are formal in their informality, not unlike the letters from Cicero to Atticus, from Paulinus of Nola to Ambrose and Augustine. J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz characterizes the ancient letter as a "work of art" (Travel, Communication, and Geography in Late Antiquity, ed. L. Ellis and F.L. Kidner, Burlington, Ashgate, 2004, p. 98). I would suggest that the same is true for Poussin's. The extreme care when choosing salutations, the choice of words, and above all the brevity and the gravity of his prose, permit us to learn a bit about how Poussin himself became a self-conscious work of art, through his paintings, his "family," his letters.
We cannot ask "Why Chantelou?" As with Mazarin and Richelieu, something clicked. There is fulfilment of a pre-figured ideal of friendship. The verb vouer that Poussin uses so frequently to describe his servitude to Chntelou, must be pondered further. Thus all this exploration is already captured in the learned and eloquent prose of Poussin's fellow friends (yes, one does not have to be among the living to inspire feelings of friendship!). In their Nicolas Poussin: Friendship and the Love of Painting (Princeton: P.U.P, 1996), p. 185, Elizabeth Cropper and Charles Dempsey write: "Even as each of Montaigne's Essays represents a deliberate attempt at self-portrayal, so does each of Poussin's mature works. Essays in becoming, not being, they are concerned with knowing, not with the presentation of ideally beautiful form." They also write: "Poussin set out to teach the far-away Chantelou about his friendship, servitude, judgement, and jealousy over possession." There it all is, so succinctly and beautifully stated.
There are phases in the correspondence where the veil is lifted a bit
more. The last word will go to Poussin, but a preface to his remark is
needed. Historians have spilled much ink on searching for the earliest
"modern" use of such terms as nation, public, interest, and opinion.
Here Poussin, the autodidact atticist who burnishes every "word" in his
self-portrait — a Humanist philosopher worthy of sitting down
beside Montaigne, Rabelais, Corneille, and Molière — tells us who
he is:
"Les françois ont ils si peu de sentiment pour leurs
Nourrisons] qui honorent par leur vertu leur pais et leur patrie? Veut
on souffrir que un homme comme Sanson. mette dehors de sa maison un
vertueux conneu de toute Leurope. du reste c'est l'interest du public."
(# 124)
The extension of Poussin's self and dignity to a house in Paris, provides a clue to interpreting his painting. Each and every painting is Poussin, not unlike Montaigne's remark that he was (is) entirely in his book.
* * *
Yes, Professor Olson is right to interpret Poussin's prose as sincere. There are little flights of flattery, irritation, and sardonic contempt for those in power; but never is the candor of friendship abandoned.
3) Chantelou on Painting
My rereading of Chantelou's Journal prompts so many thoughts, the first being that Mark Morford's work, Stoics and Neostoics, Rubens and the Circle of Lipsius (Princeton: P.U.P., 1991), could serve as a model for the study of the close circle around Poussin-Cassiano, Chantelou and his brothers, and Gustiniani. The philosophical underpinning could be curiosity. This is a project that Antoine Schnapper or Gérard Defaux might have pulled off to perfection, but they were not given time to do more than they accomplished.
The second thought would be to have the director of Tous les Matins du Monde make a film from the Journal, with, of course, Depardieu playing Bernini. Some learned readers might be offended by the idea, but tant pis, I think it an excellent one.
Turning now to the superb Stanić edition of Chantelou's Journal about, and his correspondence with Bernini. As a transition from what has been explored above, note that, as part of his compliment in one of the letters written just after leaving Paris, Bernini tells Chantelou that the latter has "una vera legge d'amicizia, "un vrai sens de l'amitié" (p. 285).
Turning to what Chantelou says about painting in the Journal, the specific contexts — to whom he is speaking, and about which work of art — must always be noted. At this point I do not know whether these texts will reveal a coherent and informed critical stance, or not. He also makes some remarks about architecture that must be included because they shed light on such fundamental questions as his attitude toward ornamentation. When Chantelou takes credit with his two brothers for the overall success of the Church of the Jesuit Noviciate, we have a pretty good idea of what he projected as appropriateness, grandeur, and good taste.
Seventeenth-century French is quite thin or impoverished when it comes to commenting on the visual arts. Chantelou's Italian seems quite strong as he reports what Bernini said to him. He does not say that he lacks the vocabulary, or that he is frustrated by his inability to understand what the Italians are saying to him. At no point does he lard his letters to Poussin, nor his Journal, with Latin sentences. He is not an érudit. His love for ancient Rome is in no small part visual and filled with a literal imaginary that prompts Plutarch-type history-reading and wonder.
Chantelou's first major remark (p. 70) is not as easy to interpret as
it might seem. After Bernini almost amusingly recites how Annibale
Carracci learned something from just about every major painter,
Chantelou retorts: "Je lui ai contesté qu'il eût la noblesse et la grâce
naturelle, mais celle qui donne l'étude et le savoir." Is our friendly
Parisian from Le Mans parroting what Poussin had said to him about
Carracci? The notion of "grâce naturelle" is very important to Poussin.
Faced with almost having to compliment Bernini for his designs for
the inner courtyard of the Louvre, Chantelou notes that: "... je prenais
la liberté de lui dire par avance que c'était un ouvrage simple et sans
aucun ornement que celui de l'ordre, mais qu'avec cela il était aussi
riche, pompeux et magnifique que l'on eût encore vu; qu'à mon avis, pour
en exprimer la beauté, il faudrait inventer de nouveaux mots" (p. 74).
Chantelou seems to disagree with what I just wrote above, concerning
whether he felt a lack of words to express himself about the arts. Here,
however, he is simply repeating rhetoric about beauty and, in a sense,
the sublime, for which there were no words. A pendant to it is: "les
mots me manquent pour exprimer la douleur ...," a typical phrase in
letters of condolence. But the phrase "ouvrage simple et sans aucun
ornement que celui de l'ordre" is an important aesthetic statement.
On p. 78, after the "entrepreneur" had said that he had put an "espèce de bas-relief à l'intention de M. Le Vau," Chantelou "a reparti qu'il ne fallait pas orner le tympan, que les Antiques les avaient ornés rarement, ou bien l'orner tout à fait; que d'ailleurs le Roi n'aurait pas trop d'honneur en mettant sa devise à l'ouvrage de la Grande Galerie." Reading these remarks prompts me to think of the remarkable architectural ensembles in Poussin's paintings: there rarely is much ornamentation. Circles, jeux de corniches, and large geometric forms come to mind.
Bernini's visit to Chantelou's house, and the splendid moment the host experienced when his guest commented upon the pictures in his collection, has often been studied. Chantelou says almost nothing, but when Bernini remarks that the priest in Le Mariage is not dressed as a priest, Chantelou replies: "... c'était avant l'établissement de notre religion" (p. 88).
When viewing Cérisier's paintings (including the self-portrait that Poussin had painted for Pointel and that Bernini found less "ressemblant" than Chantelou's), Poussin's Vierge à dix figures prompts Chantelou to comment before Bernini: "j'ay dit que tout me plaisait dans ce tableau, hors la tête de la Vierge." What pleases, or displeases, can generally be thought of as the language of taste: it is so personal that the thought cannot be communicated to others (p. 112). For that reason it is, in a sense, beyond aesthetic criticism, or outside it.
Again, Chantelou turns to the plaisir that he fails to experience before Claude Mellan's works, and he notes that there were "graveurs plus habiles" then he. Bernini's rejoinder in Mellan's defense prompts Chantelou to assert that Mellan's emphasis of his single line did not "imiter les ombres et les lumières et les demi-teintes" of painting (p. 244). He adds: "... que M. Poussin, aussi bien que moi, avait trouvé ses dessins faiblement gravés ...."
During a frank dialogue with Bernini, Chantelou recalls that:
"Je lui ai reparti que Michel-Ange avait à la vérité fait de grandes choses, mais que ç'a été lui qui a introduit le libertinage dans l'architecture par une ambition de faire des choses nouvelles et de n'imiter aucun de ceux qui l'ont précédé, étant auteur des cartouches, des mascarons et des ressautements des corniches, dont il s'est servi avec avantage, lui, possédant un dessin profond, ce que n'ont pas fait les autres qui l'ont voulu imiter et n'avaient pas ce même fondement de science" (p. 130).
These observations probably seemed so categorical to Bernini that he thought he had to justify what he had done himself, answering: "... à l'égard des ressautements, qu'il n'en avait fait que dans des lieux où les corps eussent paru trop longs, et qui eussent ressemblé autrement à une courtine de fortification" (p. 130).
Up to this point there is more critical thought about architecture than about painting, but the August 31 entry redresses the balance.
Nocret cannot identify the painter of a work that he bought in Portugal, and he solicits Bernini's opinion. Before the latter can reply, Chantelou launches out:
"Avant que de le faire voir au Cavalier, j'ai voulu en dire mon sentiment; et l'ayant pour cela examiné, et ayant vu qu'il n'avoit rien du dessein ni du peindre de Raphaël, qu'au contraire il tenait davantage de la manière de Michel-Ange, j'ai dit, le voyant assez bien peint, qu'il pouvait être de fra Sebastiano Del Piombo. Après cela, ayant appelé le Cavalier et luy ayant dit mon avis, le sien a été de même; mais il m'a dit à l'oreille que Michel-Ange n'aurait jamais dessiné une cuisse raccourcie, comme celle qu'il voyait là" (p. 148).
Perhaps the only comment should be about Chantelou's forwardness in identifying a picture before Bernini could speak. I lack the training to suggest whether or not this identification would have been difficult or easy, in its tentativeness; but it suggests Chantelou's self-assurance. Had Bernini not agreed with him, the Roman surely would have said so!
In Chantelou's next remark, he takes up what Bernini has observed, this time about Poussin:
"... le Cavalier m'a dit que dans un seul de mes tableaux des Sacrements, il trouvait bien plus à se satisfaire que dans tous ces grands tableaux qu'il y avait vus aux Gobelins pour ce que 'aux ouvrages du signor Poussin, il y a (a-t-il dit) du fond, de l'antique, de Raphaël, et tout ce qui se peut désirer en peinture; qu'à dire la vérité, ce sont choses à satisfaire ceux qui savent.' Je lui ai dit que c'était dommage que M. Poussin n'eût eu de grandes occasions. Il a reparti que ç'avait été lui qui lui avait procuré celle du tableau de Saint-Pierre, que des peintres signalés lui en avaient voulu du mal. J'ai dit que je ne tenais pas ce tableaux des beaux qu'il eût faits. Il a repartie qu'il était très beau: che dentro ci era il fondo e il sodo des saper. Discourant sur son talent, j'ai ajouté qu'à mon avis ce qui l'avait engagé à faire de petites figures était qu'ayant une facilité d'imagination et fécondité d'esprit très grandes, d'autre part n'ayant point de grandes occasions de galeries, de voûtes ou tableaux d'églises pour traiter en grand de grands sujets, il avait été réduit à les traiter dans les tableaux de cabinet en figures moindres que nature" (pp. 167-168).
Haunted by a single model of the consummate painter grounded on Raphael, the Carracci, and Michelangelo, Chantelou reveals here a rather crude determinism. He does not seem to grasp or to appreciate the aims of many of Poussin's major paintings, and of French, Flemish, Dutch, and Italian painters of his generation. And for those interested in social determinist interpretations, here is a fine example of a patron offering a market-driven explanation for Poussin's trajectory that, in different guises, would have a long life. As I write this, I think of Poussin writing to Chantelou: "je fais ce que je peux," which is almost a refrain in his letters.
Chantelou's last major critical remark in the Journal reveals both his strengths and his limitations. A propos of a drawing of the Holy Family, he says: "Lui marquant ensuite en quoi je trouvais ce dessin excellent, il m'a répondu avec modestie que c'était que des choses qu'il faisait me semblaient belles, qu'il avait au moins tâché d'y introduire la grandeur" (p. 217). It is tempting to suggest here that Bernini is twitting Chantelou for his nearly obsessive concern about grandeur for the King's palaces, his paintings, and so forth. On suspects that Bernini has heard this word fairly frequently (see also p. 93). This is not to say that the artist did not agree that grandeur should be stressed for the French king. But Bernini's skill as a rhetorician and his playfulness, even whimsy, did not often come out at the expense of others.
Chantelou follows up by saying:
"J'ai dit la grandeur, l'amour, la révérence et la grâce en tout, que le respect de saint Joseph paraît même aux doigts de ses mains [a good example of applying what he had learned from the Jesuits!] et qu'on ne pouvait rien voir de plus tendre et de plus noble que l'enfant."
There is nothing painterly here, only social, courtesy-book learning.
If we put ourselves in Chantelou's place, we would have to recognize that saying exactly what one thinks would not be easy. With little to prompt it, Bernini could stage a fit of irritation or even anger. Still, the compliment as criticism seems weak — which leaves us to infer that Poussin as a teacher and Chantelou as a pupil did little to articulate a more general and rich aesthetic and technical vocabulary about painting. The relative absence of critical language in Poussin's letters perplexes. An artisan-artist autodidact remains primarily oral; a royal official proves his ability to capture and to understand what an artist says during Bernini's stay in Paris. Could Chantelou have described in words Poussin's "line," or his palette? He probably would have evoked Raphael and then fallen silent.
Poussin's dialogue is with himself. The ancient mosaic at the dal Pozzo country estate inspired a painting. For someone not familiar with the mosaic, there would simply be no way to read this painting. And the artist (almost) did not give a damn! Bernini seems in no way troubled by not understanding Poussin's paintings. True, he possibly did not see some of the more obscure works; but for him that simply was not the question. Jesuit education, Robe culture, and visits to Italy notwithstanding, Poussin's patrons could only barely read his paintings; but they bought them as objects of beauty and religious inspiration.
But as Montaigne says: "nos affections s'emportent au dela de nous" (I, 3). There is an impulse to know more about others, to become more friendly with Poussin through the study of each and every one of his works. There is such joy in studying him even when one errs because his presence is so strongly felt. But this is not an apology for error!