Home > Catalogue > Venezia Arti > 29 | 2020 > Poussin and Optics: Reflections on the Lake in “a Calm”

Venezia Arti | Vol. 29 | December 2020

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Research Article

Poussin and Optics: Reflections on the Lake in “a Calm”

Janis Bell    Independent Scholar    

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abstract

Poussin’s biographers emphasised the importance of his study of optics and, particularly, of his study of Zaccolini’s treatises. Through a close examination of the reflections on the surface of the lake in Landscape with a Calm, we will show how Poussin’s mastery of catoptrics (the science of mirrors) guides the viewers’ experience and provides a key to the function of the lake as the central focus of the picture.

Published
Dec. 11, 2020
Accepted
Sept. 24, 2020
Submitted
July 3, 2020
Language
EN

Keywords: Poussin • Optics • Zaccolini • Light and shadow • Landscape • Seicento painting

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2020/01/003

Copyright: © 2020 Janis Bell. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.