During his final years in Rome, Nicolas Poussin painted four works for the Duke of Richelieu evoking the seasons. Considered the painter’s pictorial testament, this series is the culmination of a technically mastered art, a true synthesis of all the elements of the artist’s late style, while also revealing signs of age and illness in its tiny, trembling brushwork. Faithful to Venetian chromaticism, Poussin creates surprising plays of color closely tied to the meaning of each painting. The Four Seasons also represents the four phases of Redemption, the four parts of the day, the four ages of human history, and above all, four biblical episodes: Spring, the Garden of Eden; Summer, the meeting of Ruth and Boaz; Autumn, the bunch of grapes brought back from the Promised Land; and Winter, the Flood.
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