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or register. Nicolas Poussin was a French painter who was the
founder and greatest practitioner of 17th-century French
classical painting. His work symbolizes the virtues of logic,
order, and clarity, and it has influenced the course of French
art up to the present day. Poussin was of peasant extraction,
born near Les Andelys, Normandy, in June 1594. He studied
painting in Paris and perhaps also Rouen. In 1624 he went to
Rome, where, except for an 18-month sojourn in Paris from 1640
to 1642, he lived for the rest of his life. His early work in
Rome reflects the crowded compositions and animated surfaces of
mid-16th century Mannerism. About 1630 his style began to change
as he drew away from the emerging exuberant baroque style and
devoted himself entirely to his passion for the antique,
concentrating on biblical and mythological subjects. At first
his paintings, such as the Plague at Ashdod (1630-1631, Musée du
Louvre, Paris), had the rich, glow