Focus on A Dance to the Music of Time (painting) and explore the abstract.
A Dance to the Music of Time is a painting by Nicolas Poussin in the Wallace Collection in London. It was painted between c. 1634 and 1636 as a commission for Giulio Rospigliosi (later Pope Clement IX), who according to Gian Pietro Bellori dictated its detailed iconography. The identity of the figures remains uncertain, with differing accounts.The painting is well known for giving its name to the A Dance to the Music of Time novel cycle, though this title is first seen in a Wallace Collection catalogue of 1913. Before that it was given titles referring to the Four Seasons. In the 1845 sale it was called La Danse des Saisons, ou l'Image de la vie humaine. The Bibliothèque nationale de France lists it with three different French titles.
Season Four Seasons Nicolas Poussin Bellori Wallace Collection iconography Pope Clement IX A Dance to the Music of Time London Gian Pietro Bellori Bibliothèque nationale de France