Nicolas Poussin

French classical painter Poussin, who settled in Rome in 1624 at the age of 30, has been championed by successive generations of French artists who considered him the exemplar that justified and sustained their own efforts. Featuring 90 color and 210 black-and-white reproductions, this tony catalogue of a major exhibition in Paris and London showcases an artist who looks modern in his use of color to mirror his subjects' underlying emotions, and in his concern for abstract harmony and formal design. Verdi, an art professor in England, discusses the strong influence of ancient Stoic philosophy on Poussin's painting, and the predominant theme of ill-fated or unrequited love in his early works (possibly linked to the artist's venereal disease). Moving beyond his early, restless experimentation, Poussin in his middle years did religious, historical or mythological scenes that gauge the progress of humanity. Then come the personal, poetic allegories of his late, pantheistic canvases. Rosenberg, director of the Louvre, chose the paintings for the exhibit. (July)