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.
Subject
Literature and Literary Theory,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous),History,Visual Arts and Performing Arts,Language and Linguistics,Classics
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