Paisagem ideal

By the late 1640s Poussin was living in Rome and building landscapes the way an architect builds a plan. This one, made around 1648, sets a river valley behind a screen of trees, with pale stone buildings squared off against the hills and a few small figures resting near horses. Nothing is accidental. Each tree, path and wall is placed to lead the eye back in measured steps, the world not as Poussin found it in the Roman countryside but as reason said it ought to be arranged. Some read the seated figures as the philosopher Diogenes, who threw away his last cup on seeing a boy drink from cupped hands. The painting later entered the Spanish royal collection and hangs now in the Prado.