"The Golden Age...

The First and Last Days of Mankind": Claude Lorrain and Classical Pastoral,
with Special Emphasis on Themes from Ovid's "Metamorphoses"
Author(s): Claire Pace
Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 23, No. 46 (2002), pp. 127-156
Published by: IRSA s.c.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1483702
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CLAIRE PACE

"TheGolden Age... The Firstand Last Days of Mankind":

Claude Lorrainand Classical Pastoral,with Special Emphasis
on Themes from Ovid's Metamorphoses*

Dostoievsky's vision of Claude's Acis and Galatea

[Fig. 1],1 which he had seen in Dresden in 1867, represented a harmonious but ultimately unattainable Golden Age,
which will eventually vanish. This response captures part of
the essential spirit of Claude's rendering of Ovidian themes,
at least towards the end of his career. In the words of
Versilov, in The Raw Youth, Claude's painting depicts
"mankind's paradise... a wonderful dream..."2 The context
is that of the Golden Age in a more specific sense, as it was
described by classical writers and by 17th-century mythographers, and the painting provides a central focus for any
discussion of Claude's rendering of Ovidian themes, as
I hope to show.
Marcel Roethlisberger has stated in a seminal article
that "the subjects of Claude's paintings... are of fundamental importance, they are in fact the chief key to the full understanding of his landscapes."3 This assumption has underlain
a number of recent studies.4 It is in this context that I propose to explore the question of Claude's interpretation of
subjects from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in an attempt to
analyse the distinctive qualities of this interpretation,as well
as to suggest some possible visual sources for Claude's
imagery.

I Claude and the Pastoral Tradition

This paper is divided into two interconnected sections:
I wish firstto locate Claude's approach to Ovid in the pastoral
and Arcadian tradition,and especially to note his affinityto
Sannazaro's Arcadia.The second section turns specifically to
a consideration of Claude's Ovidian subjects, though still
emphasizing the pastoral connection.
Claude was contributing to an established tradition of
illustrationsto Ovid, notably by Titianand Northernartists in
Rome, but his interpretationdiffered in many respects from
that of other artists.5 I believe that his approach to Ovid is
most profitably considered in the context of his pastoral
scenes, which are rooted in the Arcadian pastoral tradition
going back in literatureto Theocritus and Vergil's eclogues,
and popularised in the Renaissance by Sannazaro.6 In the
visual arts this traditionis epitomised by the pastoral scenes
of Giorgione and Titian,or the woodcuts of Campagnola.7 It
may therefore be worth briefly summarizing some of the
importantcharacteristics of this tradition.
Characteristically, the pastoral landscape consists of
a peaceful ruralscene, envisaged as a place or refuge and
solace, composed of certain key motifs. In particular,a tree or
127

CLAIREPACE

1) Claude Lorrain, ((Coast Scene with Acis and Galatea?>, 1657 (LV 141), 100 x 135 cm, Dresden, Gemaldegalerie.

group of trees (a sacred grove), to provide shade from the

middaysun; water,generally a pool or stream, to offer refreshment; soft green grass on which a shepherd reclines and
flocks graze. Forthis is an inhabited, humanised landscapethough the inhabitantsshould be herdsmen or shepherds, not
engaged in physical toil, for only thus would they have the
leisure (otium) to indulge in music-making (playing pipes or
128

singing) and in contemplation-often about fulfilledor unhappy love.8 Thus the sense of ease and freedom is an essential
attribute. Such an innocent and simple life led in this rural
locus amoenus (delightfulplace) is often presented in explicit
or implicitcontrast to the supposedly more stressful existence
of urban civilisation-whether as a refuge, or as a morally
superior alternative to urban existence. The harmonious

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL
atmosphere may, however, be disturbed by a reminderof the
transience of happiness, and of human mortality(epitomised
by the tomb of a shepherd), introducingan elegiac, as well as
an idyllic mood. In some cases, the inclusion of shrines or
architectureprovides a reminderof the outside world,or of the
deity to whom the sacred spot is devoted.
Such a landscape finds its earliest literaryexpression in
the Greek bucolic poets, and in the Idylls of the Hellenistic
writerTheocritus, originallyfrom Syracuse in Sicily, described
as "the founder of pastoral poetry"and writing in Greek.9 In
particular,Idyll1, and Idylls3 to 7, and 11 have been characterised as bucolic, as concerned with the characteristic
themes of the genre, notably that of the lovesick shepherd or
herdsman, resting and playing music (sometimes in a contest
with another shepherd), and singing of his love. Theocritus
also introduces the more elegiac theme of the presence of
death; in his Idylls 1 and 7, a group of shepherds lament the
death of their companion Daphnis, and the natural world
shares their grief-another recurrent topos of pastoral.10
Theocrituswas in touch with early ritualsconcerning the death
of a shepherd king, and their close connections with the
theme of nature's death and renewal: the very essence of
metamorphosis.11 Segal has emphasized the "tension
between realism and artificiality..."that is characteristic of
Theocritus' poetry: as well as the evocation of the traveller
reclining "under a shady beech tree when the sun's heat
parches", there may be also a "conventional and generic"
treatment of elements of the setting. There are also reminiscences of the actual Sicilian landscape, with references to
pines, wild olive trees, the sea and the mountains.12
In Vergil's more complex bucolic poems, the Ecloguesthe prime source of the pastoral literarytraditionin Europethere is a more varied landscape; in Eclogue 1, a well-tended
farm, seen through the eyes of an exile; in Eclogue 2, also
a farm,seen by a farmslave; Eclogue 3 presents a ruralcountryside, with shrines and vineyards;the enigmatic evocation of
a new Golden Age in Eclogue 4 has a context of forest-clad
wilderness-the Golden Age, it is suggested, will bring about
a transformationof Rome into a farmwhere the earth is spontaneously productive. Such a variety reflects a modificationin
mood and treatment in the sequence of poems, concerned
with the shifting relationship between man and nature.13In
Vergil'spoems, we are conscious of the fragilityof the tranquil
ruralidyll;we are made aware of the existence of the distant
town, and also of the exigencies both of history and of contemporary existence. Death too is present, with the tomb of
Daphnis in Eclogue 5 and the elegiac group of mourners surrounding it.14In many instances, a sense of the actual Italian
landscape underlies the presentation of general motifs.

Vergil'spoems are not alone in possessing such associations;

the landscape vignettes in Tibullus'Elegies, which are reminiscent of contemporarysacral-idyllicpainting, are also resonant with a sense of history, evoking the pastoral origins of
Rome.15
The concept of Arcadia-representing an imaginary
realm, peopled by herdsmen-poets, remote from worldly
cares, devoted to song and the pursuit of love-is closely
linked to the pastoral landscape, and indeed is indissolubly
associated with Claude's paintings. However,despite the later
associations of Arcadia with an idyllic, gentle landscape,
a locus amoenus providinga timeless refuge, the landscape of
the actual Arcadia (in the Peloponnese), as described by the
historianPolybius, is harsh and rugged. Itis notable, also, that
Vergilrefers to Arcadia, or Arcades, in only four passages of
the Eclogues, and of these only two include specific landscape descriptions, never referringto the whole landscape as
"Arcadian".16The most important of such passages is the
Arcadiandescription of Eclogue 10, where the wild and mountainous landscape sympatheticallyreflects a lover's sorrowfor the landscape of Arcadiaitself is here, ironically,harsh and
unwelcoming. The shepherd Gallus is a victim of "crudelis
amor", who "willthink of wandering through forests which
are...wilder and more dangerous than those of pastoral, but
bear a close resemblance to some of the erotic landscapes of
the Metamorphoses."17 For example, Eclogue 10, line 52:
"...to suffer in the woods among/ The wild beasts' dens..."; or
line 58: "...the sounding rocks and groves..."18 Vergil's
Arcadia has, indeed, been described as a "variationupon the
classical tradition that pictured Arcadia as primitivewilderness..."19 It may perhaps be seen as representing a "hard"as
opposed to a "soft"primitivism,to use Lovejoyand Boas' terminology.20 Arcadia becomes associated with the gentler,
more fertile locus amoenus chiefly in post-classical developments, particularly with Sannazaro's more eclectic, picturesque and enormously influential eponymous romance,
which probablyprovided the immediate source of imageryfor
many sixteenth- and seventeenth-century artists.21However,
Sannazaro's use of Vergil's Eclogues is highly selective, and
his representationof Arcadiaas a vision of the pastoral world
is based almost entirely on an elaboration of the outlines
adumbrated in the tenth Eclogue. For instance, his romance
opens thus:22
There lies on the summit of Parthenius,a not inconsiderable mountain in Arcadia,a pleasant plateau... filled with
deep-green herbage... There are about a dozen... trees of
such unusual and exceeding beauty that any who saw
129

CLAIREPACE
pastoral, the consciousness of transience, and the demands
of the real world, are felt in the discovery of a dead herdsman's tomb.24
Sannazaro's imaginary country incorporates elements
from Theocritus as well as from Vergil,and also-important in
the present context-includes episodes from Ovidian mythology, withthe Renaissance poet's sense of freedom and power
to revise ancient imagery, creating "fantasticvariations upon
a single Vergiliantheme."25Yet it is also selective and partial,
keeping historyat a distance, in Naples. There is no reference
to contemporary events and there is an avoidance of "georgic" elements, such as farms, harvests, or vineyards.

2) Claude Lorrain,<<Landscapewith Goatherd,,, 1637

(LV15), 52 x 41 cm, London, National Gallery.

them would judge that Mistress Nature had taken a special delight in shaping them... in their midst, near a limpid
fountain, soars towards heaven a straight cypress... in
this so lovely a place the shepherds with their flocks will
often gather together fromthe surroundinghills, and exercise themselves there... in playing the shepherd's pipe...
(etc)
Sannazaro's description develops the passage in Vergil's
tenth Eclogue: "Here, Lycoris are cool fountains, here soft
fields, / here woodlands...", but is more expansive and more
detailed.23 Sincero, the hero of Sannazaro's romance, wanders through the idyllic pastoral landscape listening to the
shepherds' songs; then, in a transitionfrom idyllic to elegiac
130

Certain topoi in Theocritus' Idylls and Vergil's Eclogues,

taken up and popularised by Sannazaro, have had an enormous resonance and imaginative impact on both artistic and
literarypastoraltraditions.The most celebrated is the image of
the shepherd, playing or holding a musical instrument,and
recliningunder a tree in the shade; crystallised in the opening
of the first Eclogue (with Tityrus reclining beneath a beech
tree): "Tityruslying back beneath wide beechen cover,/ You
meditate the woodland muse on slender oat..."26 Sannazaro
echoes this praise of "l'ombroso Faggio" and expands such
an image in, for example, his description of "Ergastosolo" at
the foot of a tree ("a piedi di un albero"),in lovesick forgetfulness of his duties.27The image of refreshingshade, providing
shelter from the heat of the sun, recurs frequently;for instance, at the opening of Eclogue 2, Montanaand Urano retreatto
"...the shade / of the pleasant beeches, now that the sun / at
mid-day darts his burningrays..."28
Such images-of shady groves, refreshing pools, and
reclining herdsmen-find a visual equivalent in some of
Claude's pastorals, in particular,Claude's early Landscape
with Goatherd (LV15) [Fig. 2]; or the PastoralLandscape of c.
1633-35, showing a cowherd recliningunder a tree on the left,
and herds grazing.29 Other examples are the Pastoral
Landscapes of c.1639 (LV39), and 1661 (LV155).30
As well as the shade-giving tree, or grove of trees, images
of water, usually combined with shade, and implying refreshment and purity,are also of central importance:these usually
take the formof a still pool, surroundedby trees, or else a bubbling spring. For example, in Vergil'sfirst Eclogue: "Luckyold
man, among familiarrivers here, And sacred springs, you'll
angle for the cooling shade..."31 (This recalls Theocritus'reference to a "lovelystream" in the first Idyll.32)A characteristic
expansion of the reference in Sannazaro's romance runs: "But
seeing the sun mounted high and the heat grown very intense,
they turned their steps towards a cool hollow...Being arrived

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL
there shortly and finding living springs so clear that they
seemed of purest crystal, they began to refresh with the chill
water their beautifulfaces..."33 In particular,specific rivers or
springs are associated with beautiful and peaceful places,
notably the Vale of Tempe, in Thessaly, or the river Anio at
Tivoli,which also had a celebrated cascade, much praised by
travellersto Italy.Reminiscences of such springs or cascades
occur in a number of Claude's pastorals-sometimes in the
context of a recognisable, if idealised view of Tivoli;for example, Pastoral Landscape with the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli
of 1639, or Pastoral Landscape of 1641.34
In the setting of groves and shady pools, recalling classical pastoral-with the addition of buildings, both entire and
ruined (the latter an innovation of Sannazaro's Renaissance
pastoral)-certain underlying themes recur frequently, again
recallingthose of Vergilor Theocritus. In particular,the bucolic landscape is pervaded by the twin themes of love and
music. The musical contest between rivalshepherds or herdsman forms a recurrent "framing"device in both Theocritus'
Idyllsand Vergil'sEclogues, and it comprises the virtualraison
d'etre of Sannazaro's Arcadia:for instance, the contest, reminiscent of Vergil's "arcades ambos", between Logisto and
Elpino,"shepherds handsome of person...both of Arcadiaand
equally ready to sing..."35Shepherds or herdsman playing an
instrument-either the sampogna (bagpipes) or the reed
pipe-are familiar inhabitants of Claude's pastorals of the
1630s; for instance, the Pastoral Landscape of 1636 (LV11),
with piping herdsman, or the Pastoral Landscape of c. 1637
(LV25), with a standing goatherd piping and a seated shepherdess playing a pipe, accompanied by a shepherdess striking the tambourine.36Otherexamples are LV39, of 1639, with
a seated figure playing the sampogna, and LV42, with seated
shepherd playing the flute to a listening shepherdess.37
Music is also present as an accompaniment to the rural
dance, one of the favouritemotifs in Claude's early pastorals;
as many as eight or nine paintings show the subject of the
dance, repeated in three etchings, and several drawings;from
the early Landscape with Peasant Dance (St Louis) of c.1630
to the Landscape with CountryDance of 1637, or LV13 (1637),
made for Pope UrbanVIII,a lover,and author,of bucolic poetry [Fig. 3].38 It was of this last work that Blunt wrote that it
"mightbe an illustrationto the end of Georgic II",while Kitson
comments that the subject of pairs of dancers competing for
a trophy,might have been suggested by a traditionalruralfestivity.39This might, indeed, be a reflectionof such festivities as
the "festivo de' Pastori",in honour of ruraldeities, described
in Sannazaro's romance.40

Another recurrenttheme is that of the journey, often at

evening, either of travellers making their way through a landscape, of shepherds journeying,or of herdsmen drivingcattle
along a path; in the Arcadia, such passages occur, for example, in Prosa 2, describing shepherds drivingtheirflocks, or in
Prosa 5, with a journey through woods.41 Parallels may be
found in Claude's work; for instance, Landscape with Shepherds of 1630-35, with herdsman drivingcattle diagonally into
the picture or Pastoral Landscape (LV18), where there is
a similar sense of movement, of herdsman ushering herds
through the landscape.42 LV67, of 1642, shows a horseman
crossing a bridge as he journeys towards Tivoli, and herdsman drivingcattle to drinkat the ford in the foreground.43
While Theocritus presents an unchanging scene, with an
unending noontide, Vergil, on the other hand, shows a consciousness of the powerful associations of certain times of
day, especially dawn and dusk-the most evocative and poetic moments.44Three of the Eclogues close with the coming of
evening, prompting Panofsky's evocative term, "vespertinal"
as expressing the characteristic mood of the genre.45 In the
first Eclogue the fall of night interruptshuman song (lines 8283); evening is also evoked in Eclogues 2, 6 and 9. Sannazaro
characteristicallyexpands such evocations, for example his
Prosa V: "Atthe going down of the sun now all the west was
scattered

over with a thousand

kinds of clouds..."46

The

effects of moonlight are particularlyassociated by Sannazaro

with a sacred place, with an aura of divinity;e.g.: "Aplace truly
sacred and worthy of being always inhabited-thither when
the shining moon withfullface shall appear to mortalsover the
entire earth I shall lead you..."47
The idea of mutabilityis also implicitlyconveyed by the
changing seasons evoked by Vergil:in the first Eclogue, that
of autumn; in the third and seventh, that of spring; while the
second recalls late summer, with scenes of harvesting,
ploughing and pruning.48Althoughthe world of the Eclogues
is an ideal world, then, it is also imbued with a sense of the
passing of time, a sense of transience; it depicts the cycle of
seasons, evoking particularlythe promise of spring, or the fullness of summer. Thus, in contrast to Theocritus' timeless
world, Vergil's ruralpoetry (especially Eclogue 4) is characterised by a sense of time and of history.
Claude's landscapes, also, are permeated by a sense of
the passing of time.49Althoughthe season of his paintings is
generally that of high summer, with its heat and lush vegetation, nevertheless the choice of morningor evening, withtheir
associations of arrival or departure, pinpoints particular
moments. (Moonlight occasionally occurs, with melancholy
131

CLAIRE
PACE

3) Claude Lorrain,<<Landscapewith Rustic Dance>>,1637, drawing (LV13), 194 x 259 mm, London, British Museum.

associations, as in the drawingof the ThreeHeliads Mourning

at the Tombof Phaeton).50The frequentlyrecurringthemes of
travellersor figures journeyingthroughthe landscape, already
noted, also convey this sense of the passage of time. And, as
we shall suggest, many of the subjects chosen also, in themselves imply transience and mutability.Indeed, it might be
suggested that the presence of ruins-whether of real or of
imaginary buildings-in many of his paintings itself implies
132

a meditation on time's relentless passage: a constant theme

among travellersto Rome.51
The ruinsdepicted in Claude's paintings may also be seen
as emblematic of Rome's former historical greatness. Vergil,
too, is particularlypreoccupied with Italian,indeed specifically Roman history. The prophetic fourth Eclogue is the locus
classicus for the idea of a golden age.52 Here the Roman and
Italian connotations, symbolised in the reference to the

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL

4) Claude Lorrain,((Panand Syrinx)),c. 1656, drawing, 260 x 409 mm, Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen.

Cumaean Sibyl, imply a sense of history that is essential to

Vergil's "Romanized conception of the golden age". The
Eclogues are linked in this respect to a passage in the eighth
book of the Aeneid, where the poet celebrates, in terms of
a "golden age", a post-primitivesociety specifically located in
Latium(Italy).The poem describes the founding of Rome on
the Palatine Hillby the shepherd-king Evanderof Arcadia.53
Claude's later paintings, often made for noble Roman
patrons, convey a Vergiliansense of the early historyof Rome,
and this particularepisode is given magnificent embodiment
by Claude in one of the "AltieriClaudes", the Landing of
Aeneas at Pallanteum; the Trojan prince meets with King
Evander,rulerof Arcadia (as recounted in Aeneid viii).Aeneas

accompanies Evanderto the Palatine, where he is shown the

shrine of Lycaean Pan; Pallanteumwas venerated by Roman
antiquariansas a primitiveshepherd community and the site
of the worship of the goddess Pales, sacred to shepherds and
herdsmen. The theme of Roman rites is also treated by
Tibullus,who describes a sacrifice to Pales, goddess of shepherds, thus again emphasizing Rome's pastoral origins.54
Propertius'fourth book of Elegies similarlyalludes to a "lost"
primitiveRome.55In Sannazaro's romance, the description of
rites in honour of the gods has an important place; as, for
instance, in the account of the festival of Pales, with its accompanying festivities.56The land depicted is thus "bothmythical
and real",in Fantazzi'swords. InClaude's painting,the figures
133

CLAIREPACE
of the shepherd and his flock in the left foreground below the
hill, emphasize the pastoral origins of the foundation of
Rome.57
Mortality,too, is present in the Eclogues; in Eclogue 5 the
shepherds mourn the death of Daphnis (recallingTheocritus'
first Idyll).The sense of a sympathetic nature, with trees and
rocks joining in the mourning, is powerful, and expanded by
Sannazaro, for example his second Egloga, or, in particular,
the passage in Prosa X, describing how "...the pine trees
round about made answer to him...and the visiting oaks, forgetful of their own wild nature, abandoned their native mountains to hearken to him..."58While Claude himself relatively
rarelydepicts death itself, nevertheless many of his paintings
carrythe weight of a sense of foreboding, of imminenttragedy,
that elegiac quality which has been defined as an essential
element in Arcadia.Above all, the sense of a close sympathy
between man and nature is implicitin Claude's work.
In classical pastoral, the ruralscene is peopled not only
by shepherds, but also by rural deities or semi-deitiesnymphs, fauns, satyrs, and especially Pan, deity of Arcadia,
whose pipes became the traditionalsymbol of the music-making Arcadian shepherd. A drawing by Claude [Fig. 4] shows
Pan pursuing the nymph Syrinx, whose transformation to
reeds created pan-pipes.59Pan plays an importantrole in the
Arcadia, where Sannazaro refers to him as "the forest deity"
("Iddiodel salvatico paese"); in Prosa X, he describes the temple, statue, and cave of Pan.60The cave, "very ancient and
roomy",is situated in a sacred grove, "beneath an overhanging cliffamong fallen rock",with an altar"shaped by the rustic
hands of shepherds".61 Pan's characteristic instrument, the
sampogna, recalls the bucolic verse of Vergil;in Sannazaro's
verses, a "large and beautiful sampogna" hangs from the
branch of a "lofty and spreading pine tree" in front of the
cave.62
A dance of the Satyrs who form the entourage of Pan is
also described in Sannazaro: "Letfauns and Sylvans leap. Let
meadows and running waters laugh...", recalling a passage
from the first book of the Metamorphoses.63 Claude's
Landscape with a Dancing Satyrof 1641, while not specifically Ovidian,seems to epitomise this passage [Fig. 5]. As Kitson
has observed, it translates his favourite theme of the rural
dance into Arcadianand Bacchic terms.64
The depiction of nymphs, fauns and satyrs-part human,
part divine creatures-may serve as a point of transition
between the "pure" pastorals, and the "mythological pastorals"(to use Freedman'sterm)which depict scenes fromthe
Metamorphoses.65The underlyingtheme of the Metamorphoses-that of transformationinto plants or flowers (most usual134

5) Claude Lorrain,<<Landscapewith Dancing Satyr,, c. 1641

(LV55), 99.5 x 133 cm, Toledo, Ohio, Museum of Art.

ly treated by Claude)-embodies the idea of integrationand

interdependence withthe naturalworld, an idea at the heart of
the pastoral dream (however ironically presented in Ovid's
poem). Images of figures who have been thus transformedare
described by Sannazaro as inscribed on the tomb of Massilia:
"Finallywhatever childrenand magnanimous kings were wept
by the olden shepherds in that first age, all were seen flowering here in metamorphosis, still keeping the names they
had..."; he cites Adonis, Hyacinthusand Narcissus.66
Sannazaro provides a specific, and significant, link
between the Metamorphoses and Arcadia,in his description of
how his shepherds discover the Temple dedicated to Pales
(goddess of shepherds), decorated with scenes showing, as
well as shepherds, nymphs and satyrs, episodes from the
Metamorphoses, in a landscape setting:67
...we saw painted above the entrance some woods and
hills, very beautifuland rich in leafy trees and a thousand
kinds of flowers. A number of herds could be seen walking among them, cropping the grass and strayingthrough
the green meadows... Some of the shepherds were milking, some shearing fleece, some playing the pipes... and
some there were... endeavouring to match their singing
with the pipers' melody. But what I was pleased to examine more attentivelywere certain naked Nymphs...

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL
Sannazaro then describes Apollo as a shepherd guarding
the herds of Admetus, which are then stolen by Mercury-one
of Claude's favourite subjects: "Andon one of the sides was
fairest Apollo, who, leaning on a wild-olivestaff, was guarding
the herds of Admetus on the bank of a river... he was unaware
of clever Mercury,who in pastoral dress... was stealing away

Procris.74Whereas sympathy between man and nature is an

essential strand in the pastoral tradition, whereby the surroundingwoods and mountains respond, in a Vergilianway, to
the emotions of the protagonists, this is subverted by Ovid's
ironicalstress on the threat to the figures at the mercy of lust
or aggression.75

his cows..."68

1IOvidian Landscapes in Relation

to the Pastoral Tradition
Landscape in Ovid's poem
Landscape has an important place in Ovid's poem: his
settings are suggestive and impressionistic, not concerned
with the realistic depiction of actual scenery. Imbuedwith religious or spiritualfeeling, and aptly described as a "paysage
mystique", the landscape of the Metamorphoses is largely
symbolic, with the recurringlandscape motifs of the pastoral
tradition:secluded groves, quiet water,shade, soft grass, and
sometimes rocks or a cavern; Segal refers to "an almost
stereotypical sylvan scenery..."69
Ovid was, indeed, in many ways indebted to Theocritus
and Vergilfor his settings; according to Segal, "Ovid'sgroves,
shaded place, clear fountains, cool streams, grassy meadows,
flowers, caves, have close affinities with Theocritus' settings".70Yet,although the landscape of the Metamorphoses is
intimatelyconnected with the pastoral tradition,it subverts it.
The characteristic effect of Ovid's landscape arises from the
way he uses idyllicsettings for the erotic or violent actions he
describes, thus invertingthe usual connotations of pastoral
landscape. For example, whereas the elements of wood and
water in the pastoral tradition imply refuge and solace, in
Ovid's poem they often become a source of danger, as in the
story of Narcissus. The impact of the tragic events narratedis
paradoxically enhanced by contrast with the apparently
serene landscape settings.
Segal has described how the traditionalelements of pastoral, the locus amoenus of a pool providingrefreshmentand
a shady grove offering shelter from the midday heat, are in
Ovid's poem the setting for scenes of violence.71According to
Grimal, Ovid's favourite landscape consists of rocks and
forests, reminiscent of the "harsher"version of Arcadia in
Eclogue X.72However, as Wilkinsonand others have noted,
many descriptions focus on water, which is the central element also in bucolic poetry.73Shade, umbra, which in Vergil
implies peace and leisure, in Ovid's work often has sinister
qualities, providing a setting for the deaths of Narcissus, or

Some mention should be made of the question of analogies between the landscape descriptions in Ovid's poem and
the painters of Augustan Rome, when the category of landscape mural decoration, and then mythological landscape
paintingof the late second and thirdstyles, was developing.76
The principal motifs of the decorative painters of Augustan
Rome-especially rocks, woods, and water-are those which
also figure in Ovid's poem, which has some affinitieswith both
scenographic and "pure"landscape painting. (The inclusion
of architecturalelements in "sacral-idyllic"painting is significant for Claude's approach, if not directly relevant to the
Ovidiansubjects). Both poet and painters may be said to have
emphasized the expressive qualities of landscape. The consensus is that Ovid may have been indebted to, or at least
aware of, contemporary painters; like their work, his poem
presents a generalised concept of landscape, rather than
a depiction of an actual scene. The motifs of woods, caves
and water are presented as conventional features united in
a symbolic whole.
Claude's interpretation of Ovid
As I have suggested, Claude too adopts many of the traditional motifs of pastoral in his rendering of Ovidianthemes.
While a general debt to classical bucolic poetry, and to
Sannazaro, is evident in the early pastorals, Ovid's poem
formed his most frequent specific literary source (in both
paintings and drawings) throughout his long career; it was
chiefly in his final years that he focussed on subjects from
Vergil'sAeneid (notablywith the paintings for Altieri).77
Claude's interest in Ovid is not in itself remarkable,since
subjects from the Metamorphoses were highly popular in the
16th and 17th centuries, especially with Venetian artists and
with Northern artists working in Italy.78By Claude's day,
indeed, the painter would probably often rely as much on
established artistic tradition as upon textual minutiae, and
a knowledge of the myth would generally have been assumed
in the viewer. However, we know that Claude (if not always
faithfulto Ovid's own text) did consult the translationof Ovid's
text by Giovanni Anguarilla,and that he considered it sufficiently importantto be noted in an inscriptionto one of his
LiberVeritatisdrawings, that to LV70.79 Indeed, Claude went
135

CLAIRE
PACE
so far as to illustratean episode found in Anguarilla'stranslation, though not in the originalOvidiantext, in his depiction of
Mercurypresenting Apollo with a lyre, in LV192.80
There was a long tradition of "Ovides moralises", with
a specifically Christianinterpretationof the Ovidianfables. As
late as the seventeenth century,when the earlierallegorical or
topological interpretations of the moralized Ovids had lost
their force, something of this traditionpersisted in a general
sense. As a scholar of Ovid has written,"Toregard a classical
fable as a valid truth,necessarily open to interpretationon different levels... is an attitudeof mind which remained with sixteenth-centurywritersand their public long afterthe moralized
Ovids themselves were forgotten..."81
Illustratededitions of Ovid's text, also, or series of prints
based on the Metamorphoses, were well known and circulated widely during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.82
To cite Moss again, "The illustrated editions of Ovid show
a variety of ways of reading mythological narrative... literal...
as visual picture, or a set of general intellectual truths in
coded form; as a moral exemplum, or... as materialfor allegorical interpretationby similitudes, or as a repertoryof literary reminiscences of associations."83Among the most influential illustrations,setting a new artisticstandard, were those
by Bernard Salomon for the Metamorphose figuree of 1557,
with images on each page above Italianverses. These served
as models for a number of later illustrations,notably the bold
and striking engravings by Tempesta (1606), Crispijn de
Passe's elegant illustrationsof 1602, and also the splendid
French edition with translation by Nicolas Renouard of
1619.84 However,the extent to which painters were indebted
to the illustrations is debatable; Svetlana Alpers has written
that "the pictorialtraditionof monumental painting was often
completely separate from the illustratedOvids... illustrations
in the printed Ovids were narrative not allegorical in
intent... 85

Claude was surely aware of the traditionof the illustrated

Ovids. For example, he draws on its conventions in certain
motifs or poses of figures, particularly for more intimate
scenes: a notable example is the compositional arrangement
in his Coast Scene with Acis and Galatea.86In particular,the
series of etchings, published in 1641, by the Alsatian artist
J.W. Baur, in which landscape plays a dominant role, often
seem to have an affinitywith Claude's compositions.87 With
the illustrations of Salomon, Tempesta, and to some extent
Crispijnde Passe, however, the chief emphasis is on the figures, while with Claude it is the combination of figures and
landscape that conveys the meaning of the compositions. In
general, then, it seems more likely that Claude drew chiefly
on the pictorial tradition of Domenichino or of Northern
136

artists in Rome, and in particular,on his own pastoral compositions reflecting the poetry of Sannazaro (as discussed
above).
Selection of subjects
Ovidiansubjects are most common in Claude's oeuvre in
the 1640s and 1650s, but may be found throughouthis career,
from the Judgement of Paris of 1633 (in fact from Ovid's
Heroides, ratherthan the Metamorphoses, but often included
in editions of the latter)to his Parnassus with MinervaVisiting
the Muses of 1680.88 In general one may trace a gradual
development in his approach from an "allusiveand evocative"
(in Kitson'sphrase) to a more carefuland specific treatmentof
the myth: Kitson's allusion is to Claude's treatement of the
subject of Mercuryand Aglauros, where the artist has set the
scene showing Mercurywith Herse and Aglauros in an open
landscape, rather than as an interiorscene. (However, it is
worth noting that both Ovid and Anguarillastate that Mercury
descended to earth when he caught sight of Herse as he flew
above Minerva'stemple, while some of the illustratedOvids
show Mercuryflying above the figures outside Minerva'stemple, and Claude may have drawnon such images.89)The subjects tend to be more unusual later in his career, and the artist
is also more concerned to establish a closer consonance
between subject and setting (followingthe patternof his work
in general). When an unfamiliarsubject occurs early in the
artist's career, one may suspect the interventionof the patron
(or at least that the artist was aware of the patron's particular
interests).90
Some Ovidian subjects recur frequently, at different
stages in Claude's oeuvre, as for instance with the favourite
subject of Mercuryand Apollo;others rarelyor only once (the
ApulianShepherd). There is a consistency in the kind of subject that Claude selects from the Metamorphoses, at any rate
from the 1640s onwards, and I hope that an analysis of this
choice-and equally of the subjects which the artist avoidsmay be illuminating.I have suggested that, although Claude
was contributingto an established traditionof illustrationsof
themes from Ovid by other artists, his interest lies in a different facet of the Metamorphoses from that of many other
painters, who often tended to dwell on the more erotic or dramatic, even sensational, aspects of the narrative.Claude, in
contrast, is not generally concerned with violent or overtly
erotic treatment (such as forms a large part of the appeal of
Titian'sversions of, for example, Danae), and he also avoids
more grandiose or epic scenes, for instance the Fall of
Phaeton or the Creation.91In accordance with the mood of
pastoral in general, his aim appears ratherto be to capture

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL

6) Claude Lorrain,(<Landscapewith the Flaying of Marsyas>>,

1645-1647 (LV95), 120.5 x 158 cm. By kind permission of
the Earlof Leicester and the Trustees of the HolkhamEstate
(Photo: Photographic Survey, CourtauldInstituteof Art).

a moment of transient serenity, which may shortly be disturbed, and to prompt meditation on the event, of which the
fatal consequences are yet to be revealed (though a knowledge of them may be assumed in the spectator). This mood is
one inherent in "elegiac" pastoral. Following Panofsky, we
may suggest that the poignant discrepancy between the
bucolic setting and the tragic event may be seen as one
aspect of the Arcadianethos.
Significantly, then, Claude refrains from depicting the
actual moment of transformation, and-with one or two
notable exceptions-tends also to avoid the more brutal
transformations, to beasts or to stones. In general, Claude
favours what has been termed a "principle of exclusion",
turningto more intimate, pastoral episodes.92 One of the rare
exceptions to this rule is the Flaying of Marsyas, of which
there are two versions, LV45 and LV95 [Fig. 6]. Inthese, it is
the pastoral context which dominates: the satyr Marsyas has
dared to challenge Apollo to a musical contest, in the tradition of bucolic verse, recalling the contest of Menalcas and
Damoetas in Vergil's Eclogue 3.93 (We have seen that the
theme of music in an idyllic setting forms part of the pastoral
ideal.) This is a scene rarelydepicted in a landscape setting;
it is likelythat Domenichino's version of c. 1616-18, made for

7) Crispijn de Passe, <(Landscapewith the Flaying

of Marsyas,, engraving from Metamorphoseon
Ovidianarum... (Cologne, 1602), fol. 52, 83 x 133 mm.
(Photo: Glasgow University Library).

Frascati,was a pictorialsource, while the grouping of the figures in De Passe's engraving also recalls Claude's rendering
[Fig. 7].94

Since Claude's predominant interest was in landscape,

this may at first have dictated, or at least influenced both his
choice of subject and the precise relationship of the figures
(generally small in scale) to the setting-though there is evidence, particularlyin the case of his drawings, of the care
which the artisttook with figures.95In Claude's earlierOvidian
scenes, it is chiefly the mood engendered by the elements of
the landscape that concerns him-and this mood is closely
related to the associations of the pastoral tradition.
The constant elements of Ovid's symbolic landscape are
to be found in Claude's paintings:groves, woods, rocks, clear
water. But Claude, it seems to me, is not concerned with
Ovid's peculiarly sophisticated introversionof the customary
significance of these elements. Thus Claude, even when
depicting tales of violent rape or death recounted by Ovid,
restores the serenity of pastoral, thereby challenging Ovid's
subversion, and in a sense may be said to have reintegrated
Ovid's landscape into the pastoraltradition,subverted by Ovid
himself.
137

CLAIRE
PACE

9) J. W. Baur,<Narcissus,,,1639-1640, etching, 135 x 210 mm.

(Photo: WarburgInstitute,Universityof London).
8) Claude Lorrain,<<Ceresand Arethusa,>,1635-1640,
drawing, 182 x 252 mm, London, British Museum.

Specific examples
The archetypal pastoral elements of landscape, the grove
and the pool, are present in one of Claude's earliest depictions
of an Ovidiansubject: his drawingof Ceres and Arethusaof c.
1635 [Fig. 8].96Here Claude depicts a still pool surroundedby
trees (a characteristic Ovidian setting, as well as the locus
amoenus of pastoraltradition),withthe goddess Arethusa,herself shortly to be transformedinto a spring when pursued by
the rivergod Alpheus-an example of how, in Ovid's text, the
sacred grove becomes a source of danger, while water (traditionally associated with chastity) acquires quite differentconnotations. (The precise Italianlocation may be significanthere:
Arethusa was traditionallyheld to be a spring in Sicily, and
mentioned as such in Vergil's tenth Eclogue).97 Claude
appears to have turned to translations ratherthan the original
Latin;as alreadynoted, we knowthat he made use of the translation by Anguarilla,with annotations by Horologgi.98Although
Ovid does not describe the setting in detail, the translation
evokes it vividly: "Returningone day from the chase, weary
and alone, abandoned by her companions, I saw a stream
whose banks were adorned with poppies and willows, and with
pleasant and welcome shade. The place was isolated..."9
While it is debatable to what extent Claude would have
been influenced by the commentaries, the evidence of such
138

inscriptions proves that he did on occasion follow the text

carefully.In this particularcase, the artist's interpretationmay
have been coloured by Horologgi's comments, which assert
that "chastity,fleeing lust, is known to be clear and pure, like
the clear water of a spring..." (This recalls the familiarsetting
of pool and grove in both the Eclogues and in the Arcadia).100
Horologgi's definitionof the significance of water may be
relevantalso to Claude's only known paintingof the subject of
Narcissus, the beautiful youth who fell in love with his own
reflection in a pool, and was transformed into the Narcissus
flower, while the nymph Echo, in love with Narcissus, faded
away and eventually was metamorphosed to a rock.101The
fable of Narcissus was a favourite subject for Renaissance
artists, and was interpretedby emblem writersand mythographers as symbolising destructive self-love, frequentlywith the
connotation of sterility,in contrast with the fertilityassociated
with the myth of Bacchus.102However,it is not the minutiaeof
such interpretationsthat chiefly signify here, but rather the
evocation of the spiritof the myth concerned, as embodied in
the integrationof figures and landscape.
Likelyvisual precedents for Claude's painting include the
image of Narcissus by Domenichino, in his contribution to
the decoration of the Galleria Farnese, in turn based on
emblem books and illustrated editions of the Metamorphoses-Baur's etching has some affinitywith Claude's composition [Fig. 9].103 The setting of Claude's painting of Narcis-

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL

10) Claude Lorrain,<<Landscapewith Narcissus)>,1644

(LV77), 94.5 x 118 cm, London, National Gallery.

11) Claude Lorrain,<<Cephalusand Procris Reunited>, 1645

(LV91), 102 x 132 cm, London, National Gallery.

sus [Fig. 10] offers a contrast between the enclosing grove

on the left, in which Echo and another nymph hide away, and
the luminous expanse of land stretching to the horizon on the
right. The mood is languorous, with the sense of heat and
lassitude that Ovid evokes. Anguarilla'sversion of Ovid's text
describes the "shady wood" and the "clear and crystalline
pool", offering refreshment at midday, "when the Sun has
risen to a point on the horizon equidistant from Dawn and
Sunset".104Claude has modified the light to that of morning.
Here, the kneeling figure of Narcissus is oblivious to the
magnificent expanse of nature around him-he is literally
blinded by self-love to the splendours of the naturalworld, on
which he turns his back.
In Ovid's poem, water has a characteristic ambiguity,as
both life-givingand destructive, a symbol of both chastity and
sexuality. This ambivalence is especially conspicuous in the
narrationof the myth of Narcissus, where a lucid pool is at
first the symbolic equivalent of the youth's virginity(Book III,
407-12), but later becomes the instrumentof his destruction;
thus the locus amoenus provides no safe-haven fromthe heat
of passion. Waterand woods are in pastoral grouped together as providing solace and refuge; they are often closely
linked in Ovid, also. Thus the nymph Echo, in love with
Narcissus, hides in the surrounding woods, near the pool in

which Narcissus will drown ("spreta latet silvis", III,393).

Such an evocation both of the heat of the sun, and of the
shady grove and clear pool offering respite from the heat, is
a familiartopos in the pastoral tradition, and Claude clearly
locates the narrativein an arcadian landscape deriving from
that tradition.
Horologgi's annotations to the Narcissus story, following
earlier interpretations, refer to the nymph Echo, pining for
Narcissus, as the "immortalityof names", little regarded by "i
Narcisi";the latter,consumed with self-love, are spoiled by the
evening-thus their "names" are buried with them.105This
emphasis on the fragilityand evanescence of the Narcissus
flower seems to me appropriate to Claude's interpetation,
evoking again the mood of "elegiac pastoral"where the locus
amoenus provides a temporary respite from the cares and
dangers of the actual world.
Narcissus as a huntsmanalso has parallels in the pastoral
tradition,where the huntsman rests brieflyfrom his exertions;
another example fromthe Metamorphoses is that of Cephalus,
whose huntingexpedition had such fatal consequences for his
beloved Procris.106Claude depicted the story of the reuniting
of Cephalus and Procris by Diana (a rare subject-that of the
death of Procris was more common, several times [Fig.
11]).107 Cephalus tests the fidelityof his wife Procris, disguis139

CLAIREPACE

, 4rframw
jarff

of Procris,, 1646, drawing

12) Claude Lorrain,<<Death
(LV100), 197 x 258 mm, London, British Museum.

ing himself as stranger; she flees and roams the countryside

as one of Diana's trainof huntresses. Eventuallyshe yields to
Cephalus' pleas for forgiveness, and brings him the presents
that Diana had given her-a hound and a spear. The spear,
ironically,becomes the means of her death, since she in turn
suspects the fidelityof Cephalus and hides in bushes to watch
him; he hears rustling and attacks her. Claude departs from
Ovid's text in showing the goddess Diana (or possibly one of
her nymphs) present at the meeting of the lovers, presenting
Cephalus with the fateful spear.108 In one version, of the
1630s, the motifof crossed dead tree-trunksin the foreground
may referto the tragic outcome.109
In his rendering of the Death of Procris, known only from
the Liber Veritatis drawing [Fig. 12], Claude exceptionally
shows the dramatic moment of discovery (though not the
actual moment of death).110Here a jagged branch, as well as
circling birds, and dramatic lighting effects, may allude to the
tragedy. Anguarilla'stranslation also conjures up a sense of
foreboding, suggesting somnolent heat and enclosing
woods:
Ne I'hora,che piu caldo il Sol percote
E che quasi suoi raggi a piombo atterra,
E fa I'ombredrizzarverso Boote,
E del piu grande incendio arde la terra... (etc.)
140

zrzm,
f

-olur

dLde Lrocrir
rar
(=o~d?ud
Weaerjri7i rir

t
rL r
auo ;erar/
.ffaLlpo_TejiyP

of Procris,, engraving from

13) Crispijn de Passe, <<Death
Metamorphoseon Ovidianarum... (Cologne, 1602), fol. 66,
83 x 133 mm. (Photo: Glasgow University Library).

The "rest"and "peace" invoked by the text are, however,

ironicallybestowed, finally,on Procris.111The basic composition may be indebted to C. de Passe's engraving [Fig. 13].
The subject of Apollo as herdsman, guardingthe herds of
Admetus, which are stolen by Mercury,presents an obviously
appropriate subject for pastoral scenes; as noted, it figured
among the scenes in the Temple of Pales described by
Sannazaro, and the Ovidiannarrativeis thus located securely
within the pastoral tradition.112It was also a favourite with
Claude, with versions of this theme rangingfrom the 1640s to
the noble and expansive compositions of the 1660s.113In LV92,
Claude's first version [Fig. 14], Apollo plays the violin (as in
Raphael's Parnassus), in contrast to the representationof the
myth by Domenichino'sstudio at Frascati,or to his own depiction in LV128, where the god is shown playinga pipe, in accordance with Ovid'stext.114Music-making,as we have observed,
plays an essential partin the pastoraltradition,(withthe lovelorn
shepherd singing or playinga musical instrument),and this fact
too is appropriateonce more for Apollo both as shepherd and
as god of music. As Kitsonhas writtenClaude "wasto make this
theme his own in the middle and later part of his career, [and
In
was to] identify[it]withthe idea of pastoral... [my italics]"115
LV135 and LV152, the figure of Mercury-seen drivingthe cattle away, like a herdsman in a pastoral-is considerablysmaller
than that of Apollo,in contrastto the equal prominencegiven to
both in LV92.116LV170, of 1666, in Kitson'swords, shows the

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL

.-.11

fr".
11
I-

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>K.

'.-... ,

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.

4
K

15) Claude Lorrain,<Landscape with Apollo and Mercury,,,

1678, drawing (LV192), 192 x 250 mm, London, British
Museum.

14) Claude Lorrain,(<Landscapewith Apollo and Mercury>>,

1645, drawing (LV92), 261 x 191 mm, London, British
Museum.

two figures "as almost a pure pastoral,with both the gods barely distinguishablefromclassical herdsmen."117In his late painting (c. 1678) of a rarelydepicted episode fromthis myth,LV192
[Fig. 15], Claude shows Apollo receivingthe gift of a lyre from
Mercury, in compensation for stolen herds; here the artist
appears to have relied on Anguarilla's account, since the
episode does not occur in Ovid'stext-another instance of his
close adherence to the translation(ifnot to the classical text).118
Claude's painting of Mercuryand Battus (LV159, Chatsworth,1663), is possibly pendantto LV152, and depicts a relat-

ed episode from the second book of the Metamorphoses [Fig.

16].119 (Battus was an old man who witnessed the theft by
Mercuryof the herds of Admetus, tended by Apollo, and who
was eventually transformedto stone in order that he should
never reveal the theft). This episode also had been described
by Sannazaro as among the scenes depicted in the temple:
"Andin that same section was the one who revealed the theft,
Battus,transformedto stone, holding his finger outstretched in
the act of pointing..."120
Althoughthe transformationto stone is
an exceptionallybrutalone, Claudecharacteristicallyavoids the
moment of metamorphosisand shows a gentle pastoralscene.
De Passe's engraving has a similarlypastoralsetting [Fig. 17].
Another episode of the same myth which Claude treated
twice is also depicted in Sannazaro's temple: that of Argus
guarding lo (in the form of a white heifer), again tricked by
Mercury.The story, from the first book of the Metamorphoses,
relates how Jupiter changed lo, daughter of the river-god
Inachus, into a white heifer, to hide her from the jealousy of
Juno. Juno, suspecting Jupiter's infidelity,insists that lo is
placed in the care of the 100-eyed Argus (usually,as here, represented as a giant). EventuallyMercurysucceeds in lulling
Argus to sleep by playingto him on a reed pipe, and then cuts
off his head. Sannazaro's version runs: "Anda little lower
141

. ...

......

CLAIREPACE

. o
v,. fy?t

IJnL? A.c

16) Claude Lorrain,<<Landscapewith Battus and Mercury,,,

1663 (LV159), Chatsworth, Devonshire Collection,
75 x 112 cm. Reproduced by permission of the Duke
of Devonshire and the Chatsworth Settlement.
(Photo: Photographic Survey, Courtauld Institute of Art).

18) Crispijn de Passe, ((Mercuryand Argus,,, ,, engraving

from Metamorphoseon Ovidianarum... (Cologne, 1602),
fol. 16, 83 x 133 mm. (Photo: Glasgow University Library).

142

. ,

CWZg,
>Aatm

.......

ca

,
. .
mo.
'13aItf
cFt'2s:34-r,M,at
wi

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life fPe

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and Battus,,,>, engraving

17) Crispijn de Passe, <<Mercury
from Metamorphoseon Ovidianarum... (Cologne, 1602),
fol. 27, 83 x 133 mm. (Photo: Glasgow University Library).

19) Claude Lorrain,(<TheHeliades Searching for their

Brother Phaeton,,, c. 1657-1658, drawing (LV143),
195 x 257 mm, London, British Museum.

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL

at the Tomb of Phaeton, c. 1645, drawing, 247 x 354 mm, Rome, Pallavicini-Rospigliosi
20) Claude Lorrain,((TheHeliades ate
Collection. (Photo: Istituto Centrale per il catalogo e la documentazione).

Mercurywas to be seen again, who, being seated on a large

rock, was sounding a shepherd's pipe with swelling cheeks,
...watching a white heiferthat stood nearby,and withevery wile
he was exerting himself to deceive the many-eyed Argus..."121
Claude depicts Argus watching over lo twice, first in
a paintingfor CamilloMassimi,of about 1645, and again in LV
98 of about the same date.122In the version for Massimi, the

painter shows lo's two sisters, mentioned in Ovid's text, who

add to her pain by failing to recognize her.123Two later works
depict different moments in the story: LV 149 shows Juno
Confiding lo to the Care of Argus, while its pendant shows
Mercury piping to the giant Argus-the latter, in particular,
recallingthe piping shepherds of pastoral. De Passe's engraving [Fig. 18] has a similarlypastoral quality.124
143

CLAIRE
PACE

21) Anonymous, (<TheHeliades at the Tomb of Phaeton,,

engraving from Les M6tamorphoses d'Ovide, Paris, 1619),
112 x 135 mm. (Photo: Edinburgh University Library).

22) Claude Lorrain,(Coast Scene with Acis and Galateao,

c. 1657, drawing (LV141), 353 x 465 mm, Windsor Castle.
(The Royal Collection 2000, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II).

The original pendant to LV86, made for Massimi, was LV

99, Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl,fromthe fourteenthbook of
the Metamorphoses.125Here Claude, almost certainly guided
by Massimi, has depicted a relativelyunusual episode, where
Apollo grants the Sibyl her wish to live for as many years as
there are grains of sand in her hand. She forgets, however,to
ask for eternal youth, and therefore, since she refuses to yield
to Apollo's advances, is condemned to an extreme old age.
The intimation of this outcome, the passing of the Sibyl's
youthful beauty, is reinforced by the ruins in the background;
this seems to me the dominantmeaning, but it may also be the
case that Massimichose the topics of these pendant works as
examples of heroic suffering.126

atmosphere of gentle melancholy is enhanced by the fact

that it is a moonlight scene (as is implied in Ovid's text).129
The artist thereby prompts our elegiac meditation on the
event, rather than involvement in the dramatic action itself
(though there is an indication of the Heliades' eventual fate
in the figure in the background). This invitationto contemplation and meditation, again, provides a link with the pastoral tradition.As we have noted, the theme of the shepherd
mourners gathered round a tomb is also one central to classical pastoral; for instance, the tomb of Daphnis in Vergil's
fifth Eclogue; in the Arcadia, shepherds gather round the
tomb of Androgeo, and mourning and elegy comprise the
theme of his Egloga 5.130

In another relatively unfamiliarOvidian subject, Claude

depicted the three Heliades searching for their dead brother
Phaeton, after he has been struck down by Jupiter for his
temerity in drivingthe chariot of the sun across the sky [Fig.
19].127 The Heliades are also shown, in a highly finished
compositional drawing of c. 1645, mourning at the tomb of
Phaeton [Fig. 20].128 It was more usual, for instance in the
illustratededitions of the Metamorphoses, to represent their
transformation into poplars [Fig. 21]. In the drawing, the

Claude's renderingof Acis and Galatea in Dresden, dated

1657, provides a particularlytelling example (as we have suggested above) of the sense of idyllicpeace and harmonyshot
through by a premonitionof imminenttragedy.131Kitson has
writtenof "a significant correspondence between picture and
text", referring to "the contrasting moods of terror and
bliss".132Ovid's text is followed closely in the renderingof the
setting, with a high "wedge-shaped" mountainjuttingout into
the sea (according to both the Odyssey and the Aeneid as well

144

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL

23) J. W. Baur,<Polyphemus, Acis and Galatea,, 1640-1641,

etching, 135 x 210 mm. (Photo: London, British Museum).

as Ovid and Theocritus, the location for the Cyclops was

Mount Etna, in Sicily). Anguarilla'stranslationdescribes how
"a mountain extends far into the sea, so that it is virtually
embraced by water."133

Water here too has an ambiguous quality, for the sea

assumes an ominous character,and Acis is eventually transformed into a river.The paintingreminds us that in Ovidan element of mystery may be contributed by the description of
caves; for the lovers Acis and Galatea hear from their "cavelike"shelter the sound of the Cyclops, as a premonitionof the
violent act that will shatter their idylliclove. The conjunctionof
caves and water in mysterious settings has a particularly
potent effect; recalling the elemental forces underlying an
apparently untroubled scene.134 The prominent rock forms,
especially in the elaborate preparatory drawing at Windsor
[Fig. 22], while possibly reminiscent of landscapes by
Polidoroda Caravaggio, are also close to those which Claude
had transcribed in some of his nature drawings and his early
pastorals, and may also (as will be discussed below in relation
to the Perseus) be modelled on forms found in antique paintings.135
The main emphasis in Claude's painting is on the idyll of
the lovers Acis and Galatea;their tragic fate is, however, hinted at, for instance by the clouds gathering on the horizonand it is significant that according to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century mythographers Polyphemus was allegorized

as representing the origin of storms.136 Here, however, the

threat is a remote one, and the giant Cyclops is relegated to
the distance, in his role as a shepherd playing his pipes and
singing of his love for Galatea. There is a marked contrast
between the flowering bushes sheltering the lovers and the
barrenrock where the Cyclops waits. It is the moment of happiness before the tragedy that is emphasized. Inthis context it
should be noted that for many commentators the age of the
Cyclops was located in the Golden Age, before the reign of
Saturn: a point which lends an extra edge to Dostoievesky's
response to Claude's painting as epitomising the qualities of
the Golden Age.137
The general tenor of Claude's interpretationof the story
may be contrasted with that of Nicolas Poussin, for instance,
in an early drawing made for Marino.138Here the giant
Polyphemus dominates, caught at the moment of greatest dramatic tension, about to hurl down a rock on Acis. Poussin's
drawing is probably based on an illustrationto the 1619 edition of the Metamorphoses (in turn derived from an engraving
by Tempesta).139In his painting of c. 1630 in Dublin,Poussin
approaches Claude's interpretationmore closely in the disposition of the figures and in general mood: Rosenberg
describes the painting as having a "romanticquality"which
gives it a "nostalgic poetry".140However, it also has an exuberant energy, with figures, includingsea-nymphs and tritons,
on a larger scale in relation to the landscape; that of
Polyphemus, in particular,dominates the work rather than
being relegated to the far distance. Poussin's later mythological painting, Landscape with Polyphemus (1649), presents
a far more complex image; as has been observed, it is unique
among depictions of Polyphemus in showing the giant alone,
not juxtaposed with the figures of Acis and Galatea.141 It
shares with Claude's interpretationits renderingof the giant in
a moment of pastoral calm, ratherthan violent action, shown
reclining on the distant hill. However,Claude's chief focus in
his painting is not so much on Polyphemus as on the figures
of Acis and Galatea in their landscape setting-formally quite
similar to some of the illustrated Ovids, particularlythat of
Baur [Fig. 23]. To reiterate,Claude's concern is with the transitory moment of idyllic happiness ("sommo diletto") of the
lovers, although his painting is suffused with a premonitionof
the tragedy that will disruptthat happiness.
The pendant to the painting of Acis and Galatea was that
of the Metamorphosis of the Apulian Shepherd, one of the
more unusual subjects chosen by Claude in the 1650s: probably at least in partthe artist's own choice, and not solely that
of the patron [Fig. 24].142(Itis possible that Poussin may have
exerted some influence on Claude's choice of increasingly
145

CLAIREPACE

24) Claude Lorrain,((Landscape with Apulian Shepherd,,,

c. 1657 (LV142), drawing, 197 x 260 mm, London, British
Museum.

esoteric subjects at this stage.) Here Ovid's text is illustrated

with "considerable precision".143The artist reinterprets his
favouritemotif of the ruraldance, found in the early pastorals,
but now with a more precise significance. The dancing figures
occur in illustratededitions of Ovid,for instance in Crispijnde
Passe's engravings for the 1602 edition [Fig. 25], and those in
Renouard's translationof 1619. A choral dance occurs too in
Ovid's text, where the shepherd frightens a group of nymphs
and as a punishment is turned into an olive tree.144
This is one of the rare examples where Claude shows the
actual moment of metamorphosis, perhaps because he is
focussing on the dance, with all its connotations, ratherthan
the fate of the shepherd. This is the impression given by one of
the preparatorydrawings, where the shepherd is still chiefly
a spectator to the dancing figures [Fig. 26].145In the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, the dance was considered as
emblematic of cosmic harmony;it is therefore of some significance that the rural dance was one of Claude's favourite
motifs, as it is his constant concern to illustratethe harmonious
relationshipbetween man and his naturalsurroundings.146
A marine subject from the Metamorphoses which preoccupied Claude throughout his career was that of the Rape of
146

25) Crispijn de Passe, <ApulianShepherd,, engraving from

Metamorphoseon Ovidianarum... (Cologne, 1602),
83 x 133 mm. (Photo: Glasgow University Library).

Europa[Fig. 27]-a favouritesubject with other artists, notably

Titian. As has been demonstrated, Titian exploits the erotic
potentialof the subject, and in general, the decorative and theatrical aspects of the story have been those chiefly
stressed.147 The myth, from the second book of the Metamorphoses, describes how Jove, disguised as a bull, carries
the maiden Europaoff to sea. Of Claude's several versions, all
are variationson the same basic composition, though differing
to some extent in complexity,and in the balance between the
various elements.148The subject is in a sense consonant with
Claude's depictions of coast scenes; the idea of embarkation,
of arrivalor departure by sea, is a familiarone in his work;
such scenes have associations of imminentdrama. (In Ovid's
text, the sea-coast, which figures prominently,generally bears
ominous associations).149However,in contrast withthe voluptuous energy of such a version as Titian's,Claude presents us
with an innocent, apparentlyfestive scene; Europa is on the
shore, surrounded by her maidens-not yet carriedout to sea,
though already mounted on the bull's back.150In one version
at least, she clutches the bull's horns, as described in Ovid's
text, and her fluttering garments are also mentioned in the
text-though of course the artist may be indebted to visual
ratherthan literaryprecedents here. For instance, an early figure drawing [Fig. 28] may derive from engravings in the illustrated editions of the Metamorphoses [Fig. 29], and perhaps

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL

27) Claude Lorrain,<cCoastScene with Rape of Europa>>,

c. 1655 (LV136), 193 x 253 mm, London, British Museum.

26) Claude Lorrain,<(ApulianShepherd>,,c. 1657, drawing,

170 x 240 mm, Haarlem,Teyler Museum.

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28) Claude Lorrain,<cEuropa,,1640-1645, figure study,

125 x 185 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.
29) Antonio Tempesta, (<TheRape of Europa,>,1606,
engraving, 97 x 115 mm. (Photo: WarburgInstitute,
University of London).

147

CLAIRE
PACE

31) Claude Lorrain,<Drawingafter Antique Fresco,,, 1661,

214 x 309 mm, London, British Museum.
30) Claude Lorrain,<Coast Scene with Perseus and
the Origin of Coral,,, 1677 (LV184), 100 x 127 cm. By kind
permission of the Earl of Leicester and the Trustees of the
Holkham Estate (Photo: Photographic Survey, Courtauld
Institute of Art).

also from the celebrated mosaic in the Barberinicollection

(drawnand later engraved by Bartoli,among other contemporary copies).151 Kitson's view is that "the scene is innocent,
carefree, and frozen in time".152However,despite the apparently insouciant depiction, I would suggest that even here
there are implicationsof the tragedy to come, in the very associations of the sea, which in Ovid's text was often seen as
a threateningelement, and which, in other paintings by Claude
himself, emphasized the loneliness of the individual.We may
recall the pensive pose of Psyche by the seashore (whether
abandoned or sleeping) in Claude's painting of 1664, as well
as his similarly poignant rendering of Ariadne alone by the
shore, forsaken by Bacchus, in LV139.153
The sea, with its sense of movement and more precisely
its implications of leave-taking and departure, is again the
dominant element in the subject of Perseus and the Originof
Coral,of 1674, which is my final example [Fig. 30].154The subject of Perseus rescuing Andromeda, chained to a rock, from
the Gorgon Medusa was relatively common, but the later
148

episode was rarely depicted.155 Claude treated the subject

only once, late in his career; it was paintedfor the learned antiquarian CardinalCamillo Massimi. It is exceptional in depicting the actual moment of transformation-indeed, the very
process of metamorphosis is the subject of the painting.156
Accordingto Ovid'saccount, Perseus, after killingthe monster
that threatened Andromeda chained to a rock, washed his
hands in the sea. He laid the head and the air of Medusa on
a bed of seaweed; the blood from the head stiffened the seaweed and turned it pink,to the wonder of the sea-nymphs who
scattered sprigs on the waves.157 (Claude characteristically
omits the figure of Andromeda, which other artists had dwelt
on for its erotic and voluptuous qualities).
The subject was almost certainlysuggested (as indicated
by an inscriptionon a drawing in New York)to Claude by the
patron, CardinalMassimi, in whose collection was a drawing
by Poussin of the same subject ("TheOriginof Coral")which
Claude almost certainlyknew.158Althoughthere appears to be
littleformalrelationshipto Poussin's drawing,there are certain
common motifs, notably that of Pegasus tied to a tree. This
episode occurs in Anguarilla's translation, though not in
Ovid's text; it is likely, therefore, that Poussin's composition
was based on that translation,which Claude also used (in this
instance, Claude may have derived such motifs directlyfrom
Poussin's work).159Apartfrom possible exegetical references,
the palm tree may have special significance, since Philostra-

"THEGOLDENAGE...":CLAUDEANDCLASSICAL
PASTORAL

32) Claude Lorrain,<<CoastalScene with Perseus and the

Origin of Coral,, 1674, drawing, 253 x 321 mm, Paris,
Mus6e du Louvre, Departement des Arts Graphiques.

tus used the palm tree as a symbol of naturalfertility,while,

according to mythographers, "nothingin the vegetable kingdom is so close to human nature as the palm tree."160The
prominence of the winged horse Pegasus, with hoof raised,
may reflect the fact that Pegasus was associated with Apollo
and the Muses; it was said that he struckthe ground at the foot
of Mount Helicon with his hoof, causing the fountain
Hippocreneto burstforth. (Itis notable that the pendant of this
painting was the View of Delphi with a Procession, LV180, of
1673-representing a sacred site associated with Apollo and
poetic inspiration.)161
AlthoughClaude made only one paintingof this subject, it
evidently had a hold on his imagination,for he produced three
drawings and three figure studies related to the theme.162The
basic composition remains unaltered;the difference between
the three drawings consists largely of a variation in balance
and distributionof lightand shade; the pale shape of Pegasus,
the crouching figures by the shore, the framing tree on the
right, and especially the great rock arch which fills the right
half of the composition. This arch form may have been
inspired by the Arco di Misena, on the coast of Fusero, near
Naples, but surely also had its source in Claude's own work.
Similar rock arches occur, for example, in some of the early

pastorals (here perhaps indebted to paintings by Breenbergh

and Tassi).163The arch form appears also in his drawings,
both those from nature and-notably-a
drawing made in
in my view is the
after
an
fresco
which
1661,
antique
[Fig. 31],
most importantsource.164This drawing is a copy of a fresco
found in c. 1627 in the grounds of the BarberiniPalace; the
fresco was identified in the seventeenth century as a "Nymphaeum",or sacral-idylliclandscape sacred to the nymphs.165
The antique fresco was much celebrated (although criticized
by Rubens, who identifiedit as a "nymphaeum",as merely "an
artist's caprice, without representing any plate in rerumnaturae").166 It was also frequently copied, for instance, for
Cassiano dal Pozzo's "Museo Cartaceo"and also, significantly, by Pietro Santi Bartoli in a volume made for Cardinal
Massimi,the patronfor whom Claude painted the Perseus167).
The rock arch was interpretedby the BarberinilibrarianLucas
Holste (Holstenius) as representing Porphyry's Neoplatonic
reading of the Homeric Cave of the Nymphs, seen as the
source of generation (since the nymphs were associated with
moisture). Such an interpretation would surely have been
known to Massimi, and is highly significant in relation to the
underlyingtheme of the painting-that of metamorphosis.168
This interpretationmay partly, at least, account for the
potent force which the rugged rock arch has in Claude's composition. In a preparatorydrawing of 1671-74, there is a second arch, behind the first;both are lightlytouched in, giving an
ethereal effect.169In the pictorialdrawing in the Louvre [Fig.
32], the arch is more emphatic, looming up mysteriously
against the light, a shape both impressive and forbidding.170
This drawing, and also the Liber Veritatisdrawing [Fig. 33],
which are on blue paper-rare with Claude-may indicate
a moonlight scene (though the Massimi inventory describes
the painting as a sunrise).171Certainlythe subtle touches of
light on the wings of Pegasus in the Metropolitandrawing, or
skimming the figures by the shore, have a nocturnalsuggestiveness. At any rate the very ambiguityenhances the effect of
mystery and magic evoked by the subject depicted. The massive rock arch itself is also strangely ambiguous: so fantastic
a form of nature, yet so closely resembling art (suggesting
perhaps an arch of triumph),bridging-both formallyand figuratively-nature and art, and with numinous suggestions
deriving from the antique Nymphaeum. (This interplay
between art and nature is one of the traditionalthemes of the
pastoral tradition,also).
Whereas in general Claude is faithful,if not to Ovid'stext, at
least to Anguarilla'sversion of it, this is not his first consideration;he may departfromthe text in certaincases, in orderto create a particularmood or emotionaleffect. Inthe hauntingpainting of Perseus and the Originof Coral,he is more thanfaithfulto
149

CLAIREPACE
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33) Claude Lorrain,(<CoastalScene with Perseus and the Origin of Coralm,1674 (LV184), drawing, 195 x 254 mm,
London, British Museum.

the text, using it as kindlingto his imagination.Touchingon, delicately suggesting, so many mysteries-of night and day, earth
and water,birthand death-it may be taken as a fittingculmination of Claude's interpretation(ratherthan mere illustration)of
the Metamorphoses-"magical transformations."
Thus we may conclude that in his earlier renderings of
Ovidiansubjects, Claude presents versions of the pastoraltra150

dition; indeed, it might be said that he succeeds in reintegrating Ovid's fables into that tradition.In later interpretationsof
themes from the Metamorphoses, Claude shows a greater
concern both to select more unusual subjects, and to follow
the Ovidian narrativemore closely and convey its meaning
precisely, by means of the conjunction of figure and landscape. He is likelyto have shared at least the general assump-

"THEGOLDEN AGE...": CLAUDEAND CLASSICALPASTORAL

tions and moral tone of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
allegorisations of those fables (if not Poussin's subtle exploration of the complex connotations of such allegorisations).
But the pastoral and elegiac mood dominate over any moral
interpretation: it is in part the note of muted regret at the tran-

sience of happiness, or the apprehension of imminent tragedy,

pervading Claude's apparently harmonious landscapes that
gives many of his later renderings of Ovidian subjects a peculiar poignancy, and which also links them with the pastoral
tradition.

* Partof this paper originatedin a lecture given at the National

Gallery,London,on the occasion of the exhibition,Claude: the Poetic
Landscape, London, 1994; the catalogue by Humphrey Wine has
been a stimulus, as have the lectures and writingsof Helen Langdon
on Claude. I am gratefulto EleanorWinsorLeach for her helpfulcomments. Any discussion of this subject must also be indebted to the
writings of Marcel Roethlisbergerand Michael Kitson.Thanks to the
Departmentof Historyof Art, Glasgow University,for financial assistance towards photographiccosts.
The excellent catalogue by J.-C. Boyer to the exhibition, Claude
Lorrainet le monde des dieux (Epinal,2001), which appeared after
this article was written, discussed many of Claude's mythological
sujects.
The LiberVeritatis(LV)was a book of drawings made by Claude after
his own compositions, from c. 1635, originallyas a record against
forgery.
1 Coast ViewwithAcis and Galatea, LV141, Dresden, Gemaldegalerie.
2 Cf. D. Magarshak,Dostoievsky, London, 1962, pp. 358 ff.: "It
was Lorrain'spicturethat left its greatest markon Dostoievsky's writings... the unsuspecting happiness of the lovers... before Polyphemus descends upon them and killsAcis became associated in his
mindwiththe Golden Age of 'the firstand last days of mankind'... [He]
used [the passage] originallyin The Devils, then transferredit to The
Raw Youthand finallycame back to it again in his philosophical tale,
The Dreamof a RidiculousMan..."
3 M. Roethlisberger, "The Subjects of Claude's Paintings",
Gazette des Beaux-Arts,LVII(1960), pp. 209-24; cf. also idem, "Les
Dessins de Claude Lorraina sujets rares",ibid., LIX(1962), pp. 15364.
4 Cf. Diane Russell, Claude Gellee (exh. cat., Washington and
Paris, 1982-83) and esp. Humphrey Wine, Claude: the Poetic
Landscape (see above).
5 See pp. 7-8. For a thoughtfuloutline of the traditionof depictions of Ovidiansubjects, cf. Nigel Llewellyn,"IllustratingOvid",in C.
Martindale,ed., Ovid Renewed, Cambridge, 1988, pp. 151-276, with
bibliography.

6 Cf.
Roethlisberger (with D. Cecchi), L'Opera completa di
Claude Lorrain,Milan,1975; hereafter MR-C,p. 5: "Si deve volgere
I'attenzionealla letteratura,in particolarealla poesia bucolica, che sin
dai tempi di Teocritici avera data una variatafiorituradi opere, per
comprendere la fonte d'ispirazione del paesaggio... solo Claude
seppe renderechiarodal punto di vista figurativoquanto era stato precedemente cantato nell'ambitodella poesia... la sua inclinazioneportandolo a ricreareil mondo delle Egloghe e Georgiche virgilianecome
quello della poesia di Ovidio..."
7 For the pastoral tradition,especially in Venetian paintingand
graphic art, cf. David Rosand, "Giorgione,Venice and the Pastoral
Ideal", in R. Cafritz, L. Gowing and D. Rosand, Places of Delight,
Washingtonand London, 1988, pp. 20-81.
8 There is an extensive body of criticismon the pastoraltradition
in literature;cf. interalia, Renato Poggioli, The Oaten Flute:Essays on
Pastoral Poetry and the Pastoral Idea, Cambridge,Mass., 1975; T.G.
Rosenmayer, The Green Cabinet: Theocritus and the European
PastoralLyric,Berkeley,1969.
9 Cf. Charles Segal, "Landscapeinto Myth:Theocritus'Bucolic
Poetry",in Poetry and Mythin Ancient Pastoral, Princeton, NJ, 1981,
pp. 210-34.
10 Cf. IdyllI, 132-36; Idyll7, 72-77; Segal, ibid., p. 127.
11 Cf. Idylls 1, 13-36; 7, 74-76; Segal, ibid., p. 222.
12 Cf.
Segal, ibid., p. 213 and n.11.
13 Cf. EleanorWinsor
Leach, Virgil'sEclogues: the Landscape of
Experience, Ithaca and London, 1974, passim; eadem, "Parthenian
Caverns: Remapping of an ImaginativeTopography",Journal of the
(1978), pp. 539-60.
Historyof Ideas, XXXIX
14
Eclogue V,esp. lines 40-44.
15 Cf.
Leach, "Sacral-ldyllic Landscape and the Poems of
Tibullus'first Book",Latomus,XXXIX
(1980), pp. 47-69.
16 Cf. Leach, "ParthenianCaverns",p. 55.
17 Cf.
Segal, ibid., p. 74.
18 "... in silvis inter
speleae ferarum...";"per rupes... lucosque
sonantis..." The translationof the Eclogues quoted here is that of Guy
Lee, for Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth,1984, p. 105, line 57.
19 Cf. Leach, "ParthenianCaverns",p. 53.

151

CLAIREPACE
20 Cf. A.
O. Lovejoy and G. S. Boas, Primitivismand Related
Ideas in Antiquity,being Vol. I of A DocumentaryHistoryof Primitivism
and Related Ideas, Baltimore,1935; reprinted1965.
21 Jacopo Sannazaro,Arcadia,Venice, 1504; references here are
to the 1586 edition in Cambridge UniversityLibrary.Translationsare
from R. Nash, Jacopo Sannazaro,Arcadianand PiscatorialEclogues,
Detroit,1966. Helen Langdongave an illuminatinglecture on Claude's
interest in Sannazaro at the NationalGallery,London,in 1994.
22
Sannazaro,Arcadia,ed. cit., p. 11-11v; Nash, ibid., p. 30-31.
23
Vergil,Eclogue X, line 42: "hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata,
Lycori...";tr. Lee, ibid., pp. 104-5.
24 Cf.
Nash, ibid., p.13; Leach, ibid., p. 546.

25 Cf. Leach, ibid.,

p. 550.
26

Eclogue I, line 1: "Tityre,tu patulae recubans sub tegmine

fagi..."(tr.Lee, ibid., p. 31)
27
Sannazaro,Arcadia,Prosa I;ed. cit., p. 12.; Nash, ibid., p. 31.
28
Sannazaro,Arcadia,Egloga 2; ed. cit., p. 20; Nash, ibid., p. 36:
"... I'ombrade gli ameni Faggi/ Pasciute pecorelle homai che'l Sole/
Su'l mezzo giorno indrizzai caldi reggi..."
29 LV15, PastoralLandscape (London,NationalGallery,c. 1636),
M. Roethlisberger,Claude Lorrain:The Painting,London 1961, (hereafter MRP),fig. 54; anotherversion is in Rome (Pallavicinicoll., 1637,
MRPfig. 55); PastoralLandscape (Washington,NationalGalleryof Art,
1633-35; MR-Cno. 30).
30 LV39 (private coll., c. 1639; MRPfig. 99); LV155, Pastoral
Landscape (Duke of Rutland,1661, MRPfig. 254, MR-C,no. 225).
31 Eclogue I, lines 51-53: "Fortunate
senex, hic interfluminanota/
Et fontis sacros frigus captabis opacum...";tr. Lee, ibid., p. 33.
32 Theocritus, Idyll 1, lines 68 and 118.

33 Sannazaro, ibid., Prosa IV;ed. cit., p. 32; Nash, ibid., p. 50.

34 Pastoral Landscape with the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli

(Melbourne,NationalGalleryof Victoria,1630-35; MR-Cno.39); LV62,

Pastoral Landscape (Duke of Wellington,1641); MRPfigs. 133, 131b.
Other examples include Wooded Landscape with Stream (p.c., 1630;
MR-Cno. 18); Landscape with Shepherds (p.c. 1636; MR-Cno. 57).
35 Sannazaro,Arcadia, Prosa IV,p. 32v; Nash, ibid., p. 51: "pastori belli... ambiduo di Arcadia&egualmente a cantare..."The source
is Vergil'sEclogue VII,1.4.

36 LV11 (two versions, c. 1636: formerly Earl of Haddington, MRP

fig. 44, and copy, MRP fig. 47; MR-C no. 63); LV25 (painting unknown,
1637, MRP fig. 71, MR-C no. 96).
37 For LV 39, see n. 30 above; MRP fig. 99; MR-C no. 102?);
Pastoral Landscape, LV 42 (New York, Metropolitan Museum, 1639),
MRP fig. 108.

38 Landscape with CountryDance (St Louis, Missouri,c. 1630;

MR-Cno. 12); Landscape with CountryDance (Florence, Uffizi,1637;
MR-C no. 65); Landscape with Country Dance, LV 13 (Earl of
Yarborough,1637; MRPfig. 50, MR-Cno. 67). Anothercountrydance
is depicted in LV53 (Duke of Bedford,WoburnAbbey, c. 1640; MRP
fig. 122).
39 Anthony Blunt, Art and Architecture in France (3rd ed.,
Harmondsworth,1970), p. 181; M. Kitson, Claude Lorrain:the Liber
Veritatis,London1978, p. 59. The passage to which Bluntrefers is presumably Georgic II,lines 527-531 (describing the 'Rustickpomp', in
Dryden'sversion).
40 Sannazaro,ibid.,ed. cit., Prosa III,p. 24v: "... tuttilieticon dilettevoligiochi, intornoa gli inghirlandati
Buoi....(etc.)";Nash, ibid.,p. 42.
41 Sannazaro, ibid., ed. cit., Prosa II,p.19: "... di passo in passo
guidando con I'usata verga i vagabondi greggi che si imboscavano..."; and Prosa V, pp. 38v: "... [i greggi] li quali di passo in passo
con le loro campane per le tacite selve... (etc.)",Nash, ibid., p. 57.

152

42
Landscape with Shepherds (France, p.c., 1630-35; MR-Cno.
32); Pastoral Landscape, LV18 (Dukeof Portland,1637; MRPfig. 58,
MR-Cno. 73).
43
Landscape with Imaginary View from Tivoli (London, p.c.,
1642; MRPfig. 138, MR-Cno. 131).
44 Cf. Leach, Vergil'sEclogues, esp. pp. 76-77.
45 Cf. ErwinPanofsky, "Poussin and the
Elegiac Tradition,"in:
Meaningin the VisualArts, Princeton1955, p. 300.
46 "Era gia per lo tramontaredel sole...": Sannazaro, ibid., pp.
37-37v; Nash, ibid., p. 55.
47 "... luogo veramente sacro... Hor quivi come la candida luna
con ritondafaccia appariraa'mortalisopra la universaterra,ti menero

io..."; ibid., p. 82v; Nash, ibid., p. 106.

48

Leach, Vergil'sEclogues, p. 78.

49 Cf. Roethlisberger,"TheDimensionof time in the Artof Claude

Artibuset Historiae,20 (1989), pp. 73-92; he concludes that

Lorrain",
"therepresentationof the passage of time can be taken as the leitmotif
of his art..."
50 M.
Roethlisberger,ClaudeLorrain:the Drawings,Berkeleyand
Los Angeles, 1968 (hereafterMRD),no. 547, pp. 221-22; cf. p. 10.
51 For travellers' responses to the ruins of Rome, cf. esp.
Margaret McGowan, "Impairedvision: the experience of Rome in
Renaissance France",Renaissance Studies, 8, no. 3,1994, pp. 244-55.
52 On the concept of a "GoldenAge", and its links with that of
Arcadia,cf. Charles Fantazzi,"GoldenAge in Arcadia",Latomus,XXIII
(1974), pp. 280-315.
53 Cf.
Vergil,Aeneid, VIII,lines 86-126. We are reminded that
Romulus himself was, according to tradition,a shepherd.
54 Cf. Leach, "Sacral-ldyllicLandscape Paintingand the Poems
of Tibullus'FirstBook",Latomus,XXXIX
(1980), pp. 47-69; idem, The
Rhetoricof Space, Princeton,1988, pp. 198-200.
55 Cf. Elaine Fantham,
"Images of the City: Propertius'New-old
Rome", in T. Habinek, ed., The Roman Cultural Revolution,
Cambridge,1997, pp. 122-35.
56 Sannazaro,Arcadia,ed. cit., p. 24 verso.
57 LV 185,
Landing of Aeneas at Pallanteum (1675, Lord
Fairhaven, Anglesey Abbey); MRP fig. 301. Cf. Leach, Vergil's
Eclogues, pp. 57-58; Kitson, Liber Veritatis, pp. 168-69; Helen
Langdon, "The Imaginative Geographies of Claude Lorrain",in C.
Chard and H. Langdon (eds.), Transports,New Haven and London,
1996, pp. 151-78.
58 "... i circostantiPinimovendo i loro sommita, gli respondeano,
e le forestiere Querce dimenticatedella propriaselvatichezza abbandonavano i nativimonti per udirlo...";ibid., p. 81; Nash, ibid., p. 104.
59 MRD,no. 801, p. 301 (MuseumBoymans-vanBeuningen,1656).
60 Sannazaro, ibid., "Argomento"
to Prosa X, p. 78v.; Nash, ibid.,
p. 103.
61 "... il reverendo & sacro bosco... trovammo sotto una pendente ripa, fra ruinatisassi una spelonca vecchissima & grande...
dentro di quella del medesimo sasso un bello altare,formatoda rustiche mani de pastori...."; ibid., p. 79v.; Nash, ibid., p. 102.
62 "Dinanzialla spelonca porgeva ombra un pino altissimo &
spatioso ad un ramo del quale una grande e bella sampogna pendeva..."; ibid., p. 79v (Prosa X).
63 "saltan Fauni & Silvani/ Ridan li prati, & le correnti linse...";
ibid., p. 29v (Ecloga III);Nash, ibid. p. 47; Ovid, Metamorphoses, I,
193-94: "..sunt, rustica numina, Nymphae/ Faunique, Satyrique, &
monticolae silvani..."
64 LV55, Landscape with a Dancing Satyr and Other Figures
(Toledo,Ohio, Museumof Art,c. 1641; MRPfig. 123, MR-C,no. 119),
Kitson,LiberVeritatis,p. 87.

"THEGOLDEN AGE...": CLAUDEAND CLASSICALPASTORAL

65

LubaFreedman,The Classical Pastoralin the VisualArts, New

York,1989.
66 "Finalmente
quanti fanciulli & magnanimi Re furono nel prio
tempo pianti,da gli antichipastori,tuttise vedevano quivitransformati
fiori...";Sannazaro, ibid., p. 86 (Prosa X); Nash, ibid., p. 111.
67 "...vedemmo in su la porta dipinte alcune Selve, & colli bellissimi, & copiosi d'alberifronduti,& di mille varietadi fiori,tra quali se
vedeano molti armenti che andevan pascendo, & spatiandosi per li
verdi prati... De pastori alcuni mungievano... altri sonavano sampogne... Ma quel che piu intentamentemi piacque di mirare,erano
certe Ninfeignude...." Sannazaro,ibid.,ed. cit.., pp. 24v-25 (Prosa ill);
Nash, ibid., pp. 43-44; cf. Langdon,"ImaginativeGeographies",p. 157.
68 Sannazaro, ibid., p. 25v: "Etin un de' lativi era Apollo biondissimo, il quale appogiato ad un bastone di selvatica Olivaguardavagli
armentidi Admeto alla riva d'un fiume... non se avedea del sagace
Mercurioche in habito pastorale... gli furavale vacche..." The subject
occurs in Metamorphoses, I, 680 ff.
69 The phrase "paysage mystique" is that of Pierre Grimal, in
"Les Metamorphoses d'Ovide et la Peinture paysagiste de I'epoque
d'Auguste",Revue des etudes romaines (1938), pp. 145-61; cf. Segal,
ibid., p. 45: "Asecluded grove, quiet water, shade, coolness, soft
grass, sometimes rocks or a cavern..."
70 Segal, ibid., p. 74; Theocritus, Idylls 1, 1-3, 7-8, 105-7; 5, 3134, 45ff.; 7, 7-0, 135 ff; 22, 37-43.
71 Cf. C. Segal, "Landscapein Ovid's
Metamorphoses",Hermes,
Einzelshriften23-25, 1969-70, pp. 1-7.
72 Cf. Grimal, ibid., also L. P. Wilkinson, Ovid Recalled, Cambridge, 1955, pp. 180-81.
73 Cf. Wilkinson, ibid., esp. pp. 180-81: "There are a dozen
extended descriptions of naturalscenery in the piece, and practically
all of them centre round water,cool, calm and shaded... The water is
not generally cascading, but gentle, calm and translucent,shaded by
trees or overarchingrocks..."
74 Cf. Segal, ibid., pp. 16-17.
75 E.g. Eclogue X, lines 13-15: "Thelaurels even, even the tamarisks wept for him/Lyingbeneath a lonely cliff; even Maenalus'/Pine
forests wept for him, and cold Lycaeus"("Iliumetiam lauri,etiam flevere myricae, /Piniferiliumetiam, sola sub rupe iacentem/ Maenalus
et gelidi fleveruntsaxa Lycaei...")
76 Cf. Wilkinson,ibid., pp. 183-84; Grimal,ibid.;also Roger Ling,
"Studiusand the beginnings of Romanlandscape painting",Journalof
RomanStudies, LXVII
(1977), pp. 1-16. Grimalconcludes: "... il est certain... qu'Ovides'est souvenu, dans les Metamorphoses, de la peinture paysagiste." He sees this influence as explainingthe generalized
characterof Ovid's landscapes, and also as contributingto a "romantic"quality("lacouleur romanesque")(ibid.,pp. 159-60, 152, 154).
77 Cf. M.
Kitson, "The Altieri Claudes and Virgil",Burlington
Magazine, vol. 102 (1960), pp. 312-18. H. Langdon, Claude Lorrain,
Oxford1989, esp. p.141; Wine, Poetic Landscape, pp. 93-103.
78 Cf. N. Llewellyn, "Illustrating Ovid" (as in note 5). The
approach of Northernartists such as Elsheimerwas generally "playful"and lighthearted,and in some of his earlierOvidianworks Claude
shows an affinitywith this approach (cf. Kitson,LiberVeritatis,p. 88,
writingof LV57).
79 The inscription is on the verso of LV70, Coast Scene with
Mercury, Herse, and Aglauros, Rome, Rospigliosi-Pallavicini coll.,
1643; MRPfig. 142). The episode occurs in Metamorphoses, II,708ff.
As MrsPattisonfirstnoticed, the inscriptionis an almost verbatimtranscription of Horologgi's notes to Anguarilla's translation (Claude
Lorrain,1884, p. 97; cf. MRP,p. 212). The inscriptionreads: "Aglauro
che dimande a Mercuriogran soma di denari per lasciarrgoder lam-

ore della sorella chiamata herse Favola cavata nell'annotationedel

secondo librod'Ovidio".The reference is to Le Metamorfosidi Ovidio
ridotteda Gio.Andreadell'Anguarillain ottava rima,1sted., 1583; refs.
here are to the 1584 edition, and the relevantpassage is on p. 65.
80 Carlo Del Bravo, "Letturedi Poussin e Claude", Artibus et
Historiae, 18 (1988), p. 151 and n. 7. As Del Bravo observes, both
Kitsonand Roethlisbergerhad attributedthis episode to the Homeric
Hymnto Apollo. Del Bravo's chief concern in his article is to emphasize Poussin's debt to Anguarilla'stranslationof Ovid, and Claude's
interest in Plutarch, in Amyot's translation (p. 162); I wish here to
emphasize Claude's reliance also on Anguarilla'sversion of Ovid.
81 Cf. Ann Moss, Poetry and Fable: Studies in Mythological
Narrativein 16th-Century
France, Cambridge,1984, p. 26.
82 For a survey of the traditionof Ovidian illustrations,cf. M.D.
Henkel, IllustrierteAusgaben von Ovids Metamorphosenim XV XVI,
und XVIIJahrhundert,Hamburg,1930.
83 Moss, Ovidin Renaissance France, London, 1982,
p. 90.
84 The illustrationof
Polyphemus in the 1619 French edition is
likelyto have been a source for one of Poussin's early Ovidiandrawings for Marino;cf. note 138 below.
85 Svetlana Alpers, "The Traditionof the IllustratedOvids and
Rubens' Sketches for the Torrede la Parada",in TheDecorationof the
Torrede la Parada, Corpus RubenianumLudwig Burchard,London
and New York,1971, p. 79. The printsillustratingAnguarilla'stranslation, with a full-page plate at the beginning of each book incorporating various episodes, are not likelyto have been directlyinfluential.
86
Seep. 18.
87 For J.W. Baur, cf. F. Hollstein, German Engravings,Etchings

and Woodcuts,II,Amsterdam,1954, p. 161f; Henkel,ibid., pp. 58-144.

Born c. 1600 in Strasbourg, Baurwas in Rome and Naples from 1631
to 1637; he died in 1642, in Vienna.
88 TheJudgement of Paris, MRPno. 201, fig. 22 (not in Liber),pp.
461-2; Parnassus with Minerva visiting the Muses, 1680, LV 195
(Jacksonville,Florida,CummerGalleryof Art;MRPfig. 315). The subject is probablytaken from Metamorphoses,XV,253 ff.
89 Cf. Kitson,LiberVeritatis,p. 95, claiming that Claude departs
from Ovid's text in showing the scene as taking place outside. See
note 79 above. Cf. Ovid,Met., II,730: "vertititer caeloque petitterrena
relicto";Anguarillatrans., ed. cit., p. 56-57, esp. stanza 276.
90 LV70, again, was made for Rospigliosi, who may well have
prescribed the subject; cf. Kitson,LiberVeritatis,p. 95
91 On Titian'sOvidianpaintings cf., interalia, Llewellyn,ibid.
92 Cf. Russell, ibid., p. 85.
93 Landscape with the Flaying of Marsyas (LV45, Moscow,
Pushkin Museum, 1639-40; MRPfig. 109; and LV95, HolkhamHall,
Earlof Leicester,1645, MRPfig. 176); LV45 was the first mythological
scene represented in the LiberVeritatis;cf. Kitson,LiberVeritatis,p.
80. The subject occurs in Metamorphoses,VI,383 ff.
94 Cf. Richard Spear, Domenichino, New Haven and London,
1982, cat. 55.i and pl. 181. The fresco is now in the NationalGallery,
London. The transformationof the old shepherd Battus is a similarly
brutal metamorphosis; he is turned to stone, having witnessed the
theft of Admetus' herds by Mercury.However, Claude avoids the
moment of metamorphosis;see p. 10.
95 Cf. Wine, ibid., esp. pp. 18, 24.
96 Landscape withCeres and Arethusa(London,BritishMuseum,
c. 1635; MRDno. 113). The story occurs in Metamorphoses,V,487-89;
cf. also lines 572-76 and 642-43.
97 Eclogue X, lines 1-4.
98 The evidence is from an inscription on the verso of LV70,
Mercuryand Aglauros;cf. note 79 above.
153

CLAIREPACE
99 Anguarilla,ed. cit., Book V, p. 175, stanzas 197ff.,esp. stanza
201: "Tornandolassa da la caccia un giorno / Sola, che le compagne
havea lasciate, / Veggio di pioppi, e salci un fiume adorno / Ambe le
sponde, e d'ombre amene e grate: / solo era il loco, e'l sol girando
intorno/ Sul carro havea la porigliosa State, / E il faticoso di cacciar
diletto/ Di doppia State ardea lo stanco petto..."
100 "... la Castita fuggendo la lascivia, e conosciuto chiara, e limpida come I'acquechiaredi un fonte...";Anguarillatrans.,ed. cit., p. 182.
101 Landscape with Narcissus, LV77 (London, NationalGallery,
1644, MRPfig. 150). The subject is fromMetamorphoses,III,353ff.,esp.
402f. This is one of only two paintingsrecordedas made for an English
patron-possibly for Sir Peter Lely;cf. MRP,p. 222. Fora study of the
iconography, cf. Dora Panofsky, "Narcissus and Echo",Art Bulletin,
XXXI(1949), pp. 112 ff. and OskarBatschmann,"PoussinsNarziss und
Echo im Louvre",ZeitschriftfurKunstgeschichte,XLII(1979), pp. 31-47.
102 Cf. Andrea
Alciati,EmblematumLiber(1612), p. 127.
103 Domenichino's fresco is
repr. in A. Neppi, Gli affreschi del
Domenichinoa Roma, 1958, pl. 2; Spear, ibid.,cat no. 10, iiiand pi. 13.
104

Metamorphoses, III,407 ff. In Anguarilla's translation, the pas-

sage runs (p. 83, stanza 162): "Dentroun' ombrosa selva, a pie d'un
monte/ Dove verdeggia a lo scoperto un prato,/ Sorge una chiara, e
cristallinafonte,/ Che confina a la linea di quel lato:/ Che, quando
equidistante a I'Orizonte/ De I'Orto,e de I'Occaso e il Sole alzato,/
L'ombrosaspalla del monte difende,/ Che'l piu cocente Sol mai non
I'offende."
105 Anguarillatrans., ed. cit., p. 99. Horologgi'scommentaryruns:
"Lafavola di Narciso e assai chiara, per se stessa, onde per venir
dei nomi,
all'Allegoriadiro che per Echo si puo intendereI'immortalita
amata molto da gli spiritialti, e nobili, ma poco prezzata da i Narcisi,
che dati alle delicie s'innamoranomiseramente di se medesimi; e al
fine poi son trasformatiin fiori, che la mattinasono vaghi, e la sera
guasti, cvsi questi venendo a morte rimangono sepolti insieme con
i loro nomi eternamente..."
106 The
story is taken fromMetamorphoses,VII,690 ff.
107 For MartinDavies'
suggestion that LV91 is related to a play
by Niccolo da Correggio, cf. NationalGallerycatalogue, The French
School, 1957 ed., p. 32. The depictions of Diana reunitingCephalus
and Procris are: LV91 (London, National Gallery, 1645; MRPfig.
171); LV163 (Earl of Plymouth, 1664, MRPfig. 264); MRPno. 233
(Rome, GalleriaDoria-Pamphilj,c. 1645-46, MRPfig. 173); and MRP
no. 243, fig. 24 (painting destroyed, formerlyBerlin, mid-1630s; not
in Liber).
108 The story occurs in Metamorphoses, VII,752 ff.; Anguarilla
trans., ed. cit., pp. 256ff., esp. p. 261. As Del Bravonoted, Anguarilla
refers to the nymphs surroundingProcrisand it may be one of these
who appears with Cephalus and Procris (ed. cit., p. 261, stanza 297):
"IIconfessato errore,il prego, e'l pianto/ Col mezzo de le Ninfe e de
gli amici/ Con I'induratamia moglie fer tanto, / Che scaccio dal suo
cor le volge ultrici".Cf. Del Bravo,ibid., n. 140.
109 MRPno. 243,
fig. 24, as in note 107.
110 The paintinghas disappeared, though a copy survives in the
NationalGallery,London. Cf LV100; 1646-47 (MRPfig. 100); Kitson,
LiberVeritatisp. 115.
111 Ed. cit., p. 267, stanza 317; cf. also stanza 318: "Mentreil piu
caldo giorno il mondo ingombra,/ E I'aere,e'l bosco non si move, e
tace, / Et io son corso a riposarmia I'ombra,/ [...] Tu, che sei il mio
riposo, e la mia pace..."(etc.) Russell (ibid.)has suggested a possible
debt to the "Ovidemoralise";e.g. she proposes that in the depiction
of Cephalus and Procris reunitedby Diana,the figure of the goddess
Diana may be identified with the Virgin Mary, giving the scene
Christiansignificance. However,she concedes that Claude's repre154

sentations in general "arenot emblematic or esoteric" and with that I

must concur.
112 The source is
Metamorphoses, II,680-707.
113
E.g. LV92 (Rome GalleriaDoria-Pamphilj,c. 1645; MRPfig.
172); LV128 (1654, destroyed; MRPfig. 217); LV135 (Earlof Leicester,
Holkham Hall, 1654-55; MRPfig. 232); LV152 (Wallace coll., 1660,
MRPfig. 250).
114 Cf.
Kitson,LiberVeritatis,p. 111.
115 Kitson,
ibid., p. 111.
116 Kitson,
ibid., p. 111.
117
p. 158. LV

Ibid.,
170, Landscape withApolloand Mercury(p.c.,
1666; MRPfig. 275).
118 LV192
(paintinglost); cf. MRPFig. 312. See note 80 above. Cf.
Anguarillatrans., ed. cit., p. 56, stanza 266: "... Lanimo verso Apollo
amico e buono/Glidie questo istrumento,e insiemeI'arte/Gliinsegno..."
119 Landscape with Mercuryand Battus, Chatsworth,1663 (MRP
no. 159); the subject is from Metamorphoses, II,676-707; Anguarilla
trans., ed. cit., p. 55, stanza 258.
120 "Et in quel medesimo spatio stava Batto palesator del furto
transformatoin sasso"; Sannazaro,ibid.,p. 25 verso; Nash, ibid.,p. 43.
121 "E poco piu basso si vedeva pur Mercurio,che sedendo ad
una gran pietracon gonfiate guancie sonava una sampogna, &con gli
occhi torti miravauna bianca vitella, che vicina gli stava, & con ogni
astutia s'ingegnava di ingannare lo occhiuto Argo..."; Sannazaro,
ibid., p. 25 verso; Nash, ibid., p. 43; cf. Metamorphoses, I, 644 ff.;
Anguarillatrans., ed. cit., p. 18.
122 Landscape with Argus guarding lo, LV86 (Earlof Leicester,
Holkham Hall, c. 1645; MRP fig. 164); LV98 (painting unknown,
c. 1646; MRPfig. 179). It is likely,as Roethlisbergersuggests, that
Massimi proposed the subject to Claude; cf. also the recent discussion of Massimi's patronage of Claude in VictoriaGardner,"Cardinal
Camillo Massimi, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain:A Study of
Neostoic Patronage in Baroque Rome" (unpublished Ph. D. thesis,
Universityof Pennsylvania, 1998), esp. pp. 184 ff. This thesis was
available to me only when the writingof this article was completed.
The relevant passage in Ovid is Metamorphoses, I, 652-4; Anguarilla
trans., ed. cit., pp. 18-19 (stanzas 164 ff.)
123 It has been suggested that Massimimay have been responsible for this close adherence to Ovid's text; cf. Gardner,ibid.
124 LV149, Landscape with Juno Confiding lo to the Care of
Argus, (Dublin,NationalGalleryof Ireland,1660); cf. MRPfig. 246 (the
subject is from Metamorphoses, I, 610 ff); LV150, Landscape with
Mercuryand Argus (p.c., 1660); cf. MRPfig. 247 (fromMetamorphoses, I, 664 ff.;Anguarillatrans., ed. cit., pp. 19-20). Claude also made
an etching of this composition in 1662; cf. L. Mannocci,The Etchings
of Claude Lorrain,New Haven and London, 1989, cat. 42.
125 Coast Scene with Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl (LV99, St
Petersburg, Hermitage,1646); from Metamorphoses, XIV,132-55; cf.
MRPfig. 180, Kitson,LiberVeritatis,pp. 114-15.
126 The ruins have been identifiedas the Trofeidi Mario,now on
the Capitol,but at one time partof the fountaincalled the Aqua Martia;
engravings showing them as still part of the fountain existed in the
seventeenth century(e.g. in Sandrart),and Claude probablyused one
of these; cf. Kitson, LiberVeritatis,pp. 114-15; MRP,p. 262. For the
suggestion that the paintings are linked by a Neostoic theme, cf.
Gardner,ibid., p. 190.
127 Landscape with Three Heliades Searching for the Dead
Phaeton, LV143; MRPpp. 340-42; painting unknown, though three
copies exist. The subject, fromMetamorphoses,II,340 ff., is identified
by an inscriptionon the verso of the LiberVeritatisdrawing (d. 1657);
cf. Anguarillatrans. ed. cit., pp. 40-41; Kitson,ibid., p. 141.

"THEGOLDEN AGE...": CLAUDEAND CLASSICALPASTORAL

128 MRDno. 547,
pp. 221-2 (Rome, Pallavicinicoil., c. 1645).
129

Metamorphoses, II, 343 ff. ("Luna quater iunctis inplerat

cornibus orbem...") For the connection of moonlight with a sacred
aura in Sannazaro, cf. n. 47 above.
130 Cf. Nash, ibid., p. 58f.

131 Coast Scene with Acis and

Galatea, LV 141, Dresden,
Gemaldegalerie,1657 (a cupid and two doves were added later);MRP
fig. 236.
132 Kitson, Liber Veritatis,p. 140. These moods he describes as
"symbolised pictoriallyby the combination of the sun low over the
horizon and the thundercloudsat the upper right..."
133 Cf. Metamorphoses,XIII,750 ff., esp. 778ff. InAnguarilla'sversion (ed. cit., p. 474, stanza 271): "Un monte lungo in mar tanto si
stende,/ Che quasi I'onda il cinge d'ogn' intorno./IIfiero innamorato
un di v'ascende,/ Per volervi passar parte del giorno./ IIgregge, se
ben cura ei non ne prende,/ Va seco, e presso al suo pasce soggiorno,/ E giunge, mentre ne la costa ei siede, / Quasi al giogo col
crin, col piede al piede..."
134 Cf.
Segal, ibid., pp. 21-22.
135 MRD802
(WindsorCastle, 1657); MRDfig. 1178; MRDno. 435
(and see below, n. 164).
136
According to mythographers, Polyphemus is an allegorised
embodiment of thunderstorms,formed of earth and air; cf. Comes,
Mythologie (tr. J. Baudoin, Paris, 1627), where the Cyclops' violent
natureis explainedas resultingfromthe mixture.Vigenere'stranslation
of Philostratusalso links Polyphemus to thunder and lightening (Les
Images..., 1614 ed., p. 443). Sheila McTighehas an illuminatingdiscussion of this interpretation,in relationto Poussin's Landscape with
Polyphemus,in Poussin's Landscape Allegories, Cambridge,1996.
137 Cf. p. 1 above. The idea that the Cyclops inhabiteda Golden
Age is found in, for example, Blaise de Vigenere, Les Images ou
Tableauxde Platte Peinture des deux Philostrates..., Paris 1615 ed.,
pp. 438 ff.
138 For Poussin's early drawing,cf. W. Friedlanderand A. F.Blunt,
The Drawings of Poussin, III, London, 1953, pi. 139, no. 162; P
Rosenberg and A. Prat,Les Dessins de Poussin, Paris, 1994, I, no. 12
(pp. 20-21).
139 Cf. J. Costello, "Poussin's Drawingsfor Marino",
Journalof the
Warburgand Courtauld Institutes, XVIII,1955, pp. 296-317; Blunt,
Nicolas Poussin, I, p. 40, n. 97.
140 P. Rosenberg, in exh. cat., Nicolas Poussin, Rome and
Dusseldorf, 1978-79, no. 19; cf. also exh. cat., Poussin: Sacraments
and Bacchanals, Edinburgh,1981, no. 7.
141 Landscape with Polyphemus (1649, St Petersburg, Hermitage
Museum). For an illuminatingexplication of the connotations of the
painting,cf. McTighe,ibid., esp. pp. 40 ff.
142 Metamorphosis of the Apulian Shepherd, LV 142 (Duke of
Sutherland,1657; MRPfig. 237 and MRDno. 806, p. 303). The subject
is from Metamorphoses,XIV,517-28.
143
Kitson,LiberVeritatis,pp. 140-41.
144 Lines 517-26: "An
Apulianshepherd of that region caused [the
nymphs]to run away in terror.But soon.....they returnedto the choral
dancing again with nimble feet..." ("Apulushas illa pastor regione
fugatas/ terruitet primosubitaformidinemovit:/ mox, ubi mens rediitet
contempsere sequentem,/ ad numerummotis pedibus dux ere choreas...". Cf.also Anguarilla
trans.,ed. cit., p. 505, Stanzas217 ff.and p. 518.
145 MRD,no. 805 (Haarlem,TeylerMuseum, c. 1657) The subject
is fromMetamorphoses,XIV,517-26.
146 On the significance of the ruraldance, cf. Russell, ibid., Introd.
p. 91 and cat., P 14, 24 and esp. D 56. The dance occurs also in
Claude's etching of Time, Apollo and the Seasons of 1662 (cf. L.

Manocci, The Etchings of Claude Lorrain,New Haven and London,

1989, pp. 267 ff., no. 43; Russell, ibid., cat. no. G. 50. This, and the
recently rediscovered painting of the same subject attributed to
Claude by Roethlisberger, were made for Rospigliosi, the learned
patronfor whom Poussin painted the work now entitled Dance to the
Music of Time (London, Wallace Collection, c. 1638-40). Cf.
Roethlisberger,"ClaudeLorrain's'Dance of the Seasons"', Pantheon
XLV(1987), pp. 103-6.
147 Cf. Llewellyn,ibid. (with bibliog.) The story occurs in Metamorphoses, II,843 ff. (Anguarillatrans., pp. 60 ff.)
148 The versions of the Coast Scene withthe Rape of Europacomprise: a paintingof 1634 (FortWorth,Texas, KimbellArt Museum;cf.
Kitsonin BurlingtonMagazine,CXV,1973, pp. 175-79);an etching also
of 1634 (Manocci, no. 14); LV111 (Utrecht,CentraalMuseum, 1647;
MRPfig. 193); LV136 (Moscow, Pushkin Museum, 1655), with later
copy, Coll. H.M.the Queen, 1667; MRPfig. 278); LV144 (p.c. 1658;
MRPfig. 239.
149 Cf. Segal, ibid.,
pp. 58-59.
150
Russell, following Kitson, suggests that Claude has here
ignored the essential point of Ovid's story. Kitson writes of the Fort
Worthpainting that "the bull will never plunge into the sea..." (cit.
Russell, ibid., cat. P 15)
151 Cf. 1619 ed. of Metamorphoses (tr. Renouard), p. 69; for
a copy of the Barberinimosaic of the Rape of Europa,cf. PS. Bartoli,
Le Pitture antiche, Append, tab.xii. As Helen Whitehouse has
observed, it is surprisingthat this mosaic is not represented among
the copies in Cassiano's paper museum; cf. Whitehouse, "Copies of
Roman Paintings and Mosaics in the Paper Museum",Cassiano dal
Pozzo's Paper Museum, I (Quaderni puteani, 2), 1992, pp. 109-10;
there is, however,a copy of a similarmosaic depicting Europaand the
Bull (RL19223, repr.ibid., fig. 3).
152 Kitson,BurlingtonMagazine (as in n. 148).
153
Landscape with Psyche at the Palace of Amor, LV 162
(London, Nat. Gallery, 1664); cf. M. Wilson, The Enchanted Castle
(London,1982) and M.Levey,BurlingtonMagazine,CXXX(Nov.1988),
suggesting the latter interpretation;also H.D. Russell, 'The Psyche
Pendants' in P.Askew (ed.), Claude Lorrain(Washington,Nat. Gallery
Symposium, 1982). Ariadne on Naxos, LV139 (ArnotArt Museum,
Elmira,NY,1656; MRP,fig. 233). The subject may be inspiredby a passage from Metamorphoses,VII(cf. Kitson,LiberVeritatis,p. 139).
154 LV 184, Coast Scene with Perseus ('The Origin of Coral')
(Holkham,Earlof Leicester,1674, MRPfig. 299); cf also MRD,no. 1067.
155 For Perseus, cf. the recent discussion of Claude's paintingin
Gardner,ibid., p. 196ff. She points out that Perseus figured largely in
the iconographyof the Farnese family.
156 GardnerinterpretsClaude's paintings for Massimi in the context of the patron's Neostoic beliefs.
157 The subject occurs in Metamorphoses, IV,740-49. Anguarilla
trans., ed. cit., p. 145, Stanzas 436 ff.
158 Cf MRDno. 1064, Russell, ibid., cat. no.69, with inscription:
"Claudio/fecit/ pensier de Illmo/ il Cardinale de Massim[o]". This
might signify a preliminarydrawing,or alternatively,and more probably,correspond to the "concetto"ofMassimi(cf. Russell, ibid., p. 286).
In my view, both Russell and Gardnerare correct to emphasize the
close collaborationbetween Claude and Massimihere.
159 Anguarillatrans., ed. cit., p. 145, stanza 436. For Poussin's
drawing, cf. Friedlander and Blunt, ibid., III, pl. 164, no. 224;
Rosenberg-Prat,ibid, I, no. 36 (pp. 68-69).
160 Vigenere, Les Images (1615 ed.), p. 75 ("Les Marescages"):
"...rienque ce soit ne se trouve en tout le genre vegetal qui approche
plus de la naturehumaine, que les Palmiers...".
155

CLAIREPACE
161
162

Cf. Russell, ibid. cat. D 69-73.

Cf. MRD no. 1064 and no. 1066 (New York, Metropolitan
Museum of Art);MRDno. 1065 (Paris, Musee du Louvre);MRDno.
1067 (ViscountCoke); MRD1068 (London,BritishMuseum);Russell,
ibid., Cats. D 69-73.
163 E.g. MR-C, no. 13 (New York, p.c., 1630); MR-C, no. 17
(Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1630). Cf. Roethlisberger,"De Bril
a Claude",Revue de I'Art,5 (1969), pp. 54-60, esp. pp. 58-59.
164 MRPp. 434 and fig.722; MRDno. 862. Russell suggests that
the rock arch may be intended to represent MountHelicon (ibid., p.
291). The drawingraises the question of the extent of Claude's knowledge of antique painting.It should be recalled that many of the most
celebrated examples of mythologicallandscape paintingfrom classical antiquity now known to us were not excavated at the time.
However, copies were made for Massimi by P.S. Bartoli of other
antique landscape paintings in the same volume as that which
includes his copy of the Barberinilandscape (see n. 167).
165 On the "BarberiniLandscape"cf. esp. H. Whitehouse and N.
Turnerin ThePaper Museumof Cassiano dal Pozzo (Quaderniputeani
4), 1993, pp. 113-14, cats. nos. 68 and 69; also Whitehouse, "Copies
of RomanPaintingsand Mosaics in the Paper Museum",Cassiano dal
Pozzo's Paper Museum, I (QuaderniPuteani2, 1992), pp, 116-17, and
fig. 7.
166 Rubens, letterto Peiresc, 16 March1632; in R. Magurn(ed.),
Lettersof P. P Rubens, Cambridge,Mass., 1955, pp. 403-4, no. 238.
167 The copy for the Dal Pozzo collection is now in the Royal
Library;cf. Whitehouse, ibid. and that made for Massimi, in Glasgow
University Library(MS Gen.1496); cf. article by present writer in
Papers of the BritishSchool at Rome, XLVII
(1979), pp.117-55. Bartoli

156

also made copies for Massimi of the manuscript "VaticanVirgil",

some of these have a dominant landscape element. Cf. D.H. Wright,
"The Study of Ancient Virgil Illustrationsfrom Raphael to Cardinal
Massimi",in Cassiano dal Pozzo's Paper Museum, I (as in note 151),
pp. 260-83.
168 Lucas Holste (or Holstenius),Vetuspicturanymphaeumreferens commentarioloexplicata, Rome, 1676; the essay was published
posthumously but writtenseveral years earlier.For Holste's interpretation of the rock arch as a Nymphaeum,cf. esp. McTighe,ibid., pp.
107 ff. As she writes, "Porphyryinterprets the cave described by
Homer as the site of the generation of souls into nature..."; the
Barberinilandscape, in Holste's interpretation,represents "the image
of Porphyry'sallegory".
169 MRDno.1064, New York,MetropolitanMuseum,Lehmancoll.;
Russell, ibid., Cat. D 69.
170 MRDno. 1065, Paris, Louvre,RF 4601; Russell, ibid., Cat. D
70. The elaborate pictorial sheet, perhaps a presentation drawing
made for Massimi, in the Metropolitan Museum (MRD no. 1066,
Russell, ibid.,Cat D 71) is similarin compositionalformat,though larger, and on cream paper with a bluish wash.
171 Russell argues that it is a moonlight scene, pointing out that
the time of day given in inventoriesdoes not always agree with what
we perceive, and that the change from white to blue paper (rarely
used by Claude) must have some significance (ibid., p. 287). The
Massimi inventory refers to it as a sunrise: "Un Paese di Monsu
Claudio con la favola di Perseo, con la levata del sole" (cf. M.
Pomponi,ed., "LaCollezione del CardinaleMassimo e I'inventariodel
1677", in CamilloMassimo: Collezionistadi Antichita-Fonti e materiali,Rome, 1996, pp. 91-157, esp. p. 100 (no. 165).