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Poussin’s Elephant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Louise Rice
Louise Rice*
Affiliation:
New York University
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Abstract

Nicolas Poussin’s “Hannibal Crossing the Alps,” long considered one of his earliest surviving works, is here recognized as a portrait of a historical elephant who visited Rome in 1630 and re-dated accordingly. The article tells the story of this remarkable animal. It traces his passage from South Asia through Portugal, Spain, England, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, and back again to France, and examines his encounters along the way with kings and courtiers, scholars, artists, and traveling showmen, giving insight into the diplomatic and economic uses of exotic animals in early modern Europe. Finally, returning to Poussin, it addresses the implications of the re-dating of the “Hannibal” for our understanding of the painter’s stylistic development and biography.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , Summer 2017 , pp. 548 - 593
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Renaissance Society of America

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