Poussin and Optics: Reflections on the Lake in “a Calm”

Abstract

Poussin’s biographers emphasised the importance of his study of optics and, particularly, of his study of Zaccolini’s treatises. Through a close examination of the reflections on the surface of the lake in Landscape with a Calm, we will show how Poussin’s mastery of catoptrics (the science of mirrors) guides the viewers’ experience and provides a key to the function of the lake as the central focus of the picture.

Keywords

• Landscape. Light and shadow. Optics. Poussin. Seicento painting. Zaccolini