Saint John Baptizing in the River Jordan

Saint John baptizes the multitudes in an ideal landscape framed by a tree trunk on each side; clothed in antique costumes, the orderly followers arrange themselves into a carefully balanced frieze. “My temperament compels me to look for and take pleasure in well-ordered things,” wrote Nicolas Poussin, who approached this religious work from the tradition of order, clarity and harmony associated with the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Painted in the 1630s for the Roman antiquarian and scientist Cassiano dal Pozzo — one of the painter’s key patrons, for whom Poussin also painted the series of the Seven Sacraments to which this canvas may be related. The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.