This book reveals that many of Nicolas Poussin’s most renowned mythological and biblical paintings were intended as celebrations of the Bourbon monarchy. It now becomes clear that Poussin, long considered the greatest painter of early modern France, was also preeminent in supporting Bourbon claims and in establishing an early, multilayered iconography of absolutism in French painting. His rhetorical techniques for exalting the Bourbons correspond to the endeavours of Louis XIII and Richelieu in exploiting the arts to create a public image of dynastic continuity. Using an approach of cultural history, this book shows that Poussin’s art emerges as a fascinating and even witty mirror of seventeenth-century French culture. «This is one of the most challenging and thought-provoking books to have been published on Poussin in a long time.» (David Packwood, The Art Book) The Author: Judith E. Bernstock is associate professor in the Department of the History of Art at Cornell University. She received a Ph.D. in Art History and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from Columbia University. She has published several articles on both modern and baroque art, and is author of books on Joan Mitchell and Under the Spell of Orpheus: The Persistence of a Myth in Twentieth-Century Art.