Dance poetics in the works of N. Poussin and C. Lorrain: comparative analysis

The article focuses on paintings and graphic works by 17th-century French artists Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665) and Claude Lorrain (1600–1682), created between the 1620s and 1660s and featuring scenes of dance, round dances, bacchanalia, or paired dance interactions. The theme of dance is examined from the perspective of iconography, artistic schemes, plastic language, and the semantic content of artistic works in their comparative aspect. The purpose of the study is to identify similarities and differences in the interpretation of the dance motif by N. Poussin and Claude Lorrain, as well as to determine the place of dance scenes in the stylistic system of 17th-century French classicism. The author’s use of formal-stylistic analysis, iconological and comparative-historical methods in combination made it possible to compare the artistic systems of the two masters within the context of a single style. A comparative semantic, compositional, and coloristic analysis of the dance scenes revealed visible differences within French classicism, but both approach-es proved to be equal and complementary. The artists’ individual quests for figurative interpretation of dance are included in the survey and represented by the results of expert questionnaires. 

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