69 NICOLAS POUSSIN Mount Parnassus, a few miles north of Delphi, is celebrated as one of the chief seats of French, 1594­1665 the sun god Apollo and the nine Muses and as an inspiring source of poetry and song. Apollo and the Muses on Mount Apollo, seated to the left of center, plays a viol, while outside the circle of Muses Parnassus surrounding him are figures of poets. The brook in the center foreground is the Pen and brown ink and brown wash Castalian Spring, likewise a source of poetical and musical inspiration. 17.6 x 24.5 cm (6 15/16 x 9 11/16 in.) Cat. I, no. 82; 83.GG.345 This is a preparatory study for Poussin's picture of the subject in the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, now generally dated about 1630­32. The painting closely follows the overall design of the drawing but differs considerably in the poses of the figures, except for that of the poet at the extreme left striding into the composition, who is much the same in both works. Raphael's well­known fresco of this theme in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican, painted in 1511, and more particularly an engraving after an early version of Raphael's design, by Marcantonio Raimondi, so strongly governed Poussin's idea that the Prado picture must be seen as his act of paying homage to this great master of the Italian High Renaissance. The drawing is remarkable for its economy of line and abstract simplification of form: the foliage of the trees is rendered by a few shorthand notations, while the geometrical forms of the figures have a starkness entirely in keeping with the severity of Poussin's mind. FRENCH SCHOOL 85