Rinaldo and Armida 1625

Nicolas Poussin painted "Rinaldo and Armida," now at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, using oil on canvas. The composition invites the viewer into a world of classical forms and structured emotion. Note how Poussin organizes figures and landscape to convey a sense of balance and harmony. The figures of Rinaldo, Armida, and Cupid are carefully arranged to create a dynamic yet stable triangular composition. This structuring lends the painting a sense of order, reflecting Poussin’s engagement with classical ideals. The interplay of light and shadow models the figures, which enhances their three-dimensionality, and imbues the scene with a sense of drama and emotion. Poussin’s emphasis on structure and form underscores a philosophical quest for order and reason. But look more closely: the underlying tensions are in the way the cool rationality confronts the passionate and irrational elements of love. It is a visual dialectic that destabilizes fixed meanings.