Penance 1647

Nicolas Poussin painted *Penance* using oil on canvas. It's a traditional medium for this time, but the treatment is quite striking. Poussin carefully built up the composition, thinking about the layering of figures and the spatial relationship between them. The precise brushwork shows the skill of the artist. It's all rendered with immense care. He was thinking about the material qualities of the world itself, as much as the human drama. The very act of applying paint to canvas becomes a kind of performance, mirroring the acts of service depicted in the scene. The labor put in by the artist mirrors the labor of the servant. The painting's real power lies not just in its religious subject matter, but also in Poussin's understanding of how material and making can embody profound meaning.