Conclusion

Abstract

Females both impose and endure human suffering more than males in Poussin’s works, indicating both vengeance and victimhood as womanly characteristics. Some of Poussin’s women are evil or destructive; others are victimized, heroic, or virtuous. He shows women as lovers, as jealous and duplicitous, as killers, but also as the gateway to redemption. He was aware of the injustices often imposed by men upon women, and urges his viewers to meditate on the unfairness of their victimhood. His purpose, as he said himself, is to encourage his viewers to think deeply about the moral implications of the subjects that he paints, no matter how harsh or noble they might be.