Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus

Poussin stages martyrdom with classical restraint. A cool architectural backdrop steadies the scene while executioners wind a capstan to draw out Erasmus's entrails; the bishop's attendant points heavenward, aligning event and meaning. Painted 1628–1629 for a St Peter's Basilica altar, the work later entered the Vatican Pinacoteca. Measured gestures, frieze-like figures, and controlled color turn shock into sober meditation—an early manifesto of French classicism in Rome, where geometry disciplines emotion.