_Nicolas Poussin_ (French: 1593-1665). _See_ 39.
The Philistines having overcome the Israelites removed the ark of the
Lord to Ashdod, and placed it in the temple of their god Dagon. "And
when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen
upon his face to the earth before the ark ..." (seen here in the temple
to the right). "But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod,
and he smote them with a loathsome plague" (1 Samuel v. 4, 6).
The picture--a ghastly subject ghastlily treated--is yet a good
instance of Poussin's learned treatment. Everywhere the intention to
express alarm is obvious, and in the foreground are figures fleeing the
infection, with nose and mouth muffled. Others are engaged removing the
dead and dying, while in the centre are the dead bodies of a mother and
child; another child approaches the mother's breast, but the father
stoops down to avert it. A similar group to this occurs in a design
by Raphael, "Il Morbetto," and was also in the celebrated picture by
Aristides which Alexander the Great, at the sack of Thebes, claimed for
himself and sent to his palace at Pella (Wornum: _Epochs of Painting_,
p. 47, ed. 1864). This picture is a replica of one, now in the Louvre,
which was painted in Rome in 1630--Poussin receiving only 60 scudi
(about 12 guineas) for it.