In The Crossing of the Red Sea, Poussin lays it all out for us.

After rejection, Nicolas Poussin crosses his own bridge; arriving and perfecting his personal style with The Crossing of the Red Sea. His depiction of the classic Biblical story of Moses parting the Red Sea shows the Israelites in the aftermath of the event: awestruck, mouths agape, and celebrating because they are finally free from the Pharoah Poussin has meticulously drawn eighty-nine figures into this painting, yet he manages to keep a somewhat graceful look to this otherwise disorganized Baroque piece.

When Poussin was young, bright-eyed, and fresh out of France, he was commissioned to paint for a church in Rome but the art snobs of 1600s Rome were unimpressed. The Crossing of the Red Sea, painted during his middle years in 1634 is a metaphorical middle finger to the man, because although he was rejected from the coveted job of church painter, he made it on his own. Poussin channeled his own Moses moment: he pushed the haters to one side and reveled in the glory at finally achieving stylistic perfection.

There is a lot going on in this painting- the many figures make for a chaotic scene (limbs flailing everywhere, people ducking for cover etc.), and this work is sometimes considered too conceptually demanding for the average museum-goer. But just because the work is deemed cerebral is not to say that Poussin preferred not to explore the emotions that a painting evokes. In fact, Poussin was a firm believer in the power of color to shape an emotional experience. He referenced the ancient Greek theory of musical modes, a theory from good ol’ Aristotle that asserts the presence of five musical styles that each evoke a different emotion. Poussin applied this theory to his paintings, and contributed to standardizing the relationship between emotions and color. His legacy lives on because unbeknownst to him, his work with color was the groundwork for forthcoming movements (abstract art anyone??).

All in all, Poussin stated at the end of his career, “I have neglected nothing.”