About this work
*Joshua's Victory over the Amorites* — also known as *The Battle between the Israelites and the Amorites* — is an oil on canvas
measuring 98 × 134 cm and dated 1624–1626. The painting throws the viewer immediately into the churning chaos of close-quarters combat: a series of heroic and dramatic figures unfolds across a mountainous landscape, bodies pressing and colliding in a frieze-like sweep across the canvas. The figure of Joshua occupies the centre of the composition, surrounded by his soldiers and by angels that symbolise the divine assistance he received in battle. Rather than dwell on carnage, one of the painting's most distinctive qualities is the way Poussin depicts the battle — instead of showing a violent and bloody scene, the artist chooses to represent Joshua's victory in a more symbolic and allegorical way. The palette carries the warm, saturated richness of his earliest Roman manner: these early works reveal the influence of Venice — which Poussin had visited en route to Rome — in their glowing colourism and loosely constructed compositions.
The painting was produced as a pendant to *Joshua's Battle against the Amalekites* during Poussin's time in Rome — the period immediately following his arrival in the city in 1624, when he was still finding his footing. During these early years, Poussin created works characterised by smaller scales, dramatic lighting effects, and vibrant colour harmonies drawn from Venetian masters like Titian and Veronese. The circumstances surrounding the picture were precarious: Poussin fell into dire financial straits after the 1625 death of his patron, the poet Giovan Battista Marino, and Cardinal Francesco Barberini's departure from the city — and was forced to sell both works.
They were acquired by Catherine II of Russia; the Amorites panel now resides in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. As a document of Poussin's formation, the painting is invaluable: it captures him at the exact moment of absorption — processing antiquity, Raphael, and the Venetians simultaneously — before the cooler rationalism of his mature classicism had taken hold.
This is a canvas for rooms that can absorb drama without demanding it — a dark-panelled study, a library with high ceilings, or a reading room where the walls are asked to do serious intellectual work. Poussin brought a new intellectual rigour to the classical impulse in art, and his sensitivity to the nuances of gesture, design, and colour permitted him to bring a very focused expression to each narrative. The viewer who responds to *Joshua's Victory* tends to be drawn to painting as argument — work in which every figure
