To a degree, this belies Poussin's emphasis on simply reflecting nature, for the hand of the artist is always evident in the way the frame is formed consciously around various symbols and icons as well as on the basis of contrasting stories as is done in "The Birth of Bachus." Caravaggio actually tends to reflect nature more directly and with less of the artist standing between the viewer and the scene. Lionello Venturi indeed finds that Caravaggio's dedication to realism was one of the reasons his contemporaries disliked many of his works: No doubt, contemporaries fought Caravaggio, or patronized him, because of his realism. But in the concept of realism then was included an idea of class. Patrons of chapels in the churches did not want to pay for pictures in which saints were represented as peasants, pilgrims were dirty, and the Madonna was a poor dead woman. They wanted to recognize themselves in the saints of Paradise and felt a challenge in the peasant apostles Caravaggio painted. And so they declared that his art was vulgar.

This same element may have influenced Poussin in his judgment, while modern critics view Caravaggio's realism in a different light.

Bibliography

Alpatov, M. "Poussin Problems." The Art Bulletin 17(1)(March 1935), 4-30.

Carrier, David. "The Flight into Egypt: Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)." The Art Bulletin 80(1998), http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001405516.

Keates, Jonathan. "Dazzling Art but Dark Artist." The Spectator (February 17, 2000), http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200002/ai_n8882024.

Panofsky, Dora. "Narcissus and Echo; Notes on Poussin's Birth of Bacchus in the Fogg Museum of Art." The Art Bulletin 31(2)(June...

For the Love of Beauty: Art, History, and the Moral Foundations of Aesthetic Judgment. Transaction Publishers, 2006.
Rowland, Ingrid D. "The Real Caravaggio." The New York Review of Books 46(15)(October 7, 1999), http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=366.

Unglaub, Jonathan. "Poussin's Reflections." The Art Bulletin 86 (2004), http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=GxHTk1522qL1Kg06hnSCN05JGDhhQ1tvM9Qv3D9Rg9qNH3TtrlT1!1226986790!-280665348?docId=5008255933.

Venturi, Lionello. Four Steps Toward Modern Art: Giorgione, Caravaggio, Manet, Cezanne. New York: Columbia University Press, 1956.

Ingrid D. Rowland, "The Real Caravaggio," the New York Review of Books 46(15)(October 7, 1999), para. 1.

Jonathan Unglaub, "Poussin's Reflections," the Art Bulletin 86 (2004), para. 2.

Ibid., para. 2.

M. Alpatov, "Poussin Problems," the Art Bulletin 17(1)(March 1935), 4.

Arthur Pontynen, for the Love of Beauty: Art, History, and the Moral Foundations of Aesthetic Judgment (Transaction Publishers, 2006), 226.

Jonathan Keates, "Dazzling Art but Dark Artist," the Spectator (February 17, 2000), para. 1.

David Carrier, "The Flight into Egypt: Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)" the Art Bulletin 80(1998), para. 3.

Dora Panofsky, "Narcissus and Echo; Notes on Poussin's Birth of Bacchus in the Fogg Museum of Art," the Art Bulletin 31(2)(June 1949), 112.

Unglaub, para. 4.

Ibid., para. 4.

Lionello Venturi, Four Steps Toward Modern Art: Giorgione, Caravaggio, Manet, Cezanne (New York: Columbia University Press, 1956), 23-24.