National Gallery, London
This painting is a scene from Roman Mythology. The women are nymphs, the spirits of the forest. Some of the men are satyrs and have goats' horns and hoofs. They live on Naxos, the island of Bacchus, and spend a lot of time getting drunk, dancing and making love. In this wild party, even the babies are drinking wine. One nymph is about to smash a wine jug on the head of a satyr, who is trying to kiss her friend. Poussin has used big areas of bright colour. At first, the painting looks like a jumble of bodies, but everything is very carefully arranged to give a dancing effect to the whole picture. A big triangular shape contains all the figures. Outside the triangle on the right is a statue of Pan. On the left side is a beautiful landscape.