''The Seven Sacraments'' refers to two series of paintings of the

seven sacraments There are seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, which according to Catholic theology were instituted by Jesus and entrusted to the Church. Sacraments are visible rites seen as signs and efficacious channels of the grace of God to all those ...

by the French painter

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...

First series

Seven Sacraments - Ordination II (1647) Nicolas Poussin

Painted between 1637 and 1640, the first series was commissioned by

Cassiano del Pozzo Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588 – 22 October 1657) was an Italian scholar and patron of arts. The secretary of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, he was an antiquary in the classicizing circle of Rome, and a long-term friend and patron of Nicolas Poussin, w ...

in the second half of the 1630s and was sold to the

Dukes of Rutland Duke of Rutland is a title in the Peerage of England, named after Rutland, a county in the East Midlands of England. Earldoms named after Rutland have been created three times; the ninth earl of the third creation was made duke in 1703, in who ...

in 1784. One of the seven, ''Penance'', was destroyed in a fire at the Rutlands' Belvoir Castle in 1816, and ''Baptism'' was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC in 1939, where it still resides. The remaining five were still at Belvoir Castle at the time when Anthony Blunt wrote his catalogue in 1966 and then were on show at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

in London until recently. All five of these paintings in the National Gallery were taken off show in November 2010 prior to the attempted sale of ''Ordination'' on 8 December that year. ''Ordination'' was ultimately purchased by the

Kimbell Art Museum The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosts an art collection as well as traveling art exhibitions, educational programs and an extensive research library. Its initial artwork came from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell, wh ...

for US$24.3 million and was displayed for the first time there on September 14, 2011. The

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th V ...

in Cambridge in 2013 bought ''Extreme Unction'' from the Duke of Rutland, who retains ownership of the remaining three works in the series. The images listed below are the remaining six paintings of the first series: #''Baptism'
(image)
#''Ordination'
(image)
#''Confirmation'
(image)
#''Penance'
(image)
#''Eucharist'
(image)
#''Marriage'
(image)
#''Extreme Unction'
(image)

Second series

The second series was painted for

Paul Fréart de Chantelou Paul Fréart de Chantelou (25 March 1609 – 1694) was a French collector and patron of the arts. He encouraged major artists of his era, in particular Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665) and Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), and is known for his dia ...

from 1644 to 1648 and was acquired by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater in 1798. The paintings passed by descent to the Earls of Ellesmere, the last of whom became the Duke of Sutherland in 1964. All of the second series, which was commissioned by Chantelou, is currently on loan at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh as part of the

Bridgewater Loan The Orleans Collection was a very important collection of over 500 paintings formed by Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, mostly acquired between about 1700 and his death in 1723. Apart from the great royal-become-national collections of Euro ...

Blunt, Anthony Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy. Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...

(1966). ''The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: A Critical Catalogue''. London: Phaidon.

References

{{Authority control 1640 paintings 1645 paintings Paintings by Nicolas Poussin Collections of the National Gallery, London Paintings in the National Galleries of Scotland Collections of the National Gallery of Art Religious paintings