Narcissus with Two Nymphs and Echo

Narcissus with Two Nymphs and Echo from 1650 at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden depicts the Ovidian myth of fatal self-love, where the beautiful youth falls in love with his own reflection and wastes away beside the pool, while the nymph Echo, who loved him in vain, is reduced to a disembodied voice. Poussin invested this classical myth with philosophical meaning, treating Narcissus as a meditation on illusion, the nature of perception, and the dangers of solipsistic self-absorption. His mythological subjects transformed Ovid's sensuous narratives into philosophical parables, finding in the Metamorphoses a systematic account of the relationship between human desire and cosmic order. The composition arranges the figures around the reflective pool that is both setting and symbol — the water that kills Narcissus by showing him an image he mistakes for reality. The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden holds this alongside other major Poussin works as part of its outstanding collection of European Old Masters.

The composition arranges the figures around the reflective pool that is both setting and symbol. Poussin's classical handling and measured palette create a scene of philosophical contemplation.