Arcadian Shepherds

Two Arcadian shepherds with coarse features discover a tomb inscribed with the words TEMPORALIS AETERNITAS — temporal eternity, alluding to the brevity and frailty of human life — while an assortment of objects lying on the ground at the left, statues, musical instruments, a seashell, books and armour, symbolise human accomplishments already beginning to crumble into ruin. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, the Genoese master who had borrowed the subject from Poussin a decade earlier, set the scene against a luminous sky to remind viewers that time brings oblivion even to the highest achievements of humankind. The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.