Et in Arcadia Ego

Nicolas Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego, painted in the late 1630s, shows three shepherds and a woman gathered around a classical tomb in an idealized landscape, reading the inscription that gives the painting its name: ‘Et in Arcadia ego’ — ‘Even in Arcadia, I [Death] am present.’ The mood is grave yet serene, the figures arranged with the calm balance of antique relief. The painting became one of the most debated and influential works of Western art, a meditation on mortality set in paradise.