contra mundum
“As regards ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’, the subject was first treated as a painting by Guernico, and Poussin painted two pictures on a similar theme named The Arcadian Shepherds. ТЪе second of these, the most famous, apparently provided the inspiration for Waugh’s choice of tide for the Oxford section. The inference he drew from the painting is unclear, for the ego’ of the title could be understood in different ways. In the earlier painting there is a comb and skull with the implication that ‘Even in Arcadia, there am 1—Death’. In this case the pleasure-seeking idyll of Charles and Sebastian is inevitably doomed by the shadow of death. In the second painting, however, Poussin omits the skull, and the shepherds reflect in melancholy manner on the tomb of a forebear. ‘Ihis has been interpreted by the art historian Panofsky as a shift of focus, with the words ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’ spoken by the dead ancestor to signify he has entered a paradise. In this case the suggestion would be that worldly happiness is only a temporary illusion.”
- Oxford in English Literature
The Making, and Undoing, of the English Athens
by John Dougill
- Oxford in English Literature
The Making, and Undoing, of the English Athens
by John Dougill