Et in Arcadia Ego

Three shepherds and a woman gather around a stone tomb in an Arcadian landscape. They puzzle over the Latin inscription: ET IN ARCADIA EGO — 'Even in Arcadia, I am.' Even here, death is present. Look at the left shepherd, kneeling: he is tracing his own shadow onto the tomb with his finger. Pliny the Elder wrote that this gesture was the origin of all art — a shadow on a wall, at the moment of parting. Poussin painted the birth of art at the recognition of death. Now at Musée du Louvre, Paris @museelouvre