Guercino - Et in Arcadia ego

• Title: Et in Arcadia ego
• Artist: Guercino (1591-1666)
• Date: 1618
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 78 x 89 cm

The painting “Et in Arcadia ego” is the first known usage of the Latin motto, inscribed on the plinth beneath the skull. The motto translates to “Even in Arcadia, there am I” where “Arcadia” is understood to be “paradise on Earth” and “I” to signify “death”. It is meant to be a warning- death is always present and is inevitable.

The painting shows two young shepherds staring at a skull, with a mouse and a blowfly, placed onto a post with the words “Et in Arcadia ego”. Besides the novelty of the motto, this painting with the dark, ominous sky and the captivated look of the shepherd in red use the exaggeration techniques of Baroque art. The shepherd dressed in white and melancholic prefigures Romanticism.