Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support





























































« The Morning Report - 11/20/19 | Main | The Morning Rant »
November 20, 2019

Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

Poussin Arcadia.jpg


Et in Arcadia ego
Nicolas Poussin

Nicholas Poussin was one of the most influential painters of the Baroque era. While other Baroque artists were composing art with dramatic forms and lighting, vivid, radiant color, and huge action, Poussin’s art is quiet scenes of heavy classicism. “Poussinisme” would come to describe art that emphasizes form over color, with clean lines and defined pictorial regions, and compositions that appealed to the mind rather than the heart or emotions. His style would define French tastes for almost a century, until the rise of Rococo.

This work is a pastoral, artworks in idyllic landscapes that a viewer is supposed to just enjoy. The subjects are usually shepherds who while away their days playing their pan flutes or lutes, or just relax, while their animals graze in lush, green fields. Arcadia was an area in ancient Greece where Pan, the god of herds, lived, so an “Arcadia” in art is a pastoral located in ancient Greece.

In “Et in Arcadia Ego”, we see three male shepherds and one female figure. The males crowd around a large stone object that just sits on a rise in the middle of this landscape. It is engraved with the work’s title, which translates to: “I am also in Arcadia.” They think about this when a woman appears. She is not with the men because her clothes and body language are different, and the men seem to defer to her. Usually artists will use attributes to identify their figures so audiences don’t have to guess. Poussin has left her identification ambiguous. Many scholars I’ve read believe she is a goddess.

The woman is tall and statuesque. One hand is on her hip while she gently rest the other on the back of the red shepherd. No emotion shows on her face. If she is a goddess then Poussin is adhering to the Classical trait of aloofness in the gods. She seems to listen patiently to their questions about the object and its meaning.

The color palette is subdued here except in the cloaks of the three central figures. This immediately draws our attention to them. Each figure wears one of the primary colors for further emphasis. Of these three, I think the two on the right, dressed in red and yellow, are the most important. The two most vivid colors right next to each other radiate in the neutral browns and tans surrounding them. These figures are opposites: male and female, body and spirit, confusion and confidence, bent over and standing straight, ignorance and knowledge, emotion and rationality. I think Poussin might be acknowledging the two sides of human existence, but is placing importance on rationality and knowledge and saying that they are found in the Divine.

The goddess is almost mirrored by the young man in tan on the very left. Unlike his friends, he doesn’t examine the inscription closely. Instead it seems as though he realizes its implication, accepts its truth, and is saddened by it. His world isn’t what he thought it was. I think the drab color in his outfit may be a reflection of his mood. I also like that, while he is standing while his friend crouch, he is still not as straight or tall as the goddess. This emphasizes her authority and importance further.

The painting is laid out like a scene in a play. Everything is centered and right up front. The gestures are clear and the figures are very well-defined. The landscape is like a painted backdrop in a play. It establishes that Arcadia is truly paradise—beautiful, with green fields and picturesque mountains that stretch as far as the eye can see. But in the center of it all, mounted on a rise for all to see, is the object and its inscription. Its meaning cannot be ignored.


digg this
posted by CBD at 09:30 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
FenelonSpoke: "Same reason as Pence, for the money. Posted by: w ..."

Join Moron Robbie in Celebrating Groomer Awareness Month!: "It's weird how Ray Epps has been perfectly safe th ..."

sockamster, master/hamster: "sockamster, master/hamster ere I was once a mas ..."

whig: "5 Today's weirdo leftist (but I repeat myself) Dr. ..."

gp Isn't A Core Piece: ""The @FBI is afraid their informant will be killed ..."

illiniwek: ""Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald · 1h A report f ..."

REDACTED: "I used to laugh cuz my dad had a bar in his house, ..."

Mike Hammer, etc., etc.: " In Eertford, Eereford, Ampshire, urricanes ardly ..."

FenelonSpoke: "Today's weirdo leftist (but I repeat myself) Dr. ..."

eliza sockamster: "genius! ---------------- Move yer bleedin' arse, ..."

Join Moron Robbie in Celebrating Groomer Awareness Month!: "I didn't realize that black and brown were the mos ..."

Auspex: " Hey, that wasn't a PROGESSIVE Pride background o ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64