Soldered brass, 9 x 23 x 10, 2008.
The title is the phrase Et in Arcadia ego, in which death speaks from within the pastoral ideal. Poussin’s shepherds find a tomb in the landscape and read its inscription. The sculpture has a tomb of its own at the right: a rectangular opening framed by a robed woman, who stands beside it with her hand resting on the frame. She occupies the place of Poussin’s shepherdess, the figure who sees the tomb and takes it in. The surrounding forms carry the pastoral. There is a snail shell, a pitcher, a spout, a handle and a sunburst of rays, and the taps suggest a fountain. All of it is gathered into the one low body, and the crucifix in its center says what the title says.
The pleasures and the memento mori share a single object, so the viewer has no vantage from which to enjoy the first and avoid the second.
