Et in Arcadia ego

Two shepherds come over a rise and stop short. On a block of stone sits a skull, and cut into the stone are three Latin words, Et in Arcadia ego, roughly, I am here too, even in Arcadia. The speaker is Death, and Arcadia was the poets' perfect countryside, so the message is that even in paradise he is already present. Guercino painted this in Rome around 1620, and as far as anyone can tell it is the first time that phrase appears in a painting at all. Poussin would make it famous a few years later with calmer, more classical versions. Look closely at the skull and you find a fly and a mouse, two more small reminders that everything here is passing.