In Nicolas Poussin’s 1638 painting The Arcadian Shepherds, or Et in Arcadia Ego, unsettled shepherds gather around a starkly cut stone tomb, while one of them traces with his finger the inscription; “and [yet] in Arcadia, [here too] I am.” They are accompanied by an imposing female figure, stylistically based on the Juno Cesi statue currently in the Capitoline Museum. With her diadem, blue and yellow clothing, and hand on the back of the shepherd pointing at the letter “R” on the in...
