Amphithéâtre Marguerite de Navarre, Site Marcelin Berthelot
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Abstract

The Guerchin's Et in Arcadia ego can be transposed as a list of signs constituting the words of a sentence, in the tradition of Ripa's emblems: an element represents an abstract idea, and the elements are brought together in a composition by juxtaposition and addition. In contrast, Poussin's two paintings on the same theme must each be read as a whole: it is not enough to add up the meaning of each element to grasp the meaning of the whole - which makes them more difficult to read, and creates a sense of mystery and depth.

In this way, there are two types of pictorial composition: discrete and additive, on the one hand, and continuous, organic and structural, on the other. The same applies to texts: some are encoded in discrete semantic units, each of which needs to be interpreted separately. Haiku, for example, no matter how short, must each contain at least one "seasonal word" (kigo). When the work is long, there may be a multiplication of discrete semantic elements, as in the "enigma in prophecy" that closes Gargantua.

From discrete to continuous, there is a gradation. The same writer can practice both. Each verse of "El Desdichado" consists of heterogeneous enigmas. Conversely, while "Fantaisie", by the same Gérard de Nerval, is certainly composed of discrete units (the various parts of the landscape and the château), the whole makes sense organically by joining the elements. Discrete or continuous composition: these two formal modes involve two different ways of reading, by detail or by overall structure.

The three shepherds in Poussin'sfirst version of Et in Arcadia ego represent snapshots of a single movement, in a decomposition akin to Marey's chronophotographs. The discreet figures denote a continuous movement that is abruptly halted by an immense stone wall, like life halted by death. The eye is fixed on the inscription. Panofsky has twisted the Latin grammar to suit his interpretation, namely that death would speak itself (sum), not the dead (fui). However, Poussin realistically arranged the inscription and the scene so that the dead man's speech, a simple epitaph, could also pass for the speech of death.

Poussin's problem was to integrate the discrete (a sentence in verbal language) into a continuous, realistic composition. Le Guerchin had simply placed the phrase in a corner, without worrying too much about its insertion. For Poussin, on the other hand, everything must be subject to the continuity of painting. He places the enigmatic inscription as the final objective of the shepherds' movement, with a dynamic that integrates the reading into the action of the figures. This work of mending between discrete and continuous signs deserves admiration. This is perhaps the first time in the history of painting that the interpretation of a text has become the focal point of an image.