ET IN ROMA EGO (SUM)

 

The Via del Corso is part of the shopping heart of Rome. Just off it is the Largo San Lorenzo, a quiet oasis named after the church on that square, San Lorenzo in Lucina, dedicated to Saint Lawrence. The church dates from 5th century but was rebuilt in the 12th century. What attracts the visitors is its ancient campanile and especially its columned portico, which offers shade and repose from the shopper’s pace and/or the heat of the sun.

Rest in Peace

The church is of little or no interest, apart from its basic religious and archaeological importance, and there is of course the almost obligatory Bernini sculpture – if there ever was a Bernini mystery, it surely must revolve around the possibility that somewhere in Rome, a church exists in which nothing made by his hand resides!
On the right hand side when entering, in the middle of the church, there is a marble memorial, which only stands out if you know what you are looking for. For several, it is the tomb of Nicolas Poussin; for others, it is a commemorative stone to Nicolas Poussin, who was definitely buried inside this church – nearby, in the second chapel on the right-hand side, next to the memorial. Though born in France, Poussin spent the best years of his life in Rome and died there, in 1665.

The memorial is a 19th century (1830) marble by his compatriot de Chateaubriand. It is “for the glory of the arts and the honour of France”. At the bottom is a Latin inscription:

PARCE PIIS LACRIMIS VIVIT PUSSINUS IN URNA
VIVERE QUI DEDERAT NESCIUS IPSE MORI
HIC TAMEN IPSE SILET SI VIS AUDIRE LOQUENTEM
MIRUM EST IN TABULIS VIVIT ET ELOQUITUR

Retiens tes larmes pieuses, dans cette tombe Poussin vit
Il avait donné la vie sans savoir lui même mourir
Il se tait ici mais, si tu veux l'entendre parler,
il est surprenant comme il vit et il parle dans ses tableaux.

Do not cry piously, in this tomb Poussin lives
He has given his life without knowing himself how to die
He is quite here but, if you want to hear him speak,
it is surprising how he lives and speaks in his paintings.

The Arcadian Shepherds

It is only normal that a painter should be remembered by a reproduction of one of his paintings. So which painting did de Chateaubriand use? The Shepherds of Arcadia. Indeed, just above the Latin inscription is a faithful rendition of the painting, its four figures, the tomb, and the Latin inscription Et in Arcadia Ego. Some observers have painstakingly overlaid the painting and the marble etching and have come up with minor differences. We do not consider these to be important, as the person had what to create the marble obviously did not have access to a computer to do a laser-precise overlay.
But a vital question is indeed why de Chateaubriand chose, from a choice of ca. 350 paintings, this painting. François René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) was appointed by Charles X as ambassador to the Holy See in 1828, but he resigned upon the accession of the Prince de Polignac as premier (November 1829). It is during this timeframe that he commissioned the memorial. The work was carried out by several artists: Louis Vaudoyer for the architecture; Léon Vaudoyer, Paul Lemoyne for the bust and Louis Desprez for the bas relief of The Arcadian Shepherds. Did Desprez choose the depiction, some of his colleagues, or de Chateaubriand himself?

Let us dwell some more on Chateaubriand. The young Victor Hugo, a man not new to the mystery of Rennes-le-Château, is said to have exclaimed, "I want to be Chateaubriand or nothing!" But rather than for his type of culinary preparation of a tenderloin steak, he should be remembered as the first of a series of French men of letters (Alphonse de Lamartine, Victor Hugo, André Malraux, but also Maurice Barrès) who tried to mix political and literary careers. It is an intriguing list of people!

On death in Rome

In the Latin inscription, there is a clear reference to the theme of death; after all, this is a memorial stone to the dead Poussin. It states how Poussin lives in his paintings and he himself somehow is therefore still alive. The choice of The Arcadian Shepherds is also quite apt: the visitor to the memorial in Rome now stumbles across the memorial stone, like Poussin envisioned the shepherds stumbling across an enigmatic tomb in Arcadia. We have thus become the shepherds…