Currently not on view
Arcadian Landscape,
17th century
More Context
Special Exhibition
Duane Wilder collected a number of landscapes, like this one, that can be loosely defined as Arcadian. The term refers to Arcadia, a region of ancient Greece that was believed to be the realm of the god of the forest, Pan, and his court of nature spirits. This mythology inspired the Roman poet Virgil to write his <em>Eclogues</em>, a series of pastoral poems set in Arcadia. In Western literature and visual art, the word came to refer to idyllic scenes of nature like this poetic vista.
Information
17th century
Dudley Leavitt Pickman; 1939 bequest to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (accession number 39.729, as "Landscape" by Gaspar Poussin) [1]. Deaccessioned at an unknown date. Duane E. Wilder; 2018 bequest to Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes
[1] Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, "Acquisitions, June 9, through December 14, 1939", vol. 38, no. 225 (Feb., 1940), pp. 19-22.
