It’s Not Just Clinton’s Official Portrait
Nicolas Poussin, Et In Arcadia Ego (Louvre, Paris)
(The Art Archive/Alamy)
Poussin’s enigmatic image of ancient Greek shepherds gathered around a tomb inscribed with the words Et In Arcadia Ego – “Even in Arcadia I exist” – has given rise to more preposterous hypotheses than any other work of art. Crowning them all are the efforts British researchers Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who claimed the painting held the secret to hidden treasure in the south of France, where Jesus lived in wedded bliss with Mary Magdelene, siring the Merovingian kings of France. Rather than treasure, this magnificent nonsense led to an unsuccessful plagiarism suit against the grand master of art hokum, Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown.
Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait (National Gallery, London)
(Alamy)
The urge to tell posterity “I was here” runs through art from Jackson Pollock, who allegedly hid a giant signature in one of his most famous abstract paintings, right back to Jan van Eyck, the grandfather of oil painting. His masterpiece, The Arnolfini Portrait, contains an elaborate Latin signature on the wall behind the couple, “Jan van Eyck was here 1434″, while in the mirror above, two tiny figures, discernible only with a magnifying glass, stand in the position of the artist looking at the scene, one of them – generally presumed to be van Eyck himself – raising his hand in greeting to viewers down the ages (see image below).
(Alamy)
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