Thus, the young courtier found the time to write his Arcadia. But now we'd better go back to Rome. In 1624, Nicolas Poussin went to Rome. There he joined the literary circle of Marie de Medicis, which was the rival literary circle of Christine's Arcadians. Poussin struck at the value of Arcadia by suggesting that dreamy places or ideal conditions just don't exist, since Death is everywhere and dominates everything.
Death prevails over any perfection, either psychological or aesthetic.
For Death is the only indisputable reality. In 1638, a short time before going back to Paris, Poussin painted another picture which had the same subject and the same message. It is strange that this painting has been interpreted as an acceptance of Arcadia, even as a hymn of it. Perhaps it illustrates Arcadia's scene-painting, but what it actually shows is the Triumph of Death through the melancholic eyes of the French classicism.