Claude Lorrain, Pastoral Landscape with Trees, c. 1640, black chalk and brown wash, with pen and brown ink framing lines, on cream laid paper. The Clark, 2007.5.4

The term "Arcadia" derives from the mountainous Greek province of the same name, and according to myth, it was the domain of Pan, the goat-legged god of pastures and woodlands. In antiquity, Arcadia was known for its population of pastoralists—cowherds, goatherds, shepherds, swineherds—who were celebrated across the ancient world for the skillful singing they did while tending their flocks. The Latin poet Virgil (70 BCE–19 BCE) wrote an immensely influential set of ten poems, the Eclogues, about the herdsmen of Arcadia.

In the Renaissance, the intellectual movement known as humanism brought renewed interest in the culture—and particularly the poetry—of ancient Greece and Rome. Although Renaissance humanism waned in the sixteenth century, Virgil’s pastoral poetry continued to inspire artists and writers through the nineteenth century and beyond. Over time, Arcadia developed into a general term for an idealized vision of rural life.