The Cow and the Calf
Dutch Romanist artist Karel Dujardin’s (1622–1678) oeuvre encompassed allegorical, mythological, and religious history paintings, portraits, and etchings. He was a leading painter of Italianate genre landscapes featuring farm animals and lively peasants.
Born in Amsterdam, Dujardin lived in Rome for two extended periods; the first was at the start of his career, and the second was at the end of his life before he died in Venice. He was a member of Il Bamboccianti, genre painters active in Rome during the mid-17th century. Il Bamboccianti hailed from Holland and Flanders, and they brought their tradition of depicting rural life to Rome. Despite the lowbrow subjects they depicted, genre works fetched high prices among elite Roman patrons.
Dujardin’s The Cow and the Calf is a peaceful pastoral scene in which a cow is sitting with her calf in the countryside. The background architecture of the rural buildings and the strong sunlight places the scene in Italy; however, Dujardin completed this etching back in Amsterdam. The Cow and the Calf is from Dujardin’s series of eight etchings—seven animal etchings and a title plate.
Typical of genre scenes, The Cow and the Calf portrays a sunny farmyard that is clearly unkept, indicating the farmer’s station as a peasant. The smoke emanating from the farmhouse chimney affirms the rural setting. Dujardin’s keen interest in precisely rendering light and atmosphere is illustrated in his treatment of light and shadows. He accomplished this feat by meticulously etching tightly-drawn, dry point lines to illustrate areas of continuous gray tone.
The perspective Dujardin uses is from behind the animals, making clear the cow’s size. The calf is turning its head towards its mother, its innocent gaze conveying its vulnerability. The sun is illuminating the mother, and the calf is cast in full shadow—enveloping the calf and the underside of the mother. Dujardin finely represents the sky and clouds by employing gray etches near the rooflines and by the tower.
Pastoral prints such as The Cow and the Calf were trendy in Baroque Rome and the Netherlands.
