Seated old shepard gesturing towards the sky and speaking to nude male surrounded by tools of measurement 1500 - 1600

This small engraving at the Met depicts a seated old shepherd gesturing skyward, as he speaks to a nude male surrounded by tools of measurement. It is difficult to precisely date or attribute this piece, but the visual lexicon—the nude figures, the bucolic setting—certainly speaks to the rich tradition of classical art and its revivals. The tension in the image lies between the old and the new, the earthly and the celestial. The shepherd, a figure deeply rooted in the land, points to the heavens. The younger man, perhaps a mathematician or astronomer, is caught between the tools of empirical knowledge and the shepherd's more intuitive understanding of the cosmos. The shepherd’s knowledge is born from lived experience, while the young man’s is born of intellectual pursuit. But, consider that both figures are male, and nude. What are the politics of knowledge that the artist is trying to reveal? This image presents both the promise and the limits of human understanding. It asks us to consider where knowledge resides and what it means to be wise.