Rivierlandschap met schaapskudde en op de achtergrond enkele gebouwen 1634 - 1686

This is a riverscape with sheep in the foreground and buildings in the distance by Jacques Prou, made as an etching sometime in the late 17th century. We can think of this image as a product of the culture of the French court, which saw nature as something to be ordered and arranged. Note how the distant buildings echo the shapes of the rocks and trees, suggesting a continuity between nature and artifice. The figures here are small and neatly posed, more for decoration than as individuals. The etching comes from a period in which the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture was formalizing its ideas about art. Landscape was seen as a lower genre, but this image elevates it through references to classical antiquity. To fully understand this riverscape, we would want to research the artistic conventions of the period and the political context in which it was made. Art history is always a process of uncovering the social and institutional forces that shape artistic production.