Liggende ko 1657

Curator: So, here we have “Liggende ko,” or "Reclining Cow," an etching by Adriaen van de Velde from 1657. You know, for something over 350 years old, the condition is remarkable. Editor: She looks absolutely…zen. That's the immediate impression. A profound bovine serenity emanating from a little piece of paper. Amazing. Curator: An apt observation! Van de Velde’s works often capture tranquil pastoral scenes, idealizing the Dutch countryside and rural life. The cow itself is an ancient symbol - tied to themes of fertility, nourishment, and the maternal. What kind of cow do you think it is? Editor: It looks like one of those Dutch Belted cows to me… maybe? The face and the posture suggest it’s supremely unbothered, which resonates a bit today! But this etching… is it realism? The details of the musculature of the legs seems hyper-real, maybe bordering on satire... if that’s possible with cows. Curator: Indeed! We see realism merging with the idyllic here. Notice how deliberately the artist presents the scene - carefully arranging the subject in a field bathed in a soft light, suggesting harmony between man and nature, domestic and wild. It evokes a certain feeling… Doesn't it trigger some ancient pastoral fantasy we all unconsciously carry within ourselves? A primal yearning for simple life? Editor: Absolutely, a postcard from some deeply nostalgic version of our collective psyche. But it also makes you consider that relationship. We expect the cow to serve some agricultural purpose, and this idealized representation smooths over the real labour that is entailed in the husbandry and that, for a painting from that period, this seems odd somehow. I get the "fantasy of return," but that always papers over uncomfortable facts, doesn’t it? Curator: An important point! We might say van de Velde unconsciously sets up a dynamic tension between symbolic representation and social realities in the pastoral tradition. That this becomes embedded within cultural memory and its projections of simpler, easier lives is also fascinating… Editor: Well, whether a symbol of a bucolic dream or something more subtly complicated, she's definitely holding my attention. Thank you. Curator: Agreed. Van de Velde managed to distill something essential about our enduring relationship with both the land, and this noble animal that persists, even now.