Landscape with Shepherds Driving Away a Wolf c. 1540

Domenico Campagnola rendered this drawing titled, *Landscape with Shepherds Driving Away a Wolf,* using pen and brown ink. Our eye is immediately drawn to the pastoral scene, a landscape arranged with meticulous detail. The composition follows a structured layering, moving from the foreground's dynamic action to the serene distance. Note how the artist employs line—short, repetitive strokes—to build texture and depth. This technique not only defines the forms but also creates a semiotic interplay between nature and culture. The fleeing figures and chasing wolf are rendered with the same delicate, interwoven lines as the trees and hills. Campagnola blurs the boundaries between the animate and inanimate, challenging traditional hierarchical distinctions within the landscape genre. The drawing’s formal qualities are not merely aesthetic, but deeply intertwined with the era’s intellectual currents. Consider how the absence of a clear focal point destabilizes traditional landscape conventions. Meaning resides not in a single element, but in the relational structure of the entire composition.