Drie runderen en een slapende herder 1636

This etching, “Three Cows and a Sleeping Shepherd,” was created by Pieter Bodding van Laer. The composition is dominated by the imposing presence of the three cows, arranged to fill much of the frame, which gives the piece a sense of compressed space. Laer's use of line is particularly striking. Notice how the etched lines vary in weight and density to describe the textures of the animals' hides. These lines create a visual hierarchy, drawing our eye across the composition from the dark cow on the left to the resting figure of the shepherd on the right. The scene is pastoral, yet there is a subtle tension created by the spatial arrangement. The cows, monumental in their stillness, contrast with the vulnerability of the sleeping shepherd. This tension between the animate and inanimate, the dominant and the passive, speaks to broader themes of man's relationship with nature.