Stående ged og en liggende vædder 1620 - 1683

Nicolaes Berchem created this etching of a standing goat and a lying ram. Berchem lived during the Dutch Golden Age, a period marked by unprecedented economic growth and cultural flourishing in the Netherlands, yet one built on a foundation of colonialism and trade exploitation. Berchem, like many of his contemporaries, specialized in Italianate landscapes populated with livestock and pastoral figures, a style that catered to the urban elite’s romanticized vision of rural life. This etching, with its detailed rendering of the animals' textures, reflects the Dutch artistic focus on naturalism. Consider the cultural narratives embedded here: the idealization of pastoral life, a retreat from the complexities of urban existence. These images often glossed over the labor and realities of rural life, presenting a harmonious, almost utopian vision, all the while obscuring a very different economic reality. What desires and anxieties do these images speak to?