Italiaans berglandschap met herder en herderin bij rivieroever 1643 - 1666

Dancker Danckerts created this Italian mountain landscape with shepherd and shepherdess by a riverbank sometime in the mid-17th century. This idyllic scene offers a glimpse into the romanticized views that Northerners held of Italy. While Danckerts never actually traveled to Italy, he was clearly influenced by artists who had, absorbing a vision of Italy that was less about reality and more about longing. The figures of the shepherd and shepherdess are archetypal, their presence lending a pastoral, almost biblical quality to the scene. Note the woman carrying the heavy load on her head. This engraving reflects the social structures of the time, where labor and gender roles were clearly defined. It offers a softened, picturesque take on the lives of ordinary people, carefully avoiding any depiction of social tension. In this landscape, the human figures are dwarfed by the natural world, suggesting a yearning to return to a simpler, pre-industrial existence. It’s this tension, between the real and the ideal, that makes Danckerts' work so compelling.