Kop, beschilderd met een landschap met vee en huizen c. 1809 - 1814

This porcelain cup, painted by the Koninklijke Porseleinfabriek Dommer & Co., depicts a serene landscape with cattle and houses. The scene is a tableau of pastoral life, yet the innocent depiction of labor is charged with layers of historical meaning. Note the figures fishing and the house in the background, symbols of rural life. These motifs echo through art history, appearing in medieval tapestries and Renaissance paintings alike. The image connects to a longing for a simpler existence. Consider how such imagery evolves. The house, once a basic shelter, becomes a symbol of domesticity and the idyllic family. Similarly, fishing, a means of survival, transforms into a leisurely pursuit, an escape from modern anxieties. This reflects the cyclical nature of symbols, continually reshaped by collective desires and fears. The painting’s calm surface belies the complex history of human yearning for a harmonious world, an Eden, that may never have truly existed.