Daphnis leidt zijn geiten terug naar de stal 1937

Aristide Maillol made this woodcut, Daphnis leidt zijn geiten terug naar de stal, meaning Daphnis leads his goats back to the stable, on paper at an unknown date. The composition is so playful, all these goats are intertwined among the trees, can you count them all? The black lines are bold and confident, carving out a pastoral scene within the block. The surface, though flat, has a tactile quality to it because the pressure of the printing press creates a slightly raised edge to each line. I find this tension between flatness and depth really interesting. Look at the trees; they feel almost decorative in their simplicity, yet they create a convincing sense of depth. This reminds me a little of Gauguin’s woodcuts; he was working around the same time. Maillol was mostly a sculptor, but he often worked in two dimensions, and you can see his sculptor's eye at play here in the way he models the forms with lines, suggesting volume and weight. Isn’t it wonderful how art speaks across different forms and through time?