Taking the Cattle out
1639 - 1641.Not on display
This painting entered the Museum`s holdings as an original work by Jan Both, an attribution that has been maintained in subsequent catalogues and accepted without question by specialists. On the basis of its handling of light, Burke (1976) relates it to two of Claude Lorrain`s landscapes for the Buen Retiro, Moses saved from the Waters and Landscape: The Archangel Raphael and Tobias (Prado, P2255).
In this case the theme has not been identified. Luna (1984) proposes as a possible subject matter the journey of Tobias and Sarah from Nineveh to Media (Tobias X:10-11), although the iconography does not appear to be consonant with the biblical account. It is probably simply a bucolic scene. As in Baptism of the Eunuch of Queen Candace (P2060), the perspective is very high and the horizontality of the planes that extend into the background -a characteristic of Italianate landscapes- is offset by the inclusion of a diagonal plane of light running from the background to the left and illuminating the path along which the cowherds and their cattle are advancing. The work displays stylistic features characteristic of Both, such as the loose brushwork and thinly applied paint, and the rendering of the leaves of the trees and the vegetation using small brushstrokes and highlights. The X-ray image reveals that the various landscape features are rendered in a similar manner to those in Baptism of the Eunuch of Queen Candace, although here the strip of light outlining the background mountains is broader. The background trees were included during the execution process, as in Landscape with Carmelites (P2058).
In type and handling, the figures recall those in Baptism of the Eunuch of Queen Candace. In early Museum catalogues they are attributed to Andries Both (1612/13-1642). The X-ray image shows that they were added after the landscape was completed, but are not rendered differently from other elements in the painting. The present landscape was included by José de Madrazo in the collection of lithographs of the pictures of King Ferdinand VI, the Colección litográfica de los cuadros del rey de España el señor don Fernando Séptimo. Ceán Bermúdez states in the related text: Although it is not listed in the catalogue of the pictures of the Royal Museum in Madrid, it forms part of this collection. It was not included among those of the Italian school, being reserved along with others for the Dutch school, which remains to be put in place. No doubt in the belief that it should belong to the latter as Both was from that nation (Text drawn from Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, p. 332).
