The Grazing Cow

Paulus Potter was among the most prominent of the many artists who specialized in depicting animals in 17th-century Holland. The Grazing Cow is typical of his work. Its low vantage point imparts monumentality to his subject. Here the cow seems to tower above the steeple of a village church. Raking light produces dramatic shadows that reveal the beast’s complex anatomy, which takes on architectural force. The great mass of the body is suspended from a clearly defined superstructure of bones. The shadows themselves are described with the utmost delicacy and variety. Some have said that Potter’s art is devoted to light as much as it is to animals.