Recently I was walkingin on The Lawley in Shropshire, and we paused to admire the Highland cattle in an adjacent field.
They were handsome, strong, charismatic even!
I think Aelbert Cuyp must also have found cattle fascinating in this way, in this painting I recently came across.
They dominate this painting by him, as they do many others by him. There are as much a part of human life as the windmills and the church, the sunlight and the sky.
Human life is moved to the sidelines and into the background. For the time we spend gazing at this beautiful painting, we are absorbed by animals, the creaturely world of the cattle.
Do you ever feel that, looking at cows, at sheep, at birds, at a pet cat or dog? They have a fascinating, separate existence from us – related to our existence, and yet so different!
In Cuyp’s painting, their existence is monumental. They even seem to have something of a sacred meaning for him, as they do in some other cultures. They are there, and it feels as though we are privileged for a while to be in their presence, a presence which is material, dignified and powerful.
Makes you think, the next time you walk past a field of cattle or sheep!
Lif4Gd 