Hilly Landscape with Cows and Shepherds in Foreground

Art Historical Context

This delicate pen and ink drawing by Carlo Antonio Tavella invites viewers into a tranquil pastoral scene. Executed in iron gall ink on cream laid paper, the work showcases the medium’s characteristic rich, dark lines that allow for precise yet fluid rendering of the rolling hills and foreground figures. The 29.4 × 19.8 cm sheet captures shepherds tending cattle amid a serene landscape, a subject that reflects the enduring appeal of rural life in European art. Tavella’s composition uses the natural texture of laid paper to enhance depth and atmosphere, with the ink’s varying tones suggesting both sunlit slopes and shaded valleys. As part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Prints and Drawings collection, the undated work exemplifies how such intimate studies served artists as both preparatory exercises and independent expressions of the natural world. Visitors can appreciate the quiet harmony between human presence and the landscape, a theme that continues to resonate across centuries.

About the Artist

Carlo Antonio Tavella · 1668–1738

**Carlo Antonio Tavella** (1668–1738) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Genoa. Born in Milan as the son of Domenico Tavella, a Genoese merchant, he trained initially under the painter Giuseppe Merati before studying with Johann Gruembroech (also known as Greuenbrech or il Solfarolo). In 1695 he collaborated with the Dutch painter Pieter Mulier II, known as Cavaliere Te...