A Bucolic Couple (formerly Shepherd and Shepherdess) by Attributed to Jan Thomas

Bathed in a warm golden glow, a male figure reaches to embrace a woman in a leafy glade. The woman lifts her staff in a gesture which seems to block the man’s advances, leaving it unclear as to whether she has consented to his amorous intentions. He is dressed as a woodland hunter, the soft tones of the grass merging with his arcadian attire and the wreath of ivy encircling his head. In comparison to the man’s earthy associations, the female figure is full of light, her tumbling golden locks echoed in the ripples of her silk dress and the glinting metal of her urn placed nearby. The man’s boots are adorned with the heads of hares, animals which are often associated with both lust and purity – a duality that underpins this interaction. The painting is ripe with erotic symbolism, not least in the provocative glimpse of the woman’s bare feet.

The Flemish artist, Jan Thomas (1617-78), produced many allegorical scenes such as this, working in a style that reflected his position in Peter Paul Rubens’s (1577-1640) workshop in the 1630s. This painting embodies a fascination among seventeenth-century artists with scenes of seduction, set within pastoral landscapes. Such scenes appeared in many guises, from generalised shepherd figures to characters taken from ancient mythology. Baroque artists, keen to demonstrate their intellectual credibility, drew on classical literature and included subtle references to Roman artefacts to add authenticity. Animal heads, like the hares on the man’s boots in this painting, could be found on the legs of classical sculptures.