rrgirl comments in As soon as you’re born, you start dying; So you might as well have a good time.:
I got lost in the tall weeds of the literary references, especially after reading the analysis. whew.
I really liked the picture. the goats’ faces have such presence. the sheep look like big fluffy sweaters on the hoof but except for the background, we see no sheep faces. the engraving vaguely suggests Duhrer but it’s a little coarse; certainly northern European. I poked around and eventually found the accreditation to Karel DuJardin, a Dutch artist with whom I’m not familiar. his bio on Wikipedia reveals a short life by 21st century standards. I got a “plus que change, plus que meme” sense. more goat than sheep. Karel DuJardin
thanks for providing so many levels of meaning. as usual, I’m grateful, with awe.
You get a homer bell for Outstanding Sleuthieness!
I’m trying to be better in citing sources. I read another blog that puts the reference for images in the “alternate text” of the image’s file properties, thought that was a cool idea, and decided to follow suit. For “Sheep and Goats” I initially had a link to the .jpg but I just edited it to this more informational one: Flock of Sheep and Goats.
In Firefox, right click the image and in the window that pops up select “Properties” to see the alternate text. In Internet Explorer, move your cursor over the image and the alternate text will pop up in a small box.
I was going to look for “sheep and goats” clip art but saw that picture on Google Images and decided to use it. Just a lucky find. Yes, very Dürer-like.
You sure are right. DuJardin was very goaty. Interesting to note that even in the 17th century poor, young people were hooking up with rich, old ones as a form of financial planning.
