Mountain pasture

It is one of the very first works by Ligabue, attentive to the attitude and typology of the animals, less interested in the perspective construction, resolved with a paint in broad strokes, except for the expressionistic tangling of the leaves and branches of the tree behind to the shepherd playing the flute, a theme that will return with different solutions in other works by Ligabue and the comparison between the different solutions allows us to highlight an artistic evolution that is also an evolution of poetic sensibility. The very ancient theme comes from Ligabue revitalized and brought to life. The iconography is extremely stereotyped and can be found in a long series of works not only Central European, but also Italian, derived from a popular tradition, which has made its own by simplifying them, motifs of cultured art, precisely such as that of the musician shepherd. The artist's sense of research at the beginning of his own path, the courage of experimentation, the instinctiveness of certain solutions, such as the eyes circled in white of animals to reveal their gaze, the security in adopting are undoubted ' expressive shortcuts that will largely be the basis of Ligabue's peculiar artistic language. The figures, all in profile, except for the shepherd, are inserted into the landscape somewhat at random and their perching on concrete ground is not entirely justified, but one can sense the attempt to resolve the composition rather than the details.