Shepherd with Herd

In 1902 the Italian state bought the Borghese collection from the family, and the gallery kept growing as public property. In 1922 the state paid 300 lire apiece for two small canvases by the Neapolitan painter Domenico Brandi, this herdsman and a matching shepherdess. That purchase is the first trace of either picture.

They date from the early 1700s. Here the herd has stopped to rest out of the sun. Sheep and goats lie folded in the grass while a brown sheep stands watch, and the young herdsman sits with his back half turned, a blue cap on his head, his dog stretched out in the shadow beside him. His staff and a small gourd flask lie on the ground. Behind them rises a heavy wall of rock against a clear, pale sky, a backdrop that turns up again in other pictures by the same painter.