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Original fileAn older shepherd, Thenot, points toward a flock of sheep within a wooden pen while welcoming the traveler Colinet. The scene is depicted with the heavy, expressive lines and dramatic lighting of William Blake's visionary wood-engraving style. In the background, a simple thatched hut sits beneath a rugged, dark sky.
Blake's woodcuts for Virgil represent a 'visionary' turn in landscape art, interpreting the pastoral tradition through a spiritual lens influenced by his idiosyncratic Neoplatonic and mystical beliefs. This series was foundational for the 'Ancients,' a group of artists including Samuel Palmer who viewed the rustic landscape as a site of divine and poetic revelation.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF IMITATION OF ECLOGUE I. THENOT. To illustrate lines 1, 2.
Ambrose Philips
The print illustrates Philips' imitation of Virgil's first Eclogue, featuring the dialogue between the shepherds Thenot and Colinet.
Virgil
This work is part of a series intended to illustrate Robert John Thornton's 1821 edition of the Pastorals of Virgil.
Object
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
paper
height 35 mm x width 76 mm
landscape
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 2, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.