ABSTRACT
A famous painting by the English Victorian artist Sir Edwin Landseer, Wild Cattle of Chillingham (1867), depicts a family scene. A white bull, cow and calf are shown against a wild and mountainous landscape. The strong, stern bull as paterfamilias dominates the painting with a look of alert intelligence and courage as, with raised head and horns, he scans the horizon for signs of danger to his family. The cow and calf stand below in his shelter, the cow's expression gentle and attentive, her muzzle protectively placed on her young calf's back. 1 For all its limitations in realism, this painting is remarkable as a very rare example of the celebration of the social bonds of animals of a farmed species.
