Harmony and beauty of an ancient flock

None of the late seventeenth century paintings by Rosa da Tivoli portrays goats with hanging ears. The artist’s real name was Philipp Peter Roos; he came to Italy from Germany in 1677, lived in Rome and bought a house in Tivoli in 1684-5. It is most likely that most animals painted by the artist belong to those common breeds found in the «Agro Romano» («Roman countryside») in that historical period. Standing out in his paintings are white goats with powerful flat, divergent and lyre-shaped horns.  Together with these, there are specimens of various colours: for example, those with half white and half black coat (exactly the same typology of goats that pastoralists identify as ‍cammisole); others —instead— have a spotted dark and brown coat («crape pezziate»). It is important to note that goats with hanging or semi-hanging ears are completely absent from the artist’s paintings.  On the contrary – all the goats portrayed have erect and semi-erect ears.