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In his now classic conversations with Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann describes how on February 26, 1824, the then 74-year-old prince of German literature showed him a series of engravings and drawings, pointing out what he considered the most excellent of each genre. Goethe also handed Eckermann a few etched sheets by the famous animal painter Roos, and asked him what he thought. A quick characterization of the etchings followed: "They were all of sheep, in every posture and situation. The simplicity of their countenances, the ugliness and shagginess of their fleece, were represented with the utmost fidelity to nature." Upon which the aged genius reflected, as eloquently as meaningfully: "I always feel uneasy,' Goethe said, "when I look at these beasts. Their state, so limited, dull, gaping and dreaming, excites in me such sympathy, that I fear I shall become a sheep and I almost think the artist must have been one. At all events, it is most wonderful how Roos has been able to think and feel himself into the very soul of these creatures, so as to make the internal character peer with such force through the outward covering. Here you see what a great talent can do when it keeps steady to subjects which are congenial with its nature' (Eckermann, 1998, 46–7). These considerations immediately confront us with an important characteristic of visual art, i.e. its capacity for imitation or realistic representation. In the ensuing reflections, both poets emphasized time and again the realism and accuracy of Roos' depictions of not only sheep, but dogs, cats and animals of prey too. They pay particular attention to the resemblance between the etchings and reality. Roos's animal scenes are not simply equated with nature; they are also compared to it. It is the resemblance between the representation of nature and nature itself that demands all attention here. There is a suggestion of an "as if-relationship" to nature: apparently Roos's talent is that he, like no other, is able to create an illusion, to provide the spectator with an image in which the actual animals can be recognized.

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-5638-3_2

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