The Bull by Paulus Potter is one of the star paintings at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, a bucolic image of animals and a farmer.<\/p>\n
But new research suggests the painting has unexpected hidden depths: conservators restoring the artwork say the bull\u2019s testicles were originally much larger, and appeared to have been halved in size by the artist to respect 17th-century sensibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found that Potter made lots of changes as he worked,\u201d said Abbie Vandivere, a paintings conservator at the museum. \u201c[The bull\u2019s] balls were bigger and lower, his whole back end was shifted \u2013 but, indeed, the balls are the biggest change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Computer-generated image delineating the outline of the bull and how it changed between an early version of the work and the final painting. Photograph: Ren\u00e9 Gerritsen\/Mauritshuis<\/p>\n
The surprise emerged when a team of conservators, who have been working for 18 months to restore the painting, made X-rays to understand how Potter created his composition of farming life. Looking at his preparatory sketches of cattle, and consulting experts, they found there were indeed contemporary breeds with \u201cgiant, pendulous testicles\u201d.<\/p>\n
While Potter may have made the changes to portray a younger bull, the working theory is that the naked truth was considered unfit for polite society in 1647. Another of his works, an etching now in the Rijksmuseum<\/a> entitled Pissing Cow and commissioned for the mantelpiece of a Princess of Orange at around the same time, was rejected for being too smutty.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had an etching of a pissing cow that created a bit of a controversy,\u201d said Jolijn Schilder, a paintings conservator. \u201cIt is assumed that he got the order from Amalia van Solms, Princess of Orange, and he was supposed to create a piece for one of the palaces. It was turned down by her because she thought it was too filthy a subject to show a pissing cow above her mantelpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n The bull\u2019s pendulous testicles were toned down for the finished painting. Photograph: Mauritshuis<\/p>\n The research on The Bull is part of a broader effort to find out more about Potter, who died in 1654 at just 28 from tuberculosis. When the Netherlands became a vassal state of France in the late 18th century and William V fled to England<\/a>, 192 of his artworks were looted by Napoleonic troops, with The Bull considered one of the gems.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was taken to Paris and was immediately very popular, because it\u2019s extraordinary that Potter, a 17th-century artist from the Netherlands<\/a>, painted a cow on a lifesize scale, which was normally only for kings, emperors, biblical and historical scenes,\u201d said Schilder. \u201cThe fact that the Dutch did a simple cow, without any further meaning to it, really struck the French. They loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n The conservators Jolijn Schilder, left, and Abbie Vandivere, right, with the painting; its restoration was carried out behind a glass box in a public gallery. Photograph: Frank van der Burg\/Mauritshuis<\/p>\n According to research by a Mauritshuis senior curator, Quentin Buvelot<\/a>, after Napoleon\u2019s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the Dutch demanded the return of paintings including The Bull \u2013 but when troops turned up at the Louvre in 1815, \u201cthe French tried to prevent this by removing all the higher ladders\u201d.<\/p>\n The 236cm x 339cm (93in x 133in) masterpiece was eventually returned in triumphal procession and Potter\u2019s farmer character for years featured in Dutch phonics<\/a> teaching material for schoolchildren.<\/p>\n