Plate 22: Blackhead Persian Sheep and a Sheep with a Long Tail, with a Cactus

Joris Hoefnagel

National Gallery of Art

The image depicts a large sheep with a black face and white body standing on the left side. A smaller sheep with a lighter face is standing on a bluish rock slightly to its right. A green prickly cactus with purple flowers grows on a small hill to the far right. The color palette includes natural earthy tones with the sheep in shades of black, white, and gray, the cactus in green, the rock in blue, and the ground in muted browns and yellows. The large sheep is positioned on the left, the smaller sheep is near the center on a blue rock, and the cactus is on the far right, sitting on a mound of earth.