(G. Carducci) [“I love you, oh pious ox; you infuse into my heart so mild a sentiment of vigor and peace.”]
With 19th-century realism these animals saw themselves attributed the role of paragon of peaceful toil; they became the representatives of ancestral force, solidly rooted in the traditional values of the land. At that time spectators discovered images that confirmed bucolic serenity where these massive bodies were startled in the edifying fatigue of labor or abandoned to restorative rest.