The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target audience is typically an urban one. A pastoral is a work of this genre. A piece of music in the genre is usually referred to as a pastorale.
The Young Shepherd, engraving using stipple technique, by Giulio Campagnola, c. 1510
Georgics Book III, Shepherd with Flocks, Vergil (Vatican Library)
Romantic artist, illustrator and poet William Blake's hand painted print illustrating his pastoral poem "The Shepherd" depicts the pastoral scene of a shepherd watching his flock with a shepherd's crook. This image represents copy B, printed and painted in 1789 and currently held by the Library of Congress.
Locus amoenus is a literary topos involving an idealized place of safety or comfort. A locus amoenus is usually a beautiful, shady lawn or open woodland, or a group of idyllic islands, sometimes with connotations of Eden or Elysium.
John Constable's Wivenhoe Park, Essex: An idyllic scene featuring trees, grass, and water
Maerten Ryckaert, Rocky Pastoral Landscape
Characters in the Forest of Arden in Shakespeare's As You Like It