Stag Hunt

This article is about the painting about stag hunting. For the game theory problem about stag hunting, see Stag hunt. For stag hunting, see Deer hunting.
Stag Hunt
ArtistPaul Bril
Yearca. 1590 – 1595
CatalogueINV. 1109
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions105 cm × 137 cm (41.3 in × 53.9 in)
LocationLouvre, Paris

Stag Hunt (French: Chasse au cerf) is an oil on canvas painting by Flemish painter Paul Bril. It was probably painted in the 1590s, and is currently housed at the Louvre in Paris.[1] The painting was once part of the collection of Louis XIV.[1][2][3]

Painting

Paul Bril completed this painting during his stay in Rome, where he moved in the late 1570s or early 1580s.[4][5][6] In Rome, Bril went on to become the most influential landscapist of his time.[5][7]

Bril painted imaginary landscapes typical of the Flemish tradition, following the example of painters such as Joachim Patinir, Herri met de Bles and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The early work of Hans Bol was also a source of inspiration for Bril.[5]

Bril and the Flemish landscapists did not paint or draw studies en plein air. This painting, too, is a studio product from the artist's imagination. In the painting, six hunters are hunting down a stag into a marsh, illuminated by discernible rays of sunlight. Two hunters are riding a horse, one is in the foreground, the other is visible in a clearing among the trees closing the painting to the left, in the background. On the bottom right, some rabbits are running away or taking refuge below the rooted bank. From the rider's horse jumping forward in the foreground, the painting recedes, in a slanted and undulated view, to the bosky landscape visible through an opening. The strong colors and the skillful articulation thereof in the landscape as well as the quality of the animal animation, far superior to that of Bril's Chasse au daim ("Fallow deer Hunt," INV. 1108, also at the Louvre), confirm the attribution of the Deer Hunt to Paul Bril. The painting was part of the collection of King Luis XVI of France, who acquired it from a merchant Alvarez in 1682.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Chasse au cerf". The Louvre. 1590. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  2. ^ Antoine-Joseph Pernety (1757). Dictionnaire portatif de peinture, sculpture et gravure, avec un traité pratique des différentes manières de peindre, dont la théorie est développée dans les articles qui en sont susceptibles... Istituto poligrafico e zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato. p. 225.
  3. ^ "Chasse au cerf". Ministère de la Culture. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  4. ^ a b c "Paul Bril (Antwerp 1554-1626 Rome) Saint Jerome praying in a rocky landscape". Christie's. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  5. ^ Nicola Courtright. "Paul Bril." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 September 2016
  6. ^ "Paul Bril". Britannica. Retrieved 30 September 2020.