''Hunting'' (or ''Hunting Scene'') is a painting by Italian artist
Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci (; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of th ...
, painted before 1595 and given to
Louis XIV by Prince
Camillo Pamphili in 1665. It is currently held and exhibited at the
Louvre in
Paris.
History
The painting and its companion, ''
Fishing'', were included in
Charles Le Brun's inventory in 1683, and in November 1695 they were in the apartments of
King Louis XIV
Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...
's younger brother. It was no doubt for this purpose that they were given two sumptuous gilt frames, each with attributes suited to the subject of the painting – among the finest examples of the art of
frame-making in the time of Louis XIV. In 1955, when the varnish was being cleaned, the 19th century gilding covering the original gilding was removed – a task of some magnitude which was carried out by the French firm of Lebrun.
This work, together with its companion, date from Carracci's
Bolognese
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nati ...
period, before he left for
Rome in 1595 to paint at the
Galleria Farnese. At this time he was extremely interested in
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
, and his experiments are a foreshadowing of
Poussin's classical compositions; but in these pictures he is exploring in a different direction, in the tradition of the
Bassani Bassani is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Axel Bassani (born 1999), Italian motorcycle racer
* Bilgé Ögün Bassani, Chief Executive Officer of the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB International)
* Edvin Li ...
, a family of painters whose studios continued to turn out landscapes which were prized all over
Europe. His interest was the
countryside. Without any religious theme as pretext, he painted two pure landscapes whose true subjects are the forest and the river, motivated by the themes of
hunting
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
and
fishing. Therefore Carracci was able to show nature animated with the life of the
aristocracy
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At t ...
and of ordinary people. The composition follows the visual device of division into compartments.
Along with the Galleria Farnese, these two thematic paintings are among Carracci's masterpieces, and have always been much admired by artists.
Manet found inspiration in the ''
Fishing'', and the ''Hunting'' has been copied by
Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
,
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, ''The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images.
His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dr ...
and
Rouault.
[D. Benati & E. Riccomini, ''Annibale Carracci'', Mondadori Electa (2006), ''s.v. "Fishing Scene"''.]
Footnotes
References
Catholic Encyclopedia: Carracci*H. Loyrette, ''The Louvre: All the Paintings'', Black Dog & Leventhal (2011)
*
*
* C. Dempsey: ''Annibale Carracci and the beginnings of baroque style'', Harvard 1977, 2nd ed. Fiesole 2000.
* A. W. A. Boschloo: ''Annibale Carracci in Bologna: visible reality in art after the Council of Trent'', 's-Gravenhage 1974.
* C. Goldstein: ''Visual fact over verbal fiction: a study of the Carracci and the criticism, theory, and practice of art in Renaissance and baroque Italy'', Cambridge 1988.
* D. Posner: Annibale Carracci: a study in the reform of Italian painting around 1590, 2 vol., New York 1971.
* S. Ginzburg: Annibale Carracci a Roma: gli affreschi di Palazzo Farnese, Roma 2000.
* C. Loisel: ''Inventaire général des dessins italiens'', vol. 7: Ludovico, Agostino, Annibale Carracci, (Musée du Louvre: Cabinet des Dessins) Paris 2004.
* B. Bohn: Ludovico Carracci and the art of drawing, London 2004.
* Annibale Carracci, catalogo della mostra a cura di D. Benati, E. Riccomini, Bologna-Roma 2006–2007.
* M. C. Terzaghi: Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, Guido Reni tra le ricevute del Banco Herrera & Costa, Roma 2007.
* C. Robertson: ''The Invention of Annibale Carracci'' (Studi della Bibliotheca Hertziana, 4), Milano 2008.
External links
Carracci's ''Hunting'' on the Museum SyndicateAnnibale Carracci artistic context, technique and artworksAnnibale Carracci at the WikiGallery.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunting (Annibale Carracci)
Paintings by Annibale Carracci
1590s paintings
Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists
Dogs in art
Hunting in art