Alexandre-Francois Desportes
Still Life with Dog and Game, 1710
The hunt has been a prominent social pastime since the days of ancient Greece.
It developed into a royal sport during the Middle Ages, when it was restricted
to the nobility who had to obtain permission to hunt from the king. Anyone
attempting to forage in royal forests was subject to strict penalties, and
poaching was punishable by death. During the Renaissance, hunting was considered
a salutary exercise, keeping the body fit and the soul distracted from idleness
and sin. It was also promoted as a suitable surrogate for warfare during times
of peace. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, hunting laws had relaxed,
but the sport was still largely an aristocratic one, especially in mainland
Europe. In fact, the prohibition of hunting in the countryside was cited as
a major grievance of peasants in revolutionary France. From recreation to
ritual, throughout the centuries hunting has inspired literature, vocabulary,
music, fashion, and art. For early-modern collectors, whether members of the
nobility or those seeking social elevation, owning and displaying a hunting
picture was a means of associating oneself with an elite class.
Sawrey Gilpin and Philip Reinagle
The Display on the Return to the Dulnon Camp, 1786
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