Hunting Scene
Unknown Flemish, Belgian
Oudenaarde, Flanders
about 1575
Wool and cotton
Overall: 126 × 126 in. (320 × 320 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Josephine Marston Pond Buchanan, mother of William E. Buchanan, Class of 1924
T.978.20.1
Geography
Place Made: Belgium, Europe
Place Made: Oudenaarde, Flanders
Period
1400-1600
Object Name
Textile: Tapestry
Research Area
Decorative Arts
On view
Inscriptions
Not signed.
Label
Mounted hunters, dogs, and wild beasts engage in a tense battle across the center of this tapestry, while the foreground allows the viewer to peer into the underbrush of the forest to discover the creatures living there. The thick border features figures and objects that relate to feasting. Tapestries were among the most expensive objects that a 16th-century individual might own, and the subjects depicted in woven wool, silk, and even gold and silver thread were similarly luxurious. While tapestries fulfilled the practical purpose of keeping spaces warm and visually brightened dark interiors, they also complemented the allegorical and classical themes of other collectible objects within the home.
From the 2024 exhibition Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art and Ashley Offill, Curator of Collections
Exhibition History
Acquisitions 1974-1978, Jaffe-Friede, Strauss & Barrows Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 8, 1978-January 21, 1979.
Carpenter Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 9, 1978.
Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, Citrin Family Gallery and Engles Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 23, 2024–March 22, 2025.
Provenance
Watson & Boaler [Decorators], Chicago, Illinois; sold to Mrs. Gustavus Eugene Buchanan (Josephine Marston Pond Buchanan), Appleton, Wisconsin, 1926; given to present collection, 1978.
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