+ Expand
Artist or Maker: Signed in part illegibly and in part apparently as "D...Fran"
+ Expand
Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 26 3/4 in.
+ Expand
Provenance: Estate of Mrs. St. Julien RavenalTo the Charleston Library SocietyTo the current owner
+ Expand
Notes: From an email to Barridoff Galleries dated May 23, 2010:The grand style of hunting costumes has changed very little over the last few centuries in France. To this day, the French deck themselves out in gold braid waistcoats, though I believe I am the only person who still hunts aside (sidesaddle) rather than astride. Six years ago, I was invited to go staghunting with La Futaie des Amis, a hunt in the vast Fort de Compigne, just outside of Paris. I do not claim to be expert in much, but I do know a great deal about hunting history. I could deliver a lecture about the variety of hounds in this picture and the iconography of the painting's figures. The central figure, "The LadyÓ is depicted as Venus; decked out in blue/white/gold finery aside her fiery white horse. The painting's design is a clever and masterful tribute to renowned Renaissance tapestry designer Pieter Coecke van Aelst and his panel, "The Triumph of Lust," woven in Brussels, ca. 1542-44 and on exhibit in N.Y. City's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002. Our Old Master is likely pure allegory.
We're Hiring!
