A Hunting Scene

This oil-on-panel painting by Piero di Cosimo, dated to around 1500, turns a hunt into a general melee. Deep in a forest, lions, bears, leopards and dogs hurl themselves at herds of deer and boars, while half-naked men, satyrs and centaurs fight without order or direction. Some figures try to pull the animals apart, others strike with clubs or drag their kills, and a dead man lies in the foreground, foreshortened with remarkable precision. The tree trunks, set in irregular rows, draw the eye into the distance, a device that recalls Paolo Uccello. The work belongs to a series devoted to primitive humanity, before fire and metals, and the chaos it shows seems to suggest a life without knowledge or control. The hybrid creatures evoke an old belief that they arose from unions between men and animals. Nobody notices the fire burning in the depths of the forest, a detail that adds a quiet unease to the scene.

Painter

Piero di Cosimo

Date

1500

Medium

oil paint, panel

Dimensions

70 × 170 cm

Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Depicts

lion, dog, satyr, bear, hunting, forest, deer, centaur

Share:FacebookWhatsApp