Jacht op vogels met lokkuilen en vogellijm 1605

Antonio Tempesta crafted this print, "Hunting Birds with Decoy Pits and Birdlime," around the turn of the 17th century. It portrays fowlers ensnaring birds using a rather cunning method. Observe the open field dotted with shallow pits and small vessels; these are the instruments of deception. The unsuspecting birds, symbols of freedom and natural instinct, are lured by the promise of sustenance, only to become entrapped by the hunter’s trickery. This scene echoes a timeless motif—the snare. The image brings to mind similar traps in classical paintings where love is the snare, and the heart is the bird. The act of trapping has roots far back to archaic Greece, and it is about more than physical capture: it's about our primal confrontation with fate, a theme endlessly reworked across time and cultures. This print resonates with the psychological weight of temptation and vulnerability, inviting us to ponder our own susceptibility to life's hidden snares.