Leeuwenjacht 1630 - 1718

Willem van der Leeuw created this print titled ‘Lion Hunt’ in the Netherlands, sometime in the first half of the 17th century. It depicts a hunting party on horseback, their spears and arrows aimed at a pride of cornered lions. Lion hunts were popular subjects in Early Modern European art, functioning less as records of actual events and more as potent symbols of power and dominance. They tapped into a long-standing cultural association between lions and royalty. In commissioning and displaying images such as this, wealthy patrons could align themselves with traditional ideals of aristocratic rule, valor and strength. This print would have circulated widely as a symbol of status, and also perhaps, as propaganda, reinforcing the authority of the ruling class. The task of the historian is to unpack these coded meanings. By researching the social context in which the artwork was made, we can begin to understand how it functioned as a cultural object, reinforcing or challenging existing social norms.