Zwijnenjacht 1582 - 1636

Philips Galle created this print titled "Zwijnenjacht" sometime between the 16th and 17th centuries. It depicts a boar hunt, a popular subject reflecting the aristocratic culture of the time, yet here we are presented with something more complicated than the celebration of a noble pastime. Galle’s detailed etching captures the chaos and violence of the hunt, the bodies of men, dogs, and boars entangled in a brutal struggle. In this image, the hunt is less about the glory of the hunters and more about the visceral reality of life and death. The print is a memento mori, capturing a world where class and gender structures dictated one's position, and where survival often depended on one's ability to dominate. Consider how the image, while seemingly celebrating elite culture, also exposes its inherent violence and fragility. It invites us to reflect on the power dynamics at play and the cost of maintaining those structures. The drama of this hunt reminds us of the ever-present dance between life and death, power and vulnerability, then, as now.