Jacht op vogels 1733

Curator: This is Jean Moyreau’s “Jacht op vogels,” or "Bird Hunting," from 1733, currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: The landscape recedes into the background in atmospheric perspective, but it's the foreground activity of the hunt itself that pulls me in. The whole scene looks like an elaborate stage production, full of pomp. Curator: Hunting scenes were often about depicting hierarchies. Who hunts, and how, communicates status and social standing. The postures, gestures, even the garments worn - they all signal something to a contemporary audience. Editor: And how! The tools of production in evidence here --horses, nets, hounds-- mark an elite claiming space and its resources for leisure, and pleasure, too. I am curious about this specific print as a consumer product. Who owned these prints? Curator: Engravings like this circulated among a sophisticated clientele, yes. Consider the allegorical significance of the hunt: It’s not simply about sport, but about dominion. In French royal iconography, for example, hunting could symbolize the king's mastery over his realm. This also represents the Rococo style. Editor: An important aspect in that time period. It also speaks of class, doesn’t it? What type of labor did it take to produce this piece? Is there record of it? I wish the piece had more information in that manner. Curator: Understanding these symbolic visual codes grants us insight into the cultural values of the period, its anxieties, and aspirations. And it makes me think of the cycles of destruction and creation embedded in the nature and its presentation here. Editor: For me, it is a study in how elites represent themselves through consumption and carefully curated scenes of their interactions with the natural world.