Return from the Hunt 1599

Editor: This is Antonio Tempesta's "Return from the Hunt," created sometime between 1555 and 1630. It's so detailed! All those tiny lines build up this really elaborate scene. What symbols do you see in this image? Curator: The return from the hunt is a loaded image. Hunting itself has long been tied to status and power. Notice how the animals are absent, yet their presence pervades. Do you see the dogs? The exhausted figures? Editor: I see them now! So, the "return" isn't just a physical return. Curator: Exactly. It's a return to a social order, reinforced by the act of the hunt. A cultural memory is being preserved here. I now see so much more than before.