Venationes ferarum, avium, piscium (Hunts of wild animals, birds and fish). Plate 47. Hunting a S...

This print is the work of three major Flemish figures of the late 16th century: the original artist Jan Van der Straet (a.k.a. Stradanus), the engraver Jan Collaert II; and the publisher Philips Galle. The success of Van der Straet's cartoons for a hunting series to decorate the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano, near Florence (1566-77), led to the leading Flemish publishers Heronymus Cock, and subsequently Galle, to commission related engravings in the 1570s and 1580s. (Galle also engraved/published other works by Van der Straet, including his <em>Crucifixion</em>, in Te Papa's collection).

These proved so popular that in 1596 Galle published the ambitious, 105 plate volume <em>Venationes, ferarum, arium, piscium </em>(Hunts of wild animals, birds and fish), engaging several engravers including Collaert, all based on original drawings by the prolific Van der Straet.  Bird hunts form an important sub-theme. The volume was republished by Philips Galle's son, Johannes, in 1634.

Some of the prints in the series are relatively realistic depictions of hunting practices, whilst others are more imaginative and fantastic: the latter applies here. The Renaissance Latin inscription, immediately below the image, has been kindly translated by Tim Smith, Victoria University of Wellington: 'In the mountains of Egypt, near the Nile, a crowd of women swiftly pursue the salacious satyr with raucous noise, commotion, clubs, and spears. But he laughs at the mad crowd, and returns to his hiding place'.

See: Chris Michaelis, http://blogs.bl.uk/european/2015/09/joannes-stradanus-and-his-hunting-scenes.html

Dr Mark Stocker           Curator, Historical International Art            March 2017