Flemish school; 18th century.

Flemish school; XVIII century.
"Hunting".
Oil on canvas.
Presents some loss in the painting located on the sides and the canvas is unstretched.
Measurements: 90 x 176 cm; 109 x 195 cm (frame).
This work is inscribed within a pictorial tradition widely consolidated in the southern Netherlands, where the representation of hunting scenes constituted one of the most recurrent and appreciated genres from the Baroque until well into the XVIII century. This type of compositions responded to the taste of the aristocracy and the well-to-do bourgeoisie for the exaltation of country life, man's dominion over nature and the representation of activities linked to noble leisure.
In Flemish painting, the hunting scene is not conceived solely as a narrative episode, but as a visual spectacle combining dynamism, landscape and courtly life. In this work, the composition is organized into two clearly differentiated zones: on the right, a river that introduces depth and serenity into the landscape; and on the left, a group of hunters on horseback that brings movement and dramatic tension to the scene. This balanced arrangement is characteristic of the school, which tended to structure space through hallmarks between open nature and human action.
The Flemish School of the 18th century inherited from the great Baroque masters such as Peter Paul Rubens the taste for compositional dynamism, chromatic richness and the representation of scenes of great vitality. Although with the passage of time these works tended to soften their initial dramatism, they maintained their interest in the detailed description of the landscape and the narration of aristocratic activities such as hunting, horseback riding or outdoor festivities.