Stag Hunt

In this painting, the artist captured the dramatic moment of the stag hunt, when the animal is being driven by dogs and beaters towards the viewer. The spectator thus participates in this popular amusement, reserved for noblemen. It was precisely the courtiers and the Emperor himself, who probably commissioned Savery’s paintings of hunting themes, painted mostly during his stay in Prague. The dynamic composition impresses as a lively experience, observed in reality. The traditional scheme of three spatial planes is enriched by an impressive use of light, which is focused on the centre of the painting, featuring the fleeing animals, and other parts are thus overshadowed. Savery drew his motifs from the forests in Prague’s surroundings - the Royal Game Reserve, Divoká (Wild) Šárka valley or the Křivoklát Castle region. This work was dated into the period between 1610 and 1612. The same composition, but with a different staffage, was used as a model for the copper engraving by Aegidius Sadeler.