Sculpture

Deer Hunting

Description

carved partly in the round, perhaps once part of a door jamb or staircase judging by the drill holes at either ends, one small split in number two recently filled (just left of front paws of dog), extremely good condition.

Provenance

This pair of rare and imposing solid oak elements depict two moments of a hunt. The first stages the sigthing of a majestic stag emerging from a very deeply carved wood, whilst the second shows one of the dogs biting at the heels of a deer which has its tongue hanging out and is about to go down. At the same time another animal, perhaps a rabbit, disappears down its hole.

The mixture of realism and stylisation (of the leaves) and the style of the deer place this group probably in the second half of the 16th century, in Northern France or the Ardennes.