Hunting in Art [antikvár]

"f J < I 1 I ;, 1 f ' r , , ' ; • : ; ^ , -t i, J . i . I . I . I I ' , ; I I • . I • I . • ' I ' I ' ' - ' : I I . ! • • (. I, .1 ' I ¦ , I ' ; 'i:' ' ' . ¦ ^, ¦ ' M ' Hunting, which in primitive times was an activity necessary for survival, is today a sport, moreover a sport whose pursuit may further national economic Interests. It takes a certain amount of theoretical knowledge (e.g. in zoology) and practical skill to engage in this activity on the proper level. Since it is a sport, it has Its own ethics, and Is only practised by those who love It and have a passion for this particular kind of outdoor activity. This passion is an ancient one, in fact as old as love Itself. Those who have lost this ancient instinct will regard the whole thing with a total lack of comprehension. They don't see the need for hunting and they probably won't see the need for this book either. The fact is though, that they will be missing out on an interesting paradox: that It Is thnaks to the hunters that wild-life survived up to the twentieth century. It was the hunters who brought into being the game preserves, whereas it was the farmers who exterminated the last survivors of, for instance, the European wild horse in the last third of the nineteenth century, just to add a few acres to their holdings. Of course as man changed, so the ethics of hunting also evolved and developed, and today we read with something less than enthusiasm the Mesopotamian inscriptions which pay effusive tribute to the ruler for having bagged a thousand lions, or the similarly gushy reports of loyal supporters of late medieval monarchs on the wild-game massacres of their lord. One approach to hunting is that it is the meeting of man and game in nature, with man aiming to capture the game, alive or dead—In some cases merely for study, to learn about the animal's habits and way of life, a knowledge which may prove useful in the realization of future undertakings. Of course, one can meet with live animals elsewhere, for instance In the zoo or In a circus; but under such altered conditions their natural attributes will not be so evident as In their usual habitat. Hunting in art is first of all the portrayal of the bagging; but this Is only one part of the subject. Pictures or objects of art which depict only one of the two parties to the act—either the hunter