Head of a Hound

Head of a HoundPieter Boel was a Flemish artist with a special interest in hunting scenes and game pieces. He moved to Paris after 1668, where he designed many pieces for the Gobelins tapestry factory the Louvre contains dozens of his vivid animal sketches. This study of the head of a hound (probably a study used by Boel for his 'Boar Hunt' at the Schloss in Mosigkau) has always startled with its realism and textural brilliance. Its recent conservation a simple

a ladybird and other insects

a landscape with sheep in the background

Arent de Gelder

rather a burst of light in the top corner as if the moon is just breaking through the clouds

and he was always famous for his horses

in which he was a colleague of William Cartwright the younger

Jupiter vanquished his father and forced Saturn to disgorge his brothers and sisters

is in character with many of Poussin's early paintings

Bt Agnew (subsequent provenance: London

attributed to the older master

survives in the Royal Armouries at Madrid

At the left edge are the hand holding a balance and part of the drapery of a figure of Saint Michael trampling the Devil (whose forearm appears at the bottom)