The Pursuit of Love

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Summary

This interdisciplinary paper examines seventeenth‐century Dutch paintings depicting the theme of elegant hunting parties at rest. The most recent explanation of Dutch hunting imagery holds that these pictures reflect the aspirations of affluent buyers who wanted to associate themselves with something normally considered an aristocratic pursuit for hunting was a strictly regulated sport generally limited to the nobility. While this hypothesis may to some extent be valid for the theme under consideration here, it overlooks a long tradition associating hunting and love. This tradition can be ultimately linked to the writings of Petrarch who enjoyed an enormous reputation in the seventeenth‐century Dutch Republic.