Борзая, ловящая молодого кабана

Snyders painted this around 1620 in Antwerp, where he was the man other artists called on when a picture needed animals. He worked often beside Rubens, adding the dogs, game and fruit to Rubens's large canvases, and here he takes a hunt to its sharpest instant on his own. A lean greyhound has run down a young wild boar and seized it, the two bodies locked together in the struggle. Snyders knew animal anatomy closely and balances the whole thing in strong light and deep shadow. Scenes of the chase like this hung in the dining halls of wealthy Flemish houses, a taste for the hunt turned into decoration. Even within his large output of hunts and market stalls, this tight single-combat picture stands somewhat apart.