(Danzig 1630–circa 1703 L’Aquila)
Dogs attacking a stag,
oil on canvas, 56.5 x 80 cm, framed

We are grateful to Alberto Crispo for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph and for his help in cataloguing the present lot.

We are also grateful to Filippo Ferro for independently confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high-resolution digital photograph.

The painting represents the final stages of a stag hunt when hunting dogs are gaining on an animal attempting to escape: it kicks off one of its pursuers. The scene reveals influences typical of the Northern European school of painting with its frequent representation of hunting subjects, and the realistic depiction of settings, together with a detailed depiction of the anatomy of the animals.

The present work can be compared to other works by Ruthart, most notably the four paintings formerly in the Strozzi collection, Florence, which contained a veritable repertoire of animals that the painter variously reintroduced into his complex compositions. In the scene representing a leopard assaulting a stag offered at Christie’s New York (14 April 2016, lot 320) the stag is shown in a similar form as it is in the comparable subject conserved in Palazzo Pitti, Florence. Also typical of the painter is the setting of the scene in a rocky landscape with shrubbery and grasses such as in the Fight between Lions over the carcass of a Stag (see G. Bocchi, U. Bocchi, Pittori di natura morta a Roma. Artisti stranieri 1630-1750, Viadana 2005, p. 112, figs. CR 14-15; figs. 6-7).

Ruthart’s paintings were recorded in the Venetian inventories of the Giustiniani and Schulenburg collections, as well as in those of the Esterházy in Budapest and the Liechtenstein in Vienna.