Landscape with a Hunting Party

Artist: Giovanni Battista Viola (Italian, 1576 - 1622)

Original Dimensions: 38" x 53 1/4"

Location: National Gallery of Art, London

About Artwork: (Early 17th century) "This painting is typical of Giovanni Battista Viola, who specialised in landscapes with hunting and fishing scenes. Here, in a woodland clearing, a hunter dressed in yellow lets his dogs drink from a stream, while another sounds a horn to gather the hunting party. Smartly dressed figures on horseback ride toward him. Although the figures and action are concentrated in the foreground, subtle areas of light and shadow, along with details like the herds of animals and the building with a smoking chimney, guide our eye towards the distant mountains. With its companion piece, Landscape with a River and Boats, the painting entered the National Gallery’s collection as by Annibale Carracci, whose studio Viola may have joined in Rome during the early 1600s. Viola is known to have worked with Domenichino and Francesco Albani on the decorative paintings in the Palazzo Giustiniani during this period, and these pictures perhaps hung above the doors in one of its rooms." - (National Gallery of Art, London)