Wolf and Fox Hunt

Painted around 1616, Wolf and Fox Hunt by Peter Paul Rubens and his workshop was the first in a new kind of painting the artist essentially invented: the monumental hunting scene on canvas. With characteristic business instinct, Rubens realized that a large painted hunt could replace the far more expensive medium of woven tapestry in the homes of Europe's elite — and this canvas launched a series of such works that would occupy him for the next five years. The composition erupts with movement: mounted huntsmen, straining dogs, and a tangle of wolves and foxes locked in violent combat, rendered with the theatrical energy that defines Rubens's Baroque style. He worked with a team of studio assistants on the figures and landscape, but insisted on painting the wolves entirely himself — a detail he was proud enough of to record. The canvas was so large in its original form that a later owner had it trimmed simply to fit the walls of his home, reportedly remarking that "none but great Pri