The Boar Hunt

A group of hunters, some on horseback and others on foot, attack a wild boar. The hunters' dogs join in the attack, whilst two horsewomen look on approvingly. In the background a man blows a bugle.

This and its companion, 'Return from the Hunt', are not allegories of Europe and Asia respectively, as was once thought, but are a pair of gallant hunting scenes.

In the painting Parrocel may well have borrowed figures from engravings of hunting scenes by Antonio Tempesta and after Rubens.

Their magnificent frames decorated with carved animal heads are of the period 1710-30.