Diana and her nymphs
These two pictures were painted by Rubens for the figures, and Brueghel de Velours for the landscape and animals. They constitute rare small formats in the work of the great Flemish master. The pack of Archduchess Isabella of Austria, regent of the Netherlands, was used as a model for painting the pack accompanying Diana. Some of the dogs wear a jaque, a kind of padded coat, intended to protect them from the fangs of wolves or the tusks of boars.
This detail, as well as the heterogeneous character of a pack composed of molosses and large greyhounds, suggests that these paintings are situated in the context of a hunt. These techniques consist in confronting a captive game in an enclosure where it has been brought down with the help of powerful dogs. These hunting techniques were the most popular in European courts in the modern era.
