Giovanni Battista Viola, 'Landscape with a Hunting Party', early 17th century
About the work
Overview
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.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Landscape with a Hunting Party
- Artist
- Giovanni Battista Viola
- Artist dates
- 1576 - 1622
- Date made
- early 17th century
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 96.6 × 135.3 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Holwell Carr Bequest, 1831
- Inventory number
- NG63
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Michael Levey, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1986Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1986
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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