The Arrival of the Princely Carriage at the Starting Point of the Hunt

Johann Elias Ridinger German

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This drawing is the model for one etching in a series of sixteen by Ridinger called The Coursing Hunt for Stag. This type of hunt, which lasted for hours, consisted of large parties of riders on horseback with packs of hounds, and was extremely popular with the European aristocracy in the eighteenth century. Here, Prince Wolf Freiherr von Metternich and his wife, their pet dog, and their two attendants arrive in a carriage drawn by six stallions and accompanied by the driver, outriders, and various footmen. Dispersed in the park around them are the hunters awaiting their arrival to begin, while in the middle ground a rider with a whip, perhaps the master of the hounds, heads toward the packs to get them ready.

The Arrival of the Princely Carriage at the Starting Point of the Hunt, Johann Elias Ridinger (German, Ulm 1698–1767 Augsburg), Pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, over a sketch in graphite or black chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink (lower and right edge) and graphite (upper edge)

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