Departure for the Hunt with Falcons

Hackaert , one of the major Dutch Italianate, travelled from Holland to Switzerland and visits the Alps. While there is no documentary evidence that the artist ever visited Italy, some scholars believe that the conviction of his landscapes evoke the Italian campagna. Both was a major influence on the artist by representing idealized, golden-lit landscapes. A distinctive taste for denser forests with tall, flute-like trees distinguishes Hackaert’s work. His hunting scenes often feature these denser woods, with the rich lighting effects created by the interplay of shadow and sunlight. The depiction of hunting as a refined pastime, associated with the nobility (and restrictively regulated), increasingly became a subject of fascination for the expanding Dutch affluent classes after 1660. A fashionable hunting party, with both sexes present and such extravagances as falcons, and of the walls of the country estate of the participants visible at left with a carriage by the side gate, appealed not only to those privileged members of society but also, vicariously, to affluent burghers.