The Stag Hunt

The Stag Hunt at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow (c.1600) is one of several late versions of Cranach's hunt composition that circulated through the European aristocratic and collector market after the Cranach workshop continued operations under his son Lucas Cranach the Younger. The Burrell Collection, assembled by the Glasgow shipbuilder Sir William Burrell in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, represents one of the great eclectic private collections of European art in Scotland, and its holding of this work reflects the accessibility of Cranach workshop paintings to Victorian-era collectors. Hunt paintings celebrated aristocratic culture and the mastery of nature, themes with perennial appeal across the social changes of subsequent centuries. The c.1600 date suggests this was produced by the workshop in the generation after Cranach the Elder, maintaining the compositional type while adapting technique to the changing demands of late sixteenth-century patronage.

The hunt scene is presented in a panoramic format with the action distributed across the picture space. Cranach's characteristic precise draughtsmanship and his attention to the specific breeds of hound and the appearance of the stag give the scene documentary as well as decorative value.