A Bear in a Winter Landscape 1737

Philipp Ferdinand de Hamilton painted this ‘Bear in a Winter Landscape’ sometime in the late 17th or early 18th century. In an era when royal patronage and the aristocratic lifestyle were becoming more and more important for artists, pictures of animals like this one served a specific social purpose. In previous centuries, hunting had been vital for gathering food. By the 1600s, it had evolved into a recreational sport, but still retained some of its aristocratic associations. The courtly life of kings and nobles in the Germanic states depended on vast hunting estates. Paintings of animals and the hunt were commissioned to celebrate their power and status. Hamilton was known for his animal paintings. A close look at his other works and the history of the courtly culture he was a part of can shed light on the social function of such images and how they reinforced the status quo.