ridinger gallery niemeyer: Johann Elias Ridinger, The Confirming of the Noble Stag with the Leader (Th. 16)

“ … pay painstaking attention to the scent ”

Ridinger makes Professionell Stag Hunters

A Classic Instruction Motif of Hunting

as an absolute Uniqueness

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Confirming of the Noble Stag with the Leader. While in front three hunters still discuss the scent and instruct their two hounds a fourth one already lets his one follow the royal stag standing in the wood at long lead. Etching with engraving. Ca. 1729. Inscribed: Ioh. El. Ridinger inv. pinx. sc. et exc. A. V. / avec priv. de sa M. Imp. 30.5 x 23.4 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 16; Stubbe, 1966, plate 3; Blüchel, Die Jagd, 1996, vol. II, p. 80. – One of the eight smaller-sized sheets of the instructive educational set of the “Princely Hunting Pleasure” as the earliest one of the great hunting sets of the œuvre now executed in copper by Ridinger himself. – With extensive subtext in German/French :

“ The hunter so he wants to confirm a noble stag shall start early in the morning and go to the forest with his leader, keeping the latter on the short or long lead each according to the situation and letting run it before himself. If the scent is fresh or not a well versed hunter will know by his leader. Then pay painstaking attention on the scent and all the marks left behind. So he then notices that the hound draws strongly and fierily so he shall track the noble stag and pay careful attention on the droppings, too, if it is still fresh and what he has grazed. So he finds a 2^nd or 3^rd scent he shall prove which will be the most interesting and if the stag is fit for hunting. But

above all he must well understand his leader and trust it more than the wind

and take care that the leader holds the nose on the scent, otherwise it’s a great fault.

La Quéte du Cerf

Le Veneur, ayant frotté avec du bon vinaigre le naseaux de on limier, pour lui aiguiser l’odorat, entre dans les bois de bon matin, la rosée en etant presque abbattüe, tenant devant lui son Chien attaché `a une longe, pour le retenier en ses grandes ardeurs et l’empecher de sortir hors de voyes et de tomber en defaut: Ayant rencontre d’un Cerf, il prendra garde, s’il va de bon tems, de quoi s’etant asseure, il tache de le rendre au couvert et de le rembucher. ”

“ … the setting up and design of the hunt (however)

belonged to the artistic jobs of the 18^th century ”

(so in a 1991 exhibition catalogue of the Hamburg Art Gallery commenting on a Ridinger item).

The hunt in the age of Ridinger thus arthistorically no longer understood separately on its own, separate thus also not Ridinger himself as its mere protagonist, but seen as standing in closest context with the century as a whole. Thereby, however, its undisputed Grand Master no longer stands for simply the hunt, but just for a whole epoch. With all the challenge for research which inevitably results from this. And also results from it as at the same place

“ the engraved , etched , and mezzotinted work of Ridinger

is compared as equal-ranking

to the major graphic works of the 18^th century . ”

That is, literally:

“ As Piranesi addressed those interested in the ancient , Hogarth the civic common sense by their works (likewise) annotated by engraved explanations, Ridinger doubtless had the interest of the courts and the nobility on his side . ”

Ref. no. 14,994 / in stock – not catalogued / request description & offer