This beautiful illumination comes from the Livre de chasse, which was authored by Gaston III, Count of Foix between 1387 to 1389 and dedicated to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. The book is in four parts, ‘On Gentle and Wild Beasts’, ‘On the Nature and Care of Dogs’, ‘On Instructions for Hunting with Dogs’, ‘On … More Hunting Hounds
This close up photo of a dappled grey greyhound is from a Spanish manuscript stating King James II of (various parts of) Spain’s law codes for Aragon at the end of the 13th century. The greyhound is extremely detailed for its size, with the artist noting the dog’s nostrils, eyelids and rib cage. Although stylised, … More A monk’s dog
Above is a photograph of an illustrated page from Ptolemy’s Almagest, first written in 150CE, although this copy was clearly produced much later! It depicts the constellations of canis major and canis minor and apparently served as an astronomer’s and astrologist’s guide book. It was first translated in Latin in the 12th century (according the The … More Ptolemy’s Canis Major and Canis Minor
Solomon ben Isaac, Pentateuch with Targum Onkelos and Rashi’s commentary (ff. 1-272), Five Scrolls (Hamesh megillot; ff. 273-311v) and Haftarot(ff. 312-381) with Rashi’s commentary (detail) France; 14th century. See link for more details: (http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=52590) This manuscript extract, from the British Library, is written in Hebrew (?) and dates from the 1300s in France. I don’t … More Solomon’s Dog
Jan van Eyck (1390 – 1441) painted this work, The Arnolfini Portrait, (1434). “This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, but is not intended as a record of their wedding. His wife is not pregnant, as is often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress in the contemporary fashion. Arnolfini … More The Arnolfini’s dog
Zhu Zhanji (1399 – 1435), also known as Emperor Xuande of China during the Ming dynasty, painted Two Saluki Hounds around 1427. His other paintings include Gibbons at Play (1427) and Fish and Water Weeds (undated) but who cares if no dogs are in it?!
Caravaggio's Dog 