Page 24 - (DK) The Dog Encyclopedia

INTRODUCTION TO DOGS | DOGS IN ART AND ADVERTISING

Dogs in art and advertising

HOGARTH
WITH HIS PET
PUG, TRUMP
Drawn and painted, sculpted, woven into tapestries, photographed, used as company logos:
dogs have had visual appeal for the entire span of their association with humans. In almost
every type of medium, they tell stories without words, say something about their owners
or the people who portray them, and reflect the lifestyles and tastes of different ages. Most
people like dogs and enjoy them as subjects in art. Commercial organizations have long
relied on this unfailing attraction by using dog images to promote goods and services.

PORTRAYING DOGS Saharan Africa, believed by some authorities unicorns across medieval tapestries; an
A history of the domestic dog can be traced to be more than 5,000 years old. Dogs, estimated 35 dogs appear in the famous
through the development of art. Probably similar in appearance to today’s greyhounds, Bayeux Tapestry illustrating the Norman
some of the earliest depictions of dogs, in hunted on through the Classical ages of Conquest of Britain, albeit largely confined
their original role as hunting companions, Greece and Rome in superbly rendered to the fringes of the main action. The hunting
are prehistoric rock paintings discovered in sculptures, especially associated with the dog theme continued into the sporting prints
Greek goddess Artemis (Roman Diana). of the 18th century, with their packs of
The best-known Classical dogs are not foxhounds in full cry, and the portraits
hunters, though, but the fierce, chained of gundogs, dead game hanging limply
guard dogs in lifelike mosaics retrieved from their jaws, favored by the 19th-century
from the ashes of Pompeii. In later ages landed shooting fraternity.
slender sight hounds pursued deer and Before dogs became accepted as the norm
in ordinary homes during the 19th century,
they were usually painted as pets only in
Rock carving
From the Neolithic period to the 21st century, dogs have portraits commissioned by the wealthy—
been enjoyed as art subjects. This petroglyph in Youf as companions of aristocrats or in the arms
Ahakit Tassili Ahaggar, Sahara Desert, Algeria, is one of
the earliest depictions. of small beribboned children. But dogs

Ringwood, a Brocklesby Foxhound
This anatomically accurate portrait of a Foxhound painted
by English painter George Stubbs in 1792 reveals how
Foxhounds looked at the time.

Bayeux Tapestry
This section of the Bayeux Tapestry from the 11th century
depicts three large dogs and two smaller ones running
ahead of a huntsman.

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