The dog in Indian art
The Mughal emperors of India regarded hunting as an important pastime. Akbar (1542-1605)
is shown here hunting Indian antelope with Saluki-type hounds.
Archived page from janumoon's beautiful dog pages.
THE EARLIEST EUROPEAN image of dogs and dog-like animals are found in cave paintings in Spain -these have existed for over 12,000 years. By the time Egyptian wall paintings and hieroglyphics were being produced 6,600 years ago, distinctive breeds had appeared, which were similar to today's greyhounds and mastiffs. Later, spitz - and terruer-type digs were also depicted. In classical Greek art, stylized images of dogs appeared on both pottery and sculpture. Today, images of the dog appear in art forms throughout the world.
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The dog in Indian art |
The hunt in 18th-century Europe |
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The dog was frequently depicted in Greek art - images included Cerberus, the
three-headed hound, guarding the entrance to the underworld, and the Virgin Goddess of the
Chase, Diana, accompained by hunting hounds. Portraits of dogs abounded, but by Roman
times portraiture had nearly disappeared. With the deline of Rome's influence and the
spread of Christianity across Europe, images of the dog were rarely seen is European art,
although miniatures of dogs appeared in illuminated manuscripts such as Les Tres
Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. By 1066, the dog was again in favour, as tapestry
illustrations of the period demonstrate. The Bayeux Tapestry, for example, shows King
Harold of England setting our with a hawking party and five collared dogs. 
The dog in medieval times(left)
The luttrell Psalter abounds in delightful details, such as this dog jumpin through a
hoop. These marginal illustrations give rare insight into the everyday medieval world.
The domestic dog(right)
In this 17th-century Italian painting, the dog is included as the central figure of a
domestic scene. 
Dogs in satire(left)
The Victorian artist Sir Edwin Landseer combined anecdote and anthroponorphism in popular
depictions of the dog.
During the Renaissance period, detailed portaits of the dog appeared in mythological,
allegorical, ande religious art throughout Europe, as an adjunct to the main subject.
Titian (c. 1487-1576), in his portrait entitled Giovanni dell'Acquaviva, depicted
a pensive, retriever-type dog with superb realism. Veronese (1528-88) accurately painted
small, spaniel-type dogs, greyhounds, and Saluki-like gazehounds, but always as detail,
never as main subject matter. Leonardo da Vinci produced detailed anatomical studies of
the dog, but more as a scientist than as an artist. In Spain, both Anotonio Moro (1517-75)
and Diego Velasquez (1599-1660) depicted dogs in portraiture, particularly in the company
of children.
In northern Europe, too, the dog appeared in many paintings. The great Flemish painter Jan
Van Eyck (1390-1441) portayed a sparky griffon terrier in The Marriage of Giovanni
Arnolfini and Givoanna Cenami. Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) painted anatomically superb
greyhounds and hunting hounds in The Vision of St. Hubert.
In France, Alexandre-Francois Desportes (1661-1743), the official Jean-Baptiste Oudry
(1686-1755), who foolowed him in the court of Louis XV, produced very colourful dog
paintings. 
The dog in Egyptian art
This Egyptian scene, in which a hyena is being chased by dogs, was sketched on limestone
between 1555 and 1080 BC.
By the beginning of the 18th century, animal portraiture was becoming increasingly
popular. British animal portraiture reached its apogee in the anatomically detailed works
of George Stubbs (1724-1806), in the naturalism of Thomas Grainsborough (1727-88), and
especially in the romantic drama of Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-73). In the United States,
folk art recounts the history of that nation. Itinerant portrait painters travelled from
town to town, gaining cmmissions from wealthy families. Dogs were portrayed in many of
these paintings, often resting at the feet of the artists' subjects, Amni Phillips, ane of
the most successful of these painters, used the same resting dog in many of his portraits,
including Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog (c. 1834). Folk painters also
captured the relationship between African Americans and their dogs. In Hauling the
Whole Week's Picking (c. 1842), William Henry Brown depicted a scene in which both
the dog and its owners are weary. 
Dog portraiture
Many a proud dog owner in the 18th century would have aspired to have their pet lovingly
delineated, as here by the French artist L.L. Boilly.
Both in Europe and America, the romantic vision of the dog continued into this century.
Impressionists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1840-1919) produced works like Tama, the
Japanese Dog, which portrayed the dog as cuddly fluff while others, such as Henri
Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), in Bouboule: Mme. Palmyre's Bulldog, sketched the
dog as an extension of the owner's personality.
Modernism subjected the dog to all of its most outrageous experiments. Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973) used them as cutouts; Otto Dix (1891-1969) made them as grotesque as the
people he painted; Joan Miro (1893-1993) turned them into surreal and rather sinister
images, while Alberto Giacometti (1901-66), in his sculptures, simpl turned the dog inside
out. Realism prevailed in North America, where two artists emrged - Andrew Wyeth (b. 1917)
in the United States and Alex Colville (b.1920) in Canada. Their dog paintings demonstrate
the hardships of a natural world that is seldom benevolent.
Other 20th-century artists, including comic-strip caricaturist Roy Lichtenstein,
emotionally detached Andy Warhol, boldly visual Alex Katz, and natural David Hockney, have
all used the dog as a vehicle through which they can protray their feeling. The dog will
undoubedly continue to flourish in the future of art. 
Hunting companion
In this medieval Flemish tapestry, the dog is portrayed as a companion in the hunt.