Missing within the Graphic Œuvre
The Hunt with the Mating Call
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). (To Whistle the Roe! or How the Roes are shot at the Breast.) On the right at the beginning of a sloping course the roebuck making the death-bound
– “ … the moments of a flight , a runaway after the shot , and the like
are represented masterly ”
(Franz von Kobell as a “true huntsman” [ADB], 1865) – ,
the doe behind it looking up in surprise. On the left within the thicket under a tree the hunter along with the baiting assistant still pointing the gun with outlined line of fire ( sic! ) . Wooded scenery, in front right below the roes a water with a dead tree-trunk sunk in. Pen and brown ink and wash. On the subtext mounted on verso
inscribed in brown pen
Johan(n) Elias Ridinger inv. et del: 1758 -.
otherwise as before and following. 214 x 361 mm.
Large-sized drawing not executed in copper
thematically complementing the “ Princes’ Hunting Pleasures ”,
although in regard of the pure image size remaining behind the oblong format of which, namely ca. 5 cm in the height and ca. 4 cm in the width, but like those with 6-line explanation (in German) of the procedure, too:
“ (One takes the outer bark from birches, makes thereon a call of two voices like the doe when it is alarmed for its fawns, but the call must be right far off and pure. Now when in such a place where the roebucks stay in oneself lies in wait, so the latter will appear shortly, especially if the roebuck does not have a doe with it. But the hunter must get very ready for shot for they turn about quickly and abscond if they notice the merest or get wind so that it is need that one take the shooting stand below the wind. For the call could taken also leaves of apple, beech, and pear, but the bark of the birch is the best.) ”
Irrespective of both the thematic and textual nearness to the Princes’ Hunting Pleasure worked only about 30 years after this, the drawing obviously not belonged to the extremely voluminous bequest of ca. 1849 drawings J. A. G. Weigel in Leipsic took over in 1830 and enlarged in the following time. Compare hereto both Thienemann pp. 271 ff. and Weigel’s 1869 Catalog of the Bequeathed Collection of Drawings, pp. 181-231 (1869). But neither provable, too, within other renown collections of drawings.
So the fully executed work here seems to have been handed over still by Ridinger himself or soon after him. This not least – see below – supported by a remarkable presentation. For which also the inscription along with the text could have been trimmed and mounted at the back for the purpose of optical adaptation with a pendant regarding the still hunt with the hollow pot which got in here, too, but without any letters.
Conceivable besides their purpose for a series, not brought to an end, of hunting by bait analogously to the Ways to capture the Wild Animals of 1750. So the said stag drawing illustrates the call of the rutting stag by means of the hollow pot. A theme as it is already known from a drawing in upright format in a Bavarian collection, likewise not known in the graphic œuvre, too, and also without inscription.
Such sets of different extent not at all unknown within Ridinger’s drawings and mostly to be proven by same dates, partly even serial numbering, generally however by similar size and same outward creation each time.
It shall be reminded in this connection of the small set Th. 269-271 + 281 within the engraved Wondrous Stags. In respect of their size and arrangement of the figures, also their several frame lines and arched upper border they form a group for themselves deviating from the general picture scheme there as already criticized by Thienemann and correspondingly considered in the new editions since Engelbrecht.
Finally relating to Ridinger’s intention explained within his preface to the Princes’ Hunting Pleasure “to show all kinds and manners of hunting … also the trace or scent of every game … thus to strive for giving this work a right perfection” that 36-sheet set, so highly important regarding the practice of hunting, at least remained a torso. For only in the course of decades he kept his promise by sets designed partly totally differently: (Thorough Description and Presentation of the Wild Animals, with the small traces, 1733; Illustration of the Fair Game, with the large traces, 1740; Ways to capture the Wild Animals of 1750, and the Falconers set). The latter two – and all the more Par force Hunt and The Fair Game Hounded by the Different Kinds of Hounds – to be mentioned already only just limitedly because their thematic, although not exhaustively, is depicted already in the Princes’ Hunting Pleasure.
In every respect overlooked, however,
the so exceedingly charming hunt with the mating call ,
now proven by the drawing(s) here for roebuck baiting (and hollow pot)
originally obviously thought for a greater work .
Trimmed at the fine borderline in brown ink and, quite possibly already contemporarily, mounted by old on laid paper with border washed in green and lined by fine lines in brown ink. The drawing additionally lined by a narrow streak of gilt paper. The whole in its turn mounted on laid paper laminated repeatedly whose margin is washed in black. The inscription mounted at the back – quite top left at the edge of the paper, originally thus on the left directly below of the borderline – together with subtext with only plain mounting under addition of a further black and omission of the gold lining braided likewise. Within the lining three wormholes coming from back as well as a tender, little perceptible trace only on the front in the image center. An even browness caused by mounting affecting less the effect of the image than rather imparting to it a very fine authentic patina. Shortly,
a drawing worked up for special presentation
documenting Ridinger’s esteem ,
additionally not omnipresent because not engraved .
And , still more , in respect of the practice of hunting
for Ridinger almost a unique of together optical splendor .
Offer no. 28,909 / price on request
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(Mr. L. A. F., March 11 and 1 resp., 2001)