Finally home in the bush from an intense and very interesting visit stretching over several weeks to Paris and Northern Italy: The first impressions I would like to share from this journey is about a little gem of a museum called La Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature: that is, the museum of hunting and nature. www.chassenature.org
Located in a beautiful mansion in the fashionable Marais - where we stayed, of course;) - this museum is an intentionally strange museum, which the readers of my earlier post will know is just my thing;)
And what about these creatures: 
And here, facing the Grey European Wolf – on parquetted imported hardwood floor floating with Persian carpets we find the Stunning and Dignified Stag…
It is an amazing job the taxidermists have done on these creatures… and the approach behind the display is stunning: The Wolf and the Stag facing each other in a Very Posh salon… Both animals are positioned in front of large tapestries depicting allegorical hunting scenes - can you see the stag in the 15th C tapestry directly behind it? and with corresponding paintings on the walls and a very comfy seating area in the middle of the room it gives you the peace and quiet and space to read the very good descriptions on separate information leaflets leaving you with a very properly rendered historical and philosophical context for the images we see around us.
I just loved this place.
Created as an offspring of the foundation “Fondation de la Chasse et de la Nature” in 1964 by the famuos conservationist and industrialist couple Francois and Jaqueline Sommer it had a twofold aim: one to support and inspire ethical hunting that respects the balance in nature and secondly to show the vast collection of hunted related artworks and objects the couple had collected.
The collection is enriched with loans from many other nature and art-related institutions as well as embellished with modern pieces. Together the mix create an eclectic, intelligent and humourous combination that want you to stay on and on reading, exploring, feeling, thinking…. The contrast to the elegant surroundings of the mansion, The Hotel de Guenegaud (app. 1650, attributed to the architect Francois Mansart) which, at the beginning of the project was in a sorry state of disrepair, is intentional: the restoration project had as a goal to “recreate” the decor of a typical eighteenth-century collector and wow how it does that well. Being a “work in progress” so to speak it is not a fixed set of displays – rather, the institution strive to embrace recent and truly up to date and contemporary ideas related to both art, philospohy and conservation within a genuine historical context, and it is therefore able to show the relevance of history as well as remining us about the neverending possibility for freshness in an istitutional approach that should get the juices flowing for anyone related to the public sphere:) (Hear! Hear!)
Let us look at this typical “Trophy” room. It is kinda scary, but also impressive…I had to allow it to sink in for awhile before embracing it. I would, for instance, like to point your attention to the VERY contemporary ceiling treatment – just one of those quirky touches that leaves us – or at least me! with an impression of freshness to this collection that would otherwise have felt both stuffy and depressive given the fact that all these animals have lost their lives due to the personal eagerness to show off importance and social status through mastering the life and death of other living beings, holding them captivated even after their death… But that is all done oh so long time ago and it IS remarcably done so lets put the current politically correct moral aspect aside for now to allow us to indulge in the visual experience of the place: Personally I would have liked the ceiling frescoe to have been a little more coherent designwise as I feel venerance towards these creatures even in their aftermath and it is to hope that another artist with less of a degree of distance to the subject matter surrounding him will be given the task in the future to mirror the collection in a less visually confrontational way. (Me, for instance;)!) Equally, or even more impressive is the display of artefacts connected to the hunting
this image show one of many different original dog collars used in hunting – the spikes is to prevent the dog from being killed by suffocation by wolves: they were also wearing heavily quilted vests made out of horse hair to protect them from the razor-sharp tusks of the Boar…. Wow!
The collection shows the part hunting has played in civilization– mostly Western - but it also higlights the evolution of the status of wild animals in the human mind – always a fascinating subject. From the ancient veneration of Predators as animals to be feared as well as respected, to the veneration of the Wild Boar as the Ultimate hunting Subject only for the Experienced Craftsman to dare going after (the favourite object of hunt for the Roman Goddess Diane), the hierarcy of animals in the mind of people shifted quite abruptly with the advent of Christianity. The Wolf, especially, was seen as Evil incarnated due to its preying of lambs, the image of Christ, and no means however cruel and lowly was allowed in its persecution. On the opposite end, the Stag, with its antlers falling off and growing back was seen as equivalent to the resurrection of Christ, and its 10 points the equivalent of the 10 Commandments and therefore the hunting of this animal took on Very Dignified proportions … which we can see in the care, dilligence and artistic wonders the hunting tools were shaped.
Later development, particularily the advent of Humanism, moved animals away in Western conception from being Creatures of Divine making (albeit underlying Mans dominance) to pure Utilitarian consideration. The usefulness of the Domestic animals came to the forefront, with the Dog as its most useful, lojal and therefore Dignified of Creatures.
Jeff Koons contemporaty Terrier sculpture in porcelaine on marble top table with 17 century fox hunting trumpet in front next to it, 18th century hunting hound portrait on the wall in the background.
The historical descriptions given on the information leaflets together with the actual displays of genuine historical artefacts was an eye opener to me. I am reasonably well read in European Intellectual history as well as in Philosophy (apologize already now for a later rambling indulgence); I think I have mentioned somewhere that did one semester studying Classical Mythology in Rome pairing it with art history and literature -Classical as well as Baroque to get a better grasp of allegorical representations of Mythological subjects in writing, architecture and Arts- but coming from a rather Barbarian country, who – thanx heavens – (and sorry if I offend someone!) –have kept their love and closeness to the wilderness somewhat intact - never really have had the opportunity before now to see this amazing wealth of artifacts combined with the scientific understanding juxtaposed and contextualized in the historical setting – and place! - in the way they manage to do here (Rome is WONDERFUL, but it is, after all, the city where the Vatican is placed… so they do not overdo the Scientific approach to things, do they, competing for positions at the Papal Court … sorry again…))
Allow me to take one example that for me helped to put things into context and grabbed my attention.
Have a look at this painting. It seems a bit oversweet and kinda… kitchy, no? I walked by giving it no special attention, but as I grabbed one of the forementioned explanation sheets and put myself comfortable to read (yes, I did spend about 5-6 hours there, and I DID read it all…) I nearly jumped out of my comfy sofa to get a closer look (and take this photo)
This image, Ladies and Gentlemen, however overly… posed? we might find it now, is one of the very first painting of an animal showing emotions. It is a genuine response to the new sensitivety towards animals, and a true expression of a release from symbolic prepresentations of the world. Amazing, isn’t it?! Of course, what caused this shift in sensibility was a complex process strenghtened by the creation of the public sphere and the informed reader through Gutenbergs printing press and later newspapers; the growth of a middle class, the shift from drinks to alcoholic to non alcoholic beverages etc etc through the coffee houses that we all know almost by heart and ad infinitum and so forth and of course the great shift in economical prosperity that made Individualism a way of life possible for a vastly larger number of people than anytime possible in the History and the Colonializations etc etc (sorry if I am lecturing just my head is full of these things so …) all this made some very important aspects of Renee Descartes (1596-1650) philosophy being met with a public outcry (you know, the Cogito ergo sum which severs the bond to religious worldviews and unravel the Authoritarian hegemony to knowledge etc etc which opens up for a total Materialism etc etc… sorry again but is is important to keep these aspects somewhere in the back of the mind to get things right here).
Descartes wrote that animals could not feel suffering. His writings have been used / and someplace still are / as a justification to use animals in testing. Now, this might be my own mistake, but somehow it has evaded me through the reading until now that this postulate was objected against so strongly already in his contemporary time – and for sure this is the first time I see it mentioned and oh so well illustrated - from dog owners!!
Now these obviously Bourgeouise readers who equally obviously belonged to the fashionable circle of “modernist” subscription readers of his writings came to protest very loudly and publicly when he denied that animals could feel suffering. They were attentive to canine behaviour and they found in their pets and hunting companions an acute ability to express feelings and emotions that shook the foundation of a worldview that placed Men above Nature.
And so it was that the New Modern Man - and Woman – found themselves not only accompanied by feeling beasts and companions worthy of respect and loving care: but also the sexes found themselves in company of fellow human beings with whom they could share feelings, thoughts and emotions on a scale and in depth never before being experienced – but that is a subject which will have to wait. Let me just mention already now that this development has been the subject of a whole range of books including one,especially, of 43 books and hundreds if not thousands of articles written by the now forgotten writer and literature critic Hjalmar Elster Christensen (1869-1925) – my Great Grandfather on the maternal side -on the evolution of Human Emotions through the Enlightenment age (his dissertation was on the writings of Flaubert).
Until now I did not get it. Your Humble Writer has diligently worked her way through most of his writings, but due to lack of proper insight in the French side of things (and he was VERY much into continental philosophy and literature) I could not get hold of the flavour of it, so to speak. It is a little bit better now, but there is still a LOT of work to be done to get it right.
Perhaps it will be possible to frame my dissertation on Individualism at one point after some more reading and ramblings after all? that would be nice….
thank you for reading! Now go gardening of which I will post something about later;)
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