Jacques Callot

In this wide, horizontal composition, Callot depicted many hunting procedures and devices, including a net in the middle distance, set to trap the stag being chased toward it in the center by a large group of horsemen and dogs. All eyes follow the downward slope of the landscape, guided by the pointing figure of a horseman on the right, the angled spears of two figures on the left, and a runaway horse in the near middle distance. Callot divided the picture plane into six principal tonal values using several stages of etching, darkly framing the foreground with heavier, broader, and denser lines and intimating distant atmosphere with the delicate, lightly-bitten lines of the faraway hilltop castle.