This unusual, very beautiful and picturesque masterpiece of Paulus Potter is presented in St. Petersburg Hermitage in the halls of German Arts of the XV-XVII cent., Dutch Arts of the XVII cent.

This picture attracts a lot of attention. It’s possible, that the reason of that is unusual stylistic of this picture. This painting is the story about  the hunter and his punishment. People who come to see the paintings of artists of the past, stay a little bit longer in front of this picture.

Paulus Potter is a Dutch painter of the XVII cent., a brilliant representative of the Dutch Painting’s golden age. The masterpiece about which we are talking was painted in 1647. An interesting feature of this picture is that it is devided into 14 parts, which tell a story about a hunter’s life, who has got what he deserved. 12 scenes on the sides show us hunter’s life, how to hunt, how to set traps and how his dogs kill crocked animals. All scenes on the sides tell us about suffering and death of forest animals, which were unlucky to meet the hunter. Two scenes in the center of the painting show the court under the hunter and his dogs and the punishment, which were made by animals which gathered their efforts.

Central scenes attract much more attention. And it is not surprising, because in them we see the triumph of justice over the human, who killed animals without any penalty. Moreover,  the hunter’s punishment has a very violent character on this allegoric scene. His dogs were hanged on a tree and the hunter was roasted on a spit.

It is a very unusual picture even for Dutch Golden Age paintings, when the theme of mythology, sins and punishments was popular. The Paulus Potter’s masterpiece says that there is no forgiveness to a man, who kills animals just for fun. There are black humor and hidden symbolism on the picture. It’s possible to say, that it is a caricature of life which was surrounding the painter.