Graphic design "sa cassa" ; In Sardinian, hunting as a symbol of conquest.
The history of the oldest drawing in humanity
The first graphic representations of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures date back to the Paleolithic, from when homo sapiens reproduced with symbols and signs, images of animals and men in motion narrating episodes of daily life through paintings and graffiti on rock walls, in caves and on stone.
The figures most reproduced were bison, wild animals and hunting scenes.
The latter is the subject most reproduced in prehistoric times and over time it was then brought to paintings, rugs and tapestries.
Drawing then acquired a symbolic value depending on the representation of the subjects. Sometimes real animals and other times fantastic animals, as in the cycle of the seven Renaissance tapestries of the Rochefoucauld family.
In Sardinia, for example, on pibiones tapestries, the scene is still reproduced in which men on horseback or without, hunt wild boar or deer with dogs.
The interpretation of these figures is discussed and varies from the magical-symbolic, linked to shamanic religious rites, to those of figures made mainly to report and document scenes of real life to those of simple creative acts by man.
The act of hunting itself has been very important for humanity as a heritage of traditions and passions, it is one of the dimensions that most express the bond with the territory, with the environment, with one's cultural roots. Always deeply rooted in daily life, it has made a great contribution to Italian and European art, culture, and science.
A survival practice, aimed at supplying meat and defending against wild beasts, hunting was a determining part of the existence and culture of proto-agricultural civilizations and nomadic peoples. It was a direct clash with the hardships of life, a fight against dangers and against the unknown, the risk of death. The depiction of beasts or scenes of pursuit and capture took on a ritual, symbolic and propitiatory meaning. The scenes reproduced inside caves, engraved on stone near places of worship, stylized on ornaments and weapons, were means to magically ward off the hostility of nature, or ritual celebrations of the strength of the hunter, which took on a superhuman and metatemporal meaning.
Often the same deities were represented as animals, personifications of the dark forces of the world.
In the Mediterranean and Italian area, the gradual transition to the historical era coincided with a progressive transformation of hunting symbols. To their oldest meanings, others were superimposed, stronger, linked to Greco-Roman mythology and the symbolism of the Bible, which also placed hunting in a perspective of universal redemption.
Magic and divinity in the middle of the woods
Among the game, the wild boar and the deer are the animals most frequently reproduced in Celtic art and goldsmithing, for whom hunting skills were identified with warrior value and, consequently, with reaching the top of the social hierarchy.
The wild boar was identified with the druid for its solitary life in the forest. The female, surrounded by cubs, was represented while digging the earth at the foot of the apple tree, the tree of immortality. It was a symbol of spiritual power defeated in hunting by temporal power, of the victory of warrior-hunters over the priestly caste, bearer of peace and harmony with the elements of the world.
The deer evoked longevity and abundance. It was reproduced on apotropaic talismans in bone and horn worn in battle and during hunts.
Cernummus ("he who has the top of his skull like a deer") was the most important zoomorphic deity of the Celtic pantheon, lord of animals, ally and protector of brave men. From this centrality in Celtic culture derived some medieval figurative and literary topoi of purely religious meaning. In legend, Saint Patrick, evangelizer of Ireland, transformed himself and his companions into deer to escape the ambushes of the pagan king Loegaire. Saint Humbert, today patron saint of hunters, while engaged in the difficult pursuit of a prey in the thicket of a forest, saw the redeeming cross appear right between the horns of a deer.
The depiction of this animal could also take references to Christ himself, because it was believed that by blowing with the nostrils into the cavities of the ground, he made the snakes come out, symbols of evil and sin, and then killed them.
The "great hunt" and the risks of the fight with wild beasts ended, instead, by identifying with the heroism of man threatened by the power of nature, giving rise to a series of interconnections with the heritage of Greek and Mediterranean mythology.
In art and literature it was loaded with references to the divine and the strongest passions of humanity.
The hunter took on, from time to time, the role of the hero who freed flocks and villages from the attacks of wild beasts (Orion), or the warrior who practiced using the bow against lions to then prove his value in war (Achilles); he was the stubborn and dreaming pursuer of unreachable and fabulous preys that led him through unknown kingdoms (Theseus), or the unfortunate and beautiful lover killed by a wild boar for the jealousy of a god (Adonis), became the indomitable fighter against the wickedness of the gods and goddesses (Hercules), or the lover who gives the skin of the killed wild boar to the beautiful Atalanta who had struck him first (Meleager), or the impudent discoverer of Diana's nudity, punished by her in the cruelest way (Actaeon).
Over the centuries, Greco-Roman hunting images and myths contaminated and overlapped, until they merged into the system of symbols of Christianity, which attributed to the figure of the hunter the meaning of grace and moral effort that seeks to kill temptations and vices, represented by hares, lions, porcupines, bears.
Conversely, when, the prey was represented by a deer or a rooster, it referred to the figure of Christ and the archers who ambushed it depicted the enemies of the Gospel.
In the Renaissance, mythology was recurring and Hercules, the greatest Greek hero, was depicted during the individual fights he engaged with the monsters and beasts unleashed against him by the wickedness of the gods and goddesses. His labors became the symbol of man's daily effort against the negativity of existence, against everything that hinders the full affirmation of virtue. Son of one of the many betrayals of Jupiter (who conceived him with the mortal Alemena), he was always persecuted by Juno, who established that he could become a god if he had overcome ten (or twelve, depending on the versions) "labors", exceptional feats that no one was able to accomplish. Five of these have an eminently hunting character.
The first was the fight with the Nemean lion, considered invincible because it had invulnerable skin. Hercules managed to get the better of it because he suffocated it in the grip of his arms.
The second labor consisted in the killing of the Lernaean hydra, a monster with an immortal head and others that regrew after being cut, which was first burned and then crushed under a boulder.
Subsequently, the unfortunate hero pursued for an entire year the Ceryneian hind, which had copper feet and golden horns, and managed to capture it.
The enormous boar of Erymanthus, which devastated Elis and Arcadia, was seized by its four legs and dragged before Eurystheus, master and judge of the tests. The Cretan bull, which devastated the island, was also captured alive.
Finally, hunter Hercules was recognized his superiority over mortals.
In short, every era and every culture has used hunting as a form of artistic representation and depending on the prey the meaning changes slightly. But the allegorical symbol in general has never changed over time.
In Sardinia even today hunting scenes are woven on tapestries and we at Srdn have fallen in love with this fantastic message of strength and value, therefore, we have made several artistic elaborations to bring back on sweatshirts, dresses and t-shirts; we even made some tattoos.
Discover the pibiones elaborations and the graphic prints of the Srdn wild boar hunt and choose the ones you prefer on www.srdn.store