The Vision of Saint Eustace

Look between the stag’s antlers. The tiny figure on a cross turns a richly dressed rider’s hunt into a religious vision. According to a medieval legend, the Roman soldier Placidus saw Christ while hunting, converted to Christianity and took the name Eustace. Pisanello, an Italian painter working for princely courts, gives the ancient soldier the clothes of a fashionable fifteenth-century huntsman. His extraordinary blue hat and elegant horse bring the story into the world of the painting’s first viewers. Hunting was an aristocratic activity and a preparation for war. There is plenty happening around the encounter. Dogs of different shapes move across the foreground, while birds and other animals occupy the landscape. Pisanello made many drawings of animals, drawing on observation as well as earlier images. Follow one creature’s outline, then compare it with another. The small painting was probably made for an aristocrat’s private enjoyment, though its original owner is unknown. Its many animals reward a close look, while the cross gives the hunt a sudden, unexpected destination.