The Mastiff 551 



author says of it, "The dog is a young Pyrennean sheep dog; they vary 

 much in size, some being very powerful, and almost singly a match for a 

 wolf; others again are placed on an equality in combating these destructive 

 animals by being armed by spiked collars. They are very fierce and it is 

 dangerous to meet them in the mountains unaccompanied by their masters." 



To connect these dogs with our mastiff is out of the question, yet the 

 Duke of York translates the word into mestifis, mastif and mastiues. 

 That his was not an exceptional type of dog used in wild-boar hunting is 

 demonstrated by later artists, beginning with Snyders, a celebrity in 

 depicting hunting scenes. He painted several such for Philip III. of Spain, 

 and it is said "his bear, wolf, and boar fights are scarcely surpassable." 

 Snyders was born in 1579 and died in 1657, and the etching by Wm. Unger 

 is therefore of an early seventeenth century painting. That there was a dog 

 something like a mastiff in Spain at that time the Velasquez painting of 

 Philip IV. indicates, but the Velasquez dogs we have seen have not been 

 at all creditable to that great artist. 



In addition to having the choice of two Snyders, when we purchased the 

 etching we reproduce, we saw another on the same day. Either of the two 

 others would have made an excellent illustration, but the one given is by far 

 the best in many ways. 



Of the same period as Snyders we have the Tempesta picture represent- 

 ing a combination of hunting scenes, wild boar, wolf and fox being represen- 

 ted. Antonius Tempesta was born in 1580, one year after Snyders, and we 

 thus have Italian as well as French hunting methods of the same date. In 

 the Tempesta picture the Molossian or Great Dane type predominates, and 

 with it a lighter, sharper nosed dog which more resembles the French mastin 

 except in the matter of ears. The dog to the left of the wolf bears a 

 wonderful resemblance to the dog Hogarth painted in his picture of the 

 ' ' Good Samaritan. " The head of Hogarth's dog is in a similar position, with 

 the mouth shut. It has a similar length of foreface, equally strong, and is 

 cropped; in fact, so closely does Hogarth's dog resemble this one, that we 

 must either conclude that in Hogarth's day, about 1735, there was a dog of 

 similar type or he took such a painting as this of Tempesta as representing a 

 dog that might be found in Palestine. We must remember that Hogarth was 

 not painting an English scene, and it is quite conjectural as to the dog being 

 English. The similarity of the dogs makes it unnecessary to give the Ho- 

 garth picture. 



