ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING 



the Obedience. The movement of the animal part, 

 which is of a composite nature, thrown back upon its 

 haunches, is vivid and lifeHke. With this may be 

 compared the startled horse in the illustrative scene 

 at the feet of Injustice (Padua, Arena Chapel). It 

 shies at the sight of the ruffians ill-treating the woman 

 and pulls against the man who is trying to lead it. In 

 another of the Allegories, the Marriage of Fj'ancis 

 with Poverty, a dog barks at Poverty, while children 

 stone her. At one side is a young man with falcon 

 on wrist, typifying the pleasures of sport which were 

 so hard to renounce for the simple life. The falcon 

 occurs again and again in Italian painting, and there 

 is abundant evidence that this only fairly represents 

 the general extravagance of the cult of sport and the 

 infatuation for sporting birds and dogs. 



Dante has many references to the falcon, and 

 another thirteenth-century writer, Folgore da San 

 Geminiano, in a series of sonnets for the months, thus 

 enthusiastically hails September : — 



" And in September, O what keen delight ! 



Falcons and astors, merlins, sparrow hawks ; 



Decoy-birds that shall lure your game in flocks ; 

 And hounds with bells ; and gauntlets stout and tight ; 

 Wide pouches ; cross-bows shooting out of sight ; 



Arblasts and javelins ; balls and ball-cases ; 



All birds the best to fly at ; moulting these, 



14 



