Great danes in art: how painters captured this breed through history

Part 1

Why great danes appear so often in European paintings

The Great Dane descends from mastiff-sighthound hunting dogs used in the Middle Ages to hunt bears, wild boar, and deer. German nobility bred these dogs from the start of the seventeenth century to hunt large game at princely courts. Some of the dogs lived indoors as chamber dogs, sleeping in their lords' bedchambers while wearing ornate collars.

The breed is often called the Apollo of dogs. Surviving images include a chamber dog with a gilded collar from Brandenburg in 1705, and boarhounds imported into Britain in 1807.

Part 2

Key artists and works featuring great danes

Jan Fyt was a Flemish Baroque painter working in Antwerp in the seventeenth century, and he built much of his career on hunting scenes and animal still lifes. He moved hunting scenes from indoor tables to open landscapes, and dogs played an important part in these outdoor hunting pieces. Fyt catered to an aristocratic clientele, and well-off city dwellers also bought his game pieces to show off a lifestyle once reserved for nobles. He also made a series of etchings called The Set of the Dogs in 1642.

His work hangs in the Louvre in Paris, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Blois, and the Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse in Lille.

Part 3

What these artworks reveal about the breed's early appearance

If you look at paintings and prints made before the breed's modern name existed, you find it under other names. The breed was once called Englische Dogge, or English dog, because strong dogs of mastiff or greyhound type were imported from England and Ireland in the sixteenth century. A committee in Berlin renamed the breed Deutsche Dogge, or German mastiff, in 1878. The English name Great Dane came later, borrowed from the French name Grand Danois, even though the breed has no known connection to Denmark.

The breed once worked as a hunter's catch dog, used to seize boar or bear and hold the animal until the huntsman arrived. Once firearms changed hunting customs, this working role faded, and the breed became kept more as a dog of luxury than a working hunter.

Part 4

Great danes in art beyond painting

Painters were not the only ones to put large hunting dogs on paper. Some of these prints carry dedications and inscriptions, details that auction houses still record when they catalogue the sheets.

Part 5

How to find and view great dane artworks today

If you want to see related art in person, start with museums that hold Jan Fyt's work.

An ornate collar can also be a clue, since chamber dogs in German courts wore them while guarding their sleeping owners.