Gallant Company

Two gentlemen enter the room, one holding a partridge, the other a hare. Yet given their spotless, elegant clothing, they cannot have just returned from the hunt. The double meaning of the depiction would have been obvious to 17th-century viewers: the Dutch expressions for ‘hunting hare’ and ‘birding’ could be used vulgarly to mean ‘making love’. The men are thus hunting for love.

Gallant Company

Two gentlemen enter the room, one holding a partridge, the other a hare. Yet given their spotless, elegant clothing, they cannot have just returned from the hunt. The double meaning of the depiction would have been obvious to 17th-century viewers: the Dutch expressions for ‘hunting hare’ and ‘birding’ could be used vulgarly to mean ‘making love’. The men are thus hunting for love.