[...] with an ironic undertone the work depicts a boastful conversation and shop talk of hunters who have just returned from a hunt.

The painter Giovanni Battista Quadrone, born in the Piedmont town of Mondovì, particularly pursues genre scenes since his studies at the Turin Accademia Albertina and his time in Paris. Genre scenes traditionally present scenes from everyday life, scenes of inns, hunting, and shepherds on pasture or folkloric representations of costumes. The work La Spacconata (The Stunt) can be considered a classic genre painting in which Quadrone opens a view into an inn where hunters rest after a chase. The support of the painting is canvas, whose size is in accord with classical academic specifications for a genre picture at that time. The academic hierarchy considered genre scenes, compared to portraits, heroic historical paintings, or battle scenes, as a less important form of painting, which should only be of medium size.¹ With the utmost precision and detailed presentation Quadrone, who himself came from a wealthy family, painted the worn or tattered clothing of the rural and simple population. Likewise, he meticulously took signs of deterioration on buildings into account, such as cracks in the plaster or flaking paint on furniture. 

The work is entitled La Spacconata, while other catalogues list the painting with the title Una discussione.² Handwriting on the back of the canvas names the depiction as Una disputa di bracconieri (An Argument Between Poachers). Regardless of the various titles, with an ironic undertone the work depicts a boastful conversation and shop talk of hunters who have just returned from a hunt. Three men and two women have gathered around a table: the standing man on the right side of the room tries to make a point and to convince the women with a strong gesture. One woman reacts with a questioning expression and an open mouth while the other woman standing in the back responds to the man’s expressive arguments with a sneer and mocking facial expression. The two other men, with a cheerful expression, follow the news in the newspaper, each reading one side and drinking a glass of wine from the flagon. 

The bright light that falls into the dining room from the upper right window indicates that the hunters meet early in the morning. Masterly and skilfully, Quadrone gathers and contrasts the main actors in a hunt: the hunters themselves, who are either wearing high leather boots or warm fur trousers, the hunting dogs - one of them lies exhausted on the master’s legs while the other dog more or less discreetly gives the treats on the table a close inspection. The scene also contains rifles and, of course, the prey of the hunting trip: a fox. 

The cycle of life and death is shown here in the comparison between the dead fox and the living dogs. While the dogs behave characteristically, the fox lies backwards with its tongue hanging out and its tail hanging down on a chair. Above the dead animal, as an additional indication of the successful hunt, one can see another shaft of a rifle. The posture of the dead fox is reminiscent of classic Dutch hunting still lifes from the 17th century. However, while in these still life paintings the killed animals were draped in a particularly artistic way and presented as a proud trophy, the fox here lies disregarded over the chair, as if the hunters have already forgotten it while reading and drinking wine. In contrast to Quadrone’s Il tempo minaccia (Time Threatens, cat. p. 574), La Spacconata does not present the tension before the hunt but rather the relaxation after completing a hunt with reading, drinking wine and storytelling. Here, Quadrone focuses on the people in their various modes and pastimes. While the next excursion is already being planned at the table, the prey and the death of the animal has become irrelevant. 

Veronica Peselmann 

¹ Pevsner 1986, p. 103. 

² Turin 2002, p. 103, 216-217; Marini 1998, vol. I, no. 661.