But the real charm is in the collected art and antique weaponry. You can check out the spears, crossbows, and fancy engraved guns noblemen used to cart around, as well as the portraits of their hunting dogs they commissioned. There were also paintings of dead animals artfully arranged on kitchen tables, next to hunting equipment, or just high enough to be safe from hungry dogs depicted below. I keep imagining some hunting buff coming home to his wife with a framed painting of a disemboweled boar, saying, "Honey, wait until our friends see this at the next party! Let's put it in the foyer!" Also interesting was the fact that not all hunting dogs fit our mental image of "working dog." Some of them looked like the fluffy little lap dogs people spoil today.
There were also some truly bizarre displays such as ceilings coated with skulls or, in one case, with owl heads. Even creepier is that the eyes in the owl heads don't look like owl eyes, so it feels like people wearing owl costumes are peeking down at you.
There was even a dark room dedicated to unicorns, where you could occasionally hear single, melancholy piano notes. In addition to the more artistic items, there were little chests of drawers providing details about various hunting game, such as deer or wolves. Each featured a representative animal skull, imprints of its tracks, and a sample of its poop for tracking purposes. Trophy animals were interspersed throughout, and were occasionally put in surprising places!
This museum was hilarious and I highly recommend it. It was truly fascinating to get a peek into hunting as a historical European subculture. If you get a chance, go!
P.S. Watch out for the talking boar head. I'm not kidding.
3 comments:
This museum creeps me out. All of those poor dead animals.
Do they have a field dressing section?
Does the boar speak french or english?
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