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We’ve been painting our pets for as long as we’ve been making visual representations. From cave art to modern digital works, we’ve always loved to see dogs in art. Dogs in Renaissance paintings were often used to symbolize something about the person who commissioned the work. They may have been used to show concepts like loyalty, protectiveness and strength; all traits we associate with our canine companions to this day.
Today, we’re still painting our pets, though often with a more humorous twist. One of the most popular forms is a sort of reimagined Renaissance painting, depicting dogs as powerful nobles in custom portraiture.
Paintings of dogs are still a common sight in our homes and art galleries, just as they were in the past. What has changed is the symbolism we attach to them. While dogs in old paintings were often trying to invoke some deeper meaning, our modern pictures are often just a fun way of showing our devotion to our loyal pets.
Modern paintings of our furry friends are often slightly tongue-in-cheek. One popular style depicts our furry friends as the subject of Renaissance-style portraits. Another likes to play around with color. These paintings are fun and a little silly, but they do represent a continuation of the themes artists used in pictures of Renaissance dogs that hung on the walls of the grand palazzos of the rich and important in the past.
Today, we’re every bit as likely to celebrate the loyalty that we feel to our pets as the devotion that they show us.
While our modern pictures of dogs are often playful representations of our beloved furry companions, the artists of the Renaissance often used them as an allegory. Of course, sometimes a painting of a dog is just that—a painting of a dog, celebrating the Good Boy through the ages. But often, there was a deeper meaning when artists depicted dogs in Medieval paintings.
Dogs are often utterly devoted to their masters and this fact is represented throughout mythology and history. From Cú-Culluin in Irish myth to Oddysius being recognized by his loyal hound towards the climax of the Odyssey, this loyalty has been celebrated across cultures for thousands of years.
Renaissance artists often used this characteristic as a shorthand in their images. A domesticated dog could represent loyalty and devotion in a way that everyone could understand.
The loyalty of dogs also made them a handy visual metaphor for the religious devotion that was so important through the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Dogs are often found in the crowds witnessing important scenes from the bible, where they symbolize holiness itself.
Perhaps the most notable example of this use of dogs in Renaissance art is The Washing Feet by Jacopo Tintoretto. The dog sits in the center of the painting, gazing towards Jesus as he washes the feet of his disciples, representing the devotion they felt to each other.
Dogs in old paintings were often used as props to demonstrate the power, nobility and status of the subject. This is particularly true when it comes to portraits of powerful or influential nobles. Men would often be shown with their hunting hounds, invoking a feeling of power and virility. Women, on the other hand, would more likely be shown holding a lapdog, demonstrating their gentility.
On the flip side of this, dogs could also be used to show the exact opposite. In late-Renaissance prints, the image of a mangy dog was often used to politically satirize everything from social issues to the Prince Regent of Britain.
We often refer to our pets as “our furry friends” or our “four-legged companions,” and the people of the Renaissance felt much the same way and harnessed this to convey a message of love.
This symbolism is most famously used in two iconic images: the Venus of Urbino by Titian and Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait. These two strikingly different images, one of the nude woman, alone in her bed, waiting for her lover, and the other of a more prim couple, both use a canine companion to symbolize the strength of bonds between partners.
In mythology, a common subject of Renaissance art, dogs were often praised for their protective nature. This is reflected through painted representations of these ancient stories.
In Diana and Actaeon by Titian, both the goddess Diana and the hunter who has stumbled across her bathing spot are accompanied by dogs. Each animal is posed as if ready to protect their respective owner. It doesn’t get much more devoted than being willing to protect your master against a literal goddess of the hunt.
Dogs were not only seen as noble protectors of their masters, but as symbols of purity and innocence. In Titian’s Portrait of a Young Girl With A Dog the animal mirrors the child with each highlighting the innocence and purity of the other.
In more figurative works, color was often used to highlight the innocence of a dog’s devotion. White dogs in particular were thought to represent these traits and became a fairly common motif.
Animals have often been used as a simple way to show abundance; after all, any pet owner knows that they’re expensive things to keep. On a deeper level, dogs are often shown in hunting or pastoral scenes in old paintings, where they represent an abundance of food.
The Arnolfini Portrait also uses the dog to highlight the rounded belly of the woman. The dog stands close to the woman in a nurturing position, drawing the eye towards her pregnancy. Fur babies indeed.
Dogs have been present in our lives since before the dawn of civilization, so it’s no wonder that they have been constant companions in our art.
Dogs in Renaissance paintings in particular were used to symbolize all kinds of positive traits from the devotion of the Apostles to Christ to the loyalty of lovers to each other.
Today, we’re still obsessed with painting our pets. The bond between man and dog really is one for the ages.
