The work of Johann Ridinger!

Step with me into the 17th century where the hunt prevails & haute ecole is at its aristocratic zenith. Reclining amongst worn & faded tapestries already ancient, the heaving walls of the castle exhale a thousand years of history upon us as we meet Johann E. Ridinger, a Bavarian born in 1698. 

Ridinger's humble beginnings as a sign painter & his subsequent 5-year tenure as an artist's apprentice did little to fuel his artistic flame. It was when he moved to Augsburg where he commenced to study under many regarded painters, printmakers & engravers, among them: George Philipp Rugendas, Johann Falch & Cristoph Resch. There, he encountered Prince Wolf Freiherr von Metternich & gained a real & certain radiance. Through this acquaintance, an invitation from the prince ensued for Ridinger to partake of the aristocratic pursuits of the wellborn-the hunt!  Thus began a 3-year tenure in Regensburg-once the stomping ground of Charlemagne & then the trade/cultural mecca of Southern Germany. Ridinger's lifelong admiration of the hunt & all things associated therein was established & flourishing. One can almost place oneself there amidst the royalty & high status: imagine it through an artist's eye, a cortege of  horses, feasting, gamesmen, scent hounds, sighthounds, falconers, game...a stately bridge over the Danube...

The circle Ridinger landed himself in led, of course, to his regard for haute ecole which was at its zenith in the 15th-18th centuries. One can see his adoration for horses & hounds in the sensitively executed manner in which he portrays them. There is temperament & personality painted in, as well as uncanny nuances obtained only from extensive observation & experience.

Thanks to Ridinger, we have a lovingly crafted testament, cameos actually, to a time & place where colour & pomp was drawn out like a drawl & excellence was the prerequisite to entree.