Men Hunting Bulls with Eagles
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Museum purchase from the Members' Acquisitions Fund of Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
Accession Number
2019-5-1
About this artwork
In a landscape of rolling terrain, men use birds to hunt wild bulls. Trees frame the composition at left and right, and the hunters appear on horseback in the background at right. Two bulls have fallen in the foreground, while others gallop through the center of the image. The birdsâtraditionally identified as falcons, although possibly eaglesâalight on the heads of their prey, likely blinding them. This hunting method is probably described in an as yet unidentified ancient text.