Gathered in a tall, spacious room is a festively-attired company. A few women are sitting at a table; two men have just entered. The one behind is greeted by one of the women; he proudly holds up a hare. His companion presents two partridges, also shot. This work by Pieter Codde is known as the Return of the Hunters. The men, however, are not dressed as hunters and so the word 'hunting' is clearly intended metaphorically and means the 'pursuit of love'. The erotic implications (of the large bed in the corner, for instance, and the hunters' catch) would immediately have been plain to a seventeenth-century viewer. At the time 'hunting the hare' and 'fowling' were metaphors for making love. The partridge furthermore was regarded as 'the most lascivious of all birds.'
Other details also contribute to the erotic symbolism of this painting. The candle on the edge of the bed and the somewhat grubby-looking dog usually stand for lust and lechery in erotically tinted work like this. On the floor there is a lute and the woman on the left is playing a theorbo, also a sort of lute. In seventeenth-century art the lute often refers to love. Sometimes these instruments referred to 'higher', married love; but in a dubious situation like this one, it is a symbol of lust and sexual love. The women here are only concerned with worldly matters and this too does not argue for a chaste and virtuous life.
[Oil on panel, 54 x 68 cm]
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