The lion hunt

Six men, four of them on horseback, are involved in a fight with a lion and a lioness. The lion drags a Moor from his prancing horse. In the agitation a lioness is trying to get its young to safety. Another lion is clawing its paw into a half-naked man who is planting a dagger in the animal’s abdomen. This print also goes back to a painting belonging to a group of four that Rubens created for Prince-Elector Maximilian of Bavaria (Germany) in 1615-1616. Around 1800, under Napoleon, the painting was taken to France, where it was destroyed in the fire in the Museum of Bordeaux in 1870. It is very unlikely that Rubens was involved in the production of this print, since Soutman stated that he conceived the composition, which Rubens would certainly not have appreciated. Soutman’s print was dated after Rubens’s death.