Hand painted wolf banner. A bearded man with horns (or a winged helmet), dressed in a buttoned jacket, carrying boots with spurs and holding a sable and a spear.
Övrigt tryckt och skrivet.
Gott skick. 75 x 55 cm. Sweden, ca 1780-1830. Painted in red and black on gray jute cloth, mounted rope for hanging at top. Worn and frayed with some loss in lower left corner, one hole touching the head of the man and one touching the knee. The wolf banners (in Swedish “vargfanor” or “varglappar”) were hung in in the woods during wolf hunting. They were meant to scare the pack of wolves in the direction of the hunters where they could be shot. The banners are known since the middle ages and fell out of use in the first half of the 19th century. The motifs that were meant to scare the wolves were mostly human beings, but both monsters and geometrical patterns occur sometimes. Among the humans depicted, hunters, soldiers and noble men are easy to recognize. The figure on the present banner might be a knight with horned helmet, or just a pure fantasy. As always it is painted on rough jute cloth, and this example also retains the rope at the top, meant to hang the banner. When hunting, they were hung hundreds beside another to form enclosements and corridors to lead the pack. Despite the large number of banners made and used through the centuries, they are now hard to find outside museums and other institutions.
