Stag head
The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature exhibits two identical trophies. They combine a gilded wooden head, carved with acanthus leaves, with real deer antlers. They come from the collection of Augustus the Strong (1670-1733), king of Poland under the name of Augustus II. A great hunter, the king sought to acquire the finest trophies of his time, going so far as to write to the King of Prussia, Frederick William I, with the aim of exchanging a company of grenadiers for an extraordinary stag's head (now kept in Moritzburg).
Augustus the Strong was a great patron of the arts and was responsible for the construction of many buildings, making Dresden an important capital city. Among the many objects and works of art in his collection, trophies - considered objects of curiosity - hold a special place. The practice of displaying trophies in one's home has been known since antiquity.
Their possession, a direct evocation of the defeated animal, testifies to man's domination over nature. If the oldest preserved galleries date from the 15th and 16th centuries, they really took off from the 18th century.
