The Hunt in the Forest


The Hunt in the Forest is a painting by the Italian artist Paolo Uccello, made around 1470. It is perhaps the best-known painting in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England.
The painting is an early example of the effective use of perspective in Renaissance art, with the hunt participants, including people, horses, dogs and deer, disappearing into the dark forest in the distance. It was Uccello's last known painting before his death in 1475.

In popular culture

The painting is featured in the "Point of Vanishing" episode of the British TV series Lewis. A postcard of the painting is discovered as a clue to a murder. Lewis and his colleague visit the painting at the Ashmolean Museum on more than one occasion and are instructed on its significant features by a museum expert. The painting provides Lewis with an insight that allows him to solve the case.
John Fowles mentions the painting twice, in The Ebony Tower and The Collector: "...the design hits you the moment you see it. Apart from all the other technical things. You know it's faultless."