File:Caccia all'orso al dardo Arazzo.jpg

English: Tapestry depicting the Bear Hunt with a Dart in the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale in Pisa.

Drawing dated 1567 and cartoon by Giovanni Stradano (Jan van der Straet), woven by Benedetto Squilli, probably in the workshop in Via de' Servi, by 17 May 1569. Weft: wool and silk; warp: wool, 7/8 threads each.

The tapestry is part of a series of thirty-six Hunts woven for the Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano, of which only fifteen examples remain, three of which are preserved in the Palazzo Reale in Pisa. The scene, in its culminating moment of great excitement and drama, plays on the contrast between the movement of the figures on the left and the static nature of the men on the right, creating a snapshot effect that captures the fatal moment of the bear. From the left, in fact, two galloping horsemen, accompanied by dogs, burst in, almost catching up with the bear, pierced and bleeding. The prey, in its desperate rush to escape, freezes in front of the hunters who oppose it on the right, armed with half pikes, hunting skewers and darts. The depiction of the characters is strongly realistic not only for the accurate rendering of the costumes, but also for the anatomical characterisation of the bear's powerful musculature, which seems to derive from accurate studies from life. A singular presence appears in the tapestry, that of a dwarf, perhaps identifiable with Braccio di Bartolo, nanus ducalis, 'bird catcher', specialised in hunting birds with birds of prey. The little man, ironically called Morgante, in contrast to the good-natured giant in Luigi Pulci's poem of the same name, stands fearlessly at the head of the others but does not seem to be the object of ridicule. His presence, in fact, serves to introduce into the scene, which would otherwise be merely brutal, a subtle vein of humour alien to other surviving tapestries in this series.