A Life Without Pugs Is Possible But Pointless – Dogs At Court Life

Dr Katharina Hantschmann

Dogs, bigger or smaller, are to be found on many portraits of the past centuries, both on representative ones of important personalities like rulers as also on more private paintings and portraits of children. Dogs might therefore symbolize fidelity, alertness, power and strength, but also show part of the real life. At court dogs were close friends and faithful companions not only for the hunt, but were to be found everywhere and any time, even in the bedrooms and the boudoirs. There they have always been the involuntary witnesses of human flirtation or the beloved consoler and substitute. The lecture will look closely on Meissen porcelain groups where dogs often indicate the erotic component of the scene. Especially pugs, the favourite lapdogs of the 18th century, sometimes behaved jealously and aggressively at their human competitors. The demand for porcelain pugs increased after the foundation of the secret humanistic Order of the Pug.