Audioguide by eArs

CACCIA AL CERVO (DEER HUNTING) [1945]

This painting dates back to the period when Ligabue was interned for the third time in the psychiatric hospital in Reggio Emilia.The Deer Hunt is probably a familiar image to you. It's a stereotype: a motif you may have seen before in a picture, engraving, illustration, or on an ornament..
Ligabue uses stereotypes in many of his works. However, he manages to give these familiar figures new life, infusing them with drama and a vigorous realism.
Even though these scenes are already stereotypes, Ligabue himself depicts them multiple times, creating a sense of endless combat through repetition.
But what does this struggle really represent? A stereotype can also be an archetype, depicting a feeling that resides within us. The continuous struggle seems to reference our unconscious, to drives that we may not be able to describe but can associate with the scene we see.