Bear Baiting Analysis

During the Renaissance era bear baiting was popular in all classes, especially the upper class. Kings and nobles, kept their own bear wards and watched bear baiting frequently in the gardens at their palaces. Bear baiting ‍is when dogs are forced to attack a bear that is chained to a stake by the neck or leg. The dog’s job was to tear the bear’s throat while the bear would try to defend himself. The positioning and expressions of the animals and men show Medieval Bair Baiting by Geoffrey Luttrell Psalter to suggest that bear baiting, a familiar type of entertainment, involves a submissive animal and vicious dogs and humans provoking the animal into suffering whereas the positioning and expressions of the animals and men in Bear Baiting in Saxton Times by Richard Caton Woodville suggests bear baiting to involve a violent beast who is coerced into fighting to the death for the joy of the spectators.

Many artists created pieces of art that portray bear baiting. However, they show various perspectives of the entertainment as a whole. The positioning and expressions of the animals in the two pieces of art are very different. In Medieval Bair Baiting by Geoffrey Luttrell Psalter pictures a bear in a rather submissive position. In Bear Baiting in Saxton Times by Richard Caton Woodville it shows the bear in a beastly position.

In Psalters image the bear is shown hunched over caressing one of the dogs as the other dogs viciously pounce at it. The dog that the

Medieval Bair Baiting by Geoffrey Luttrell Psalter shows a small event in which the bear is seen as pleasant and gentle. While Bear Baiting in Saxton Times by Richard Caton Woodville models a large public gathering watching the violent, dangerous animals fight as entertainment. The images suggest different perspectives on bear baiting as a whole, one is very chaotic while the other is