Thomas W. Laqueur's 'The Dog's Gaze' Explores Canine Representation in Art

Thomas W. Laqueur's book "The Dog's Gaze: A Visual History" (Penguin Press) examines how dogs have been depicted in art over millennia, from the Chauvet cave in France (25,000-year-old footprints of a child and canid) to Renaissance masters like Giotto, Carpaccio, Titian, and Veronese, and modern artists such as Degas and Matisse. Laqueur argues that dogs have been bred to meet human eyes, offering a gaze of gratitude, and that this coevolution is reflected in art. The book covers works like Carpaccio's St. Augustine (with a Maltese dog), Titian's "Flaying of Marsyas" (a dog lapping blood), and Veronese's "Feast in the House of Levi" (originally "The Last Supper," where dogs caused Inquisition scrutiny). Laqueur also discusses Dürer's melancholic dogs, Matisse's sleeping dogs, and the symbolic divide of dogs representing both courage and loyalty. The review, published in The New Yorker, reflects on the author's personal grief over his dog Butterscotch and the haunting trust in a dog's gaze at the end of life. Laqueur's work is described as scholarly yet accessible, contrasting with academic writing that might dismiss canine affection as affectation.