THE SPINONE ITALIANO
The Spinone Italiano is one of the oldest pointing breeds in the world, with roots going back at least 2,000 years in the Piedmont and Lombardy regions of northern Italy. The name likely comes from spino, the Italian word for thorny bramble, which tells you a lot about both the terrain and the dog built to work it. That dense, wiry coat wasn't an accident. It was armor for a dog hunting through thick brush, marsh, and rugged foothills.
The Spinone has been showing up in Italian art since the 1300s. Andrea Mantegna painted one at the feet of the Gonzaga family in 1474, which is about as noble a pedigree as a dog can have. It was a prestige breed of the Italian nobility for centuries, and it earned that status by being genuinely useful, pointing upland birds, flushing, and retrieving from both land and water with equal confidence.
What sets the Spinone apart from other pointers is its pace. It works slowly and methodically, built for hunters on foot in rough terrain rather than wide open fields. That unhurried quality carries over into everything about the breed. They're patient, gentle, deeply affectionate, and possessed of one of the most soulful expressions in dogdom. Those drooping eyelids and amber eyes seem to carry the full weight of 2,000 years of history.
I photographed two Spinoni at the Kentuckiana Cluster in Louisville and they were immediately compelling subjects. For this painting I placed them in an autumn Italian marshland, misty hills in the distance, reeds along the water's edge. And of course the eponymous brambles. Look closely at the lower left corner and you'll find a woodcock. The Spinone has been hunting that bird for centuries.
This painting is available as a fine art print in the shop. View print options.
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Fedele Boones Creek Bellaebravo Brunello Cucinelli “Nello”
Bellaebravo bel ragazzo Santino “Tino”