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 built for a dog hunting through thick brush, marsh, and rugged foothills.
The Spinone has been showing up in Italian art since the 1300s. Breed enthusiasts will tell you that Mantegna painted one at the feet of the Gonzaga family in 1474. I went looking for it and the resemblance is... debatable. The Gonzaga were nobility, the dog in the fresco appears smooth-coated, and everything we now know about the breed suggests that if there's a dog at the feet of Italian aristocracy in 1474, it's far more likely a Bracco. But the Spinone's history is real and substantial enough without needing a Renaissance endorsement.
What history shows is more interesting than a noble pedigree anyway - the Spinone was developed by peasants, not aristocrats. Where the Bracco Italiano was the dog of the Italian nobility, the Spinone worked the terrain the nobility didn't bother with: mountains, marshes, thick bramble. It was a "dinner dog" in the most literal sense. If it didn't find and retrieve game, the family didn't eat.
That unhurried quality the breed is known for - quiet, patient, methodical - is because they were built for hunters on foot with nets, rather than with guns in wide open fields. The Spinone wasn't bred for speed or style. It was bred to be useful in difficult places, for people who needed results.
Perhaps the most remarkable detail in the breed's history is this: the first requirement in the original Italian breed standard is dolce - sweet character. In 1,500 years of record keeping, there is no record of a bite from a Spinone in Italy. For a breed built to live and work alongside other dogs, in close quarters with families who depended on them, that temperament wasn't afterthought. It was a requirement.
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.
If you're curious about the Bracco Italiano, the aristocratic counterpart to the Spinone's working-class roots, that portrait and its history are here.
References
Koshyk, Craig. Pointing Dogs, Volume One: The Continentals. Available here.
Schultz, Allison, interviewed by Laura Reeves. "Spinone Italiano: Storied Bird Dogs of Gentle Character." Pure Dog Talk, Episode 552. Read and listen here.
The 205 Project is a work in progress and so is our research. If you're a Spinone enthusiast and have corrections, additions, or a better source, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out at danica@pouka.com.
This painting is available as a fine art print in the shop. View print options.
If your breed is finished and you'd like a custom portrait of your own dog, the commission process starts here.
Fedele Boones Creek Bellaebravo Brunello Cucinelli “Nello”
Bellaebravo bel ragazzo Santino “Tino”