TL;DR: For four centuries European painters treated animals with the same care they gave to kings and saints. This is a slow look at seven works, from a 1502 watercolour hare to an 1824 Newfoundland dog, and at why a rabbit, a goldfinch, a bull, a swan, a horse, a lion and a dog earned the full attention of the Old Masters. The Old Masters painted animals like portraits because a convincing animal proved a painter’s eye better than almost any other subject. A hare will not ho