JEAN-RICHARD GOUBIE (FRENCH, 1842-1899)

Presenting the ‘honors of the foot’ is a hunting custom with its roots in the medieval chivalric code. The ceremony where meat from a felled stag was distributed among the various people who participated in and facilitated the hunt was an important part of the relationship between the lord who hosted it and his vassals. Giving the right front foreleg of the stag as a gift to honor a particular lady evolved from this same ceremony, as well as from the desire of medieval aristocracy to imitate the heroes of chivalric romance, whose main pastimes were courtly love, arms, and the hunt. The presentation of the foot, which served as a gesture of this courtly love, involved flaying the skin from the leg of the stag and braiding it down to where the bone of the foot began. This whole trophy was then presented in the field to a lady who had been preselected to receive the honor.