The Changing Status of Dogs:
One Bark at a Time
Dylan Sunderland

Why do pet owners have paintings and photographs of there pets? Author Katherine Grier writes, “Since the seventeenth century, having portraits made of family members has been one of the most important ways that Americans made statements about their feelings toward one another, their status in their communities, and their desire to preserve the history of their families for posterity” (124). As time progressed animals that were kept as pets began to have different roles for their owners and now they too are being considered a family member. Pets are slowly taking over the world of art as their own roles within the families are changing. Clearly, having pets placed in different forms of art have been used for centuries and they all tell there own different stories as to why they were chosen to be a part of the picture. How about a trip through time from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century to see how dogs have progressed in their roles as pets? Seventeenth century artist, Diego Velázquez, painted the piece of work known as Infante Felipe Próspero. This painting was produced in 1659 using oil on canvas. The location of production is not stated on Artstor.com where the piece was retrieved, but the assumption can be made that it was produced in a Spanish native area because of the title and the author history. This eloquently painted piece of work shows a young human standing next to her puppy companion who is lying in a chair. In this time period dogs were primarily used as status symbols and only the wealthy families had enough money to afford them. So, if you were lucky enough to have the money to afford a dog, then your family’s status in the community must have been high. By the appearance of the fine clothing that the child is wearing and the more fancy furniture in the