Courtly Hunts

If you are a member of a Court, Nature does not frighten you much: you are in a rarefied, guarded and pampered place.  Take a look at these playing cards from the early 1400's and you can see, in an amazingly artful way, this notion of Nature playing out a Hunt/Game, sometimes bloodily depicted, while the Court--King and Queen and some attendants--participate gracefully.  The four suits are Falcons, Ducks, Hounds, and Stags, and the "Face" cards are the Court.

You can see more of the wonderful cards at this Metropolitan Museum of Art site.