as far as I can see, a motif limited exclusively to the early 17C alba amicorum of German students, and deriving from an engraving in the print-books published in Strasbourg in 1618 by Jakob von der Heyden (i.e. the Speculum Cornelianum and the 2nd ed of the Pugillus Facetiarum — insofaras these are not in fact the same book). The huntsman’s dogs are named Trew [Fidelity], Lieb [Love] and Stettigkeit [Constancy] — cf. the names of the hounds of the young woman who goes hunting for Fidelity in my post on that topic. The verse here is signed by the neo-Latin poet, Iakob a Bruck. Note that the centauress holds a flaming heart in one hand — shown only in the Kunasch von Machovic and Zorer examples, however, as in the others she is depicted armless. The verse expresses her willingness to surrender to the huntsman’s love.

The situation is not quite as simple as this, however, as the earliest example in the Johann Mullegg album (dated entries 1596-1612) predates the print and the huntsman is on foot, so that clearly the motif was already in existence before Jakob von der Heyden published his equestrian version. The only hound’s name that can be read is Bestendigkeit which while not identical is however synonymous with the Stettigkeit of the later version. And while 4 of the 5 examples below which clearly derive from the print-book are in the same direction as the engraving, the Grossmann painting is in reverse, perhaps implying a (lost) copy of the print.

In addition to those reproduced below, I know of 3 further examples, but have no images of them: firstly, one of the hundreds of orphaned leaves described in the Weigel du Rosey sale catalogue (Leipzig 1864), lot 184 — and one can see how at a glance while cataloguing hundreds of such images a centauress (hardly a familiar creature) might be interpreted as a siren!

And f.42v. of the Heinrich Julius von Arnstedt album (dated entries 1610-17) is described in the RAA as Gouache: Jagdszene mit hinter Kentaur herbreschendem Jäger und Hunden. Im Hintergrund Landschaft mit Schloss. And thirdly, an 18C example is to be found pasted onto p.256 of the album of Hieronymus Conrad Wagner (dated entries 1754-70), according to Schnabel’s catalogue of the albums in the Nurnberg Stadtbibliothek [Amb. 3429. octavo]

While the model is from the 1618 print, here the hounds are labelled after the virtues Faith, Hope & Charity

earliest example pre-dating the print-books [huntsman on foot]

An anomalous version — with Cupid added!