Still-Life with Fowl and Game

Just as a circle of specialists for individual genres gathered in Amsterdam around Rembrandt, the same was true in Antwerp around Rubens. Snyders frequently collaborated with him on arrangements of objects and staffage. On the other hand, Snyders also adopted Rubens’ new Baroque principles into his own specialized area of still life. The result was a number of new pictorial types in this field.

He initially drew upon the great kitchen interiors and pantry paintings of the Flemish Mannerists such as Aertsen or Beuckelaer. However, whereas these artists created “epic” arrangements of enormous breadth, Snyders sought to produce more dynamic still-lifes. He created the hunting still-life which not only features game, but also includes certain elements of the hunt itself, and in which each animal, dead or alive, still has its own tale to tell. In his portrayal of animals, he was peerless in his time. Whereas Dutch still-life presented coded “truths” and warned of the transience of earthly life, Snyders staged a theatrical drama portraying the riches of the world. Snyders’ pantry scenes, a variation on the hunting still-life, are equally dynamic.