Still-Life with Game

By the early 1640s when this grandiose still life was painted, Frans Snyders was at the height of his powers and his wealth and reputation securely established. The deer and the boar’s head were by this date common motifs in Snyders’s large game pieces, he seems to have kept a stock of such motifs for use in these larger canvases. Snyders introduces animals into his compositions to achieve a sense of movement: the motif of a hound or two sniffing the game is almost ubiquitous throughout these works, as indeed are almost any combination of parrots, squirrels, monkeys and cats.