Concert of Birds

In the lower right corner this canvas is signed and dated, F. Snyders 1661. Frans Snyders died in Antwerp in 1657. The Prado catalogues the picture as attributed to him and dates it no more closely than the middle of the 17th century, which is about as far as the evidence will go. The subject is not in doubt. A concert of birds was a Flemish speciality, and the whole thing turns on the music, here a scrap of parchment hung on a twig whose lettering never resolves into anything. The scarlet macaw on the oak is conducting. The peacock, the swan, the herons, the turkey, the rooster and a great many smaller birds are the choir. The picture reached the museum only in 1987, left to it by Carlos Pérez-Seoane, third duke of Pinohermoso.