Une boutique de gibier

Frans Snyders ran the most successful still-life workshop in Antwerp in the 1620s, the man Rubens called on whenever a picture needed a heap of dead game or a table of fruit done properly. Around 1625 he painted this shop, a stall hung and piled with the birds and beasts a wealthy Antwerp household might order in. What lifts it above a pantry inventory is the small drama in the middle. A boy has been left to help the dealer and is making a mess of it, live hens beating their wings and slipping out of his grip while he cries out and the dealer turns on him in irritation. Snyders painted feathers and fur better than almost anyone, and here he let all that plenty break loose at once.