Artwork
Game and Fruits
Game and Fruits is an oil painting by the Flemish Baroque painting artist Frans Snyders. It dates from 1628 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Overview
Frans Snyders’ oil work dated around 1628 presents a densely arranged still life that combines game, meat, fruit, and ornamental objects on a darkened tabletop. The composition is anchored by a lifeless rabbit and a suspended roasted chicken, surrounded by melons, grapes, a pineapple, a vase of flowers, and a tiny bird, all set against a muted interior with a distant window view.
Subject & Meaning
The painting juxtaposes the abundance of food with the presence of death, a common Baroque motif that reflects on the transience of life and the pleasures of the senses. The inclusion of exotic fruit such as pineapple alongside local produce underscores wealth and global trade, while the small bird adds a subtle note of vitality amid the surrounding stillness.
Technique & Style
Snyders employs a dramatic chiaroscuro, allowing strong light to illuminate the textures of flesh, fur, and fruit against a deep shadowed background. Meticulous brushwork renders the glossy skin of melons, the softness of rabbit fur, and the crispness of roasted meat, creating a near‑tactile realism that engages the viewer’s eye across varied surfaces.
History & Provenance
Created in the early seventeenth century, the work is linked to the Flemish Baroque tradition and exemplifies Snyders’ specialization in market and banquet scenes. It entered the collection of Denmark’s national gallery, Statens Museum for Kunst, where it remains on display as part of the museum’s holdings of Northern European Baroque painting.
Context
During the period, still lifes served both decorative and moral purposes, often commissioned by affluent patrons to showcase prosperity. Snyders, a contemporary of Rubens, supplied such compositions to the elite market, integrating lavish displays of food with subtle allegorical references that resonated with the cultural values of the Dutch‑Flemish bourgeoisie.
Artist & collection
Artist
Frans Snyders or Frans Snijders was a Flemish painter of animals, hunting scenes, market scenes, and still lifes.
Still life of fruit in a basket together with game, a bowl of fraises-de-bois, artichokes, asparagus and a squirrel upon a table draped with a red cloth
The Fruit Shop
Fish Market
Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market
Larder Still life
Still Life with Huntsman
Still Life with a Dead Stag
A bull overpowered by dogs
