Frans Snyders

Frans Snyders (baptized November 11, 1579, Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands [now in Belgium]—died August 19, 1657, Antwerp) was a Baroque artist who was the most-noted 17th-century painter of animals. His subjects included still lifes of markets and pantries (featuring both live animals and dead game), animals in combat, and hunting scenes. A highly skilled painter who was celebrated for his ability to capture the textures of and play of light on feathers and fur, Snyders was part of a large and friendly group of artists who helped transform Antwerp from a city of commerce and finance to a vibrant centre for the arts.

The inn kept by Snyders’s parents was popular with artists. As a young man, Snyders studied under Pieter Bruegel the Younger, but Snyders’s painting style may have been more influenced by Bruegel’s younger brother, Jan, who was nicknamed “Velvet Bruegel” because of his virtuosity in painting textures. Snyders is also believed to have studied under Hendrik van Balen, the first teacher of Anthony Van Dyck. As a result of Snyders’s talent and training, he became a master in 1602 in the Guild of St. Luke, the Antwerp painters’ guild. Thereafter, like many other Flemish artists of the day, he visited Italy, staying for several months during 1608–09 in Rome and then in Milan, where he was patronized by Federico Cardinal Borromeo. About 1610, after his return to Antwerp, Snyders began a long friendship and professional collaboration with Peter Paul Rubens, and in 1611 Snyders married Margriet (Margaretha) de Vos, the sister of Flemish painters Cornelis and Paul de Vos (respectively, c. 1584–1651 and c. 1591–1678). In addition to the painters’ guild, Snyders joined the Romanists (1572–1785; a confraternity of humanists, artists, and art lovers who had traveled to Rome) and was dean of that society in 1628.

Snyders originally devoted himself to classic still-life painting, depicting flowers, fruit, and the play of light upon other inert objects. He soon made his specialty the lively depiction of animals, combining tables laden with fruits and vegetables of all sizes with hanging (or draped) game. In the midst of these still objects, he often introduced portraits of live animals, including such creatures as parrots, monkeys, dogs, and cats. The compositions of his scenes of hunting and of animals fighting are rich and varied. His drawing is accurate and vigorous and his sense of colour bold and thoroughly expressive. This acknowledged skill led Rubens to employ Snyders often to paint animals—especially dead game—fruit, and still-life objects in his own pictures. The painter Jacob Jordaens employed Snyders in a similar fashion. Snyders was appointed principal painter to Albert VII, archduke of Austria and sovereign prince of the Low Countries, for whom he executed some of his finest works. One of these, a Stag Hunt, was presented to Philip III of Spain, who commissioned the artist to paint several subjects of the chase.

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