page_title: Frans Snyders
section_title: Market and pantry scenes
hierarchical_section_title: Frans Snyders / Work / Market and pantry scenes
context_page_description: Frans Snyders or Frans Snijders was a Flemish painter of animals, hunting scenes, market scenes and still lifes. He was one of the earliest specialist animaliers and he is credited with initiating a wide variety of new still-life and animal subjects in Antwerp. He was a regular collaborator with leading Antwerp painters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens.
context_section_description: He painted many market scenes and his earliest work in this area was inspired by the work of Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer who had pioneered and developed the genre in 16th century Antwerp. Whereas Aertsen and Beuckelaer often included a religious scene in the background of their market pieces, Snyders dispensed with this.  Initially he worked in a Mannerist idiom.  His style gradually matured as a result of his exposure to Italian art during his trip to Italy and the work of Rubens after his return to Antwerp.  As a result the dark surroundings of his early still lifes disappeared after 1614 and he became a fine colourist with strong compositional skills allowing him to structure a profusion of disparate objects.
  He not only created many large market and pantry scenes and game still lifes, usually including dead deer.  He also painted smaller works which were reminiscent of the breakfast pieces and still lifes that originated in northern art around 1600.   Rather than continue the descriptive manner of the Antwerp painter Osias Beert, Snyders' innovative still lifes combined objects in groups to form a geometrically structured composition.  Recurring motifs were dead hares and birds, tazze (shallow dishes on a tall foot), baskets with grapes and other fruit, enamelled pitchers and Chinese Kraak porcelain.
  Snyders typically depicted game in the stage before it is prepared as food.  These dead animals therefore resemble hunting trophies, which were often not even intended as food but rather for stuffing.  Snyders often included live animals such as cats to create a contrast between the animate and inanimate elements. Snyders' large game pieces were very influential and the Dutch painter Jan Davidsz. de Heem, who worked in Antwerp for a significant period of time took inspiration from Snyders' work to develop his own large-scale game pieces.
  The large and abundant still lifes of Snyders have been interpreted in many ways.   Some read a propagandistic message into these paintings.  The display of the luxurious abundance available in Antwerp which was at the time under Spanish administration possibly served the propagandistic purpose of showing the superiority of Spanish rule over Flanders when compared with Protestant control over the rebellious Northern Netherlands.
  While in the Baroque tradition many of his compositions are complex and dynamic some are more focused and quiet.  An example of the latter is the Grapes, Peaches and Quinces in a Niche (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), where his brushwork is also more sketchy than usual.
caption: Cook at a Kitchen Table with Dead Game
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