Beskrivning: Ett trettiotal fåglar av olika storlek samlade till konsert under anförande av en uggla, som sitter på ett träd till höger. På samma träd skator, en papegoja, fasaner och småfåglar. På ett träd till vänster två påfåglar och på marken en trana, höns, änder och en vit svan. I bakgrunden landskap med vatten och lövträd. Mörkt blå himmel, som ljusnar vid horisonten, med moln.

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 189: 

Technical notes: The painting’s support consists of
two pieces of medium-weight, plain weave fabric, loosely
woven of irregularly spun threads, and joined by a vertical
seam near the centre. The fabric support has been
lined and mounted on a non-original strainer. The original
tacking edges have been removed on all sides and
part of the paint surface has been folded over the edges
of the strainer to form new tacking margins, reducing the
height and width by c. 2.2–2.3 cm, but pronounced cusping
along all edges indicates that the original dimensions
have been largely retained. The fabric support has sustained
damage in the form of a short horizontal tear at
the lower left (above the heron’s right foot).

The fabric support was prepared with a thin white
ground layer, followed by smooth, beige imprimatura
applied overall, and intended to hide the weave structure,
that remains visible through the thinly applied paint of
the landscape. The birds’ contours were initially
sketched with a fine brush in dark grey paint on the beige
imprimatura, the underdrawing now partially visible to
the naked eye (legs and claws of both herons on the left,
tail feathers of the red macaw on the left).
The birds were painted first, after which the landscape
and the sky, the most thickly painted area of the picture,
were then filled in.

The painting is generally in good condition. A discoloured
layer of old varnish is present. The weave structure
of the original fabric support has been reinforced
through the lining process. Abrasion and losses of paint
and ground layers occur along all four edges. Scattered
discoloured retouches are visible, especially in the birds
and the trees. The painting underwent conservation
treatment in 1928 and 2008.

Provenance: Drottningholm, by 1867.

Exhibited: Stockholm 2010, no. 93.

Two blasted tree stumps silhouetted against the sky
accomodate a great multitude of birds of different
sizes, shapes, colour and plumage. An owl conducts
the chorus of birds, beating time for them as they join
their voices – noisily – in song. All species are represented,
an odd assortment not to be found together in
nature, poultry and water fowl as well as birds of prey,
small song birds as well as colourful parrots. Some
birds, such as the peacocks and parrots, are not known
for their musicality, the beauty of their plumage contrasting
with the raucousness of their calls. Distinctive
physical traits, vocalizations and behaviour, distinguish
each species. The scene includes a pleasant rural
landscape of rolling hills dotted with clusters of trees
and a river or lake.

The bird concert was one of Frans Snyders’ most
popular avian subjects. He produced endless variants
of such designs, most of which date to his mature period,
in the 1620s and ’30s.1 Snyders’ bird scenes also
achieved great popularity among his followers, including
his younger brother-in-law Paul de Vos, who
painted numerous bird concerts in his manner. While
the overall design of the present work does not correspond
exactly to comparable pictures by Snyders, specific
motifs and birds were clearly modelled after the
master’s autograph works, presumably based on (lost)
individual studies after nature shared among artists.
The motif of the owl beating time, though not the
same bird, occurs in a painting in Cape Town (The
Max Michaelis Coll.),2 and another in St.
Petersburg (The Hermitage), the latter tentatively
attributed by Robels to De Vos,3 whose special talent
lay in the portrayal of live animals in movement. The
swan is identical to that in a picture on the London art
market in 1971, a variant of a painting at Petworth
House, Petworth/Sussex; the heron in the left foreground
recurs in both paintings.4 The male peacock
on the left, its shimmering tail feathers viewed from
behind, can be found in the St. Petersburg painting, as
well as a picture on the Dutch art market in 1924.5
The birds’ great vitality, their animated movements
and poses in the Drottningholm picture, so similar in
spirit to the St. Petersburg Bird Concert of the 1630s,
stand out in comparison with Snyders’ more
restrained compositions, particularly the owl vigorously
beating time with its claw and the large birds on
the left, the peacocks, parrot and herons, which seem
to compensate for their lack of beautful singing voices
by intensive body language and outstretched necks.
The allegorical subject of the bird concert originated
in the Middle Ages, but was rarely represented until
Snyders popularized it in the 17th century. Visual
inspiration for these decorative pieces may have come
from Jan Brueghel I’s allegorical pictures of the Element
of Air.6 The meaning of Snyders’ bird concerts,
however, seems to lie elsewhere. De Mirimonde
relates the theme to animal satire, derived from classical
antique sources, in which different animals appear
as musicians, a motif also popular in the marginal
drolleries of medieval books of hours.7 The variety of
birds in bird concert pictures, including some with
ugly singing voices, may allude to the proverb, “Elck
vogeltge singt soo’t gebeckt is” (“Each bird sings with
its own beak”), a theme popular in the emblematic literature.
8 Snyders seems to have been the first painter
to place an owl as conductor at the head of the flock of
birds. In doing so he followed the compositional
scheme of a subject, popular since the late 15th century,
in which an owl is surrounded, derided, and
attacked by a flock of hostile birds.9 Seen as a representative
of sin and vice in the Middle Ages, the owl’s
ancient association with wisdom had been revived by
the late 16th century. This positive association allowed
Snyders to create new meaning with his bird concerts,
which Koslow locates “within the context of the
humanistic debate between those who argued for the
superiority of nature’s artfulness over the artifice of
art fabricated by the human hand and conceived by the
mind of man”.10

The bright palette and decorative effect of bird concert
pictures was probably intended to be appreciated
from a distance, in the context of a richly appointed
room.11 In the 17th century imported exotic birds were
the object of considerable interest among the wealthy,
for whom they were a sign of privileged status, and
poultry, once the attribute of the simple peasant, was
increasingly viewed as a status symbol as inhabitants of
the poultry yards of elegant country estates. Ornithological
information was richly supplied by the illustrated
studies of natural historians such as Ulisse
Aldrovandi’s Ornithologiae (Bologna 1599-1603), an
encyclopaedic compendium about birds, a copy of
which was owned by Rubens.12
CF

1 See Robels 1989, 114–17, and cat.nos. 193–201.
2 Oil on canvas, 135 x 178 cm, 1620s, Capetown, The Max Michaelis Coll.,
see ibid, cat. no. 193, illus.
3 Oil on canvas, 136.5 x 240 cm, St. Petersburg, The Hermitage, inv. no.
607; see ibid, cat. no. A 205I, illus. (as attributed to Paul de Vos).
4 Oil on canvas, 168 x 300 cm, Petworth/Sussex, Petworth House (National
Trust House), and oil on canvas, 165 x 292 cm, Thos Agnew & Son
Ltd., 1971; see ibid, cat.nos. 198 I, 198 II, illus.
5 Oil on canvas, 71 x 108 cm, sale, Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, 25 June
1924; see ibid, cat. no. 201, illus.
6 See Robels 1989, p. 115; Koslow 1995, p. 291. For Jan Brueghel I’s compositions,
the earliest of which dates to 1608, see Ertz 1979, p. 374, cat.
nos. 249, 372, figs. 440, 447. Cf. a representation of a congregation of
birds gathered before a song book attributed to a follower of Brueghel in
Brunswick, Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museum, see De Mirimonde, p. 265.
7 See De Mirimonde 1964, pp. 259f. In Late Medieval manuscripts, for
example, a fox or a wolf frequently invite geese or other birds to sing and
dance, see ibid, figs. 16–17.
8 Cf. Marcus 1974/75, no. 118, cited by Robels 1989, p. 115. The same
theme was treated by Jacob Cats in a moralizing poem titled Elck vogeltge
singt soo’t gebeckt is, for which see Alle de wercken, soo oude als nieuwe, I
(Amsterdam, 1700), p. 635, cited by Koslow 1995, p. 296.
9 On the one hand, the subject could symbolize Christ, represented by the
owl, attacked by non-believers portrayed as birds, on the other hand, the
owl could represent the devil, or evil in general, set upon by the forces of
virtue. See Vandenbroeck 1985, cited by Koslow 1995, p. 298.
10 See Koslow 1995, pp. 298–299. For the owl’s positive, secular associations,
Koslow refers to the example of Joris Hoefnagel’s depiction of this
bird (fol.20) grasping a caduceus, an attribute signifying the arts and sciences,
in the Calligraphy Pattern Book of Georg Bocskay of 1591–94 in Vienna,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, see her fig. 406.
11 An entry in an Antwerp inventory of 1645, “eenen schouwdoeck wesende
eenen Vogelsanck”, refers either to a chimney screen or chimneypiece
picture; see Duverger 1991, p. 246, cited by Koslow 1995, p. 291. Many
bird concert pictures come from Spanish collections, where they served
as over-doors or chimney screens; see the 1655 inventory of the paintings
collection of Diego Mexía, Marquis of Leganés published by López
Navío 1962, pp. 272, 276, 301, cited by Koslow 1995 p. 291.
12 Rubens acquired his copy in 1613, see Mcrae 1971.[End]

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