Beskrivning: Se även beskrivning i den engelska versionen

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 110:

Technical notes: The support consists of a plate of
copper about 0.5–1.9 cm thick. Before preparation the
copper was prepared with parallel grooves to ensure
adherence – something that can be discerned in the
metal where there are paint losses. A thin, black opaque
layer covers the copper and could be a ground or oxidisation
of the metal.
The paint layer consists of several thinly and opaquely
applied layers. Vegetation and the birds have been painted
over the background. A reserve was left for the ostrich
and partial reserves have been left for the other animals,
the rest painted over the light foreground and middle
ground.

The light blue sky is applied thinly though in places
more thickly with delicate brushstrokes using an evenly
ground pigment with occasional coarser particles of (carbon)
black. The animals are rendered precisely in terms
of colouring and appearance. The most minute details of
feathers, eyes, fur etc. are depicted with almost scientific
precision using a pointed brush (this can only be seen
through a microscope). The vegetation in the foreground
and the leaves are painted in detail. The bushes
in the background are rendered more lightly without
clear outlines of their foliage against the sky. The palette
consists of earth colours and accents of red in the rendering
of the animals. The paint layer is generally abraded.
The painting underwent conservation treatment in
1935.

Provenance: Johan Gustav Netzel, Stockholm;
bequeathed by Johan Gustav Netzel to the NM in 1867
(inv. 1861/67, no. 1412).

Bibliography: NM Cat. 1867, p. 34; Sander IV, p. 137;
Göthe 1887, pp. 129–130; Göthe 1893, p. 162; Göthe
1910, pp. 180–181; Granberg 1911–1913, I, p. 83; NM
Cat. 1958, p. 103; NM Cat. 1990, p. 187.

In an indeterminate landscape setting a violent confrontation
is taking place between, on one side, a cluster
of birds and, on the other side, a variety of wild ani-
mals, indigenous European as well as exotic species, a
fox, a weasel, a marmot, a goat, a ram, a leopard, a serpent,
a salamander and a hare running off to the left.
The birds include wild as well as domestic varieties:
birds of prey (owls), water fowl (ducks, geese, herons,
curlew), poultry (a rooster, a hen), an ostrich and a
parrot. The artist depicts the animals at the moment
when the fight seems to be turning in favour of the
birds, pressing forward towards their enemies on the
left, although the outcome of the struggle is still
uncertain. Thus, in the tumult a fox tries vainly to
defend itself against the attack of an owl that has sunk
its talons into its prey, while a marmot and a weasel
have successfully cornered another owl lying prostrate
on the ground.

This painting is an example of the numerous little
cabinet pieces – painted on small format copper or
wood panels and frequently in large series – which Van
Kessel began producing in the early 1650s and continued
up to at least 1670. The looser handling when
compared with earlier works by the artist, suggests
that the present picture can probably be dated in the
1660s or 1670s. Beside his well-known painstakingly
detailed studies of insects, Van Kessel’s oeuvre also
included bird concerts and scenes of fighting animals
inspired by those of the Antwerp animal painter Frans
Snyders – whose work he also occasionally copied in
small format – as well as various series depicting live
animals in landscapes that recall the miniature art of
Jan Brueghel I.1 Interesting examples of the latter are
the series, from the 1660s, depicting The Four Parts of
the World now in Madrid (Museo Nacional del Prado)2
and Munich (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen,
Alte Pinakothek),3 composite pictures containing recognizable
town views, or other geographical locations,
in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, each with a selection
of animals associated with the particular continent
prominently displayed against the slightly out-offocus
backgrounds, all grouped around a larger allegorical
centrepiece. The possibility that this painting
once belonged to such a series must be dismissed,
however, in view of the great mix of animals represented.
Certain motifs seem derived from the contemporary
emblem literature, for example, the heron attacking
its prey in mid-air, or the curlew struggling with a
serpent in the foreground.4 Discussing scenes of animal
struggle by Snyders, Robels observed that they
call to mind a Netherlandish proverb popular in the
17th century: “as it is in the wild wood, where one eats
or is eaten, so it is in this world”.5 The same meaning
might be applied to the present picture.
CF

1 Cf. the animals depicted in NM 490 with the wide variety of species –
nearly all of which were probably studied from life – in Jan I Brueghel’s
many paradise scenes, the earliest of which dates to 1594 (Rome, Galleria
Doria Pamphilj). See Ertz 1979, pp. 236-249. And cf. his oil study, Sketches
of Ducks and Birds, of c. 1615 (present whereabouts unknown); see Los
Angeles/The Hague 2006, p. 69 (under no. 4), fig. 44.
2 Composite picture, oil on copper, each of the 40 small panels 17 x 23 cm,
signed “I. V. Kessel fecit” and dated “1660”, Madrid, Museo Nacional del
Prado, inv. no. 1554; for which see Díaz Padrón 1995, I, pp. 646–659,
repr. in colour.
3 Composite pictures mounted in original frames, oil on copper, the four
large central panels, each ca.48 x 67.5 cm, surrounded by sixteen smaller
ones, each c. 14.5 x 21 cm, signed and dated between 1664 and 1666,
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Alte Pinakothek, inv.nos.
1910–1913; for which see Renger 2002, pp. 231–246, illus.
4 Cf. the 16th-century emblem depicting a falcon attacking a heron in midair,
for which see Henkel and Schöne 1967, col. 785, illus.; cf. the image
of the eagle and the serpent in Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Ornitologia (Bologna
1599–1603), bk. I, pp. 44–46, for the eagle’s antipathy to serpents. For
emblems of assorted birds, eagles, storks, etc., attacked by snakes, see
Henkel and Schöne 1967, cols. 768, 831.
5 See Robels 1989, p. 316 (under no. 209), citing De Wercken van Jacob Cats,
ed. J. van Vloten, Zwolle 1862 (reprint Groningen n.d.), p. 186. See also
Hans Marcus, Niederländische Sprichwörter des 17. Jahrhunderts (Kat.
XVII), Düsseldorf 1974/5, no. 165. [End]

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Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2009