Dogs and Dead Game

Presumably intended as a fireplace piece, this Flemish masterpiece depicting a hunting still life shows the end of a successful hunt in a landscape bathed in evening light. On the right the eye is carried into the reddish-coloured distance under grey clouds, and there are other spots of intense red in the wounds of the deer’s body and on the hunting bag. In terms of colour and brushstrokes, the lifelessness of the prey with the grey- blue plumage of the partridges, in which the yellowish-brown coat is finely differentiated, forms a contrast with the compulsive agility of the spotted hounds. This polarity of passivity and activity gives the work the Baroque drama of a historical painting.| Prestel Museum Guides - Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2012
SIGNATUR / INSCHRIFT: Bez. mitte unten im Erdreich unter dem Rehbock: Ioannes • Fyt • / • 1649 •