Horses and Cattle

Savery painted chiefly landscapes in the Flemish tradition of Gillis van Coninxloo II, in which animals and plants occupied a prominent place within a mythological, Biblical or moralising context. Sometime in 1603 or 1604, Roelant Savery went to Prague, where he was appointed court painter by Emperor Rudolf II, a Habsburg prince who invited several artists to his court in the city. In the scene here, all the creatures appear to be battling each other, both on the ground and in the air; people in the village to the right in the background are also joining in.