Still Life with Games and Vegetables

The still life genre flourished in 17th century Flanders. Artists of this period continued to paint scenes of kitchens and markets overflowing with food, like those done during the latter half of the 16th century by artists such as Aertsen, as they also developed the genre by adding game, fruit and similar items to these scenes. Adriaen van Utrecht, along with Frans Snyders and Jan Fyt, is known as one of the major painters of this genre. A wood pigeon, a hare and a goose are seen hanging upside down on the left side of this painting. The hare's head and two forelegs, and the head of the goose hang onto the tabletop. A pheasant is in the center of the composition, with its head and neck hanging off the front of the table. A large copper bucket is placed to the right of the pheasant and the artist's signature and the painting's date of 1648 are inscribed on the bucket. Artichokes appear in front of the bucket along side squash. The painting is worked in darken brown tones overall, and there seems to be a complete difference between this work and the general trend in Flemish still-life paintings with their taste for the highly decorative.(Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 32)