Still Life with Dead Birds (Back)

In this hunting trophy painting, Christoffel van den Berghe saw the dead birds as opportunities to inventively orchestrate a variety of textures, patterns, and shapes. He not only showcased the birds' colorful feathers, but he complemented them with his entire still-life repertoire: fruit, flowers, and serving pieces.

The genre of "game pieces" generally dates from the 1640s; this is one of the earliest in the history of Dutch art. Few Dutch artists painted such works, perhaps because the market was small. Hunting and shooting were not practiced on a large scale in the northern Netherlands, and these paintings were not commissioned.