Artist's Magazine - USA (2020-05)

6 Artists Magazine May 2020

Prime ANATOMY OF A PAINTING

CHARLES H. AND MARY F. S. WORCESTER COLLECTION/THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

The composition is dominated by a low

table, upon which all manner of animals

and fruit are assembled. The apparent

chaos is regulated by repeated diagonals,

whichareneatlysummarizedbythe

positionsofthecrisscrossingrabbits.

According to The Art Institute of Chicago, “Still Life With

Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market is energized

by the suggestion of a struggle between virtue and vice.”

Both the deer and the swan traditionally symbolized purity,

while the peacock was associated with vanity, and the wild

boarwithlustandgluttony.A lurkingcatanda young

pickpocketimplyyetmoreinsidiousqualities.

Snyders’masteryisevidentinhispaintingof

surfaces.Feathers,fur,woodandmetalare

spectacularlyhandled.Hisgiftsweren’tmerely

superficial; in the deer’s twisted carcass and the

swan’s elaborate wing, the artist displays an

understanding of what lies within, of animal

anatomy and three-dimensional anatomical form.

Whilesupervisinghisownstudioandapprentices,Snydersalso

collaboratedwithotherartists.HeworkedwithRubenson

dozensofpaintings;often,Rubenswouldleavea blankspace

in his sketches into which Snyders would add the requisite

animal. The situation was reversed for Rubens’ Prometheus

Bound, in which Snyders initially sketched a magnificent eagle,

leaving Rubens to fill in the figure afterward.