Artwork
Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market
Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market is an oil painting by the Flemish Baroque painting artist Frans Snyders. It dates from 1614 and is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
As a work of Flemish Baroque still life, the painting functions as a detailed representation of commercial vitality and natural plenty.
Frans Snyders' 1614 oil painting presents a bustling market scene dominated by an abundant display of foodstuffs. The composition features a market stall laden with dead game, including various poultry and other hunted animals, alongside a rich assortment of fruits and vegetables. A human figure is included within the scene, interacting with or overseeing the merchandise.
As a work of Flemish Baroque still life, the painting functions as a detailed representation of commercial vitality and natural plenty. The juxtaposition of hunted game with cultivated produce highlights the diversity of provisions available in early seventeenth-century markets, celebrating the material wealth and sensory richness of the era through its monumental scale and realistic depiction of textures.
Technique & Style
Executed in oil on canvas in 1614, the work measures 212 cm in height and 308 cm in width. The handling is characteristic of early Flemish Baroque still-life painting, combining precise anatomical rendering of dead game and poultry with tactile realism in the depiction of fruits and vegetables. The composition is structured around a diagonal axis that guides the viewer’s eye from the lower right foreground of game birds and vegetables toward the upper left, where a standing figure introduces a human presence into the market scene.
The palette favors earthy browns and greens punctuated by vivid accents in reds and yellows, reinforcing the abundance and freshness of the produce.
History & Provenance
Frans Snyders created the oil-on-canvas painting Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market in 1614. The work exemplifies the Flemish Baroque style and depicts a market stall featuring poultry, game meat, and fruit alongside a human figure. Currently, the painting is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Historical records indicate that the artwork was previously owned by Galerie Pierre Birtschansky before entering its current institutional home.
Context
Frans Snyders emerged as a leading specialist in game and market still lifes within the Flemish Baroque painting tradition, a focus reflected in his 1614 work Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market housed at the Art Institute of Chicago. This painting exemplifies his role in shaping the market genre, where meticulous rendering of perishable goods conveyed both abundance and moral transience, situating him alongside contemporaries like Jan Davidsz. de Heem while influencing later still life developments across Northern Europe. Scholarly analysis emphasizes how such compositions bridged commercial realism and symbolic allegory, reinforcing Snyders' significance within the broader context of Baroque visual culture and the evolution of still life as a vehicle for both sensory detail and philosophical reflection.
Overview
Frans Snyders’ oil painting Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market dates from 1614. Executed in the Flemish Baroque idiom, the work presents a bustling market tableau filled with a variety of produce, dead game and a figure in a vivid red shirt. The composition is held by the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Frans Snyders or Frans Snijders was a Flemish painter of animals, hunting scenes, market scenes, and still lifes.
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