Jan Fyt's circle, 17th century

Circle of JAN FYT (Antwerp, 1611-1661).
"Still life".
Oil on canvas.
Relined.
With label on the back of the Artistic Recovery Service of the Civil War.
Measurements: 82 x 110 cm; 95 x 120 cm (frame).

Following very closely models of the great Flemish painter Jan Fyt, in this painting of remarkable workmanship shows us a composition in which coexists a singular mixture of rest and drama. Being the instant after the hunt, it conveys the feeling that the game (dead birds and a rabbit head down) still retain the warmth of life inside. The light falls on the dead and still soft and warm fur, caressing the textures, revealing them little by little, making them emerge from a dark background. The rabbit, by its dramatic pose and proportions, draws our gaze above the other pieces, though each element is strategically placed to shape our emotions: the glitter of the black and white grapes, the red of other pieces of fruit contrasting in the white plumage and the exposed belly of the rabbit. The rabbit's open, red eyes are subjugating, spurring humanistic readings in the viewer. The latter was also characteristic of the work of Jan Fyt, who despite being in the wake of Frans Snyders, developed in this genre a very personal melancholic cadence. The heroic tone seen in Snyders is almost questioned in Fyt, whose reflective, ontological depth is balanced with a Rubensian virtuosity in the capture of textures and qualities, in the compositional dynamism that relates dramatic diagonals with calm gazes.

Jan Fyt was a great Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver, whose works are preserved today in the main art galleries of the world. His works hang in the halls of the Prado Museum, the Musée du Louvre, the National Gallery in London and the Hermitage.

Jan Fyt was initiated in the art of painting under the orders of Hans van den Berch, of whom he was a disciple around 1621. However, his great master was Frans Snyders. He reached the rank of master of the Painters' Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp around 1629-1630, although he continued to work for Snyders for some time. In the seventeenth century, collectors such as the Marquis of Carpio or the Count of Monterrey, already had works by Jan Fyt, but it would be in the eighteenth century with Philip V and Isabella of Farnese, when most of his paintings in the Museum would be incorporated into the royal collection. The rest entered by donation in 1889, from the collection of the Duchess of Pastrana, an imitation of the aristocratic collections that endorsed the appreciation of the work of Jan Fyt in previous centuries. In the representation of flowers he also achieved great mastery, especially through the chromatic hallmarks between the flowers and the ochers of the environments where he places them. In addition to his canvases, Fyt is known for a large body of drawings and engravings, in which he used the same characteristics and manners as in his paintings. He had a great influence on the still life painting of later years, especially through his pupils, Peeter Boel and David de Conick.