Jan Fijt, ‘Jachtbuit’

by Atelier Liesjes

A dead hare hangs upside down by its hind legs, its long body drooping heavily, its belly pale and its back mottled with brown. A hunting rifle with a long wooden stock lies diagonally across it, from the bottom left to the top right. The spoils are laid out all around: on the left, on a stone, a large, brown-speckled bird; next to it, a woven bottle and a wooden cage with leather straps; in the centre, a large grey-white goose with an orange beak, and beneath it a whole array of smaller birds—partridges, snipes and a jay with a blue wing—spread out across a white cloth. On the right, behind a rock, the head of a hunting dog peeks out – reddish-brown with a white muzzle and drooping ears – its gaze fixed on the spoils. Fijt paints the feathers, the fur and the wood with great virtuosity: short, scratchy strokes in the down, longer strokes on the hare, and a warm sheen on the rifle butt. The colour palette is deep and earthy, featuring umber, ochre, reddish-brown and grey-green, set against the bright white of the canvas beneath the birds. The background is dark: large, heavy leaves on the left and a sky full of grey clouds, with a narrow streak of orange on the horizon to the right. The composition as a whole is a showpiece of the hunt, but also a still life about death and transience, in which the life of the dog and the death of the birds stand side by side. Jan Fijt (Antwerp 1611–1661) was a Flemish painter of hunting trophies, dogs and birds. He learnt the delicate technique of animal painting from Frans Snyders; in 1630 he became a master of the Antwerp guild and later travelled to Italy. His hunting scenes are famous for their vivid texture and for the loose, painterly touch with which he rendered feathers and fur.