Still Life of Dead Birds

Jan Vonck

c. 1660

Oil on panel

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A still life painting depicts several dead birds arranged on a dark surface. One bird hangs by a string, while others lie on the surface, some with visible plumage details. There were not many hunters in the northern Netherlands when Jan Vonck was painting in the 1600s. Yet he focused almost exclusively on hunting trophy pictures like this one. The birds rest on a rustic table, the hard wood supporting their soft, feathered bodies. Vonck painted the birds with such care and detail that they can be identified: the leftmost bird with yellow on its wing is a goldfinch, the small red-breasted bird is a bullfinch, and the large bird tied up by its leg is a partridge. The dark, pale-speckled bird with the golden beak in the shadows beside the partridge may be a starling. We wish to thank Dan Davison for sugg