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Lot Essay
The sweeping format of this sottobosco (forest floor) scene sets it apart from other works in the genre, both in Withoos' own oeuvre and that of his teachers Jacob van Campen (1595-1657) and Otto Marseus van Schrieck (1619/20-1678) to whom his style remained much indebted throughout his life.
Here the artist revels in the detail of the foliage that fills the foreground to the right; executed in a rich colour palette cornflowers, marigolds and columbine are picked out in jewel hues against the softer greens and blues of the leaves. Though the flowers speak of summer, the elder berries and hops hanging from the trees and the hazy landscape beyond, deeply imbued with the memories of Withoos’ travels in Italy undertaken in 1652, suggest the approach of autumn.
The real theatre of Withoos’ composition, however, is in the plunging, writhing forms of the birds. Swooping in from the left, a crow speeds towards its quarry: a grey partridge with wings outstretched and a quail prone on the ground. The strange comportment of the birds indicates that they have been drugged by the red berries hanging ominously in the shadows at upper right. These tantalising traps would have been placed there by farmers, who then waited for the helpless birds to lure in the crows, which would in turn be eliminated to protect the crops.
In a tradition that stretched back to Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s immensely popular Winter Landscape with Bird Trap (Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. 8724), the plight of the crow elevates Withoos’ painting from simple landscape to subtle metaphor. Contemporary viewers would have understood that this was an allegory of temptation and the fragility of life, essentially a form of vanitas. The composition teaches that earthly pleasures, here in the form of glistening fruit and easy prey, should be avoided, as they will lead to our downfall both in this world and the next. The passage of time, symbolised in the turning of the seasons, further underlines this message.
At the time of the 1996 sale, Dr. Fred Meijer suggested that the Weenix signature was probably altered from a genuine Withoos signature, but that the date of 1660 is likely to be authentic.
Here the artist revels in the detail of the foliage that fills the foreground to the right; executed in a rich colour palette cornflowers, marigolds and columbine are picked out in jewel hues against the softer greens and blues of the leaves. Though the flowers speak of summer, the elder berries and hops hanging from the trees and the hazy landscape beyond, deeply imbued with the memories of Withoos’ travels in Italy undertaken in 1652, suggest the approach of autumn.
The real theatre of Withoos’ composition, however, is in the plunging, writhing forms of the birds. Swooping in from the left, a crow speeds towards its quarry: a grey partridge with wings outstretched and a quail prone on the ground. The strange comportment of the birds indicates that they have been drugged by the red berries hanging ominously in the shadows at upper right. These tantalising traps would have been placed there by farmers, who then waited for the helpless birds to lure in the crows, which would in turn be eliminated to protect the crops.
In a tradition that stretched back to Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s immensely popular Winter Landscape with Bird Trap (Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. 8724), the plight of the crow elevates Withoos’ painting from simple landscape to subtle metaphor. Contemporary viewers would have understood that this was an allegory of temptation and the fragility of life, essentially a form of vanitas. The composition teaches that earthly pleasures, here in the form of glistening fruit and easy prey, should be avoided, as they will lead to our downfall both in this world and the next. The passage of time, symbolised in the turning of the seasons, further underlines this message.
At the time of the 1996 sale, Dr. Fred Meijer suggested that the Weenix signature was probably altered from a genuine Withoos signature, but that the date of 1660 is likely to be authentic.