A trompe l'oeil with falconry equipment, including falcon hoods, a birdcage, game bags, a hunting horn, and a flintlock gun

Hunting, and falconry in particular, was a popular pastime reserved for Dutch aristocrats, notably those associated with the court at The Hague. Falcons were primarily trained to hunt small birds found around rivers and marshlands. To keep them calm while traveling to and from hunts, handlers fitted them with round leather hoods, or bonnets, that covered their eyes. As shown in this painting, these hoods were frequently embellished with dyed leather, gold braid, or decorative plumes. The oeuvres of Hague painters Anthonie Leemans and his younger brother Johannes are dominated by trompe-l'oeil still lifes, often large in scale, featuring hunting paraphernalia, birdcages and weaponry, hanging from walls as if ready to use. Their work found favour among the hunting elite, while the wider trompe-l'oeil genre grew in popularity among collectors throughout the seventeenth century.