Frans Snyders

Frans Snyders or Snijders (1579-1657) was a Catholic Flemish Baroque painter, who was the most-noted 17th-century painter of animals. His subjects included still lifes of markets and pantries (featuring both live animals and dead game), animals in combat and hunting scenes. A highly skilled painter who was celebrated for his ability to capture the textures of and play of light on feathers and fur, Snyders was part of a group of artists who helped transform Antwerp from a city of commerce and finance to a vibrant center for the arts. The inn kept by Snyders’s parents was popular with artists. As a young man Snyders studied under Pieter Bruegel the Younger. He is also believed to have studied under Hendrik van Balen, the first teacher of Anthony Van Dyck. As a result of Snyders’s talent and training he became a master in 1602 in the Guild of St. Luke, the Antwerp painters’ guild. Thereafter, like many other Flemish artists of the day, he visited Italy, staying for several months during 1608–09 in Rome and then in Milan, where his patron was Federico Cardinal Borromeo. About 1610, after his return to Antwerp, Snyders began a long friendship and professional collaboration with Peter Paul Rubens and in 1611 he married Margriet (Margaretha) de Vos, the sister of Flemish painters Cornelis and Paul de Vos. Snyders was appointed principal painter to Albert VII, archduke of Austria and sovereign prince of the Low Countries, for whom he executed some of his finest works. Also Philip III of Spain commissioned the artist to paint several hunting scenes.