Getty Museum
Still Life with Dead Birds
Creator
Christoffel van den BergheFlemish Artist · 1590–1642
All works by this person →Little is known about Christoffel van den Berghe's life. His pictures generally bear the monogram *CVB*, and his identity was unknown until the 1950s. He seems to have led a fairly isolated existence in Middelburg, and only four of his flower paintings have been identified. Van den Berghe may have been a pupil of flower painter Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder. In addition to flower pieces, he paint
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1624
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Culture
- Flemish
- Department
- Paintings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
In this hunting trophy painting, Christoffel van den Berghe saw the dead birds as opportunities to inventively orchestrate a variety of textures, patterns, and shapes. He not only showcased the birds' colorful feathers, but he complemented them with his entire still-life repertoire: fruit, flowers, and serving pieces. The genre of "game pieces" generally dates from the 1640s; this is one of the earliest in the history of Dutch art. Few Dutch artists painted such works, perhaps because the market was small. Hunting and shooting were not practiced on a large scale in the northern Netherlands, and these paintings were not commissioned.
The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.