83. Aelbert Jacobsz Cuyp,
View of the Valkhof at Nijmegen, c. 1655-1665.

Oil on panel, 48.9 x 73.7 cm.

Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis.

 

 

A similar mastery to that displayed by Potter in the depiction of cows and steers was achieved in the picturing of poultry by Melchior de Hondecoeter. He was active from 1663 in Amsterdam, where he had ample chances to hone his skills on the chicken runs of the rich Amsterdam traders. Hondecoeter sought absolute truth in nature, the beguiling true reproduction of the shining of all colours, in which even swimming birds are occasionally mirrored in the drops of water. In addition to this careful accuracy in all details, his colouristic sense was strong enough to combine the mass of colour on the duck ponds or the chicken runs into a forceful and fitting overall composition. All the advantages of his art are found in La Plume flottante (1680), so called because of the tiny duck feather in the foreground between all the swimming ducks, a masterpiece of fine painting. Occasionally Hondecoeter introduced dramatic moments into his chicken coops in which in the dive of a predatory bird he allowed the poultry to scatter, or even instigated a cockfight.