Kip met kuikens en andere vogels 1675 - 1711

Pieter Schenk made this print, Kip met kuikens en andere vogels, using etching and engraving techniques sometime between 1670 and 1711. Images of barnyard fowl like this one were popular in the Netherlands at the time. The Dutch Republic had become one of Europe’s major centers of commerce. The rising merchant class enjoyed flaunting their wealth by collecting art that displayed scenes of daily life or still lifes with expensive goods. Images of birds, both exotic and domestic, captured the public imagination. It is likely that Schenk, like other artists in the Netherlands, was responding to the tastes of the Dutch market. He has rendered each bird in fine detail so that it can be easily identified. The naturalistic style suggests that the artist studied real-life specimens. To understand the social role of these images and the marketplace that supported their production, historians study dealer’s inventories, auction catalogs, and other documents. What do these works tell us about the values of Dutch society?