The Parrot. ‘t Cierlijk schoon van haare veren - Visitors’ guide

THE PARROT

‘t Cierlijk schoon van haare veeren**The decorative beauty of its lumage

The Golden Cabinet presents

EXHIBITION

ROCKOX HOUSE

08.11.2014 - 22.02.2015

V I S I T O R ’ S G U I D E

PARROT‘t Cierlijk schoon van haare veeren*

*The decorative beauty of its plumage

0 8 .11. 2014 - 22 .02 . 2015

The Golden Cabinet presentsWith thanks to:

Smidt van Gelder Collection (MAS), Antwerp

Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience, Antwerp

Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

MAS, Antwerp

Mayer van den Bergh Museum, Antwerp

Plantin-Moretus Museum/Print Room, Antwerp, UNESCO World Heritage Site

Private collection, Antwerp

Rockox House, Antwerp

Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België/Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Brussels

Cultura Fonds, Dilbeek

Broel Museum, Kortrijk

Stedelijke Musea, Mechelen

Emmanuel Tack, President of the Belgian Parakeet and Parrot Fanciers’ Association

Responsible publishers: Nicolaas Rockox Museum, Keizerstraat 12, 2000 Antwerp and KMSKA, Lange Kievitstraat 111-113 Box 100, 2018 Antwerp

PARROT‘t Cierlijk schoon van haare veeren*

*The decorative beauty of its plumage

0 8 .11. 2014 - 22 .02 . 2015

The Golden Cabinet presentsWith thanks to:

Smidt van Gelder Collection (MAS), Antwerp

Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience, Antwerp

Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

MAS, Antwerp

Mayer van den Bergh Museum, Antwerp

Plantin-Moretus Museum/Print Room, Antwerp, UNESCO World Heritage Site

Private collection, Antwerp

Rockox House, Antwerp

Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België/Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Brussels

Cultura Fonds, Dilbeek

Broel Museum, Kortrijk

Stedelijke Musea, Mechelen

Emmanuel Tack, President of the Belgian Parakeet and Parrot Fanciers’ Association

Responsible publishers: Nicolaas Rockox Museum, Keizerstraat 12, 2000 Antwerp and KMSKA, Lange Kievitstraat 111-113 Box 100, 2018 Antwerp

1

Introduction

The Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten and the Rockox House Museum in Antwerp are staging the exhibition ‘The Golden Cabinet: Royal Museum at Rockox’ until the end of 2016. Throughout that period, the former home of burgomaster and patron of the arts Nicolaas Rockox (1560–1640) has been configured as a sumptuous private art gal-lery, featuring masterpieces from the Koninklijk Museum and key works from the Rockox House itself. A series of small, theme exhibitions is being held as part of this overall pro-ject, the third of which is devoted to the parrot as an eye-catching motif in sixteenth and seventeenth-century art.

Rubens’s Holy Family with a Parrot (KMSKA) is an extraordinary work. The recent removal of old layers of varnish and retouching has restored the painting’s original radiance, enabling it to testify even more clearly to the brilliance of Rubens’s talent. The Holy Family has been given a place of honour in the Golden Cabinet, where it adorns the red art gallery, along with two other recently restored large works. Jordaens’s As the Old Sing, So the Young Pipe (KMSKA) hangs with renewed freshness above the fireplace, with Maerten de Vos’s The Tribunal of the Brabant Mint in Antwerp (Rockox House) on the wall opposite. Justitia – the personification of justice – once again dominates De Vos’s painting, the tactility of which has likewise been revealed from beneath a thick layer of yellowed varnish.

To mark the display of these restored glories, we are focusing in the Rockox House’s exhibi-tion space on the representation of parrots in art from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. Parrots have been popular pets since classical antiquity. Their plumage is a feast for the eye, but their vocal talents are even more amazing. While parrots were rarely the centre of attention in Renaissance and Baroque paintings, they were often included because of their symbolic significance.

The parrot in Rubens’s painting alludes to Mary’s virginity – a reference already found in Martin Schongauer in the fifteenth century. Schongauer’s slightly younger compatriot, Albrecht Dürer, has a parrot accompany Adam and Eve at the Tree of Life. The bird averts its gaze from the young couple so that it does not have to witness their Fall – hence the parrot’s reputation for wisdom. It appears quite often in depictions of the Garden of Eden, not least in the work of the animal painter Roelandt Savery from Kortrijk. Savery was court painter to Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, giving him ample opportunity to study the animals in his patron’s famous zoological garden and aviaries. He painted other biblical scenes too in which parrots play a role, including the story of Noah’s Ark. Parrots feature in mythological scenes as well: Orpheus, for instance, was repeatedly shown charming them with the music of his lute or lyre. In the seventeenth century, meanwhile, parrots were given a prominent role in ironic, metaphorical ‘concerts of birds’, fine examples of which by Paul de Vos and Jan Fijt are included in the Golden Cabinet. Frans Francken II regularly included pairs of parrots in his images of prominent individuals with their private art collections. Painters like

Credits

This exhibition was organized to mark the restoration of Rubens’s Holy Family with a Parrot.Restoration: Eva van ZuilenArt-historical support: Nico Van Hout

Exhibition DesignHildegard Van de Velde

Visitor guide textsHildegard Van de Velde

Copy editorLuc Philippe

TranslationTed Alkins

DesignAnne Van den Berghe

Print coordinatorEddy Moyaers

Photographic creditsKBC Erwin Donvil; Collectiebeleid Musea, Bewaarbibliotheken en Erfgoed Antwerpen, Mayer van den Bergh Museum and Plantin-Moretus Museum/Print Room, Lukas-Art in Flanders vzw, Hugo Maertens; Musée des Arts Anciens, Namur; Cultura Fonds, Dilbeek

Coordination and communicationBert Peeters, Patrick Wuytack, Nico Van Hout, Veerle De Meester, Vik Leyten, Véronique Van Passel, An Sysmans and Babette Cooijmans

Tablet appWenke Mast

CoverbeeldPeter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Heilige Familie met papegaai (detail)© KMSKA, foto Rik Klein Gotink

www.kmska.bewww.rockoxhuis.bewww.hetguldencabinet.be

1

Introduction

The Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten and the Rockox House Museum in Antwerp are staging the exhibition ‘The Golden Cabinet: Royal Museum at Rockox’ until the end of 2016. Throughout that period, the former home of burgomaster and patron of the arts Nicolaas Rockox (1560–1640) has been configured as a sumptuous private art gal-lery, featuring masterpieces from the Koninklijk Museum and key works from the Rockox House itself. A series of small, theme exhibitions is being held as part of this overall pro-ject, the third of which is devoted to the parrot as an eye-catching motif in sixteenth and seventeenth-century art.

Rubens’s Holy Family with a Parrot (KMSKA) is an extraordinary work. The recent removal of old layers of varnish and retouching has restored the painting’s original radiance, enabling it to testify even more clearly to the brilliance of Rubens’s talent. The Holy Family has been given a place of honour in the Golden Cabinet, where it adorns the red art gallery, along with two other recently restored large works. Jordaens’s As the Old Sing, So the Young Pipe (KMSKA) hangs with renewed freshness above the fireplace, with Maerten de Vos’s The Tribunal of the Brabant Mint in Antwerp (Rockox House) on the wall opposite. Justitia – the personification of justice – once again dominates De Vos’s painting, the tactility of which has likewise been revealed from beneath a thick layer of yellowed varnish.

To mark the display of these restored glories, we are focusing in the Rockox House’s exhibi-tion space on the representation of parrots in art from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. Parrots have been popular pets since classical antiquity. Their plumage is a feast for the eye, but their vocal talents are even more amazing. While parrots were rarely the centre of attention in Renaissance and Baroque paintings, they were often included because of their symbolic significance.

The parrot in Rubens’s painting alludes to Mary’s virginity – a reference already found in Martin Schongauer in the fifteenth century. Schongauer’s slightly younger compatriot, Albrecht Dürer, has a parrot accompany Adam and Eve at the Tree of Life. The bird averts its gaze from the young couple so that it does not have to witness their Fall – hence the parrot’s reputation for wisdom. It appears quite often in depictions of the Garden of Eden, not least in the work of the animal painter Roelandt Savery from Kortrijk. Savery was court painter to Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, giving him ample opportunity to study the animals in his patron’s famous zoological garden and aviaries. He painted other biblical scenes too in which parrots play a role, including the story of Noah’s Ark. Parrots feature in mythological scenes as well: Orpheus, for instance, was repeatedly shown charming them with the music of his lute or lyre. In the seventeenth century, meanwhile, parrots were given a prominent role in ironic, metaphorical ‘concerts of birds’, fine examples of which by Paul de Vos and Jan Fijt are included in the Golden Cabinet. Frans Francken II regularly included pairs of parrots in his images of prominent individuals with their private art collections. Painters like

Credits

This exhibition was organized to mark the restoration of Rubens’s Holy Family with a Parrot.Restoration: Eva van ZuilenArt-historical support: Nico Van Hout

Exhibition DesignHildegard Van de Velde

Visitor guide textsHildegard Van de Velde

Copy editorLuc Philippe

TranslationTed Alkins

DesignAnne Van den Berghe

Print coordinatorEddy Moyaers

Photographic creditsKBC Erwin Donvil; Collectiebeleid Musea, Bewaarbibliotheken en Erfgoed Antwerpen, Mayer van den Bergh Museum and Plantin-Moretus Museum/Print Room, Lukas-Art in Flanders vzw, Hugo Maertens; Musée des Arts Anciens, Namur; Cultura Fonds, Dilbeek

Coordination and communicationBert Peeters, Patrick Wuytack, Nico Van Hout, Veerle De Meester, Vik Leyten, Véronique Van Passel, An Sysmans and Babette Cooijmans

Tablet appWenke Mast

CoverbeeldPeter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Heilige Familie met papegaai (detail)© KMSKA, foto Rik Klein Gotink

www.kmska.bewww.rockoxhuis.bewww.hetguldencabinet.be

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THE PARROT | ‘ t C i e r l i j k s c h o o n v a n h a a r e v e e r e n

Peeter Boel liked to incorporate parrots in their still lifes to animate an otherwise ‘dead’ composition, to glorify the diversity of nature or to symbolize luxury. A parrot featured in a portrait as a pet highlights the subject’s status, but can also be read as a symbol of marriage.

Europeans’ ‘discovery’ of the New World led to heightened interest in zoology and botany, and to the publication of books on nature, which introduced their readers to exotic if not downright outlandish animals. The Italian scientist Ulisse Aldrovandi included illustrations of parrots in his Ornitologiae, while the Antwerp engraver Adriaen Collaert also brought them to glorious life in his Avium vivae icones. The Bruges engraver Marcus Gheeraerts illustrated Vondel’s Vorsteliicke warande der dieren (‘Royal Animal Garden’), in which parrots are among the beasts featured in the various animal fables. Engravings like this were seized on as a source for tile-makers, who frequently used the parrot motif. Humanist authors like Jacob Cats incorporated parrots in their proverbs and emblems. Hendrik Graauwhart, for instance, called the parrot a snapperd or chatterbox: ‘The sweet chatter of the parrot / And the decorous beauty of its plumage ... the wise man hates / A chatterbox, who understands but little’.

PARROTS IN STILL LIFES

Innovative, secular themes developed in the early Renaissance, alongside the religious subjects and

portraits that had dominated the visual arts in the Middle Ages. In this way, non-religious themes

gradually came to the fore. The still life genre developed toward the end of the sixteenth century from

kitchen and market scenes. Parrots often feature in showpieces and vanitas still lifes as a symbol of

luxury on the one hand, and as a living element among the ‘dead’ material on the other.

1. Peeter Boel (1622-1674)

Still Life with Game, a Parrot, a Dog, a Monkey and Fruit

oil on canvas, late 1650s

Antwerp, Rockox House, inv. 141

Boel was born into a family of artists: his father and brother were engravers. According to some sources, Boel was a pupil of Frans Snyders (1579–1657). He was certainly influ-enced by that great master, but it seems more likely that Boel trained under Joannes Fyt (1611–1661). He also collaborated with Erasmus Quellinus II and Jacob Jordaens, whose contribution to his paintings included human figures. Boel chiefly painted hunting, floral, animal and vanitas still lifes.He travelled to Italy in the 1640s, where he spent time in Genoa and Rome, making the acquaintance of the Genoese painter Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609–1664) and the still-life painter Giuseppe Recco (1634–1695). He learned from these artists how to dramatize his canvases by emphasizing the shadow areas. Red drapery in the background – the Baroque element par excellence – also heightens the atmosphere. This oil painting by Boel is undoubtedly an attractive vanitas scene. The idea of transience is expressed by the dead animals in the painting, the most striking of which are the peacock and the swan. The fine copperware, Nuremberg ceremonial dish and pitcher – laid out carelessly rather than shown to their best effect – also contribute to the sense of time passing, while the split fruit is likewise an Italian vanitas symbol. The still-life element contrasts sharply with the three living creatures in the painting: a parrot, a dog and a monkey. The parrot – an intelligent creature and a good talker – comes from the Amazon region of South America. It gazes at the fruit with its beak open, its chatter contrasting with the silent still life. Parrots were expensive possessions too – their inclusion in still lifes is frequently intended to stress the display of luxury.

2 3


Peeter Boel liked to incorporate parrots in their still lifes to animate an otherwise ‘dead’ composition, to glorify the diversity of nature or to symbolize luxury. A parrot featured in a portrait as a pet highlights the subject’s status, but can also be read as a symbol of marriage.

Europeans’ ‘discovery’ of the New World led to heightened interest in zoology and botany, and to the publication of books on nature, which introduced their readers to exotic if not downright outlandish animals. The Italian scientist Ulisse Aldrovandi included illustrations of parrots in his Ornitologiae, while the Antwerp engraver Adriaen Collaert also brought them to glorious life in his Avium vivae icones. The Bruges engraver Marcus Gheeraerts illustrated Vondel’s Vorsteliicke warande der dieren (‘Royal Animal Garden’), in which parrots are among the beasts featured in the various animal fables. Engravings like this were seized on as a source for tile-makers, who frequently used the parrot motif. Humanist authors like Jacob Cats incorporated parrots in their proverbs and emblems. Hendrik Graauwhart, for instance, called the parrot a snapperd or chatterbox: ‘The sweet chatter of the parrot / And the decorous beauty of its plumage ... the wise man hates / A chatterbox, who understands but little’.

PARROTS IN STILL LIFES

Innovative, secular themes developed in the early Renaissance, alongside the religious subjects and

portraits that had dominated the visual arts in the Middle Ages. In this way, non-religious themes

gradually came to the fore. The still life genre developed toward the end of the sixteenth century from

kitchen and market scenes. Parrots often feature in showpieces and vanitas still lifes as a symbol of

luxury on the one hand, and as a living element among the ‘dead’ material on the other.

1. Peeter Boel (1622-1674)

Still Life with Game, a Parrot, a Dog, a Monkey and Fruit

oil on canvas, late 1650s

Antwerp, Rockox House, inv. 141

Boel was born into a family of artists: his father and brother were engravers. According to some sources, Boel was a pupil of Frans Snyders (1579–1657). He was certainly influ-enced by that great master, but it seems more likely that Boel trained under Joannes Fyt (1611–1661). He also collaborated with Erasmus Quellinus II and Jacob Jordaens, whose contribution to his paintings included human figures. Boel chiefly painted hunting, floral, animal and vanitas still lifes.He travelled to Italy in the 1640s, where he spent time in Genoa and Rome, making the acquaintance of the Genoese painter Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609–1664) and the still-life painter Giuseppe Recco (1634–1695). He learned from these artists how to dramatize his canvases by emphasizing the shadow areas. Red drapery in the background – the Baroque element par excellence – also heightens the atmosphere. This oil painting by Boel is undoubtedly an attractive vanitas scene. The idea of transience is expressed by the dead animals in the painting, the most striking of which are the peacock and the swan. The fine copperware, Nuremberg ceremonial dish and pitcher – laid out carelessly rather than shown to their best effect – also contribute to the sense of time passing, while the split fruit is likewise an Italian vanitas symbol. The still-life element contrasts sharply with the three living creatures in the painting: a parrot, a dog and a monkey. The parrot – an intelligent creature and a good talker – comes from the Amazon region of South America. It gazes at the fruit with its beak open, its chatter contrasting with the silent still life. Parrots were expensive possessions too – their inclusion in still lifes is frequently intended to stress the display of luxury.

4 5


2. Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606–c. 1683)

Fruit Still Life with Scarlet Macaw

oil on wood, signed, 1628

private collection, inv. P080

(Met dank aan Maarten Bassens voor de informatie)

Jan Davidsz. de Heem probably trained under the Utrecht floral still-life painter Balthasar van der Ast (c. 1593–1657). De Heem settled some time between 1631 and 1636 in Antwerp, where quite a few noteworthy still-life painters were active, including Daniel Seghers, Frans Snyders, Adriaen van Utrecht, Osias Beert, Jan van Kessel and Peeter Boel.His early work, of which this still life is an example, is still indebted to van der Ast. De Heem presents Wanli bowls, filled with fruit, in almost precisely the same manner, and the way the dish is angled in a bowl had likewise already been done by van der Ast. The Chinese crockery does not yet display the abundance of De Heem’s later works, but the subtly painted porcelain is highly tactile and luxurious. The scarlet macaw (Ara macao) looks on approvingly. The parrot serves here as a perfect emblem of luxury.

PORTRAITS

Beginning in the seventeenth century, portraits steadily evolved toward a more natural representation

of the sitter. Parrots began to appear in these works too. In the case of children’s portraits (of which

there are none in this exhibition), they are an allusion to education, whereas in portraits of adults,

they can be a symbol of marital fidelity or simply an indication of the sitter’s status.

3. Jacques Jordaens (1593-1678)

Fruit Seller

oil on canvas

Antwerp, KMSKA, inv. 5049

The Antwerp Baroque artist Jacob Jordaens produced a large number of mythological and religious paintings, tapestry designs, and over four hundred drawings.He probably painted this fruit seller around 1645, in collaboration with his studio assis-tants, after a similar painting, now in Glasgow. The girl, who carries a basket of grapes (baskets of fruit were an allusion to fertility), looks out of the painting at the viewer. She stands before an open window in a Baroque architectural setting decorated with pilasters, festoons, volutes and a cartouche. On the left we make out a satyr – a symbol of lust and delight – and on the other side what is probably a nymph – a frequent target of the satyr’s attempts at seduction. Through the window we see a pair of lovers over a burning candle, which creates an attractive chiaroscuro effect. The woman closely resembles the fruit seller. A parrot – another blue-and-yellow macaw – stands on a perch behind the girl, and may be interpreted in this context as a symbol of lust. Or perhaps the girl is not the woman in the window at all, and she and the parrot are merely poor imitations[4].

PARROTS Parrots belong to the order Psittaciformes, which is made up of New Zealand parrots (Strigopidae) on the one hand, and ‘true’ parrots (Psittacidae) and cockatoos (Cacatouidae) on the other. The Psittacidae include vasa parrots (Coracopsis) from Madagascar, parakeet species (Psittacula) from Asia, small, brightly coloured parrots from Australasia (lories), macaws from South America, and the African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) from Equatorial Africa.

4 5


2. Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606–c. 1683)

Fruit Still Life with Scarlet Macaw



(Met dank aan Maarten Bassens voor de informatie)

Jan Davidsz. de Heem probably trained under the Utrecht floral still-life painter Balthasar van der Ast (c. 1593–1657). De Heem settled some time between 1631 and 1636 in Antwerp, where quite a few noteworthy still-life painters were active, including Daniel Seghers, Frans Snyders, Adriaen van Utrecht, Osias Beert, Jan van Kessel and Peeter Boel.His early work, of which this still life is an example, is still indebted to van der Ast. De Heem presents Wanli bowls, filled with fruit, in almost precisely the same manner, and the way the dish is angled in a bowl had likewise already been done by van der Ast. The Chinese crockery does not yet display the abundance of De Heem’s later works, but the subtly painted porcelain is highly tactile and luxurious. The scarlet macaw (Ara macao) looks on approvingly. The parrot serves here as a perfect emblem of luxury.

PORTRAITS

Beginning in the seventeenth century, portraits steadily evolved toward a more natural representation

of the sitter. Parrots began to appear in these works too. In the case of children’s portraits (of which

there are none in this exhibition), they are an allusion to education, whereas in portraits of adults,

they can be a symbol of marital fidelity or simply an indication of the sitter’s status.


Fruit Seller

oil on canvas


The Antwerp Baroque artist Jacob Jordaens produced a large number of mythological and religious paintings, tapestry designs, and over four hundred drawings.He probably painted this fruit seller around 1645, in collaboration with his studio assis-tants, after a similar painting, now in Glasgow. The girl, who carries a basket of grapes (baskets of fruit were an allusion to fertility), looks out of the painting at the viewer. She stands before an open window in a Baroque architectural setting decorated with pilasters, festoons, volutes and a cartouche. On the left we make out a satyr – a symbol of lust and delight – and on the other side what is probably a nymph – a frequent target of the satyr’s attempts at seduction. Through the window we see a pair of lovers over a burning candle, which creates an attractive chiaroscuro effect. The woman closely resembles the fruit seller. A parrot – another blue-and-yellow macaw – stands on a perch behind the girl, and may be interpreted in this context as a symbol of lust. Or perhaps the girl is not the woman in the window at all, and she and the parrot are merely poor imitations[4].

PARROTS Parrots belong to the order Psittaciformes, which is made up of New Zealand parrots (Strigopidae) on the one hand, and ‘true’ parrots (Psittacidae) and cockatoos (Cacatouidae) on the other. The Psittacidae include vasa parrots (Coracopsis) from Madagascar, parakeet species (Psittacula) from Asia, small, brightly coloured parrots from Australasia (lories), macaws from South America, and the African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) from Equatorial Africa.

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Portrait of a Man with a Parrot, signed, dated 1656

oil on canvas


This painting is considered a late work by Jordaens. Although his career would stretch for a further twenty years, he had already passed his peak. He nevertheless continued to work until an advanced age, relying increasingly on his studio assistants. Jordaens did not paint many portraits, but he was by no means inexperienced in that genre. The family group portraits from his early period are of very high quality.We do not know the young man’s identity, but his splendid clothes suggest that he belonged to the wealthy urban elite. He is wearing a large jabot collar, fastened by laces ending in a tassel. Copious displays of linen came back into fashion around 1650, as we also see from the way his cuffs spill out around his wrists. Only a lace-trimmed collar could have been more luxurious. The gloves that the young man holds in his left hand are a further statement of his wealthy status. It is possible that the portrait had a companion piece with a half-length portrait of a woman. If so, the two paintings together would have announced a betrothal, making the parrot a symbol of love, although such birds were normally included in the woman’s portrait in pairs of this kind. The young man might also have commissioned the portrait as a reference to his personal status, in which case the expensive, exotic bird would have emphasized his pedigree and social position. The parrot is hard to identify, but seems most to resemble an extinct variety of macaw – the Guadeloupe or Cuban macaw. It might equally have sprouted, however, from the artist’s imagination. The blue-green patch at the top of the bird’s head in particular is not known in any living or extinct species.

THE PARROT IN THE BIBLE

Western painting in the Middle Ages continued to focus almost exclusively on religious themes.

Although this subject matter remained dominant in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, painters

around the beginning of the sixteenth century began to allow themselves more freedom in their

treatment of biblical stories. The Bible was still the means, but landscape painting gradually became

the end. The interest in nature, flora and fauna, and new scientific publications contributed to this

new turn in the visual arts. Themes like the Garden of Eden lent themselves perfectly to experiments

with magnificent landscapes that would ultimately come to overshadow the biblical subject.

The parrot in the Old Testament

5. Jan van Kessel I (1626-1679)

Noah’s Ark

oil on canvas


Van Kessel, an artist active in Antwerp, was a pupil of the landscape painter Jan Brueghel II (1568–1625) and the animal painter Simon de Vos (1603–1676). He painted still lifes with animals – especially insects – but also with flowers. Van Kessel produced paintings with mythological and biblical subjects too.The story of Noah’s Ark is told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. God orders Noah to build a ship in which his family and animals of all kinds will be able to survive the Flood. Noah did as he was told, loading up his ark with pairs of animals and birds – a male and a female of each species. In the background of this painting, we see the animals entering the ark, while a variety of others wait their turn in the foreground. Many birds are depicted in the air, although not all of them can be identified. Some are merely suggested. There might well be a pair of parrots in there somewhere, as they were among the chosen species. The parrot can be recognized in flight from its long tail.

6 7



Portrait of a Man with a Parrot, signed, dated 1656

oil on canvas


This painting is considered a late work by Jordaens. Although his career would stretch for a further twenty years, he had already passed his peak. He nevertheless continued to work until an advanced age, relying increasingly on his studio assistants. Jordaens did not paint many portraits, but he was by no means inexperienced in that genre. The family group portraits from his early period are of very high quality.We do not know the young man’s identity, but his splendid clothes suggest that he belonged to the wealthy urban elite. He is wearing a large jabot collar, fastened by laces ending in a tassel. Copious displays of linen came back into fashion around 1650, as we also see from the way his cuffs spill out around his wrists. Only a lace-trimmed collar could have been more luxurious. The gloves that the young man holds in his left hand are a further statement of his wealthy status. It is possible that the portrait had a companion piece with a half-length portrait of a woman. If so, the two paintings together would have announced a betrothal, making the parrot a symbol of love, although such birds were normally included in the woman’s portrait in pairs of this kind. The young man might also have commissioned the portrait as a reference to his personal status, in which case the expensive, exotic bird would have emphasized his pedigree and social position. The parrot is hard to identify, but seems most to resemble an extinct variety of macaw – the Guadeloupe or Cuban macaw. It might equally have sprouted, however, from the artist’s imagination. The blue-green patch at the top of the bird’s head in particular is not known in any living or extinct species.

THE PARROT IN THE BIBLE

Western painting in the Middle Ages continued to focus almost exclusively on religious themes.

Although this subject matter remained dominant in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, painters

around the beginning of the sixteenth century began to allow themselves more freedom in their

treatment of biblical stories. The Bible was still the means, but landscape painting gradually became

the end. The interest in nature, flora and fauna, and new scientific publications contributed to this

new turn in the visual arts. Themes like the Garden of Eden lent themselves perfectly to experiments

with magnificent landscapes that would ultimately come to overshadow the biblical subject.

The parrot in the Old Testament

5. Jan van Kessel I (1626-1679)

Noah’s Ark

oil on canvas


Van Kessel, an artist active in Antwerp, was a pupil of the landscape painter Jan Brueghel II (1568–1625) and the animal painter Simon de Vos (1603–1676). He painted still lifes with animals – especially insects – but also with flowers. Van Kessel produced paintings with mythological and biblical subjects too.The story of Noah’s Ark is told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. God orders Noah to build a ship in which his family and animals of all kinds will be able to survive the Flood. Noah did as he was told, loading up his ark with pairs of animals and birds – a male and a female of each species. In the background of this painting, we see the animals entering the ark, while a variety of others wait their turn in the foreground. Many birds are depicted in the air, although not all of them can be identified. Some are merely suggested. There might well be a pair of parrots in there somewhere, as they were among the chosen species. The parrot can be recognized in flight from its long tail.

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6. Roelandt Savery (1576-1639)

After the Deluge

oil on wood, signed, c. 1620

Kortrijk, Broel Museum, inv. 1017

An idyllic landscape is divided in two by a river. Roman ruins on the right bank have seem-ingly been overrun by nature, symbolizing decay on the one hand, and the power of nature on the other. This eye-catching emblem of transience somewhat disturbs the tranquillity of this desolate landscape. Meanwhile, an invisible diagonal runs from upper left to lower right, with two parrots as a focus at the visual centre: a blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ara-rauna) and a scarlet macaw (Ara macao), with the same two parrots again at the terminus lower right. We see mainly birds to the right of the diagonal, and to the left a number of land animals. Some of the animals are shown in pairs, referring to the story of Noah’s Ark, although there is no longer any trace of the vessel itself.

7. Johannes Wiericx (c. 1549–after 1615)

after Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)

Adam and Eve

copper engraving, 1565

Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque royale, inv. S I 37976

Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, engraver and humanist. He toured the Low Countries, where he was inspired by the Flemish Primitives, and Italy, where he enthusiasti-cally embraced the Renaissance. Dürer had an excellent eye for detail and a fascination for nature. His printmaking – especially his woodcuts – were world famous too, evolving in parallel with the art of book-printing. Johannes Wiericx and his brothers Hieronymus and Antoon came from a famous family of extremely talented engravers. They produced book illustrations for Christophe Plantin, many of them based on prints after Dürer.According to the margin with the signature, Joannes Wiericx was just sixteen when he made this engraving after Dürer’s 1504 original. The focus is firmly on the principal figures, Adam and Eve, who are depicted symmetrically in a contrapposto stance. A variety of animals feature in the engraving, including a serpent and a parrot. These two animals are the most striking, and form a deliberate contrast. The serpent offering Eve the apple is a symbol of sin, while the parrot, which averts its eyes from that same sin, stands for the Virgin Mary and for wisdom. Dürer’s original engraving encouraged a great many artists to include animals in their works.


Garden of Eden

oil on wood, 1622


The emphasis in Savery’s painting – unlike Dürer’s iconography – is on the idyllic landscape. The Tree of Knowledge, under whose branches Adam and Eve give themselves up to sin, is placed firmly at the visual centre of the painting. The Garden of Eden serves here as a pretext for painting a vast landscape, populated mainly with animals. Savery was able to improvise to his heart’s content, depicting as many living creatures – beasts of the land, water and air – as he could. Once again, an invisible diagonal runs from upper left to lower right, where the viewer’s eye is drawn to a pair of scarlet macaws.

ROELANDT SAVERY (1567–1639)Roelandt Savery, born in Kortrijk, travelled to the imperial court of Rudolf II in Prague in the autumn of 1603 or spring of 1604. It is not known what took him there, nor what position he enjoyed at the court. His drawings nevertheless give us an insight into his activities in Central Europe and the Tyrol, which he most likely visited at Rudolf II’s behest. Various authors have suggested that Savery entered Rudolf II’s service, and he is also mentioned in the posthumous inventory of the emperor’s estate. Savery is described in the imperial archives, moreover, as a ‘chamber painter’, meaning that he was admitted as an artist to Rudolf II’s private quarters. He remained in Prague until 1612/13. Following Rudolf’s death in 1612, Savery worked for the new emperor, Matthias. His presence in Prague did not go unnoticed: Savery created the genre of bird paintings, and was one of the first to produce floral still lifes. Rudolf II praised the influence of Pieter Bruegel in his work. Savery’s time in Prague earned him an international reputation.

8 9



After the Deluge



An idyllic landscape is divided in two by a river. Roman ruins on the right bank have seem-ingly been overrun by nature, symbolizing decay on the one hand, and the power of nature on the other. This eye-catching emblem of transience somewhat disturbs the tranquillity of this desolate landscape. Meanwhile, an invisible diagonal runs from upper left to lower right, with two parrots as a focus at the visual centre: a blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ara-rauna) and a scarlet macaw (Ara macao), with the same two parrots again at the terminus lower right. We see mainly birds to the right of the diagonal, and to the left a number of land animals. Some of the animals are shown in pairs, referring to the story of Noah’s Ark, although there is no longer any trace of the vessel itself.

7. Johannes Wiericx (c. 1549–after 1615)

after Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)

Adam and Eve



Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, engraver and humanist. He toured the Low Countries, where he was inspired by the Flemish Primitives, and Italy, where he enthusiasti-cally embraced the Renaissance. Dürer had an excellent eye for detail and a fascination for nature. His printmaking – especially his woodcuts – were world famous too, evolving in parallel with the art of book-printing. Johannes Wiericx and his brothers Hieronymus and Antoon came from a famous family of extremely talented engravers. They produced book illustrations for Christophe Plantin, many of them based on prints after Dürer.According to the margin with the signature, Joannes Wiericx was just sixteen when he made this engraving after Dürer’s 1504 original. The focus is firmly on the principal figures, Adam and Eve, who are depicted symmetrically in a contrapposto stance. A variety of animals feature in the engraving, including a serpent and a parrot. These two animals are the most striking, and form a deliberate contrast. The serpent offering Eve the apple is a symbol of sin, while the parrot, which averts its eyes from that same sin, stands for the Virgin Mary and for wisdom. Dürer’s original engraving encouraged a great many artists to include animals in their works.


Garden of Eden

oil on wood, 1622


The emphasis in Savery’s painting – unlike Dürer’s iconography – is on the idyllic landscape. The Tree of Knowledge, under whose branches Adam and Eve give themselves up to sin, is placed firmly at the visual centre of the painting. The Garden of Eden serves here as a pretext for painting a vast landscape, populated mainly with animals. Savery was able to improvise to his heart’s content, depicting as many living creatures – beasts of the land, water and air – as he could. Once again, an invisible diagonal runs from upper left to lower right, where the viewer’s eye is drawn to a pair of scarlet macaws.

ROELANDT SAVERY (1567–1639)Roelandt Savery, born in Kortrijk, travelled to the imperial court of Rudolf II in Prague in the autumn of 1603 or spring of 1604. It is not known what took him there, nor what position he enjoyed at the court. His drawings nevertheless give us an insight into his activities in Central Europe and the Tyrol, which he most likely visited at Rudolf II’s behest. Various authors have suggested that Savery entered Rudolf II’s service, and he is also mentioned in the posthumous inventory of the emperor’s estate. Savery is described in the imperial archives, moreover, as a ‘chamber painter’, meaning that he was admitted as an artist to Rudolf II’s private quarters. He remained in Prague until 1612/13. Following Rudolf’s death in 1612, Savery worked for the new emperor, Matthias. His presence in Prague did not go unnoticed: Savery created the genre of bird paintings, and was one of the first to produce floral still lifes. Rudolf II praised the influence of Pieter Bruegel in his work. Savery’s time in Prague earned him an international reputation.

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9. Roelant Savery (1567-1639)

Birds’ Paradise



The birds are shown in a forbidding, mountainous landscape, with a ruined tower in the right background. They are mostly depicted in pairs, and almost all of them in profile. Native species mingle with exotic varieties. A salmon-crested cockatoo (Cacatua moluc-censis) perches high up in a tree, its crest standing up and its head turned in agitation and fear towards an eagle on the same branch who regards it menacingly. The composition and depicted animals also appear in other paintings.This work once belonged to the collection of Adolf Hitler, who wanted to found a museum in his native town of Linz, which would feature work by German and Romantic artists. His adviser, Hans Posse, suggested that he also include Netherlandish and Italian old masters. The fantasy element of this work will certainly have appealed to the Führer as, perhaps, will the eagle – the symbol of Germany.

The parrot in the New Testament

10. 10. Martin Schongauer (c. 1445–1491)

Virgin and Child with a Parrot, c. 1480–1485?

copper engraving, second state, signed lower centre M+S

Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque royale, inv. S II 2380

Schongauer was a German printmaker and painter, whose paintings and early engravings were inspired by Rogier van der Weyden and Dirk Bouts. He was very skilled at translating the pictorial elements of paintings into engraved lines and was also a major influence on Albrecht Dürer.Mary stands behind a parapet, holding the Christ Child, sitting on a cushion, with her left hand, and leafing through a Bible with her right. Behind her to the left is the suggestion of a landscape. The Bible is a prefiguration of the life of the still very young Jesus, on whose left hand we see a parrot. The bird is an allusion to the Bible and the Word of God, but is also a Marian symbol referring to the Immaculate Conception. The fig grasped in the child’s other hand is a prefiguration of the Passion and a reference to the Fall on the one hand, and a symbol of Mary’s fertility on the other. The Original Sin of Adam and Eve was redeemed by the birth of Christ.

12. (Attributed to) Michel Lasne (1590–1667)

after Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)

published by Erasmus Quellinus

Holy Family with a Parrot

engraving 1617


Lasne was a French copper engraver who worked briefly for Rubens. This engraving refers to the original composition, in which Rubens only painted Mary, the Christ Child and crib, with architectural elements in the background.

TENTOONGESTELD IN ‘HET GULDEN CABINET’

11. Peter Paul Rubens


oil on wood, 1614

Antwerp, KMSKA, inv. 312 (© KMSKA, photograph: Rik Klein Gotink)

Restored with the support of the Inbev-Baillet Latour Fund.

This painting was originally smaller, featuring only the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child and the crib. Rubens probably enlarged it on the left in 1633 when he presented it to the Guild of St Luke in gratitude for his appointment that year as the dean of the painters’ corporation. He added the parrot, vines, landscape and the figure of St Joseph to the painting some time around 1630 – a dating based on stylistic grounds. The painting was further enlarged over its full width at both the top and the bottom after Rubens’s death.A variety of symbolic elements can once again be found. The Christ Child holds an apple in his right hand, referring to the Fall of Adam and Eve. The grapevine and the parrot are symbols of Mary’s role as intercessor and of the virgin birth. The parrot is a blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna).

10 11


9. Roelant Savery (1567-1639)

Birds’ Paradise



The birds are shown in a forbidding, mountainous landscape, with a ruined tower in the right background. They are mostly depicted in pairs, and almost all of them in profile. Native species mingle with exotic varieties. A salmon-crested cockatoo (Cacatua moluc-censis) perches high up in a tree, its crest standing up and its head turned in agitation and fear towards an eagle on the same branch who regards it menacingly. The composition and depicted animals also appear in other paintings.This work once belonged to the collection of Adolf Hitler, who wanted to found a museum in his native town of Linz, which would feature work by German and Romantic artists. His adviser, Hans Posse, suggested that he also include Netherlandish and Italian old masters. The fantasy element of this work will certainly have appealed to the Führer as, perhaps, will the eagle – the symbol of Germany.

The parrot in the New Testament

10. 10. Martin Schongauer (c. 1445–1491)

Virgin and Child with a Parrot, c. 1480–1485?

copper engraving, second state, signed lower centre M+S

Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque royale, inv. S II 2380

Schongauer was a German printmaker and painter, whose paintings and early engravings were inspired by Rogier van der Weyden and Dirk Bouts. He was very skilled at translating the pictorial elements of paintings into engraved lines and was also a major influence on Albrecht Dürer.Mary stands behind a parapet, holding the Christ Child, sitting on a cushion, with her left hand, and leafing through a Bible with her right. Behind her to the left is the suggestion of a landscape. The Bible is a prefiguration of the life of the still very young Jesus, on whose left hand we see a parrot. The bird is an allusion to the Bible and the Word of God, but is also a Marian symbol referring to the Immaculate Conception. The fig grasped in the child’s other hand is a prefiguration of the Passion and a reference to the Fall on the one hand, and a symbol of Mary’s fertility on the other. The Original Sin of Adam and Eve was redeemed by the birth of Christ.

12. (Attributed to) Michel Lasne (1590–1667)


published by Erasmus Quellinus


engraving 1617


Lasne was a French copper engraver who worked briefly for Rubens. This engraving refers to the original composition, in which Rubens only painted Mary, the Christ Child and crib, with architectural elements in the background.


11. Peter Paul Rubens


oil on wood, 1614

Antwerp, KMSKA, inv. 312 (© KMSKA, photograph: Rik Klein Gotink)

Restored with the support of the Inbev-Baillet Latour Fund.

This painting was originally smaller, featuring only the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child and the crib. Rubens probably enlarged it on the left in 1633 when he presented it to the Guild of St Luke in gratitude for his appointment that year as the dean of the painters’ corporation. He added the parrot, vines, landscape and the figure of St Joseph to the painting some time around 1630 – a dating based on stylistic grounds. The painting was further enlarged over its full width at both the top and the bottom after Rubens’s death.A variety of symbolic elements can once again be found. The Christ Child holds an apple in his right hand, referring to the Fall of Adam and Eve. The grapevine and the parrot are symbols of Mary’s role as intercessor and of the virgin birth. The parrot is a blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna).

12 13


13. Schelte à Bolswert (1586-1659)



engraving


This copper engraver likewise worked briefly for Rubens. His print is based on the enlarged composition and was engraved in reverse. Mary’s face differs from the one in Rubens’s version.

14. Anonymous draughtsman

after Willem Panneels (c. 1600 – c. 1634)

Study of a Parrot

drawing, eighteenth century

Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum/Print Room, UNESCO World Heritage Site

inv. PK.OT.02371 | D.12.7.b

Panneels started working for Rubens around 1624/25 and went on to produce many copies after his work as part of his training. Rubens left on a diplomatic mission to Spain in 1628, during which time Panneels kept an eye on Rubens’s house and studio. This gave him access to his master’s archives, enabling him to copy to his heart’s content.This drawing of a parrot is probably an eighteenth-century copy after the largest parrot in Panneels’s original drawing in black and red chalk, which shows two parrots, a parakeet in flight and a monkey. The other parrot, the parakeet and the monkey can be found in Rubens’s painting Three Nymphs Filling the Horn of Plenty.

THE PARROT IN MYTHOLOGY

Mythological scenes, like biblical ones, gave artists the perfect opportunity to paint animals. Around

1600, for instance, the story of Orpheus from Ovid’s Metamorphoses became immensely popular at

European royal courts. It is not always necessary in these cases to look for a symbolic meaning behind

the inclusion of parrots – they are attractive, exotic birds, which make for striking visual motifs.


Orpheus Charming the Animals

signed, c. 1617, oil on wood


It takes a moment to locate the mythical poet and singer Orpheus, who charms the wild beasts with the sound of his lyre. It is not surprising that Savery should have chosen this theme: the story of Orpheus gave him the perfect opportunity to show off his thorough knowledge of animals. The artist did not take too much account, however, of the natural habitat in which the animals in question actually live. The foreground contains a river with waterfowl: the two swans who look straight at one another draw our attention at first, before leading the eye via an invisible diagonal to Orpheus, who strums his lyre beneath a large oak tree. Most of the animals look in his direction and the birds flock to him. Apart, that is, from the two parrots at the front, who form a beautiful and colourful distraction. Here too, Savery has chosen to depict the blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna) and scar-let macaw (Ara macao). There are no ruins in this image, but there is a waterfall – a frequent motif in Savery’s landscapes, where they form a dynamic element in a static environment. Savery first painted this theme during his time at court in Prague, with Orpheus referring to Savery’s employer, Emperor Rudolf, who was a great patron of he arts.


Poultry



The focus in this painting is entirely on the strange congregation of birds, many of them in pairs, around the robust oak. Savery is once again at the peak of his skill. A scarlet macaw (Ara macao) perches, looking backwards, on a branch above a view of the landscape in the distance. A blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna) is shown a little higher. The waterfowl at the front are accompanied by a seal, possibly painted by Roelandt’s nephew Hans Savery II.

THE BLUE-AND-YELLOW MACAW (ARA ARARAUNA)

The most popular of the parrots featured here is found mainly in the humid tropical and subtropical regions of South America, where it feeds in the treetops on nuts, fruit, bark and nectar. The parrot uses its strong black beak to crack even the toughest nuts. It is known to be a very faithful bird, mating for life. If kept in captivity, the blue-and-yellow macaw requires a great deal of attention and intellectual stimulation.

12 13


13. Schelte à Bolswert (1586-1659)



engraving


This copper engraver likewise worked briefly for Rubens. His print is based on the enlarged composition and was engraved in reverse. Mary’s face differs from the one in Rubens’s version.

14. Anonymous draughtsman

after Willem Panneels (c. 1600 – c. 1634)

Study of a Parrot

drawing, eighteenth century


inv. PK.OT.02371 | D.12.7.b

Panneels started working for Rubens around 1624/25 and went on to produce many copies after his work as part of his training. Rubens left on a diplomatic mission to Spain in 1628, during which time Panneels kept an eye on Rubens’s house and studio. This gave him access to his master’s archives, enabling him to copy to his heart’s content.This drawing of a parrot is probably an eighteenth-century copy after the largest parrot in Panneels’s original drawing in black and red chalk, which shows two parrots, a parakeet in flight and a monkey. The other parrot, the parakeet and the monkey can be found in Rubens’s painting Three Nymphs Filling the Horn of Plenty.

THE PARROT IN MYTHOLOGY

Mythological scenes, like biblical ones, gave artists the perfect opportunity to paint animals. Around

1600, for instance, the story of Orpheus from Ovid’s Metamorphoses became immensely popular at

European royal courts. It is not always necessary in these cases to look for a symbolic meaning behind

the inclusion of parrots – they are attractive, exotic birds, which make for striking visual motifs.





It takes a moment to locate the mythical poet and singer Orpheus, who charms the wild beasts with the sound of his lyre. It is not surprising that Savery should have chosen this theme: the story of Orpheus gave him the perfect opportunity to show off his thorough knowledge of animals. The artist did not take too much account, however, of the natural habitat in which the animals in question actually live. The foreground contains a river with waterfowl: the two swans who look straight at one another draw our attention at first, before leading the eye via an invisible diagonal to Orpheus, who strums his lyre beneath a large oak tree. Most of the animals look in his direction and the birds flock to him. Apart, that is, from the two parrots at the front, who form a beautiful and colourful distraction. Here too, Savery has chosen to depict the blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna) and scar-let macaw (Ara macao). There are no ruins in this image, but there is a waterfall – a frequent motif in Savery’s landscapes, where they form a dynamic element in a static environment. Savery first painted this theme during his time at court in Prague, with Orpheus referring to Savery’s employer, Emperor Rudolf, who was a great patron of he arts.


Poultry



The focus in this painting is entirely on the strange congregation of birds, many of them in pairs, around the robust oak. Savery is once again at the peak of his skill. A scarlet macaw (Ara macao) perches, looking backwards, on a branch above a view of the landscape in the distance. A blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna) is shown a little higher. The waterfowl at the front are accompanied by a seal, possibly painted by Roelandt’s nephew Hans Savery II.

THE BLUE-AND-YELLOW MACAW (ARA ARARAUNA)

The most popular of the parrots featured here is found mainly in the humid tropical and subtropical regions of South America, where it feeds in the treetops on nuts, fruit, bark and nectar. The parrot uses its strong black beak to crack even the toughest nuts. It is known to be a very faithful bird, mating for life. If kept in captivity, the blue-and-yellow macaw requires a great deal of attention and intellectual stimulation.

14 15


As with the previous work, it is not immediately obvious where to find the mythological story. A tragic event is in fact unfolding in the background glimpsed between the vegeta-tion, where Orpheus is being killed by the Maenads. These Thracian women, followers of Dionysus, were infuriated by the grieving Orpheus’s lack of interest in women following the death of his beloved Eurydice.

17. Adriaen Collaert (c. 1560–1618)

after Adam van Noort (1562–1641)


engraving


Adam van Noort, best known as the teacher of Rubens and Jordaens, mainly painted por-traits and historical themes. Adriaen Collaert was an engraver who went to Italy to perfect his skills. He worked for a variety of artists, including Maarten de Vos and Philips Galle, and for the printer-publisher Plantin-Moretus.Orpheus sits against a tree, playing his lyre. The animals gather around to listen. A parrot perches in one of the trees behind him, while another flies closer. In the background we see women playing music and the Bacchae, who will kill Orpheus. The verse in praise of Orpheus added beneath the print is by the writer Cornelis Kiliaan (c. 1530–1607).

RUDOLF II (1552-1612)The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II was Archduke of Austria (as Rudolf V, 1576–1608). He made Prague the capital of the empire, sparking a brief but impressive golden age for the city, which it would never quite equal in later centuries. Rudolf II was known as a great lo-ver of art, science and music. He owned famous collections of paintings and sculpture, and natural and manmade curiosities, together with animal gardens and aviaries. The lions’ den, located next to the castle, also housed leopards, cheetahs and a bear. An aviary was installed nearby in 1593, along with a pheasant garden and a lake stocked with exotic fish. Rudolf had a separate aviary built for his parrots – ‘pour l’oiseau Indien’ – in 1601. The Star Summer Palace, which Duke Ferdinand II of Tyrol, governor of Bohemia, ordered built in 1555/56, also had a zoological garden and a hunting park with deer, stags, hares and wild boar. The old Bubenec animal garden, dating back to the fourteenth century, was linked to the palace by an avenue of lime trees. Its most noteworthy residents included buffalo, bi-son and Asian sheep. The emperor and his entourage would ride down the avenue to view and hunt the animals. There were stables at the castle for Rudolf II’s favourite horses, of which he reportedly had seventy. We know from the ‘Bestiary’ – the painted inventory of Rudolf II’s collection of animals and natural curiosities – that the emperor had a penchant not only for living animals, but also for stuffed ones (including parrots) in his cabinet of curiosities. They were painted by a number of artists, including Joris Hoefnagel and Roe-landt Savery. The Bestiary is a two-volume codex, comprising 180 gouache paintings on parchment, now in the Austrian National Library in Vienna.

14 15


As with the previous work, it is not immediately obvious where to find the mythological story. A tragic event is in fact unfolding in the background glimpsed between the vegeta-tion, where Orpheus is being killed by the Maenads. These Thracian women, followers of Dionysus, were infuriated by the grieving Orpheus’s lack of interest in women following the death of his beloved Eurydice.

17. Adriaen Collaert (c. 1560–1618)

after Adam van Noort (1562–1641)


engraving


Adam van Noort, best known as the teacher of Rubens and Jordaens, mainly painted por-traits and historical themes. Adriaen Collaert was an engraver who went to Italy to perfect his skills. He worked for a variety of artists, including Maarten de Vos and Philips Galle, and for the printer-publisher Plantin-Moretus.Orpheus sits against a tree, playing his lyre. The animals gather around to listen. A parrot perches in one of the trees behind him, while another flies closer. In the background we see women playing music and the Bacchae, who will kill Orpheus. The verse in praise of Orpheus added beneath the print is by the writer Cornelis Kiliaan (c. 1530–1607).

RUDOLF II (1552-1612)The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II was Archduke of Austria (as Rudolf V, 1576–1608). He made Prague the capital of the empire, sparking a brief but impressive golden age for the city, which it would never quite equal in later centuries. Rudolf II was known as a great lo-ver of art, science and music. He owned famous collections of paintings and sculpture, and natural and manmade curiosities, together with animal gardens and aviaries. The lions’ den, located next to the castle, also housed leopards, cheetahs and a bear. An aviary was installed nearby in 1593, along with a pheasant garden and a lake stocked with exotic fish. Rudolf had a separate aviary built for his parrots – ‘pour l’oiseau Indien’ – in 1601. The Star Summer Palace, which Duke Ferdinand II of Tyrol, governor of Bohemia, ordered built in 1555/56, also had a zoological garden and a hunting park with deer, stags, hares and wild boar. The old Bubenec animal garden, dating back to the fourteenth century, was linked to the palace by an avenue of lime trees. Its most noteworthy residents included buffalo, bi-son and Asian sheep. The emperor and his entourage would ride down the avenue to view and hunt the animals. There were stables at the castle for Rudolf II’s favourite horses, of which he reportedly had seventy. We know from the ‘Bestiary’ – the painted inventory of Rudolf II’s collection of animals and natural curiosities – that the emperor had a penchant not only for living animals, but also for stuffed ones (including parrots) in his cabinet of curiosities. They were painted by a number of artists, including Joris Hoefnagel and Roe-landt Savery. The Bestiary is a two-volume codex, comprising 180 gouache paintings on parchment, now in the Austrian National Library in Vienna.

16 17


18. Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605)

Ornitologiae, hoc est de avibus historiae, Libri XI

Bologna, printed by Giovanni Battista Bellagamba for Franscicus de Franciscis, 1599–1603


inv. B 333 I III

Aldrovandi studied medicine at the university in his native Bologna, where he was later appointed professor of philosophy and natural history. The university created a botanical garden on his initiative, and he also assembled a famous collection of natural history objects.This encyclopaedia is considered to be the last in the Renaissance tradition: comprehensive, but not terribly systematic, and with considerable interest in curiosities. In the course of his career, Aldrovandi published three books on birds and one on insects, both of which continued to be expanded after his death.The book is open at a page showing two parrots – Psittacus cinereus and Psittacus eritro-leucos. Both varieties are now extinct, but continued to be recorded until the eighteenth century, including in John Hill’s A General Natural History Or New and Accurate Description of the Animals ... London, Osborne, 1748–1752. According to Hill’s description, the parrots had largely grey plumage with red flashes on the wings and body, and were related to Psittacus erithacus, the African grey parrot.

19. Avivum Vivae Icones in aes incisae & elitae ab Adriano Collardo Iacomo


inv. R 220

Around 1597, the celebrated Antwerp engraver Adriaen Collaert (c. 1560–1618) published an album of quadrupeds (Animalium quadrupedum), followed shortly afterwards by another, in collaboration with Theodoor Galle, featuring birds (Avium vivae icones) and another devoted to fish (Piscium vivae icones).This edition concentrates on native birds, together with a few exotic specimens. The album is open at the page with Psitaci duplex genus – two specimens of the same African grey parrot. One holds a cherry against its beak, the other is viewed from behind. They are shown in an idyllic, Flemish-looking landscape: Collaert was not always strictly accurate in the habitats in which he presented his animals and he frequently combined reality with imagination. The African grey parrot is a tree-dwelling bird from tropical rainforests and wet grasslands. It is a fairly intelligent species, which nowadays is found primarily in Equatorial Africa. They are popular pets in Belgium, and can learn up to around 750 words in captivity.

SCIENCE

European adventurers travelled to distant lands in the fifteenth century, with the Portuguese taking

the lead. The Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator, explored the coasts of Africa in the early part

of the century, while towards its end, Vasco da Gama became the first European to voyage to India.

Other explorers, including Christopher Columbus from Genoa and John Cabot from Venice, set sail

across the Atlantic Ocean. Trade agreements were signed in the sixteenth century between European

outposts in the East Indies and China, the Moluccas and Japan, around the same time as large

swathes of the Americas were being conquered by the Spanish. The ‘discovery’ of new continents

introduced Europeans to different forms of nature, with exotic flora and fauna. It became fashionable

to collect natural curiosities, with fossils, seashells, coral and stuffed animals all displayed in luxurious

cabinets. Exotic animals and birds were also brought from distant lands to live in menageries and

aviaries. Scientists gained new knowledge, which they compiled in treatises and encyclopaedias.

Conrad Gessner (1516–1565) and Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605) were among the most important

of these figures in the sixteenth century. Some artists, including the engraver Adriaen Collaert

(c. 1560–1618) and the draughtsman Marcus Gheeraerts (c. 1520–c. 1590), began to specialize in the

depiction of animals.

16 17


18. Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605)

Ornitologiae, hoc est de avibus historiae, Libri XI

Bologna, printed by Giovanni Battista Bellagamba for Franscicus de Franciscis, 1599–1603


inv. B 333 I III

Aldrovandi studied medicine at the university in his native Bologna, where he was later appointed professor of philosophy and natural history. The university created a botanical garden on his initiative, and he also assembled a famous collection of natural history objects.This encyclopaedia is considered to be the last in the Renaissance tradition: comprehensive, but not terribly systematic, and with considerable interest in curiosities. In the course of his career, Aldrovandi published three books on birds and one on insects, both of which continued to be expanded after his death.The book is open at a page showing two parrots – Psittacus cinereus and Psittacus eritro-leucos. Both varieties are now extinct, but continued to be recorded until the eighteenth century, including in John Hill’s A General Natural History Or New and Accurate Description of the Animals ... London, Osborne, 1748–1752. According to Hill’s description, the parrots had largely grey plumage with red flashes on the wings and body, and were related to Psittacus erithacus, the African grey parrot.

19. Avivum Vivae Icones in aes incisae & elitae ab Adriano Collardo Iacomo


inv. R 220

Around 1597, the celebrated Antwerp engraver Adriaen Collaert (c. 1560–1618) published an album of quadrupeds (Animalium quadrupedum), followed shortly afterwards by another, in collaboration with Theodoor Galle, featuring birds (Avium vivae icones) and another devoted to fish (Piscium vivae icones).This edition concentrates on native birds, together with a few exotic specimens. The album is open at the page with Psitaci duplex genus – two specimens of the same African grey parrot. One holds a cherry against its beak, the other is viewed from behind. They are shown in an idyllic, Flemish-looking landscape: Collaert was not always strictly accurate in the habitats in which he presented his animals and he frequently combined reality with imagination. The African grey parrot is a tree-dwelling bird from tropical rainforests and wet grasslands. It is a fairly intelligent species, which nowadays is found primarily in Equatorial Africa. They are popular pets in Belgium, and can learn up to around 750 words in captivity.

SCIENCE

European adventurers travelled to distant lands in the fifteenth century, with the Portuguese taking

the lead. The Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator, explored the coasts of Africa in the early part

of the century, while towards its end, Vasco da Gama became the first European to voyage to India.

Other explorers, including Christopher Columbus from Genoa and John Cabot from Venice, set sail

across the Atlantic Ocean. Trade agreements were signed in the sixteenth century between European

outposts in the East Indies and China, the Moluccas and Japan, around the same time as large

swathes of the Americas were being conquered by the Spanish. The ‘discovery’ of new continents

introduced Europeans to different forms of nature, with exotic flora and fauna. It became fashionable

to collect natural curiosities, with fossils, seashells, coral and stuffed animals all displayed in luxurious

cabinets. Exotic animals and birds were also brought from distant lands to live in menageries and

aviaries. Scientists gained new knowledge, which they compiled in treatises and encyclopaedias.

Conrad Gessner (1516–1565) and Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605) were among the most important

of these figures in the sixteenth century. Some artists, including the engraver Adriaen Collaert

(c. 1560–1618) and the draughtsman Marcus Gheeraerts (c. 1520–c. 1590), began to specialize in the

depiction of animals.

18 19


20. Philips Galle (1537-1612)

after Marcus Gheeraerts II (c. 1520–c. 1590)

Avium Vivae Icones. Quintino a fossa monochromatum insigni admirator

burin engraving

Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque royale

inv. S IV 27294

Philips Galle was a well-known engraver and draughtsman after paintings by the likes of Pieter Brueghel, Maarten van Heemskerck and Frans Floris. Marcus Gheeraerts owed his reputation primarily to the magnificent prints he made for Eduard de Dene’s animal epic, which were still appearing in books of fables two centuries later.This print is one of an exceptional series of twelve. It shows two ostriches and their young, two eagles, two buzzards and, on a branch on the far right, two parrots. They are sketchily engraved, making it impossible to identify them.

21. after Marcus Gheeraerts II

Avium vivae icones. Parrots and Fabulous Beasts

burin engraving

Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque Royale

inv. S IV 27305

This print comes from the same series as cat. no. 20. The middle part of the print is domi-nated by a bird of paradise; there are two pairs of parrots in the right corner.

22. Nicolaes de Bruyn (1571-1656)

Volatilium varri generis effigies



inv. S I 8172

De Bruyn was a Flemish engraver who later moved to Rotterdam. He mainly engraved biblical themes and also produced animal prints. This one belongs to a twelve-part series devoted to birds and insects. The hoopoe in the middle of the print steals the show with its impressive crest. It walks straight towards two parrots, the largest of which De Bruyn also used in the floral still lifes he engraved and most resembles an African grey. The parrot on the higher branch looks like a macaw, although his characteristic head is not clearly rendered.

ALLEGORY

The allegorical element of this exhibition consists of both the symbolic representation of abstract

concepts such as the virtues, and of emblems and personifications used to illustrate a moralizing

motto or verse. There is often an element of humour here, while parrots also lend themselves perfectly

to the depiction of all sorts of homely wisdom.

23. Philips Galle after Marcus Gheeraerts II

Aer

copper engraving


inv. R 259

This print depicts Aer or air – one of the four physical elements according to a theory dating back to the Greek philosopher Empedocles (fifth century BC). Little angels are shown blow-ing air in the four corners of the print, while the goddess Juno, a peacock under her arm, stands at the centre as the personification of the element. She is surrounded by a variety of birds, including a parrot standing on a perch next to the decorative element above Juno’s head. We make out the shape of its body, a long, protruding wing and its curved beak, but the bird is otherwise represented too cursorily for us to identify it.

24. Adriaen Collaert after Maerten de Vos (1531/32–1603)

The Five Senses, Tactus

copper engraving

Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum/Print Room, UNESCO World Heritage Site,

nv. III/C125

Maerten de Vos was a leading Antwerp Mannerist painter. He was one of the most sought-after artists for the altarpieces needed to restore Antwerp church interiors following the ‘Iconoclastic Fury’ of the 15866.Tactus or touch is one of the five senses, which De Vos places in a landscape that also features biblical scenes in the background. Touch is personified by a woman leaning against a tree, with one hand pointing toward a spider in a web. In her other hand she holds a bird shaped like a parrot, although it is referred to in some sources as a falcon. Cesare Ripa (c. 1560–1622) describes Touch in his famous emblem book, Iconologia, as ‘an elegant young woman . . . [who] holds a hooded falcon on her wrist’. Falcons are more closely related to the parrot family and to songbirds than they are to other birds of prey. They usually have

18 19


20. Philips Galle (1537-1612)

after Marcus Gheeraerts II (c. 1520–c. 1590)

Avium Vivae Icones. Quintino a fossa monochromatum insigni admirator

burin engraving


inv. S IV 27294

Philips Galle was a well-known engraver and draughtsman after paintings by the likes of Pieter Brueghel, Maarten van Heemskerck and Frans Floris. Marcus Gheeraerts owed his reputation primarily to the magnificent prints he made for Eduard de Dene’s animal epic, which were still appearing in books of fables two centuries later.This print is one of an exceptional series of twelve. It shows two ostriches and their young, two eagles, two buzzards and, on a branch on the far right, two parrots. They are sketchily engraved, making it impossible to identify them.

21. after Marcus Gheeraerts II

Avium vivae icones. Parrots and Fabulous Beasts

burin engraving

Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque Royale

inv. S IV 27305

This print comes from the same series as cat. no. 20. The middle part of the print is domi-nated by a bird of paradise; there are two pairs of parrots in the right corner.

22. Nicolaes de Bruyn (1571-1656)

Volatilium varri generis effigies



inv. S I 8172

De Bruyn was a Flemish engraver who later moved to Rotterdam. He mainly engraved biblical themes and also produced animal prints. This one belongs to a twelve-part series devoted to birds and insects. The hoopoe in the middle of the print steals the show with its impressive crest. It walks straight towards two parrots, the largest of which De Bruyn also used in the floral still lifes he engraved and most resembles an African grey. The parrot on the higher branch looks like a macaw, although his characteristic head is not clearly rendered.

ALLEGORY

The allegorical element of this exhibition consists of both the symbolic representation of abstract

concepts such as the virtues, and of emblems and personifications used to illustrate a moralizing

motto or verse. There is often an element of humour here, while parrots also lend themselves perfectly

to the depiction of all sorts of homely wisdom.

23. Philips Galle after Marcus Gheeraerts II

Aer

copper engraving


inv. R 259

This print depicts Aer or air – one of the four physical elements according to a theory dating back to the Greek philosopher Empedocles (fifth century BC). Little angels are shown blow-ing air in the four corners of the print, while the goddess Juno, a peacock under her arm, stands at the centre as the personification of the element. She is surrounded by a variety of birds, including a parrot standing on a perch next to the decorative element above Juno’s head. We make out the shape of its body, a long, protruding wing and its curved beak, but the bird is otherwise represented too cursorily for us to identify it.



copper engraving

Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum/Print Room, UNESCO World Heritage Site,

nv. III/C125

Maerten de Vos was a leading Antwerp Mannerist painter. He was one of the most sought-after artists for the altarpieces needed to restore Antwerp church interiors following the ‘Iconoclastic Fury’ of the 15866.Tactus or touch is one of the five senses, which De Vos places in a landscape that also features biblical scenes in the background. Touch is personified by a woman leaning against a tree, with one hand pointing toward a spider in a web. In her other hand she holds a bird shaped like a parrot, although it is referred to in some sources as a falcon. Cesare Ripa (c. 1560–1622) describes Touch in his famous emblem book, Iconologia, as ‘an elegant young woman . . . [who] holds a hooded falcon on her wrist’. Falcons are more closely related to the parrot family and to songbirds than they are to other birds of prey. They usually have

20 21


longer tails than the bird we see depicted here. In the background to the left of Tactus, we see Adam and Eve’s banishment from the Garden of Eden (Genesis) and the Miraculous Draught of Fishes (Gospel of Luke).

25. Pieter de Jode I (1570-1634) and Claes Jansz Visscher II (1586-1652)


Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum/Print Room, UNESCO World Heritage Site, inv. III/J374

Visscher had his own printing works and a shop that grew into an important art dealer’s. The Antwerp draughtsman and engraver Pieter Jode I produced this print, which is an allegory of temptation. Venus sits on a rock with her young son, Amor, the two of them symbolizing love. Venus points with her right hand towards a couple of lovers. The man strokes the little dog – a symbol of fidelity – on the woman’s lap, while a parrot pecks at her hand.

26. Raphael Sadeler I (1560–1628) after Joos van Winghe (1544–1603)

Stvltitiam Pativnvr opes (Allegory of Wealth, Luxury and Folly)



Raphael Sadeler I worked with his older brother Jan as an engraver for Christophe Plantin. They moved to Germany to work after 1585, and later travelled together to Italy. Raphael returned to Munich in the early seventeenth century. Joos van Winghe was a Brabant Mannerist artist who, having spent time in Paris and Rome, came to Brussels to take the position of court painter to the governor of the Low Countries, Alexander Farnese.King Midas is depicted as the personification of greed, counting his money at a table set in a palace. A jester, symbolizing folly, places a fool’s cap on his head. The female representative of wealth looks in a mirror, where she sees an old woman. Another woman – with a parrot on her arm – cools her with a fan to ingratiate herself. The parrot functions in this context as a symbol of luxury.

27. Cornelis Cort (1533–1578) after Frans Floris (1519/20–1570)

Retorica. Number four in the series The Seven Liberal Arts

engraving, Antwerp, 1565


The Dutch engraver and draughtsman Cornelis Cort travelled to Venice in 1565/66. He primarily worked in the Low Countries, however, where he engraved prints after the Renaissance artists Michiel Coxcie and Frans Floris.

This print shows the personification of Retorica or rhetoric – the classical art of writing and public speaking. She holds a caduceus – the herald’s wand carried by the god Mercury – as a symbol of peace as she listens to an address delivered by a young man. The books on the ground contain works by Cicero, Isocrates, Demosthenes and Quintilian, the ancient world’s authorities on rhetoric. The two birds – a parrot and a tit – standing on them are symbols of eloquence. The caption to the print praises the ingenuity of rhetoric.


Two Horses and Grooms



Although this painting features two magnificent parrots, our attention is first drawn to the prominently depicted horses. Also noteworthy is the fact that Savery has painted virtually nothing by way of landscape, other than the walled fortress in the distance. Savery’s patron, Emperor Rudolf II, was a great admirer of horses, of which he owned seventy. The white horse with the mane reaching down to its hooves must have been one of his favourites, as Savery regularly incorporated it in his idyllic landscapes from around 1613/14, in which it stands out from the multitude of other animals. The white and brown horses both feature in Rudolf II’s ‘Bestiary’. The stable boys accompanying them seem to be talking to each other. According to the art historian Uwe Bischoff, they might be intended as a reference to Phaedrus by the Greek philosopher and writer Plato, which recounts a dialogue between Socrates and the eponymous Phaedrus. Socrates compares the soul to a team of winged horses and also quotes several rhetoricians. Could the parrots in this painting be symbols of their rhetorical skills? Or perhaps the scene is merely a reflection of Rudolf II’s extraordinary collection of animals: not only the horses, but the parrots too. On the left we see a scarlet macaw (Ara macao) – one of the commonest South American parrots, which Pre-Columbian peoples used as trading gifts. The proud specimen on the right is a salmon-crested cockatoo (Cacatua moluccensis), which owes its Latin name to the Moluccas, the only region in which it is found. The variety is notable for its fine orange-red crest which stands out attractively against its almost white plumage. It is a noisy bird, which can also learn to talk. Rudolf II had owned one since the beginning of 1601. The cockatoo probably died in 1607, at which point it was stuffed and placed in the emperor’s cabinet of curiosities.

20 21


longer tails than the bird we see depicted here. In the background to the left of Tactus, we see Adam and Eve’s banishment from the Garden of Eden (Genesis) and the Miraculous Draught of Fishes (Gospel of Luke).

25. Pieter de Jode I (1570-1634) and Claes Jansz Visscher II (1586-1652)


Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum/Print Room, UNESCO World Heritage Site, inv. III/J374

Visscher had his own printing works and a shop that grew into an important art dealer’s. The Antwerp draughtsman and engraver Pieter Jode I produced this print, which is an allegory of temptation. Venus sits on a rock with her young son, Amor, the two of them symbolizing love. Venus points with her right hand towards a couple of lovers. The man strokes the little dog – a symbol of fidelity – on the woman’s lap, while a parrot pecks at her hand.

26. Raphael Sadeler I (1560–1628) after Joos van Winghe (1544–1603)

Stvltitiam Pativnvr opes (Allegory of Wealth, Luxury and Folly)



Raphael Sadeler I worked with his older brother Jan as an engraver for Christophe Plantin. They moved to Germany to work after 1585, and later travelled together to Italy. Raphael returned to Munich in the early seventeenth century. Joos van Winghe was a Brabant Mannerist artist who, having spent time in Paris and Rome, came to Brussels to take the position of court painter to the governor of the Low Countries, Alexander Farnese.King Midas is depicted as the personification of greed, counting his money at a table set in a palace. A jester, symbolizing folly, places a fool’s cap on his head. The female representative of wealth looks in a mirror, where she sees an old woman. Another woman – with a parrot on her arm – cools her with a fan to ingratiate herself. The parrot functions in this context as a symbol of luxury.

27. Cornelis Cort (1533–1578) after Frans Floris (1519/20–1570)

Retorica. Number four in the series The Seven Liberal Arts

engraving, Antwerp, 1565


The Dutch engraver and draughtsman Cornelis Cort travelled to Venice in 1565/66. He primarily worked in the Low Countries, however, where he engraved prints after the Renaissance artists Michiel Coxcie and Frans Floris.

This print shows the personification of Retorica or rhetoric – the classical art of writing and public speaking. She holds a caduceus – the herald’s wand carried by the god Mercury – as a symbol of peace as she listens to an address delivered by a young man. The books on the ground contain works by Cicero, Isocrates, Demosthenes and Quintilian, the ancient world’s authorities on rhetoric. The two birds – a parrot and a tit – standing on them are symbols of eloquence. The caption to the print praises the ingenuity of rhetoric.


Two Horses and Grooms



Although this painting features two magnificent parrots, our attention is first drawn to the prominently depicted horses. Also noteworthy is the fact that Savery has painted virtually nothing by way of landscape, other than the walled fortress in the distance. Savery’s patron, Emperor Rudolf II, was a great admirer of horses, of which he owned seventy. The white horse with the mane reaching down to its hooves must have been one of his favourites, as Savery regularly incorporated it in his idyllic landscapes from around 1613/14, in which it stands out from the multitude of other animals. The white and brown horses both feature in Rudolf II’s ‘Bestiary’. The stable boys accompanying them seem to be talking to each other. According to the art historian Uwe Bischoff, they might be intended as a reference to Phaedrus by the Greek philosopher and writer Plato, which recounts a dialogue between Socrates and the eponymous Phaedrus. Socrates compares the soul to a team of winged horses and also quotes several rhetoricians. Could the parrots in this painting be symbols of their rhetorical skills? Or perhaps the scene is merely a reflection of Rudolf II’s extraordinary collection of animals: not only the horses, but the parrots too. On the left we see a scarlet macaw (Ara macao) – one of the commonest South American parrots, which Pre-Columbian peoples used as trading gifts. The proud specimen on the right is a salmon-crested cockatoo (Cacatua moluccensis), which owes its Latin name to the Moluccas, the only region in which it is found. The variety is notable for its fine orange-red crest which stands out attractively against its almost white plumage. It is a noisy bird, which can also learn to talk. Rudolf II had owned one since the beginning of 1601. The cockatoo probably died in 1607, at which point it was stuffed and placed in the emperor’s cabinet of curiosities.

22 23



America

copper engraving


inv. S I 761

This print belongs to a four-part series with personifications of the continents. The female representation of America is shown with a bow and arrow, riding an armadillo sideways. The left side of the print includes strange animals, such as sheep with long, woolly tails, and goats with impossibly long ears. Behind them, we see cannibals killing and roasting a man, while on the right, a battle is going on between Spanish conquistadores and Indians. A parrot – most likely a macaw – perches on a branch in the lower right corner. Macaws come primarily from Central and South America.

30. Cornelis Schut (1597-1655)

Frieze with Five Putti

engraving


inv. III/S672

Schut was an Antwerp draughtsman, engraver and painter, and a pupil of Rubens. He visited Italy in the 1620s, where he painted frescoes for the home of an Italian banker. Schut also produced small-scale works with allegorical and mythological themes. This frieze with five putti – possibly a vanitas allegory – is similar to a still life. Musical instruments like this lute are symbols of transience, as are the book, the globe and the armillary sphere. The caduceus represents the axis between heaven and earth. As a living creature, the parrot at the centre of the scene contrasts sharply with the vanitas symbolism.

31. Estienne Perret (second half sixteenth century)

XXV Fables des animaux, Vray miroir exemplaire, Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1578

Dilbeek, Cultura Fonds, inv. 319

Estienne Perret was an Antwerp author who sought refuge in Rotterdam after the Spanish recapture of his city in 1585.His book is a French translation of Eduard de Dene’s De waarachtige Fabulen der dieren, published in Dutch in 1567, and contains twenty-four stories and an illustrated foreword. Each story is printed on the left-hand page according to a constant pattern: first the animal fable in sixteen alexandrines, then a moral in eight alexandrines and, lastly, a quotation from the Bible. The refined burin engravings are anonymous, but reflect Marcus Gheeraerts’s designs for De Dene’s De waarachtige Fabulen der dieren. De Dene drew in turn from

sources including the Greek fable-writer Aesop (c. 620–560 BC). The book is open at the story of the fox and the raven. The fox persuades the raven to sing so that the piece of cheese the fox wants to steal will drop out of the bird’s beak. In the next book in the exhibition, the raven turns into a parrot ...

32. Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) and Marcus Gheeraerts

Vorsteliicke warande der dieren ... (‘Royal Animal Garden’), Amsterdam, 1617

Antwerp, Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience

inv. C 41393

Joost van den Vondel was a Dutch poet and playwright, whose work includes satirical poems, heroic epics and moral tales. He earned his living primarily through his family’s hosiery business in Amsterdam.Like Perret’s book, Vondel’s Vorsteliicke warande der dieren is based on De Dene’s Waarachtige Fabulen der dieren, although he structures his collection of stories differently. The illustration appears on the left-hand page, accompanied by a motto and a historical example, while the story itself is printed in verse on the right-hand page.Vondel took certain poetic liberties, adapting the text as he saw fit and – as in the page displayed in the exhibition – borrowing Gheeraerts’s drawing, but altering its title. The raven, who was also depicted with a curved beak, now becomes a loquacious parrot.

33. Jacob Cats (1577-1660)

Alle de wercken, so ouden als nieuwen, Amsterdam, Jan Jacobz Schipper, 1657/58


inv. B144

Cats was a lawyer and politician, but is known primarily as a moralist and writer of proverbs. His emblem prints depict human behaviour in a highly accessible and familiar manner. The conduct of animals also lent itself perfectly to Cats’s moral messages and highlighting of human virtues and vices.Amissa libertate laetior (‘Happiness through Slavery’) is a page from Sinne- en min-nebeelden, in which Cats provides each emblem with nine or more inscriptions drawn from the Bible and from literature, adding further verses of his own. The inscriptions are printed in three languages. Cats illustrates this particular proverb with the image of a parrot who sings happily, despite being imprisoned in a cage. The illustration evokes the ‘sweet slavery’ of the lover: to be caged by love is a joyful thing! The biblical variation alludes to the idea of the Christian who is only ‘free’ as God’s captive.

22 23



America

copper engraving


inv. S I 761

This print belongs to a four-part series with personifications of the continents. The female representation of America is shown with a bow and arrow, riding an armadillo sideways. The left side of the print includes strange animals, such as sheep with long, woolly tails, and goats with impossibly long ears. Behind them, we see cannibals killing and roasting a man, while on the right, a battle is going on between Spanish conquistadores and Indians. A parrot – most likely a macaw – perches on a branch in the lower right corner. Macaws come primarily from Central and South America.

30. Cornelis Schut (1597-1655)

Frieze with Five Putti

engraving


inv. III/S672

Schut was an Antwerp draughtsman, engraver and painter, and a pupil of Rubens. He visited Italy in the 1620s, where he painted frescoes for the home of an Italian banker. Schut also produced small-scale works with allegorical and mythological themes. This frieze with five putti – possibly a vanitas allegory – is similar to a still life. Musical instruments like this lute are symbols of transience, as are the book, the globe and the armillary sphere. The caduceus represents the axis between heaven and earth. As a living creature, the parrot at the centre of the scene contrasts sharply with the vanitas symbolism.

31. Estienne Perret (second half sixteenth century)

XXV Fables des animaux, Vray miroir exemplaire, Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1578

Dilbeek, Cultura Fonds, inv. 319

Estienne Perret was an Antwerp author who sought refuge in Rotterdam after the Spanish recapture of his city in 1585.His book is a French translation of Eduard de Dene’s De waarachtige Fabulen der dieren, published in Dutch in 1567, and contains twenty-four stories and an illustrated foreword. Each story is printed on the left-hand page according to a constant pattern: first the animal fable in sixteen alexandrines, then a moral in eight alexandrines and, lastly, a quotation from the Bible. The refined burin engravings are anonymous, but reflect Marcus Gheeraerts’s designs for De Dene’s De waarachtige Fabulen der dieren. De Dene drew in turn from

sources including the Greek fable-writer Aesop (c. 620–560 BC). The book is open at the story of the fox and the raven. The fox persuades the raven to sing so that the piece of cheese the fox wants to steal will drop out of the bird’s beak. In the next book in the exhibition, the raven turns into a parrot ...

32. Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) and Marcus Gheeraerts

Vorsteliicke warande der dieren ... (‘Royal Animal Garden’), Amsterdam, 1617

Antwerp, Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience

inv. C 41393

Joost van den Vondel was a Dutch poet and playwright, whose work includes satirical poems, heroic epics and moral tales. He earned his living primarily through his family’s hosiery business in Amsterdam.Like Perret’s book, Vondel’s Vorsteliicke warande der dieren is based on De Dene’s Waarachtige Fabulen der dieren, although he structures his collection of stories differently. The illustration appears on the left-hand page, accompanied by a motto and a historical example, while the story itself is printed in verse on the right-hand page.Vondel took certain poetic liberties, adapting the text as he saw fit and – as in the page displayed in the exhibition – borrowing Gheeraerts’s drawing, but altering its title. The raven, who was also depicted with a curved beak, now becomes a loquacious parrot.

33. Jacob Cats (1577-1660)

Alle de wercken, so ouden als nieuwen, Amsterdam, Jan Jacobz Schipper, 1657/58


inv. B144

Cats was a lawyer and politician, but is known primarily as a moralist and writer of proverbs. His emblem prints depict human behaviour in a highly accessible and familiar manner. The conduct of animals also lent itself perfectly to Cats’s moral messages and highlighting of human virtues and vices.Amissa libertate laetior (‘Happiness through Slavery’) is a page from Sinne- en min-nebeelden, in which Cats provides each emblem with nine or more inscriptions drawn from the Bible and from literature, adding further verses of his own. The inscriptions are printed in three languages. Cats illustrates this particular proverb with the image of a parrot who sings happily, despite being imprisoned in a cage. The illustration evokes the ‘sweet slavery’ of the lover: to be caged by love is a joyful thing! The biblical variation alludes to the idea of the Christian who is only ‘free’ as God’s captive.

24 25


34. Southern Netherlandish?

Parrot Pendant with Earspoon and Toothpick

gold, enamel, diamond, pearls, ruby, emerald, late sixteenth century

Antwerp, Mayer van den Bergh Museum, inv. 429

This piece of jewellery probably belonged to a wealthy woman. Adriana Perez – Nicolaas Rockox’s wife – received a dowry from her father comprising jewellery with a total value of 5 000 florins. She too might have owned a pendant like this, which could not only be worn on a chain but also pinned to a dress as a brooch. Parrots were viewed as monogamous and extremely faithful birds, and so may be interpreted in this context as a symbol of married life.

35. Two Parrot Figurines

biscuit and enamel, 1662–1722

Antwerp, MAS, Smidt van Gelder Collection, inv. Sm 1746

Is this a pair of green Amazon parrots? Or simply decorative figurines with a generic parrot shape? Either way, they will have decorated a well-to-do household that was surely no stranger to subtle symbolism, in which case they might be a symbol of marital fidelity.

36. Anonymous

Parrot from the Chain of a Crossbowmen’s Guild

silver and gold

Antwerp, fifteenth century, MAS, inv. AV 4699. 2-2

The ceremonial chain has twenty links decorated with symbols of a Guild of St George (crossbowmen), including crossed arrows. A small Gothic shield at the bottom features a crowned parrot, its wings spread, and a miniature crossbow and harquebus. The chain was awarded to the winner of an annual shooting contest, who could then wear it for a year while representing the guild. Competitions like this were popular among civic militias, which had been organizing them since the thirteenth century to encourage their members to hone their skills. The marksmen shot vertically at a wooden target known variously as a ‘king’, ‘bird’ or ‘parrot’, representing an enemy lurking in a tree, a cliff or some other higher spot. For reasons of either religion or superstition, the bird-target was never given the shape of a native species. The parrot offered an exotic and colourful alternative that was equally eye-catching on the ceremonial chain.


37. Frans Francken II (1581-1642)

Sebastiaan Leerse (?) in His Gallery

oil on wood, 1628/29


Francken’s painting of this private art collection includes works by or after Jan Massys, Pieter Neefs I, Joos de Momper II, Daniel van Heil, Bonaventura Peeters I and himself. The room in which it now hangs was once Rockox’s private gallery, the contents of which Francken also depicted in a painting currently in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Munich.Pairs of parrots feature in the foreground of several of Francken’s private gallery paint-ings: the blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara Ararauna) and the scarlet macaw (Ara Macao). In this context, the parrots symbolize human folly – a reproach aimed at those who do not occupy themselves with art and science. The birds function here as a distraction: they are noisy and their feeder is on the ground. In contrast with the beauty of the art works, they are a source of mess and dust.


38. Attributed to Paul de Vos, (1595–1678)

Concert of Birds

oil on canvas

Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, inv. 428

The Antwerp animal painter Paul de Vos drew here on a composition by his brother-in-law Frans Snyders, now in the Hermitage in St Petersburg.Concerts of birds – often with ironic undertones – were a popular theme in the seventeenth century. It will have been a real challenge for both Snyders and De Vos to display the best of their skills in a theme painting like this, but the resulting work is highly accomplished pictorially, technically and compositionally. The concert master is an owl who holds the musical score while conducting a flock of whistling, honking and screeching forest, field and water fowl. The colourful company also includes a number of exotic birds: a toucan, an Amazon parrot and a scarlet macaw. The painting depicts one of Aesop’s fables, but there is also a link with a famous proverb by the Dutch poet Jacob Cats: ‘Every bird sings the way he knows how’.

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34. Southern Netherlandish?

Parrot Pendant with Earspoon and Toothpick

gold, enamel, diamond, pearls, ruby, emerald, late sixteenth century

Antwerp, Mayer van den Bergh Museum, inv. 429

This piece of jewellery probably belonged to a wealthy woman. Adriana Perez – Nicolaas Rockox’s wife – received a dowry from her father comprising jewellery with a total value of 5 000 florins. She too might have owned a pendant like this, which could not only be worn on a chain but also pinned to a dress as a brooch. Parrots were viewed as monogamous and extremely faithful birds, and so may be interpreted in this context as a symbol of married life.

35. Two Parrot Figurines

biscuit and enamel, 1662–1722

Antwerp, MAS, Smidt van Gelder Collection, inv. Sm 1746

Is this a pair of green Amazon parrots? Or simply decorative figurines with a generic parrot shape? Either way, they will have decorated a well-to-do household that was surely no stranger to subtle symbolism, in which case they might be a symbol of marital fidelity.

36. Anonymous

Parrot from the Chain of a Crossbowmen’s Guild

silver and gold

Antwerp, fifteenth century, MAS, inv. AV 4699. 2-2

The ceremonial chain has twenty links decorated with symbols of a Guild of St George (crossbowmen), including crossed arrows. A small Gothic shield at the bottom features a crowned parrot, its wings spread, and a miniature crossbow and harquebus. The chain was awarded to the winner of an annual shooting contest, who could then wear it for a year while representing the guild. Competitions like this were popular among civic militias, which had been organizing them since the thirteenth century to encourage their members to hone their skills. The marksmen shot vertically at a wooden target known variously as a ‘king’, ‘bird’ or ‘parrot’, representing an enemy lurking in a tree, a cliff or some other higher spot. For reasons of either religion or superstition, the bird-target was never given the shape of a native species. The parrot offered an exotic and colourful alternative that was equally eye-catching on the ceremonial chain.


37. Frans Francken II (1581-1642)

Sebastiaan Leerse (?) in His Gallery

oil on wood, 1628/29


Francken’s painting of this private art collection includes works by or after Jan Massys, Pieter Neefs I, Joos de Momper II, Daniel van Heil, Bonaventura Peeters I and himself. The room in which it now hangs was once Rockox’s private gallery, the contents of which Francken also depicted in a painting currently in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Munich.Pairs of parrots feature in the foreground of several of Francken’s private gallery paint-ings: the blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara Ararauna) and the scarlet macaw (Ara Macao). In this context, the parrots symbolize human folly – a reproach aimed at those who do not occupy themselves with art and science. The birds function here as a distraction: they are noisy and their feeder is on the ground. In contrast with the beauty of the art works, they are a source of mess and dust.


38. Attributed to Paul de Vos, (1595–1678)

Concert of Birds

oil on canvas

Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, inv. 428

The Antwerp animal painter Paul de Vos drew here on a composition by his brother-in-law Frans Snyders, now in the Hermitage in St Petersburg.Concerts of birds – often with ironic undertones – were a popular theme in the seventeenth century. It will have been a real challenge for both Snyders and De Vos to display the best of their skills in a theme painting like this, but the resulting work is highly accomplished pictorially, technically and compositionally. The concert master is an owl who holds the musical score while conducting a flock of whistling, honking and screeching forest, field and water fowl. The colourful company also includes a number of exotic birds: a toucan, an Amazon parrot and a scarlet macaw. The painting depicts one of Aesop’s fables, but there is also a link with a famous proverb by the Dutch poet Jacob Cats: ‘Every bird sings the way he knows how’.

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THE PARROT AS A DECORATIVE ELEMENT

40. Two Tiles Decorated with Parrots

earthenware with tin glaze, 1625–75

Antwerp, Rockox House

41. Tile Tableau with Parrot with Cherry in its Beak

earthenware with tin glaze, late seventeenth century


Majolica tiles were used to decorate walls in the mid-sixteenth century, and by around 1600, they were also being used to line hearths in parlours and kitchens. Expressive and exotic animals like parrots were a favourite motif for tiles of this kind. Tile painters were hard put to keep up with the high level of demand, and so resorted to serial production. They sought inspiration in the new encyclopaedias, emblem books and other animal illustrations. The colours of the depicted birds are not always very accurate, as the painters frequently worked from engravings and had to rely on their imagination for the colours. Monochrome tiles also began to appear on the market from 1610. Parrot tiles were a purely decorative element in seventeenth-century middle-class interiors.

42. 42. Field of Flowers with Amazon Parrot

Mechelen gold leather, second half seventeenth century

Stedelijke Musea Mechelen, Hof van Busleyden, inv. L0070

Gold leather was introduced to the Low Countries in the early sixteenth century, although hides were already being gilded in Cordoba as early as the ninth. Production in Mechelen began just after 1600. Jacob Dircxz de Swart, a leatherworker in The Hague, invented a method of stamping reliefs into gold leather in 1628. His technique produced an attractive raised effect, also visible in this fragment. Gold leather gradually replaced tapestries as a wallcovering for luxurious interiors.This beautiful piece of gold leather is decorated with stylized flowers, including tulips, carnations and wildflowers, and with grapes and berries. A parrot perches at the bottom. The parrot’s exotic origins lend an exclusive allure to the expensive material, which was used to decorate well-to-do interiors. The image of the bird was probably based on the Amazon parrot, but it is represented too sketchily to be identified any more accurately.


39. Joannes Fijt (1611 – 1661)

Concert of Birds

oil on canvas

Antwerp, Rockox House, inv. 92.2

The renowned animal painter Joannes Fyt was a pupil of Frans Snyders.A scarlet macaw (Ara Macao) beats time with its raised claw. All the birds shown here, with the exception of the jay, are renowned for their inability to sing: the chicken, parrot, blue heron, cockerel, pigeon and peacock. The musical score on the tree trunk is illegible. The birds are probably intended as a parody: they are hardly likely to attract a mate or ward off a rival with their song.

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THE PARROT AS A DECORATIVE ELEMENT

40. Two Tiles Decorated with Parrots

earthenware with tin glaze, 1625–75


41. Tile Tableau with Parrot with Cherry in its Beak

earthenware with tin glaze, late seventeenth century


Majolica tiles were used to decorate walls in the mid-sixteenth century, and by around 1600, they were also being used to line hearths in parlours and kitchens. Expressive and exotic animals like parrots were a favourite motif for tiles of this kind. Tile painters were hard put to keep up with the high level of demand, and so resorted to serial production. They sought inspiration in the new encyclopaedias, emblem books and other animal illustrations. The colours of the depicted birds are not always very accurate, as the painters frequently worked from engravings and had to rely on their imagination for the colours. Monochrome tiles also began to appear on the market from 1610. Parrot tiles were a purely decorative element in seventeenth-century middle-class interiors.

42. 42. Field of Flowers with Amazon Parrot

Mechelen gold leather, second half seventeenth century

Stedelijke Musea Mechelen, Hof van Busleyden, inv. L0070

Gold leather was introduced to the Low Countries in the early sixteenth century, although hides were already being gilded in Cordoba as early as the ninth. Production in Mechelen began just after 1600. Jacob Dircxz de Swart, a leatherworker in The Hague, invented a method of stamping reliefs into gold leather in 1628. His technique produced an attractive raised effect, also visible in this fragment. Gold leather gradually replaced tapestries as a wallcovering for luxurious interiors.This beautiful piece of gold leather is decorated with stylized flowers, including tulips, carnations and wildflowers, and with grapes and berries. A parrot perches at the bottom. The parrot’s exotic origins lend an exclusive allure to the expensive material, which was used to decorate well-to-do interiors. The image of the bird was probably based on the Amazon parrot, but it is represented too sketchily to be identified any more accurately.


39. Joannes Fijt (1611 – 1661)

Concert of Birds

oil on canvas

Antwerp, Rockox House, inv. 92.2

The renowned animal painter Joannes Fyt was a pupil of Frans Snyders.A scarlet macaw (Ara Macao) beats time with its raised claw. All the birds shown here, with the exception of the jay, are renowned for their inability to sing: the chicken, parrot, blue heron, cockerel, pigeon and peacock. The musical score on the tree trunk is illegible. The birds are probably intended as a parody: they are hardly likely to attract a mate or ward off a rival with their song.

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The Parrot. ‘t Cierlijk schoon van haare veren - Visitors’ guide