ADRIAEN VAN UTRECHT (1599-1652) Lot n° 12

The rooster and the pearl, 1649. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated upper left 'Adriaan Van utrecht / fecit Anno 1649'. Adriaen van Utrecht is one of the best known game and animal painters of 17th century. As a talented epigone of Frans Snijders (1579-1657), he allows this genre to flourish in the region of Antwerp and far beyond. He painted fruit, flower and vanitas still lifes, garlands, market and scenes of mainly domesticated birds in the context of a farm. This ‘subgenre’ of poultry at the farm will later culminate in the oeuvre of Northern Dutch painter Melchior d'Hondecoeter (c. 1636-1695). Yet something this Dutch painter did not learn from his Flemish predecessor, is the narrative element that Van Utrecht regularly incorporated into his bird scenes. At the centre of the canvas we see a large white rooster-presumably a Flemish Braekel-surrounded by chickens and chicks. Next to his claw lies a gold pendant on the ground, decorated with a rectangular gemstone and a large white pearl. A hen is inspecting the piece of jewellery up close. With this detail, Adriaen van Utrecht, illustrates the ancient fable of the ‘Rooster and the Pearl’ attributed to the Greek poet Aesopus (ca. 620 B.C.- ca. 560 B.C.E.) who is considered as the founder of the animal fable. ‘The rooster and the pearl’ reads as follows: "A rooster was once walking up and down the yard among the chickens when he suddenly saw something glinting among the straw. "Ho! ho!" he said, "that's for me," and quickly rooted it out from under the straw. What did it turn out to be, just a pearl lost by accident in the garden? "You may be a treasure," said Master Rooster, "to the people who appreciate you, but to me I would rather have a single grain of barley than a beak full of pearls."( based on Joseph Jacobs, "The Fables of Aesop," Houston, 1992). The moral that can be derived from this fable, is that wisdom comes before wealth. Only those who have the knowledge to appreciate something valuable are able to benefit from it. Such fables accompanied by emblematic illustrations were enormously popular during the 16th and 17th century. Many reworked Aesopus' fables including Marcus Geeraerts (c. 1520-ca. 1590) and Eduard de Dene (1505-1576) with their illustrated "De warachtighe fabulen der dieren," published in 1567. The same illustrations were used by Joost van Vondel (1587-1679) in his 'Vorsteliicke warande der dieren' from 1617. It is likely that Adriaen van Utrecht was inspired by one of these two publications to enrich this farm scene with an intellectual layer. An exceptionally thick layer of varnish, on the other hand, is something the artist did not foresee. This causes the rather dark character of the painting that will undoubtedly reveal its sparkle like a hidden pearl after cleaning. 85 x 112 cm Condition: Dit schilderij bevindt zich naar onze mening in redelijke staat al dient de zeer dikke en vergeelde vernislaag verwijderd te worden. Deze opvallend dikke vernislaag vertoont ook een veel craquelé. Het is niet duidelijk of deze craquelé doorloopt tot in de verflaag.