Oil painting, 'A Pig's Carcase', Jan Baptist Weenix, after 1647

A still life with a pig's carcase, opened with entrails removed, lays on a table beside a wicker basket and knife. In the middleground a swineherder with his mob and in the landscape beyond two figures seen from behind walking into the distance while a storm brews overhead.

Purchased, 1886

Purchased, 1886
Bought in 1886 from S. Muckell as one of a series of 'schools examples' which were circulated to schools for use in art classes.

Historical significance: Jan Baptist [Giovanni Battista] Weenix (1621-1660/1) was a painter, draughtsman and etcher said to have studied with Abraham Bloemaert in Utrecht and then with Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert for about two years in Amsterdam. Weenix’s earliest works are primarily landscapes painted with supple contours, liquid brushwork and rich colour. In 1642, shortly after the birth of his son Jan, he set out for Italy and stayed in Rome for four years. There he became a member of the Schildersbent, the Netherlandish artists’ society founded in 1623. By 1647 Weenix had adopted what became his standard signature: Gio[vanni] Batt[ist]a Weenix. He became known for his Italian harbour views combining fanciful or real Classical ruins, with picturesque figures painted in warm colours with a refined brushwork. Although Weenix did paint a few still-lifes such as the Dead Partridge of 1650-52 (Mauritshuis, The Hague) they are relatively rare in his oeuvre and S.EX.190-1886 reveals his skill in combining landscape painting with still life and in depicting various textures such as the sharp steel of the knife and the glistening innards of the carcase which contrast with the soft brushwork of the trees in the distance.

The term ‘still life’ conventionally refers to works depicting an arrangement of diverse inanimate objects including fruits, flowers, shellfish, vessels and artefacts. The term derives from the Dutch 'stilleven', which became current from about 1650 as a collective name for this type of subject matter. Still-life reached the height of its popularity in Western Europe, especially in the Netherlands, during the 17th century although still-life subjects already existed in pre-Classical, times. As a genre, this style originates in the early 15th century in Flanders with Hugo van der Goes (ca.1440-1482), Hans Memling (ca.1435-1494) and Gerard David (ca.1460-1523) who included refined still-life details charged with symbolic meaning in their compositions in the same manner as illuminators from Ghent or Bruges did in their works for decorative purpose. In the Low Countries, the first types of still life to emerge were flower paintings and banquet tables by artists like Floris van Schooten (c.1585-after 1655). Soon, different traditions of still life with food items developed in Flanders and in the Netherlands where they became especially popular commodities in the new bourgeois art market. Dutch painters played a major role the development of this genre, inventing distinctive variations on the theme over the course of the century while Flemish artist Frans Snyders' established a taste for banquet pieces. The exotic fruits and valuable objects often depicted testify to the prosperous increase in wealth in cities such as Amsterdam and Haarlem but may also function as memento mori, or vanitas, that is, reminders of human mortality and invitations to meditate upon the passage of time.

A still life with a pig's carcase, opened with entrails removed, lays on a table beside a wicker basket and knife. In the middleground a swineherder with his mob and in the landscape beyond two figures seen from behind walking into the distance while a storm brews overhead. Jan Baptist [Giovanni Battista] Weenix (1621-1660/1) was a painter, draughtsman and etcher said to have studied in Utrecht and Amsterdam. Weenix’s earliest works are primarily landscapes. In 1642, he set out for Italy and stayed in Rome for four years. By 1647 Weenix had adopted what became his standard signature: Gio[vanni] Batt[ist]a Weenix. He became known for his Italian harbour views combining fanciful or real Classical ruins, with picturesque figures painted in warm colours with a refined brushwork. Although Weenix did paint a few still-lifes such as the Dead Partridge of 1650-52 (Mauritshuis, The Hague) they are relatively rare and S.EX.190-1886 reveals his skill in combinding landscape painting with still life and in depicting various textures such as the sharp steel of the knife and the glistening innards of the carcase which contrast with the soft brushwork of the trees in the distance.

S.EX.190-1886