Antique Painting Rabbits And Birds With Game Oil On Canvas XVII Century

Oil on canvas.
Against a completely dark background, several animals are depicted: some game, namely four different birds hanging by their legs or resting on a (nearly invisible) surface, and, on the same plane, three crouching rabbits and two birds walking about.
Living and dead animals are harmoniously arranged to blend together, and only careful observation allows one to discern their vitality or the rigidity of death:
it is the lively gaze in the eyes of the rabbits and birds—and the movement of the latter—that identifies their state of life.
The artist’s technical skill stands out in the work, evident above all in the virtuosity of the brushwork used to depict the animals’ anatomical details, with plumage, skin, and fur clearly distinguished in their finer points.
Clearly part of the Genoese school, the work is attributable to Sinibaldo Scorza (1589–1631), a painter active in the city of Genoa who specialized in the art of drawing, engraving, and naturalistic miniatures, focusing primarily on animals.
Scorza studied animals from life, creating precise and detailed sketches and drawings, with an incredible ability to capture their salient features from both a pictorial and scientific perspective—a characteristic of the emerging interests of that era.
Alongside his drawings, he also included detailed annotations on his sheets—for example, regarding the positions of limbs, the type and color of fur, to name just a few.
Sinibaldo Scorza did not paint only animals, but also various subjects, landscapes, mythological or genre scenes, and views and glimpses of the cities where he stayed.
His naturalistic inclination was reinforced in particular by his contact with the great Flemish masters he had first met in Turin and then encountered again in Rome: in all his works, one finds that particular attention to naturalistic detail captured with precision, with nature, trees, and various animals animating a landscape that may be Arcadian but is always characterized by a strong taxonomic flavor.
Mythological fables, biblical, or literary subjects served as a pretext for Scorza (a voracious reader with a vast literary culture) to study landscapes teeming with animals, each one rendered in meticulous detail.
The painting shown here has been restored and re-gilded.
It is presented in an antique frame.
ARARPI0313845