Melchior d'Hondecoeter, Birds, Butterflies and a Frog among Plants and Fungi

A frog, crouched in the foreground and glittering like a glittering jewel, appears to be causing a stir. The male birds looking down at it seem angry or excited by its presence, they prowl, flutter their wings or glare, feathers ruffled. On a top branch is a chaffinch, fluffing out its plumage; its mate sits below, ​next to a tree sparrow . The bird closest to the frog and about to attack, is probably a brambling, a kind of finch.

The frog is too big to be prey for these small birds, and it takes their attention away from the snail, definitely on their menu, meandering along dangerously close to them. Emperor moths flutter on the stem of a tall plant and a painted lady butterfly perches overhead. Mushrooms at the base of the plant, uprooted and damaged, add to the uneasy, almost threatening, atmosphere.

Like Dutch flower painters, Melchior d‘Hondecoeter grouped interesting specimens in his images, making them spectacular and dramatic, with little regard for the seasons or their country of origin (look at Rachel Ruysch’s Flowers in a Vase, for example). This is an early work and his painting of the birds is a little less assured than it is in The Floating Feather (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), in which much larger and more exotic birds from Africa and the Far East are contrasted with smaller ones native to the Netherlands. The creatures in Birds, Butterflies and a Frog among Plants and Fungi would have been in or around Amsterdam for at least part of the year, and all, except the painted lady, might be found there in the spring.

Although a little awkwardly posed, the birds are accurately portrayed, and d’Hondecoeter has made each one naturalistic and recognisable. A small tortoiseshell butterfly and a single emperor moth are placed flat on to the canvas, like specimens in a glass case – which is probably what they were when d‘Hondecoeter painted them. The background is imaginary, and the dark foliage, glowing evening light and ruined building help create a dramatic scene.

There was great interest in the natural sciences in seventeenth-century Holland, and a large number of artists specialised in detailed pictures of plants, animals or landscape. Some collectors prized these paintings for their accuracy, and displayed them as part of a wider collection of scientific instruments and specimens, including butterflies, rocks and shells, and stuffed animals. Melchior d’Hondecoeter may well have drawn and sketched his creatures from such a collection; he may even have had one himself. Some collectors, however, bought works like his simply as exotic and dramatic additions to the decoration of their houses.