''Still-Life with Partridge and Gauntlets'' is a 1504 painting by the Italian painter

Jacopo de' Barbari Jacopo (also Iacopo) is a masculine Italian given name, derivant from Latin ''Iacōbus''. It is an Italian variant of Giacomo ( James in English). * Jacopo Aconcio (), Italian religious reformer * Jacopo Bassano (1592), Italian painter * Iac ...

. It measures and is held by the

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pin ...

in Munich. The small

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

-on-

limewood ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Great Britain and Irelan ...

panel painting A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not pain ...

is considered to be one of the earliest examples of a

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

painting, and one of the first

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

paintings, to be made in Europe since

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

. The painting depicts a dead

grey partridge The grey partridge (''Perdix perdix'') is a bird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. The scientific name is the Latin for "partridge". Taxonomy The grey partridge formally described in 1758 by the S ...

, with two iron gauntlets, and a

crossbow bolt A bolt or quarrel is a dart-like projectile used by crossbows. The word ''quarrel'' is from the Old French ''quarrel'' (> French ''carreau'') "square thing", specialized use as ''quarrel d'arcbaleste'' (> ''carreau d'arbalète'') "crossbow quar ...

passing through them. The set of objects appears as if it is lying on top of a wooden table or hanging from a nail against a wooden wall. To the lower right is a scrap of paper with the date and the painter's signature, and a drawing of

caduceus The caduceus (☤; ; , ) is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was borne by other heralds like Iris (mythology), Iris, the messenger of Hera. The s ...

, a symbol used by Jacopo de' Barbari. It is painted on a panel of linden wood, with the background painted to imitate

wood grain Wood grain is the longitudinal arrangement of wood fibers or the pattern resulting from such an arrangement. It has various derived terms refer to different aspects of the fibers or patterns. Wood grain is important in woodworking and it impacts ...

. The panel may have been made as the back or the hinged cover for a portrait, or as an amusing decoration for a hunting room. It is held by the Alte Pinakothek, and has been in the

Bavarian State Painting Collections The Bavarian State Painting Collections (), based in Munich, Germany, oversees artwork held by the Free State of Bavaria. It was established in 1799 as ''Centralgemäldegaleriedirektion''. Artwork includes paintings, sculptures, photographs, video ...

since 1804, before which it was held at the

Schloss Neuburg ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German language, German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian langu ...

since at least 1764. The

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

holds a similar drawing of a dead grey partridge by Jacopo de' Barbari, also dated to 1504, from the collection of Sir

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector. He had a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British ...

References

{{commons category, Still-Life with Partridge and Iron Gloves (Jacopo de' Barbari)
''Totes Rebhuhn mit Eisenhandschuhen und Armbrustbolzen''
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen

Web Gallery of Art
Study of a dead grey partridge
British Museum 1504 paintings Still life paintings Collection of the Alte Pinakothek Trompe-l'œil paintings Birds in art Death in art

See also

References