Frans Snyders, The Fruit Girl, c. 1633
From the Museo del Prado:
Frans Snyders’ skill at painting still lifes is extraordinarily manifest in this painting. The artist includes the figure of a servant, which gives this painting its name.
Snyders tended to include figures in his large-format works, and those figures were sometimes painted by Rubens, as the two painters often collaborated on works. These figures are generally set at one end or the other of the composition, leaving the remaining space for the depiction of the natural elements, such as fish, game or fruit.
The perfect rendering of the textures of the objects represented and the inclusion of living animals —the parrot that pecks the fruit in the basket, or the monkey smelling a flower— are quite frequent in Snyders’ work. And so it the exuberance of the elements, their diversity and the variety of colors employed.