Asian Silkie Fowls and South American Parrot in an Imaginary Landscape (Primary Title)
Elegant Fowl (Former Title)
Jakob Bogdany, Hungarian, active in England, ca. 1660 - 1724 (Artist)
Bogdani specialized in animal painting in an era when
many wealthy Europeans paid large sums of money to
obtain rare birds and other seemingly exotic animals
from the far corners of the globe. As colonial empires
were expanding at the turn of the 18th century, the
traffic in species from remote locations was just another
facet of the general fashion for foreign goods, such as
food and luxury items, that asserted the international
pretensions of the ruling classes of Europe.
As an artist who made his career in an international
context, Bogdani was truly a man of his time. He was
born in Hungary, but he established his reputation as
a painter in Amsterdam before relocating to England
toward the end of the 1680s. This painting is characteristic of his English period and exhibits a familiarity
with the subject matter that was gained by his close
study of the collection of exotic birds amassed by the
dukes of Marlborough. The inclusion of a macaw from
South America and a family of silkie fowls from the
Far East points to the extensive colonizing ambitions
associated with the fascination for the exotic at the
dawn of the so-called Enlightened Age.
The Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III Collection
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.
