DAVID DE CONINCK
(Antwerp, 1642/44 - Brussels, ca. 1700)

Still Life with Peacock
Oil on canvas, 100 x 127 cm
The painting is attributed to David de Conick, artist from Antwerp. Pieter Boel’s student in his home town, he came to Rome, where he arrived after several stops in Europe. He stopped first in Paris where he met Nicaise Beernaerts and then to Vienna. It is mostly remembered for the depictions of animals and still lifes.

The present canvas depicts a series of volatile framed in a broken and wooded landscape and it is full of allegorical meaning referring to the Christian world. The animals represented are all allegories having an high moral purpose although they are subjects belonging to the so-called "minor genre painting".
In fact, the peacock is a symbol of resurrection and eternal life; the rooster, on the left corner, is related to the act of redemption because it sang at the moment of St. Peter’s denial; finally quails refer to St. John the Evangelist, who, according to tradition, had one as a pet in his house.

The lot is accompanied by two expertises of Maurizio Marini and Giancarlo Sestieri.