Frans Snijders (1579 –1657), Fishmarket in Antwerp, Oil on canvas, c.1620, 145 cm x 170 cm, Snijders & Rockoxhuis Museum, Antwerp
This painting is one of several Antwerp fish market scenes created by Frans Snijders (1579–1657), the city’s leading specialist in large still lifes of animals, game, and fish. Snijders often collaborated with fellow painters: the figures in these compositions were frequently supplied by Cornelis de Vos (1584–1651) and, on occasion, Antoon van Dyck (1599–1641). Snijders himself was a trusted collaborator of Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), providing the still-life passages in many of his masterpieces, which testifies to his unrivalled skill in depicting natural abundance.
The painting, now in the KBC Bank collection in Antwerp, displays an impressive variety of freshwater and saltwater fish, illustrated with almost biological precision. Snijders pays close attention to sheen, colour, and texture, suggesting the freshness of the catch with his looser, shimmering brushwork. Beneath the table, a cat furtively steals a fish, animating the scene with a lively vignette. The background includes Antwerp’s most recognisable landmarks — Het Steen, the medieval fortress on the Scheldt river, and the tower of the Cathedral of Our Lady — lending the work topographical accuracy and anchoring it firmly in the civic identity of the city.
Snijders’s choice of subject reflects Antwerp’s position as a port city whose prosperity was bound to the Scheldt River. In the early seventeenth century, Antwerp’s economy suffered under the Dutch blockade of the river, imposed in 1585, and although the Twelve Years’ Truce (1609–1621) offered some relief, maritime trade never recovered to its earlier levels. Scenes of abundance, such as Snijders’s market paintings, thus had particular resonance, celebrating communal life and the city’s reliance on its river connections for both livelihood and cultural identity.
The fish market scenes also contained details with emblematic undertones, easily legible to contemporaries. The cat stealing fish recalled its familiar role in emblems as a figure of greed or theft. The weighing scale, often present in such scenes, could be read in two ways: practically, as part of the market setting, and symbolically, as a sign of justice or divine judgement. Emblem books by authors such as Otto van Veen (1556–1629) and Jacob Cats (1577–1660) circulated widely in Antwerp, ensuring that such allusions were readily understood by collectors. These emblematic touches gave Snijders’s market scenes a moral as well as descriptive dimension, fitting the early modern taste for artworks that combined lively naturalism with moral reflection.
Snijders built on the precedent of Joachim Beuckelaer (c.1533–1574), whose market scenes integrated moral allegory into depictions of food and trade, but he surpassed his predecessor in scale, precision, and collaboration with leading Antwerp painters.