David de Coninck

David de Coninck or David de Koninck, also known as Rammelaer (ca. 1644 Antwerp – after 1701, probably Brussels) was a Flemish painter of the Baroque period who specialised in still lifes and landscapes with animals and hunting scenes. He had an international career that included periods of activity in Paris, Rome and Vienna.

Life

A cat and a dog fighting over fowl

He was apprenticed to Pieter Boel in 1659 and became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1663. He moved to Paris where he worked with Nicasius Bernaerts for several years, probably until 1669.^[1] Nicasius Bernaerts was an influential Flemish animal painter who worked for the court and was a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris.^[2]

De Coninck subsequently travelled to Rome where he lived from 1671 to 1694. Here he became a member of the Bentvueghels, an association of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists working in Rome, and took the nickname (the so-called 'bent name') 'Rammelaer' (which means 'rattle'). His name was inscribed in a niche in the Santa Costanza church in Rome where the Bentvueghels used to congregate.^[3]

On his return to the north he stayaed for a time in Vienna. He was back in Antwerp in 1687. He moved to Brussels at some time between 1699 and 1701. The last record of de Coninck is his registration as a became a member of the Brussels Guild of Saint Luke in 1701. It is not known when or when he died.^[1]

Work

Still life of fruit and flowers with animals

De Coninck painted still lifes, including fruit still lifes and hunting still lifes, landscapes with hunting scenes and architectural paintings.^[1] De Coninck's stylistic development is unclear and it is difficult to date his paintings with any precision.^[4] It is possible that early in his career he painted fruit still lifes, since there is a record that in 1668 two fruit still lifes made by a 'Koninck' were exported to Vienna.^[1]

His teacher Pieter Boel was a pupil of Jan Fyt, the leading Flemish animal painter of the mid 17th century. This explains the influence of Jan Fyt's style on de Coninck's work.^[5] Some works of David de Coninck and Pieter Boel are still attributed to Fyt.^[6]

His fruit still lifes of fruits and flowers painted on large canvases are complex Baroque compositions, which often include animals in an outdoor setting. Large, Italianate fruit still lifes in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes can likely also be attributed to de Coninck. An example of his fruit still lifes is the Still life of fruit and flowers with animals (Musée Fesch), which shows a still life with fruits and flowers near an outdoor fountain and a landscape in the distance. A monkey, two rabbits and a parrot enliven the painting.^[1]

River Scene with Ducks and Geese Being Attacked by Hawks

He was an accomplished painter of scenes with animals, mainly birds, in a garden or against a landscape background. He painted lively action scenes of fighting cats and dogs, packs of dogs attacking game and birds of prey or cats attacking birds or poultry.^[1][7]

De Coninck's work influenced other artists in Italy such as Baldassare De Caro, Giovanni Crivelli (named 'il Crivellino'), Nicola Malinconico, Franz Werner von Tamm and Jacob Xavier Vermoelen.^[1]

Notes

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