Jan Jansz. den Uyl ( Utrecht (?), 1595/96 – 24 November 1639) was a

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

of the

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and Dutch art, ...

. He very much specialized in the form of

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

known as the breakfast piece, or, in the elaborate style of painters like den Uyl, banquet pieces (''banketjestukken''). He also painted landscapes and animal paintings. Den Uyl was well known in his time, and Peter Paul Rubens owned three of his paintings.Southgate. Although den Uyl is nowadays comparatively unknown, one of his paintings, in the collection of Gerald Guterman, has been called the "most beautifully perfect Dutch monochrome still-life in existence".Gimelson The Dutch word ''uyl'' means "owl", and den Uyl always included the signature motif of an owl in his paintings, often more than once in a single picture. Sometimes the motif is obvious and sometimes it is more covert. For example, in his ''Breakfast Still Life with Glass and Metalwork'' (1637–39), in the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

, an owl is incorporated fairly obviously as the decorative

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

on a large flagon, but the reflections in the pewter plates are also reminiscent of the face of an owl. He trained

Jan Jansz. Treck Jan Jansz. Treck (1606, Amsterdam, 25 September 1652 ) was a still-life painter during the Dutch Golden Age. Treck used economy in the number of his objects. Life In 1623 Treck was trained for half a year by Jan den Uyl, who had married his ...

, whose sister he married in 1619.

References

Sources and external links

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* ''Breakfast Still Life with Glass and Metalwork'' in

catalogue. {{DEFAULTSORT:Uyl, Jan Den 1590s births 1639 deaths Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Painters from Amsterdam Dutch still life painters