Plate 12: Pair of Wood Grouse with a Melon and Pears c. 1575 - 1580

This watercolor and gouache on vellum, titled "Pair of Wood Grouse with a Melon and Pears," was made by Joris Hoefnagel around 1600. Hoefnagel's choice of vellum, a parchment made from animal skin, is significant. It offers a smooth, light surface, perfect for the minute detail he achieves here. Look closely, and you’ll see the individual feathers of the grouse and the delicate mottling of the melon. These effects are obtained by building up layers of translucent pigment. It’s painstaking work, demanding tremendous patience and precision. In this sense, the image stands in stark contrast to the things it depicts – freely growing food, wild birds in nature. Instead, Hoefnagel offers us a vision of the natural world transformed by human skill. He is not simply recording nature, but mastering it. The act of making this image is therefore as much a demonstration of artistry as it is an act of observation.