Guinea-fowl (?); verso: blank c. 18th century

Curator: This is Jean-Baptiste Oudry’s rendering of a Guinea-fowl, now held in the Harvard Art Museums. There is no confirmed date of its creation. Editor: There's a delicate fragility to it, a certain unassuming grace in the washes of grey, the pose, and especially in those feet. Curator: Oudry was deeply immersed in the royal court, documenting animals for the menagerie at Versailles and other aristocratic collections. His art was very much tied to the social elite. Editor: Interesting. It makes you wonder about the fowl's symbolic weight within that context. Was it merely a decorative object, or did it carry some political or class-based message? Curator: It’s likely that birds, particularly exotic ones, were a marker of wealth and global reach. But perhaps we are assigning a modern-day reading to it? Editor: Maybe, but acknowledging that historical power dynamic helps us understand our own gaze, even now. Curator: I concede your point. It gives a different dimension to our understanding of the artwork. Editor: Indeed. I find it very compelling.