# A Forest Floor Still-Life [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MARSEUS VAN SCHRIECK, Otto]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 52 x 43 cm ## Commentary Marseus van Schrieck was one of the first painters to specialise in this type of still-life and his pictures were imitated by a number of artists. This still-life represents a milk thistle, mushrooms, a wood snail, a blue, a queen of Spain fritillary, an emperor moth, a tortoise shell, a dragon-fly, together with an aspis adder taking a fledgeling from a nest of a sedge-warbler. Marseus van Schrieck was fascinated by the animals which he painted and their behaviour. He knew the habits of these creatures very well and is known to have bred snakes, lizards and insects himself. It therefore seems that many of the detailed flora and fauna contained in his paintings were based on careful study of the various animals, insects and plants he discovered and kept in his own garden, a 'watery' domain near Diemen. ## Related artworks - [A Forest Floor Still-Life]() - [Forest Floor Still-Life]() - [Nocturnal Forest Floor Still-Life \(detail\)]() - [Nocturnal Forest Floor Still-Life \(detail\)]() - [Nocturnal Forest Floor Still-Life]() - [Still-Life with Insects and Amphibians \(detail\)]() - [Still-Life with Insects and Amphibians]() - [Still-life with Plants and Reptiles]() - [Still-Life with Poppy, Insects, and Reptiles]() - [Vase of Flowers with Butterflies]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()