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The combination of hunted and living animals in the present still life vividly inscribes momentary elements into the "natura morte". The feathers are depicted in delicately soft brushwork, and the birds and details of the foreground in particular appear in brilliant, deep colours.
Jan Weenix was born into a family of painters in Amsterdam in 1642. Together with his cousin Melchior de Hondecoeter he was taught by his father Jan Baptist Weenix. He later devoted himself intensively to the depiction of still lifes with dead game and animals, which he mastered to such an extent that it has been noted, especially in recent research, that some paintings previously attributed to his father must have come from his hand.
Weenix has been praised, in his lifetime as today, for his rich, vibrant colours, deft brushwork and ability to render materials and textures. With his hunting still lifes, Weenix created a genre in which he not only reproduced the richness and abundance of nature, but which also revealed much about society and the role of hunting in the period. His special sense of colourfulness and decorative effects can also be found in the special light reflections in the white feathers of the central cockerel and in the iridescent-coloured feathers of the lapwing.