FYT, Jan
(b. 1611, Antwerpen, d. 1661, Antwerpen)

Biography

Jan Fyt (also spelt Fijt), Flemish painter and etcher, primarily of still-life and hunting pieces. He was mainly active in his native Antwerp, where he was a pupil of Snyders, but in the course of his successful and prolific career he also travelled in France, the Netherlands, and Italy.

Like Snyders, Fyt painted elaborate style of decorative still-life associated with the circle of Rubens. His most characteristic paintings depict trophies of the hunt, dead stags, hares, and birds, all treated with a feeling for texture and details akin to that often seen in Dutch still-life. The rare flower paintings by Fyt are exceptionally fine and more attuned, perhaps, to modern taste.

Among his followers, Pieter Boel and David de Coninck were his most influential successors.