Cats fighting in a larder, with loaves of bread, a dressed lamb, artichokes and grapes

This panel of around 1650 from the Galerie Pierre Birtschansky depicts cats fighting in a larder surrounded by bread, dressed lamb, artichokes, and grapes — a comic genre scene that was among Snyders's most popular subject types. The cat fight in the larder combined animal action, food abundance, and narrative comedy in a single composition that provided something more entertaining than a static still life while requiring less compositional complexity than a full boar hunt. Cats in larders appear throughout Snyders's career from his early fish still lifes onward; by the 1640s and 1650s the fighting cats subject had become one of his most refined formulas. The dressed lamb — a carcass prepared for cooking — alongside artichokes and bread created a specific seasonal and social context: a prosperous household's larder in late spring or summer. The panel format at this late date indicates a deliberate choice for the intimate scale and high finish appropriate for a cabinet collection.

The fighting cats require Snyders to capture feline combat with the same kinetic accuracy he brought to boar hunts and dog fights. Cats in combat compress into tight, rotating forms with claws extended and backs arched — a very different physical grammar from canine fighting. The surrounding food objects are rendered with his standard precision; the dressed lamb's pale, hairless skin contrasting with the cats' fur.