In the history books his government (1621-1665) is quickly ticked off. Grandson of Emperor Charles V, his father left to him “the Government finances in immense disorder” (Meyer), the latter himself had started with a fatherly debt burden of 150 million ducats, heaped up by the history-dominating Philipp II, not least for his Armada against the English, on its departure throwing everything hitherto into the shade, while its no less immense failure – “The Lord Almighty blew, And the Armada flew to all winds” (Schiller) – found its resounding eyes-delighting echo in the North-Netherlandish marine painting of the time, in that region thus which for Spain was another bottomless ducats pit and strongly contributed to the political out of the country. So Philipp IV emulated the father and quickly left the unpleasant daily business to the less high-bred. To dedicate himself to that

that  only  makes  life  real  life – the  arts .

And in this regard found the accomplishment of his desires, the comfort of his soul, the infinite joy and delight, in short, the satisfaction of the

pleasure  of  his  eyes

in just those Netherlands, though their southern ones. With the royal Rubens in Antwerp as starting point + turntable,

solidified a connection which culminated in the 1636/38 order for 120 paintings as complete decoration of the hunting castle Torre de la Parada. “Philipp IV became Rubens’ most important late patron, acquiring or commissioning works for the Alcázar, Buen Retiro (1632), and … the Torre de la Parada” (Peter C. Sutton, The Age of Rubens, 1993, p. 40). To be executed also with the participation of others, for which Rubens especially relied on the co-operation of

with whom in regard to animals and fruit he occasionally worked together for which in her definitive catalogue for Snyders (1989) Hella Robels proves 40 oils as secured.

While the summoning of colleagues for mentioned 1636/38

(Robels, op. cit., p. 99) was completely left to Rubens himself, the order of 1639/40 for 18 pictures for the palace in Madrid running likewise through his hands

expressly  designated  Snyders  as  co-consignee .

Measured at Rubens’ own contribution of these last years of just (!) more than 80 works (Sutton, op. cit., p. 44) in such a manner

Snyders’  enormous  part  and  his  esteem  by  Philipp .

A part of these untolds was destroyed by fire in 1734, but 17 of these are proven for Snyders by copies as once belonging to the “Collection King Philipp IV”. And 20 further handed down in the original in the Museo del Prado as national successor of the Royal Gallery for Paintings and Sculptures with

(Jahn, Lexikon der Kunst, 1957, p. 553).

With Philipp IV as the central spiritus rector of this assembly (“was largely responsible for building up the royal collection of paintings, which later became the basis of the Prado Museum”, Columbia Encyclopedia, 6^th ed., 2005).

And  nowhere  Snyders  is  more  richly  present .

Only with recognizable distance (14) followed by Munich and with 9 each by the Hermitage and the public collections in Antwerp and Brussels.

What all once run under Snyders’ name has today been thinned out to less than the half.

Among them …