Landscape with a bird catcher
Zais was a student of both Marco Ricci (1676-1729) and Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-88), and much of his work has been wrongly attributed to his teachers; indeed, Landscape with a bird catcher was originally ascribed to Zuccarelli. His work signals the death of the tradition of Venetian landscape painting that was popular with English collectors. Landscape with a bird catcher was painted in Italy and is characteristic of Zais' compositional style, framed by trees. The scene, however, is most likely not accurate in its depiction of using nets to catch birds that damage crops. In this rural setting, birds were most probably caught as game.
