Dead Cock Hanging from a Nail

This rooster hanging head down from a nail, with all its feathers ruffled, looks just like the real thing, as does the grain of the wooden wall behind it. If there was no frame around it, you could almost believe this rooster was real. That is why this type of picture is called a trompe-l’oeil, or trick of the eye.

The painting is signed by Melchior d’Hondecoeter, the most celebrated bird painter of the seventeenth century. But it is not certain whether he actually painted it himself.