FYT, JOHANNES, 1609-61; b. Antwerp; the best painter of animals and game after Franz Snyder. F. entered the guild of St. Luke as a master, and from that time till his death, lie produced a vast number of pictures in which the bold facility of Snyders is united to the powerful effects of Rembrandt, and harmonies of ,gorgeous tone are not less conspicuous than freedom of touch and a true semblance of nature. There never was such a master of technical processes as F. in the rendering of animal life in its most varied forms. He was not clever at figures, and he sometimes trusted for these to the co-operation of Cornelius Schut or Willeborts, whilst his architectural back grounds were sometimes executed by Quellyn. " Silenus amongst Fruit and Flowers," in the Harrach collection at Vienna; "Diana and her Nymphs with the Produce of the Chase," in the Belvedere at Vienna, and " Dead Game and Fruit in front of a Trium phal Arch," belonging to baron Anselm von Rothschild at Vienna, are specimens of the co-operation respectively of Schut, Willeborts, and Quellyn. They are also Fyt's
masterpieces. Great power is shown in the bear and boar hunts at Munich and Ravens worth castle. A splendid specimen is the " Page and the Parrot," near a table covered with game, guarded by a dog staring at a monkey, in the collection of sir Richard Wallace. It is curious that Antwerp should possess only two examples of Fyt. The Madrid museum contains 11, the Lichtenstein gallery at Vienna 8, the Berlin, Vienna, and Dresden museums 5 each, the Louvre 3, and the London national gallery 1. With the needle and the brush Fyt was equally clever. He etched 16 plates, and those repre senting dogs arc of theii kind unique.