Jacob van der Kerckhoven

[4] He was also patronized by English aristocrats on their Grand Tour such as John Cecil, 5th Earl of Exeter who commissioned in 1684 four paintings from van der Kerckhoven while in Padua (now in the collection of Burghley House, Lincolnshire, England).

[3] It is likely that he visited Rome and perhaps Naples since his work shows stylistic links with Michelangelo Cerquozzi and Michele Pace del Campidoglio.

He painted large and ambitious compositions similar to those he had seen in the workshops of Antwerp and in the studio of his master Fyt while at the same time developing a personal language of almost naive charm.

An example of this is The Battle of the birds and beasts (Collection of Burghley House, Lincolnshire, England), which represents a dynamic whirlwind of violence.

[4] Van der Kerckhoven moved away from Fyt's style and developed a personal manner characterized by analytical drawing and brilliant colour.

There exist doubt as to whether certain works (such as the Still life with fruit, Lower Saxony State Museum, Hannover) were painted by him or by Giuseppe Recco.

[5] Van der Kerckhoven is known to have collaborated with figure painters such as Johann Carl Loth and Antonio Zanchi on compositions to which he contributed the still-life elements.