"Manner of Roelandt Savery" is follower of Frans Snyders

Carlo Bonte, from Belgium, sells on 21 March 2017 a "Unsigned, late 16th / early 17 century, in the manner of Roelandt Savery" Still Life with grapes and exotic birds, a panel painting estimated at 2,000 to 4,000 Euro.

The work doesn't resemble Savery (1576-1639) so much as it does some works by his contemporary Frans Snyders (1579-1657), from which it seems to have copied the style and the use of some birds, even though a straight copy is hard to find. The work isn't good enough to be a Snyders or even a Workshop of Snyders, and is probably best described as a Follower of Frans Snyders.  Late 16th century in any case is a bit optimistic for this work, which is firmly seventeenth century.

The grapes as such could be a by or after a number of painters, including Snyders. Grapes were among the most popular elements in still lifes. Even Savery used them sometimes, but they are a less typical element in his works.

But the birds are the most obvious link between this work and Snyders. Especially his multiple variations of the "Concert with Birds" contain some very similar examples.

For example the blue tit has a similar pose, but it isn't a real copy.

The hoopoe also is quite close.

As is the swallow.

I'm not quite sure what this rather twisted bird is supposed to be, but again something very similar appears in the works of Snyders.

It's almost as if someone had access to some now lost work by Snyders and copied it, or could use a lot of his preparatory drawings, and created a new  composition from them.

I haven't been able to find any other similar work (an outdoors scene where a lot of birds surround some bunches of grapes), usually you have indoor grapes with one or two small birds, or outdoor birds on a tree.

All in all, an unusual and remarkable work, but not by a major artist. The estimate seems about right, perhaps a bit low.

UPDATE: sold for 25,000 Euro, a bit low indeed!!