17th Century Flemish

Painter of genre and hunting scenes, battles, portraits and landscapes.

Snayers specialised in depictions of festivals, battles, celebrations and commemorative subject matters. A disciple of Sebastian Vrancx (1573-1647), in 1612 he is registered in the Guild of Saint Luke. Around 1628 he moved to Brussels, where he worked at the court of Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566-1633), ruler of the Low Countries, and later with the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria and his successor as Regent of the Low Countries, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Habsburg. On some occasions he collaborated with Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) in series for the decoration of palaces in Brussels and Madrid, some of which are now on view at the Museo del Prado, like the work representing Isabella Clara Eugenia visiting the Spanish troops at the siege of Breda, and the Torre de la Parada, where King Philip IV (1605-1665) is depicted at his favourite pastime of hunting.

Adams Frans van der Muelen (1632-1690) was his best-known pupil.