Painted peafowl at Burton Agnes Hall

One of Melchior d' Hondecoeter's poultry scenes, with a peahen intruding on the gathering.

On Sunday I visited Burton Agnes Hall in the East Riding of Yorkshire - it's a very lovely late Elizabethan- early Jacobean house with fine architectural features and an amazing art collection ranging from Old Masters to contemporary artists. Among the works were these two paintings that include peafowl. It's always a pleasure to see one of Hondecoeter's poultry groups, and there are two at Burton Agnes, the other consisting of a selection of ducks, geese and a curassow.

Unattributed, but pre-Hondecoeter: a family of peafowl with a very odd-looking turkey, in the Jacobean King's State Bedroom, whose richly-carved panelling can just be seen..