Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636-1695) Melchior d'Hondecoeter's specialty of poultry painting was something of a family business. Melchior's father and grandfather had both been interested in animal painting, and an aunt was married to the painter Jan Baptist Weenix, an Italianist. After studying with his father, d'Hondecoeter was apprenticed to his uncle Weenix, and this gav...