Studie van twee Braziliaanse schildpadden

Johan Maurits, governor of the Dutch colony in Brazil and owner of the Mauritshuis, took several artists with him to South America, to record the people, the flora and fauna, and the landscape. Eckhout was one of these artists. He painted the two tortoises with their scaly heads and geometrically-patterned shells in great detail. The animals are facing one another aggressively, ready to fight.