"You’re right," Martin said. "He might have let those poor animals carry on with their lives and had a nice painting of a forest instead over his mantle. But I hope you see what I’m getting at: art can serve as a record of things: just by looking at the painting of those dead birds (were they pheasants, by any chance? Or ducks?) and seeing the plaque underneath, we learn a few things. This was a real man who lived, and he shot and killed those birds, and brought them to his house, and hired an artist to paint them. The signature tells us who painted it, and in what year. He took enough pride in his work that he wanted a record of it to decorate his home."