This set of paintings on the five senses (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch) was one of the most successful collaborations of Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel “the elder.” Rubens placed his figures in the magnificent courtly scenes created by Brueghel as settings for these allegories of the senses, resulting in a series of enormous quality and esthetic appeal. The subject was widely employed i
Abundance, personified by Ceres, goddess of fertility and agriculture, sits in front of a thicket of reeds at the edge of a forest. She has adorned her hair with wheat spikes -her attribute- and bears the horn of plenty under her left arm. Earth sits at her feet, offering her one of her fruits, she is personified by Flora, goddess of the earth and also of spring, which explains the flowers in her
This set of paintings on the five senses (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch) was one of the most successful collaborations of Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel “the Elder”. Rubens placed his figures in the magnificent courtly scenes created by Brueghel as settings for these allegories of the senses, resulting in a series of enormous quality and esthetic appeal. The subject was widely employed i
This set of paintings on the five senses was one of the most successful collaborations of Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel “the Elder”. Rubens placed his figures in the magnificent courtly scenes created by Brueghel as settings for these allegories of the senses, resulting in a series of enormous quality and esthetic appeal. The subject was widely employed in Flemish painting. Sight was consider
A group of travelers stop to rest, sitting together in the road. One of them speaks to a muleskinner, who leads a caravan of loaded mules. A very broad landscape unfolds on the left. In this painting, Brueghel offers one of his views with figures, but without any defined plot. He reveals his debt to the landscape ideas of Joost de Romper (1568-1625) by placing the figures at a bend in the road and
A wedding procession moves towards the church in a rural setting. The male members of both families lead the procession, headed by the groom. The flower in his hand is clearly a symbol of matrimony. The bride remains among the women. Both wear black clothing and a broad ruff collar, in keeping with early seventeenth-century style. The artist draws on the work of his father, Pieter Brueghel “the El
The artist chose the end of a wedding banquet in the country to offer a depiction of rural life during one its most collective moments. Some figures are shown inebriated, others are dancing, kissing and embracing or bringing gifts to the married couple located in the background before a red hanging.
Legend has it that Saint Hubert encountered a magnificent buck while hunting. When he tried to kill the animal, he saw a cross appear between the animal´s antlers. That is when he took the Christian faith. This story is identical to that of the conversion of Saint Eustace, with whom this painting has been related at times. Saint Hubert lived in Liege, in the Low Countries, and his conversion was m
The pendant of Country Wedding (P01441) shows the banquet that follows the wedding procession. The bride sits under a straw canopy at the center of the scene, which Brueghel sets under four leafy trees, revealing the great importance he gave to landscapes. The presence of the Archduke Alberto de Austria and the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, then governors of the Low Countries, makes this work an i
In this work, the painter depicts a landscape with compositional and stylistic characteristics that recall two small panels, The Sacrifice of Abraham (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva) and Forest (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie in Vienna), painted by Jan Brueghel the Elder around 1604–1610. It is possible that he painted this work in the summer of 1604 during his stay at t
This set of paintings on the five senses (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch) was one of the most successful collaborations of Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel “the Elder”. Rubens placed his figures in the magnificent courtly scenes created by Brueghel as settings for these allegories of the senses, resulting in a series of enormous quality and esthetic appeal. The subject was widely employed i
Surrounded by courtesans and hunting servants, the governors of the Spanish Low Countries, Archduke Alberto and Archduchess Isabel, rest in the shade of a large poplar tree during one of their hunts. One of their favorite residences, Mariemont Palace, near Brussels, is visible in the background. Brueghel offers a precise, almost topographical rendering of the landscape, including certain elements
This set of paintings on the five senses (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch) was one of the most successful collaborations of Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel “the Elder”. Rubens placed his figures in the magnificent courtly scenes created by Brueghel as settings for these allegories of the senses, resulting in a series of enormous quality and esthetic appeal. The subject was widely employed i
Highwaymen seem to have stopped a wagon with travelers in the midst of a barren landscape. More wagons and travelers on foot appear along the trail in the background. This work is difficult to interpret. It may just as well represent a violent assault as a simple everyday scene in a landscape. At any rate, it shows how Brueghel composed this sort of scene on the basis of various planes that reach
This expressive head is executed with great technical virtuosity. Typologically, it can be related to the Pseudo-Seneca which derives from a classical Roman bust traditionally thought to depict this Stoic philosopher. The pedestal is original while the reference in its inscription to Juan Alfonso Enríquez de Cabrera (1594-1647), IX Almirante de Castilla.