Jan Brueghel the Younger was an independent artist of great talent, who has been underappreciated in historiography at times. He was the eldest son of Jan ‘Velvet’ Brueghel and thus the grandson of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. He probably trained in the workshop of his father, who encouraged him to travel to Milan in 1622 and enter the service of Cardinal Federico Borromeo. From Milan, he travelled to Malta and Sicily. Upon receiving the news of his father’s death in 1625, he returned to Antwerp to take charge of his workshop. That same year, evidence shows that he was registered as a master of the Guild of Saint Luke. He sold the paintings that his father left behind and successfully completed previously unfinished works. Additionally, he produced a number of small paintings in his father’s style but sold them at lower prices. He replicated his father’s still lifes, flower wreaths, landscapes and allegories, but did not do so as a mere copyist; instead, he incorporated novelties and gave his work a personal touch. In 1626, he married Anna Maria, the daughter of Abraham Janssen, with whom he had 11 children, five of whom became painters. In 1630–1631, the French court commissioned him to paint a group of works on Adam. After having worked for the Austrian Court in 1651, he returned to Antwerp in 1657, where he lived until his death (Fransen, B. en: E.M.N.P., Madrid, 2006, tomo II, p. 567).