A broad view of the Flemish countryside, with diverse scenes of peasants carrying out their respective tasks. This is one of the finest examples of the collaboration between Jan Brueghel “the Elder”, who is thought to have painted the figures, and Joos de Momper, who made the landscape. The scene is formed by accumulating various planes that follow each other toward the back, in perspective. The enormous trees in the center split the composition in two. They are the vertical counterpoint to the

Momper was one of the finest Flemish landscape painters of the first decades of the seventeenth century. He built his works on very concrete models that he repeated in many paintings. One of them was a large-format landscape with figures in the foreground carrying out an anecdotic or everyday activity. Here the figures are hunters, along with riders and beggars. Toward the background, as was customary for this artist, the panoramic view includes large mountains totally divorced from the reality

The paintings which Isabel Clara Eugenia sent to Elisabeth of Bourbon to decorate the Torre de la Reina in the Alcázar in Madrid included four landscapes depicting the Archduke and Archduchess enjoying the everyday life in the gardens of their palace of Mariemont. These images show them hunting, harvesting hay, or simply pausing during a leisurely walk, as we see in the present canvas. Isabel is shown in the company of her ladies-in-waiting and other members of the court, particularly chi

One of the principal artistic projects undertaken by Isabel Clara Eugenia and Albert of Austria during the period of peace that followed the Twelve Years’ Truce was the significant programme of renovation of their royal residences, which had been seriously damaged over the course of more than fifty years of war. This remodelling and restoration, directed by the architects Wenzel Coebergher and Jacques Francquart, is well represented in the numerous paintings commissioned by the two rulers. These

This excellent example of the collaboration between Brueghel and Momper depicts simple rural life in Flanders, joining the genre of landscape painting with that of everyday life. The groups of figures were made by Brueghel, while Momper painted the landscape, with his characteric violet tonalities in the background. Here, Momper abandons his broad panoramas in favor of a more realistic perspective closer to the work of Dutch landscape painters and much more in keeping with the true nature of the