ALLEGORY OF THE ELEMENTS
oil on panel - cm. 32 x 53
work from the late 16th century by
JAN BRUEGHEL (BRUEGEL) known as "THE ELDER" or "VELVETS" (Velours)
(Brussels, 1568 – Antwerp, 1625)
(see expert opinion of Prof. Maurizio Marini)
A WORK FOR A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM
Biographical and critical notes
Jan Brueghel (Bruegel) the Elder, also known in Italy as "Bruegel of the Velvets" or "dei Velours" (Brussels, 1568 – Antwerp, January 12, 1625), was one of the greatest representatives of Flemish painting of his time and of all time.
A member of a large family of painters, son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, younger brother of Pieter Bruegel the Younger and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger, he earned the nicknames of "Brueghel of the velvets, of the flowers and of Paradise" because of his favorite subjects (for the latter two) and because of the velvety tones of his colors, or perhaps his predilection for velvet clothes (for the former).
A prolific author of still lifes (often made up of flowers) and landscapes, he moved away from his father's style more than his brother Pieter the Younger did. His early paintings are often landscapes depicting scenes from the Holy Scriptures, in particular forest scenes that reveal the influence of Gillis van Coninxloo, a true master in the painting of woodland landscapes. In later works he moved first to painting pure landscapes and urban settings, then - towards the end of his life - to still lifes. He preferred elegant landscapes, often enlivened by lively genre scenes and allegories (Elements, Seasons), mythological and biblical stories, works notable above all for their intense and precious colors.
Many of his works were created in collaboration with other painters (such as Hendrick Van Balen); often human figures painted by other artists were integrated into the landscapes painted by Jan Brueghel. The most famous of his collaborators was Pieter Paul Rubens, for example for the Original Sin.
Jan Brueghel the Elder stayed in Italy for a long time (1592-1596) and in particular in Rome (where he worked in the workshop of Giuseppe Cesari known as the "Cavalier d'Arpino" and his brother Bernardino Cesari) and then in Milan, where he established relations with Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who was first his protector, then of his son Jan the Younger and collected several of his works, considering him almost a more 'decorous' counterpart to the naturalism of Caravaggio, of whom he owned the famous "Basket of Fruit".
Returning to his homeland, Jan Brueghel died of cholera in Antwerp in 1625, where he had his studio since 1596.
In the Netherlands of the 17th century, the floral and allegorical genre in painting contained the implicit moral message of Vanitas (with reference to the opening passage of the book of Ecclesiastes: «Vanity of vanities, all is vanity»). It, moreover, well embodied the concept of transience inherent in the beauty of flowers - «everything beautiful passes» - and proof of this symbolic value can be seen from the fact that specimens of different seasons were often depicted side by side, demonstrating that these paintings were not mere objective representations, but contained within them a precise and defined moral message.
The allegorical, floral and naturalistic painting began in the Netherlands in the late 16th century, by a group of avant-garde painters among whom the most important was undoubtedly Jan Brueghel the Elder, nicknamed "of the Velvets". The specialization in these subjects gave rise to a sort of tacit competition between the artists, both from the compositional point of view and from the point of view of technique and botanical knowledge, all distinctive elements of these creations. Jan Brueghel the Elder came to depict as many as fifty-eight different species of flowers in a single painting.
The genre was illustrated in composite formulas: flowers and fruits contained in a wicker basket, flowers in a glass vase, floral compositions mixed with jewels scattered over a table or allegorical human figures immersed in spring landscapes (as in our case), or linked to the seasons, combined with butterflies, snails, ants, lizards, birds, fish, animals of various species: representations always full of a strong moral and philosophical symbolism linked to the FOUR MAIN ELEMENTS: Air, Earth, Water and Fire. The latter represented by the volcano in the background of the scene. The butterfly, for example, like birds, recalled the ascent of the soul to heaven; the snail the slowness and inexorable passage of time; the industrious ant the wisdom in preparing for the future. In the fairytale panel proposed here, fish and crustaceans are depicted in a lively and colorful way: the large quantity and variety of Brueghelian and non-Brueghelian paintings, in which the fish is the protagonist, can be divided into two groups: those in which it has descriptive value; those in which it has symbolic value (as in this case). Certain lively seventeenth-century life scenes, such as those of the Brueghels, show the fish as such and their presence refers to the reality of the kitchen and the table, even if then on the stylistic level the metallic scales become an opportunity that the painter uses for subtle formal games. In other cases, especially in Christian painting, however, the fish has symbolic value: use documented already at the dawn of Christianity. At the time when religion was still prohibited and persecuted, it was the primary symbol of Jesus, because IXTYS, the Greek term for fish, is the acronym of the sequence in Greek "Jesus Christ son of God Savior". Compositions of fresh flowers were also represented together with others almost withered, placed on a table and, in great vogue, imposing garlands within which religious representations were framed (generally the Madonna and Child), often the result of collaboration between two painters, one specialized in the portrait of figures, the other in the floral subject. Two examples above all: the Madonna and Child in a garland of flowers (circa 1616-1618), created by Pieter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, and the Holy Family in a garland of flowers (circa 1620-1625) by Jan Brueghel the Younger and Bartolomeo Cavarozzi. A common element in many of these works is also the depiction of a vase decorated with reliefs in classical style containing a rich bouquet of flowers; the pictorial technique reveals in this case the refinement of the material and an intense contrast of lights and shadows. The symbolic value of flowers, products of the rich natural kaleidoscope, as mentioned, is strong, and from time to time assumes a metaphorical value also for our daily existence: spring, youth, the grace of blooming, the reference to perfumes (various paintings represent the allegory of the five senses); and again we find homages to Flora, goddess of nature, and Aurora, goddess of dawn, to Ceres, goddess of fertility and harvests. The flowers also express Christian values: the lily love, the white rose purity, the violet of thought divinity, the wild lily and the tulip grace, the carnation the divine incarnation of Christ.
In Greek and Roman literature, the rose had absolute predominance, artistic incarnation of the goddess of love Aphrodite-Venus: a parallel that had ancient roots, since according to tradition the first blossomed when Venus was born. Horace interpreted it as a transient beauty, having a short life; Cesare Ripa described it as the last of all the flowers to bloom and the first to wither, as Anataeus said. For Virgil, however, it can be compared to our own life, beautiful and pleasant, but which can vanish in a day - as he himself writes in a poem in which he celebrates its beauty and delicacy, but also its ephemeral existence.
Boccaccio, finally, in describing it, resorted to an analogy of meaning: the rose contains in itself the ambiguity, «stains and stings», and at the same time represents true passion: a short, intense pleasure, which leaves a long torment. This is the most likely message of Brueghel himself in representing the queen of flowers.
(see expertise published here by Prof. Maurizio Marini)
Provenance: Belgium
Period: late 16th century
Private negotiation
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