1050 - Large oil on oak panel depicting a view of a Dutch village, in the style of Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels, 1568 – Antwerp, 1625), Flemish school of the 16th century – first quarter of the 17th century

Large oil on oak panel depicting a view of a Dutch village, in the style of Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels, 1568 – Antwerp, 1625), Flemish school of the 16th century – first quarter of the 17th century Oil on panel, dimensions: 185 x 120 cm; framed dimensions: 208 x 171 cm. It is said that he was born “near Breda, in the town whose name he adopted to pass on to his descendants.” However, there were two towns named Brueghel or Brogel, one in North Brabant, about 55 km from the present-day Dutch city of Breda. He achieved great professional and social success during his lifetime and had a host of followers during the 17th and 18th centuries, but none reached the perfection of his technique. In 1590 he traveled to Naples, then to Rome and Milan, where he lived in the home of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, a great patron and admirer of his work, with whom he remained in contact until the end of his life. In 1596 he returned to Antwerp, where in 1601 he served as dean of the Guild of Saint Luke. After his stay in Prague in 1604, he came into contact with Archdukes Albert and Isabel Clara Eugenia; he was, along with Rubens, one of their favorite painters, and served as court painter beginning in 1606. When the Archdukes visited Antwerp in 1618, the city council decided to present them with an exhibition featuring the city’s twelve finest painters, consisting of two large canvases depicting the allegory of the senses, and Jan Brueghel was appointed director of the project, in which painters of the stature of Rubens and Frans Snyders collaborated. Replicas of these two canvases are in the collection of the Prado Museum: “Sight and Smell” and its counterpart of identical dimensions, “Taste, Hearing, and Touch.” The originals must have been destroyed in the fire at the Coudenberg Palace in Brussels in 1731. Another series of five panels, representing the five senses, also from the Prado, was created in collaboration with Pedro Pablo Rubens. Bibliography: Royo-Villanova, M. in: MNP Encyclopedia, 2006, volume II, pp. 564–567. ...