1050 - Large oil on oak panel with a view of a Dutch village, in the manner 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 with a view of a Dutch village, in the manner of Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels, 1568 - Antwerp, 1625), Flemish school of the 16th century - first quarter of the 17th century Oil on panel, measurements: 185 x 120 cm, framed measurements: 208 x 171 cm. It is said that he was born "near Breda in the town whose name he took to transmit to his descendants." However, there were two towns with the name Brueghel or Brogel, one in North Brabant about 55 km from the present-day Dutch town 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 house of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, a great client and admirer of his with whom he was in contact until the end of his days. In 1596 he returned to Antwerp, where in 1601 he was dean of the Guild of Saint Luke. After his stay in Prague in 1604, he came into contact with the Archdukes Albert and Isabel Clara Eugenia; He was, along with Rubens, one of their favorite painters, and court painter from 1606. When the Archdukes visited Antwerp in 1618, the municipality decided to give them an exhibition of the twelve best painters of the city, which consisted of two large canvases with the theme of the allegory of the senses, and Jan Brueghel was chosen director of the project, in which painters of the stature of Rubens and Frans Snyders collaborated. Replicas of these two canvases belong to the Prado Museum: "Sight and Smell" and its pair of identical measurements "Taste, Hearing and Touch". The originals must have disappeared in the fire of the Coudenberg Palace in Brussels in 1731. Another series of five panels, representing the five senses, also from the Prado, was made in collaboration with Pedro Pablo Rubens. Bibliography: Royo-Villanova, M. in: MNP Encyclopedia, 2006, volume II, pp. 564-567. ...