Commemorating 4 centuries since the death of Jan Brueghel the Elder 2
Four centuries ago today, on 13 December 1625, one of art’s great innovators and collaborators died in the city of Antwerp, where he had painted for much of his career. He is Jan Brueghel the Elder. In the first of these two articles I showed some of his paintings up to 1615, where I resume this brief account of his career and art.
Over the next few years, Jan the Elder and his close friend and collaborator Peter Paul Rubens were to paint one of the finest series of paintings in the European canon.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) (workshop) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625), Nymphs Filling the Horn of Plenty (c 1615), oil on panel, 67.5 x 107 cm, Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands. Wikimedia Commons.
In about 1615, Jan the Elder and Rubens painted Nymphs Filling the Horn of Plenty. Although it makes no reference to the fight between Hercules and Achelous that turned the latter’s horn into the cornucopia, it’s good to see the staff busy at work making full use of it.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625), Nature and Her Followers, or Nature Adorning the Three Graces (c 1615), oil on panel, 106.7 x 72.4 cm, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Scotland. Wikimedia Commons.
At about the same time, they painted Nature Adorning the Three Graces together. In this delightful little scene the three Graces are feting a term with about eight pairs of breasts, who has been identified as the Ephesian Diana.
The circumstances behind their greatest collaboration remain uncertain, although the most likely explanation for their origin is as a commission for the Archduke and Duchess Albrecht and Isabella, sovereigns of the Spanish Netherlands.
Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Sight (The Five Senses) (1617), oil on panel, 64.7 x 109.5 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Wikimedia Commons.
Among the cornucopia of visual and optical artefacts in Sight (1617) are a sophisticated telescope, various drawing and navigational instruments relying on sight for making sightings, an early magnifying glass, a globe and an orrery (showing the orbits of the planets), and a vast collection of visual art, including paintings and sculpture.
There are some obvious figurative items, such as the peacocks shown in the distance, just above the woman’s head: their feathers have eye-like markings, and refer to the well-known myth of Argus, although I cannot see that depicted within this painting.
Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Hearing (The Five Senses) (1617-18), oil on panel, 64 x 109.5 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain. Wikimedia Commons.
Jan the Elder gave each of the series a landscape backdrop, with Hearing alone in showing the view through a window. That in Sight is reminiscent of the port views of Claude Lorrain, Hearing shows a country palace amid fields on a rolling plain, Smell shows regular rows of trees in a wood, Taste shows a large manor house and forest, and that in Touch shows trees and ruins such as those in post-Classical Italy.
Given that almost every other object shown in each of the paintings in the series is associated with its respective sense, these landscape cameos are the only significant parts which appear completely disconnected with that sense. One explanation for these cameo views is that they depict palaces that belonged to Albrecht and Isabella. However, with the exception of that in Hearing, they don’t provide much information about their location, and may be generic in their content. It’s also worth emphasising that Brueghel painted these when Claude was still a youth, and therefore couldn’t have been referring to his work in Sight.
Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, Hearing (The Five Senses) (detail) (1617-8), oil on panel, 64 x 109.5 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid. Wikimedia Commons.
The landscape in Hearing is the best-developed of the five. Using a triptych format created by two pillars, in a similar way to that in van Eyck’s Rolin Madonna, it shows a large palace set in rolling countryside. There are many green fields with criss-crossing wooded roads, as might be typical of a royal estate. The sky shows either a coming or clearing storm, and there are several birds in the air; these, through their calls, may be the only reference to the sense of Hearing. The main role of these landscapes appears to be to add depth.
Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Smell (The Five Senses) (c 1617-18), oil on panel, 65 × 111 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Wikimedia Commons.
Smell (c 1617-18) sets a benchmark for objects that allude to the sense of smell: flowers of course, with at least a couple of dozen different fragrant species shown, vanilla pods in the foreground being eaten by Brueghel’s favourite guinea pigs, a squirrel, the ill-scented civet with its distinctive black and white markings, and a hound (presumably an antecedent of the bloodhound) for its famed sense of smell. They also include vials of scent, and the apparatus for distilling essential oils and perfumes in the left middle distance.
Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Taste (The Five Senses) (1618), oil on panel, 64 × 109 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Wikimedia Commons.
Taste (1618) is an almost exhaustive catalogue of what was then considered to be edible. At its centre, Pan (or a satyr) pours a woman of ample figure a coupe from his large flagon. Immediately in front of her are a dozen oysters, and the remainder of the table is packed tight with an array of exotic dishes.
The rest of the room, which opens out to a deer park and distant palace, is piled with unprepared foodstuffs, including a boar’s head, peacocks and many game birds, a hare, rabbit, fish, shellfish, fruit, and vegetables. In the left distance is a kitchen where food is being prepared. In keeping with the theme, paintings on display show the marriage feast at Cana, The Fat Kitchen, and a festoon of fruit.
Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Touch (The Five Senses) (1618), oil on panel, 64 × 111 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Wikimedia Commons.
Touch, painted in 1618, extends beyond its title to encompass other tactile sensory modalities. Heat is associated with a brazier, fine touch with brushes nearby. Much of the panel is devoted to a collection of armour, weapons, and their manufacture by gunsmiths and armourers. The many suits of armour on display appear to be equipment that isolates rather than stimulates the sense of touch.
Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Touch (The Five Senses) (detail) (1618), oil on panel, 64 × 111 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Wikimedia Commons.
This also quotes several paintings, including the apocalypse, the flagellation of Christ, and a cavalry battle, mainly associated with pain. Below them, next to Rubens’ kissing Cupid and nude, is a collection of surgical instruments which, in the days before anaesthesia, would have been strongly associated with pain.
Following that series, Brueghel coordinated another series, an Allegory of the Five Senses, including the work of Rubens, Frans Snyders and others, but those were tragically destroyed by fire in 1713.
Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Flora and Zephyr (c 1618), oil on panel, 136 x 109 cm, Schloss Mosigkau, Dessau-Roßlau, Germany. Wikimedia Commons.
In about 1618, Jan the Elder and Rubens joined forces to paint their Flora and Zephyr. The fruit of this collaboration has many similarities to The Five Senses. Flora sits naked, collecting flowers dropped into a red sheet by an airborne Zephyrus, with two putti assisting. In addition to the rich floral display are pairs of birds and animals, including peacock and peahen, and guinea pigs again in the right foreground.
On 13 January 1625, Jan Brueghel the Elder died, most probably as the result of cholera. His friend Rubens became the guardian of the surviving children, and both stand today as two of the greatest masters of painting in Europe.
