Our composition goes back to a painting from 1611 by Jan Brueghel I from the Doria Pamphilj collection in Rome. Several versions from Jan Brueghel I and from his son Jan II exist, others are being attributed to their workshops, to Antwerp painters from their circle or from their family (such as the van Kessels).

 

The subject is the Allegory of Earth: the Greek goddess of agriculture and of harvest, Ceres (her Roman name is Demeter) is represented at the centre of the canvas. She is holding the Cornucopia, the horn of plenty. The castle at left is said to represent Tervuren, S. of Brussels. That important building was demolished in 1782.

 

 

In ancient Greek and Roman mythology the existence of four seasons was explained as follows.

The story starts with the abduction of Proserpina (her Roman name is Persephone) by Pluto (Hades), the God of the Underworld, while she was picking flowers.

Proserpina was the beautiful daughter of Ceres (Demeter), the goddess of agriculture and harvest and of Zeus (Jupiter), the ruler of the Gods.

Homer and Ovid tell of Proserpina’s mother’s desperate search for her. Ceres (Demeter) no longer performed her duties. This resulted in a complete standstill in nature, nothing grew anymore. 

Finally Zeus (Jupiter) obliged his brother Hades (Pluto) to return Proserpina (Persephone) to her mother Ceres (Demeter). Hades (Pluto) agreed to release her on condition that she had not eaten while she was in the underworld. But Proserpina (Persephone) had eaten six seeds of a pomegranate. She was therefore obliged to return during the six months of autumn and winter to the Underworld; her sad mother, Ceres (Demeter) let therefore nothing grow during these two seasons.

 

 

The goddess of agriculture and of harvest, Ceres (Demeter) is represented at the centre of our painting. She is holding her symbol, the Cornucopia, that is the horn of plenty, a symbol of abundance in all its forms: food, flowers or riches. 

The Cornucopia goes back to a Greek myth about the birth of Zeus, the upper god. His father, Kronos, devoured all his wife’s new-born babies for it had been foresaid that he was to be overthrown by his own son. Rhea gave birth to Zeus, her sixth child, on the island of Crete, in a cave on Mount Ida. She gave her husband Kronos a stone wrapped in cloth, which he promptly swallowed.

Zeus was hidden for his father and fed by the goat Amalthea. One day Zeus broke off one of her horns, which was said to have the divine power of endlessly providing food. 

As to the prophesy, it was full filed: Zeus gave his father some emetic powder, Kronos vomited and out came Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon. 

Kronos and the Titans were overthrown by Zeus and his brothers and sisters.

 

 

The building in the background is said to represent the Castle of Tervuren, which lays not very far from Brussels. 

For centuries people thought that Tervuren was the same place as "Fura", where Saint Hubert (Hubertus), the patron saint of the hunters, died in 727 AD. There is however no historical proof of this. 

During the Eighty Years’ War the castle of Tervuren became one of the favorite castles of Albert VII (1598 – 1621), the Archduke of Austria and his wife, Isabella of Spain who was the daughter of King Philip II of Spain. Albert and Isabella were the reigning sovereigns of the Habsburg Netherlands (Flanders) between 1598 and 1621.

The Archduke and his wife tried to spent much time at Tervuren, especially during the Twelve Years’ Truce. (1609 – 1621). Sadly from the winter of 1613/14 onwards the Archduke’s health problems with gout worsened; he died in 1621. The castle was demolished in 1782 under the Autrian emperor Joseph II. In fact all three castles of the Archduke have been destroyed: his palace on the Koudenberg in Brussels, his summer retreat in Mariemont and the castle of Tervuren, which he used as his hunting lodge in the Sonian Forest. 

 

 

In this composition Earth is represented at the centre of the painting by the Greek goddess of agricuture and harvest Ceres (her Roman name was Demeter) holding a cornucopia. She is surrounded by four figures: 

- a standing satyr at right with flowers, 

- two putti handing Ceres flowers and grapes, 

- a figure, poosibly a second satyr, holding a sheaf of wheat. 

Surrounding the group there are severals symbolic references to nature in the form of animals, a couple of apes and of rabits, a goat,various vegetables and fruits such as artichokes, cucumber, carrots, water melon and flowers. 

 

Our painting is a true icon of Flemish Baroque painting. Its composition is derived from a painting that is part of a set of four paintings, representing the Four Elements, made by Jan Brueghel the Elder with the collaboration of Hendrik van Balen. The best-known sets sit in the Fine Arts Museum of Lyon (dating from 1610) and in the Doria Pamphilj collection in Rome (dating from1611).

 

Our Allegory of Earth stands closer to the painting from the Doria Pamphilj collection. In the painting from the Fine Arts Museum of Lyon one sees for example at left two deer, two guinea pigs and two human figures, while in the centre the small putto left of Ceres lifts with his left hand a garland of blue flowers.

 

The four classical Graeco-Roman elements (Earth, Water, Air and Fire) were believed to reflect the simplest essential parts and principles of which anything can consist or upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of everything are based. During the Renaissance the Four Eelements became a popular subject.

Ceres stands for Earth, Amphitrite for Water, Urania for Air and Vesta (or sometimes Venus in Vulcan’s forge) for Fire.

 

The painted series of the Four Elements and individual paintings of a single element (such as our Earth) has undoubtedly known a huge popularity in Flanders since the second decade of the 17th Century, their compositional schemes being continuously used by four generations of Antwerp painters linked to the Brueghel family.

 

 

Flemish painter

Antwerp 1601 – 1678 Antwerp

 

Versatile painter of very diverse subjects, such as history paintings (biblical, mythological and allegorical subjects), landscapes, marine paintings, still lifes, hunting scenes, etc.

 

Pupil of his father, Jan I. Grandson of Pieter Brueghel I.

 

Circa 1622 Jan the Younger travelled to Italy, to Milan. He also stayed in Genoa, in Valetta on Malta and in Palermo on Sicily. He returned to Antwerp in 1625, when he heard that his father had died. He joined the local Painter’s Guild and took over his father’s important workshop; he was 24 years old. A year later, in 1626, he married a daughter of another prominent painter, Abraham Janssens; the couple had 11 children. In the year 1630/31 Jan II was head of the Antwerp Painter’s Guild of Saint Luke. During the 1650s he must have travelled to or even lived for some time in Paris. 

 

Jan II was a prolific painter. He had to take over his father’s large workshop at a very young age (24), he had to finish unfinished works by his father and thus actually took over his father’s style and subjects. His early works are hard to distinguish from his father’s; he only gradually freed himself stylistically and subject wise from that paternal influence during the 1640s. And then of course there is the output of that important number of collaborators in his workshop … .

 

 

Pieter Brueghel I (circa 1525  - 1569) is the most important 16th century Flemish painter. He died at a fairly young age: his eldest son Pieter II was then aged 14, his youngest son Jan I only 10. His wife died 8 years later, in 1578.

 

Both boys were taught painting by their maternal grandmother, Mayken Verhulst, herself a talented painter, and each individually by a less known painter.

 

Pieter Brueghel II (1564 – circa 1638) painted in the style of his father. He had an extensive workshop that contributed to the popularity of his father’s designs: he copied these extensively with a lot of talent, but also created new compositions.

His younger brother, Jan Brueghel I (1568 – 1625), was much more skilled and successful: he was a great landscape painter and an innovative floral still life painter. The figures in his landscapes were usually painted by collaborators.

 

Pieter Brueghel III (1589 – circa 1638/39) was the son of Pieter II. He continued working in the line of Pieter II: his compositions were inspired by engravings after Pieter I.

 

Two sons of Jan Brueghel I were painters:

- Jan Brueghel II (1601 – 1678) studied under his father, went to Italy and returned abruptly at his father’s death (cholera). He took over his father’s studio. He actually did the same as his uncle (Pieter II) had done with his father (Pieter I): he copied the successful compositions of his father (Jan I) and created new works in his style.

- Ambrosius Brueghel (1617 – 1675) was the son of his second wife.

He studied under his half-brother, Jan I. There are only two signed landscapes known by him; a lot of unsigned still-lifes are attributed to him.

 

A sister of each of these two half-brothers married a painter:

- the sister of Jan II, Paschesia, married the portrait painter Hieronymus van Kessel (1578 – after 1636);

- Ambrosius’ sister Anna married the very important genre and landscape painter David Teniers II (1610 – 1690).

 

Jan Brueghel II had married the daughter of the important history painter Abraham Janssens. The couple had eleven children, five of them became painters:

- Jan Peter Brueghel (1628 – circa 1680) was a flower painter;

- Abraham Brueghel (1631 – 1697) was an important still life painter of fruit and of flowers; he moved to Italy at the age of eighteen and never returned;

- Philips Brueghel (1635 -  after 1662) was a still-life painter;

- Ferdinand Brueghel (1637 – after 1662) is said to have been a painter;

- Jan Baptist Brueghel (1647 – 1712) was a still life painter, active in Italy.

 

To the same fourth generation belong two more painters:

- Jan I van Kessel (1626 – 1679), who was the son of Hieronymus van Kessel. He painted flower still lifes, animal scenes and small cabinet pictures. He was very successful, at first copying hid uncle’s style (Jan Brueghel II), later he created his very own style.

- David Teniers III (1638 – 1685), who was the son of David Teniers II; he painted religious scenes and important tapestry cartoons.

 

The fifth generation is formed by two sons of Jan I van Kessel, who had married the daughter of Ferdinand van Apshoven, a pupil and follower of David Teniers II. Luckily for this summary, of their thirteen children, only two became painters:

- Ferdinand van Kessel (1648 – after 1698) mainly painted genre scenes with monkeys and with cats; he also painted landscapes inspired by Jan Brueghel II (and thus also I). 

- Jan II van Kessel (1654 – 1708) settled in Spain circa 1679; he mostly painted portraits, but also still lifes. 

 

Just to make things even more complicated, I can also mention a certain Peter van Kessel who is documented in Germany between 1658 and 1668. Apparently his father had already lived in Germany, but still the museum of Bamberg holds a very German, signed version of the Allegory of Earth by him.

 

 

Because it is a marvellous classic composition of 17th century Flemish painting: it holds an allegorical scene in a dreamlike landscape with finely depicted flowers, fruits and animals.