Jan Brueghel the Younger

JAN BRUEGHEL THE YOUNG (Brussels 1601-1678).
"Garland with the Virgin".
Oil on canvas.
Attached certificate by Klaus Ertz.
Measurements: 52'5 x 39 cm; 68'5 x 55 cm (frame).
The combination of the genre of the still life and the Marian subject knew in the Flemish painting a peculiar development. The garlands of flowers and fruits surrounding religious scenes became popular in Flanders as a reaction to the Protestant Reformation that denied the cult of images, that is, the representation of Virgins and Saints. Here we see an elaborate garland where the sensual flowers and juicy fruits seem to acquire relief, given the luminous quality, the tight velvety shades, as well as the skillful drawing. The Immaculate Virgin, on the crescent moon, surrounded by birds of paradise, remains in the background, given the splendor of the garland, although she also receives great attention in the enveloping draperies of tunic and mantle, as well as in the golden lights that appear behind the fluffy clouds. This painting by Jan Brueghel the Younger can be related to those made by his father Jan Brueghel de Velours (Brueghel the Elder): see The Virgin and Child surrounded by flowers and fruit, 1617-1620 (Museo del Prado), in which Brueghel painted the garland and Rubens the figures. This work belonged to the Marquis of Leganés, patron of great Flemish artists.
Jan Brueghel the Younger was a Flemish painter who specialized in still life and flower painting, although he also worked in landscape, mythological, allegorical and biblical scenes. He was an independent artist of great talent. The eldest son of Jan Brueghel de Velours, and grandson of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, he probably trained in his father's workshop, and it was also his father who encouraged him to travel to Milan in 1622, to enter the service of Cardinal Federico Borromeo. From Milan he traveled to Malta and Sicily and in 1625, after receiving the news of his father's death, he returned to Antwerp to take charge of his workshop. That same year he is registered as a master in the Guild of Painters of St. Luke. During these years he sold the paintings left by his father, and successfully completed those he had left unfinished. He also produced a number of small format paintings following his father's style, repeating his father's still lifes, flower garlands, landscapes and allegories. However, he did not do so as a mere copyist, but incorporated novelties and gave his work a personal accent. Among his most prominent patrons were the French court, which commissioned a "Cycle of Adam" (1630-31), and the Austrian court, for which he worked in 1651, after which he returned to Antwerp in 1657, where he lived until his death. He is currently represented only in a few private collections and in prominent institutions (in the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Metropolitan in New York, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna and other museums around the world).