The Earthly Paradise
Jan Brueghel II the Younger (Antwerp, (1601 – 1678)
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The Earthly Paradise
Jan Brueghel II the Younger
(Antwerp, (1601 – 1678)
Oil painting on canvas
Canvas cm. 130 x 103
Frame cm. 148 x 120
Very good condition
This fascinating large Flemish work depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The painting amazes the viewer with its extraordinary compositional richness and the incredible variety of animals that fill every corner of the canvas.
It is not possible to describe
the innumerable list of faunal species depicted in an infinite sequence of scenes.
The work, executed in the first half of the 17th century, is to be placed in the renowned Antwerp workshop of the famous Flemish artist Jan Brueghel II the Younger.
He, belonging to a family of famous artists, was the son of Jan Brueghel the Elder, nephew of Pieter Bruegel and father of Abraham Brueghel.
Having trained with his father, after a trip to Italy which took him to Rome and Naples, Jan returned to Antwerp in 1625.
Here he set up and ran his own thriving workshop, working for numerous prestigious clients such as the court of Paris.
His paintings mostly depict fantastic landscapes populated by a myriad of animals immersed in thick vegetation, or redundant still lifes of flowers that his son Abraham, who settled in Naples, will continue to produce.
The description of the Earthly Paradise was one of his favorite themes.
In fact, this extraordinary context represented the ideal naturalistic environment to be able to express its entire faunal and floral repertoire in an exemplary way, with highly effective results that aroused amazement and wonder.
Our canvas, which is also large in size compared to the more usual paintings on wood and copper, constitutes an important example of the production of his workshop.
Paintings on canvas are in fact rarer and are found only in large works.
The state of conservation is excellent and the beautiful sculpted and gilded frame goes perfectly with the painting.