![]() Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601–1678) and Frans Francken the Younger (1581–1642), Allegory of the Four Elements (date not known), oil on panel transferred to canvas, 52 x 66 cm, location not known. It was Jan Brueghel the Younger, in collaboration with Frans Francken the Younger, who seems to have capitalised on the four elements combined into a single painting, probably around 1635-40. On the right, a river god holding Neptune’s trident sits next to a goddess who is holding a cornucopia. On the left is Vulcan, then a bird catcher who could be intended to be Apollo. Wikimedia Commons.Īrtus Wolffort’s The Four Elements was probably painted between 1600-41, and attempts a similar composition. Artus Wolffort (1581–1641), The Four Elements (date not known), oil on canvas, 158 x 200 cm, Private collection. Then there’s a winged Juno with a peacock, and at the right Mars with an early form of cannon or mortar, perhaps, belching flames and smoke. Next to her is a water nymph, with fish at her feet. A gnarled old matron at the left, with a castellated hat which is reminiscent of Arcimboldo, holds a cornucopia of the fruits of the earth. The classical references in Abraham Janssens’ Allegory of the Four Elements, which was probably painted between 1600-32, are looser still. Abraham Janssens I (1575–1632), Allegory of the Four Elements (date not known), oil on panel, dimensions not known, Private collection. A river god at the lower left is clearly water, and above him at the left edge is Vulcan, for fire. In the centre are Minerva and Diana, I think, with a link to the air. At the right is one of the earth goddesses, Cybele or Ceres perhaps. Wikimedia Commons.Ī few years later, Jan van den Hoecke collaborated with Adriaen van Utrecht in this classically inspired Allegory of the Four Elements (1630-31). Jan van den Hoecke (1611–1651) and Adriaen van Utrecht (1599–1653), Allegory of the Four Elements (1630-31), oil on canvas, 238.5 x 181.3 cm, location not known. The boy is using a glowing coal held in tongs to light the wick of a candle. This is his Fire and Childhood, an example of chiaroscuro used to model real lighting conditions. In 1624, Jan Lievens brought the four ages of man together with the elements in a unique series. Jan Lievens (1607-1674), The Four Elements and Ages of Man: Fire and Childhood (1624), oil, 83 x 58 cm, Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Kassel, Germany. At the lower right and centre is earth with a cornucopia, the upper left is air and fire, and lower left is water. Wikimedia Commons.Ībundance and the Four Elements (c 1606) is the whole series rolled into one. Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625) and Hendrick de Clerck (1560/1570–1630), Abundance and the Four Elements (c 1606), oil on copper, 51 x 64 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain. I’m not sure when the Brueghel family first took up this theme, but my first example is a collaboration between Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick de Clerck from early in the seventeenth century. In the first of these two articles showing paintings of the four elements, I traced the theme from the wonderfully idiosyncratic images of Giuseppe Arcimboldo to the end of the sixteenth century.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |