Dear Friends,

I have been thinking about how best to organize this art exhibition of great master works in the world history, and the most logical way would seem to be to strictly follow history itself. However, I have wished to be a little more flexible than that, lest the appeal to the standard visitor might suffer; and so in the following days, starting today, I will be giving an advance, in three or four parts, of what will be coming in the future, each part representing a great art school and trend.

Since the previously posted painter - Caravaggio - was from the great Italian School, I think I may present today a masterpiece of the Flemish School by one of its most impressive - and at the same time, one of its less known - painters: Jan Brueghel the Elder, from the famed Brueghel family of painters in the sixteen - seventeenth centuries, and one of the sons of Pieter Brueghel, head of the family. Like Caravaggio's, his art belongs to the Baroque trend. The painting itself is almost unknown to the general public, but I do hope it will fill your expectations as the magnificent, colorful, and most exquisite landscape and religious painting it is - all in one!

As always, good feedback is welcome.

Thank you,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

 

GREAT MASTERS OF PAINTING

Christ Preaching at the Seaport (1)
by Jan Brueghel, the Elder

born 1568, Brussels [now in Belgium]
died Jan. 13, 1625, Antwerp
 

Profile (2)

byname  Velvet Bruegel,  Dutch  Jan Bruegel De Oudere, or Fluwelen Bruegel, Bruegel  also spelled  Brueghel, or Breughel , Flemish painter known for his still lifes of flowers and for his landscapes.

The second son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, born just before
his father's death, he was reared by a grandmother and learned
his art in Antwerp. In his youth, he went to Italy, where he painted under the patronage of Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, and later, in 1610, he was appointed court painter to the archdukes of Habsburg Austria. He worked primarily in Antwerp and was a friend of Peter Paul Rubens, with whom he sometimes collaborated in painting flowers, landscape, and animals in canvases in which Rubens supplied the human figures; an example is the “Adam and Eve in Paradise” (1620).

Technical data (3)

Christ Preaching at the Seaport
Oil on panel
10 3/8 x 14 inches (26.4 x 35.7 cm)
Private collection