Landscape with allegories of the four elements
This piece, dating from 1635, was painted by a pair of Flemish artists, Jan Brueghel the Younger and Frans Francken the Younger. I checked who the artists were supposed to be younger than, and it seems that in both instances they were younger than their fathers. How this could have been in question, I’ll never know.
I can’t imagine how hard it must be to collaborate on an artistic piece like this. Apparently Frans Francken took command of doing the figures because he could paint elbows like nobody’s business and Jan Brueghel* took care of the rest.
The central theme of this work is a naturalistic exploration of the universe’s elemental derivation. The four moon-faced women chilling front and center represent the four elements (left to right): Water, Air, Fire and Earth**. This is pretty straightforward stuff for the most part. Water is literally pouring water and fish all about the place***. Air is sequestered in a stormcloud silhouetted against the sky and surrounded by birds. Earth is holding a cornucopia of fruit and is set against an agricultural backdrop with flowers and fruit all about her. Fire is slightly more abstract. She’s clutching a candle that’s longer than anybody needs it to be, but that’s the only direct reference to fire in the literal sense. At her fair feet rests a heap of weapons and armour from which we can derive a more metaphorical understanding of Fire’s role in our world.
On the left side of the painting there’s a dark forest that seems somewhat unassociated with the rest of the painting’s narrative. It may be the case that this space is the artists’ way of referring to the mysterious, more spiritual realm which exists alongside material elements. This would explain the mythical creatures lounging about in its shadows****.
*Also went by Breughel, Bruegel or Breugel apparently. You simply can’t do anything about landscape artists. Enough impulsivity to change a surname but not enough imagination to make it interesting.
**Apparently, although this was painted a good while after Aristotle had suggested that we incorporate the fifth element of “ether”, the notion had not yet made its way to the Flemish.
***You, my reader, are no doubt familiar with the habit certain artists have of incorporating a little self-portrait into their works. On an entirely unrelated note, did you notice that brown fish beside the heron?
****Or the artists couldn’t agree on what to put in that part of the painting and Francken told Brueghel to do as he pleased and so Brueghel did what he did best and painted some trees and Francken said what the hell you bastard and painted some fawns under the trees to show that he could do random crap too and then they kind of liked it like that and left it.