(Antwerp 1601–1678)
An Allegory of Air and Fire,
oil on panel, 61.5 x 96.5 cm, framed

The present painting is accompanied by a certificate from Klaus Ertz confirming the attribution (27 January 2016).

For allegorical representations of the Four Elements, Jan Brueghel II was in a position to hark back to examples by the hand of his father, who had devoted himself to the theme from 1604 onwards. Birds, weapons, fish, and fruit function as attributes that can be assigned to the individual elements. Such allegorical depictions had a long tradition. Personifications accompanied by their specific attributes, with Fire frequently represented by forged objects and weapons, appeared in Antwerp prints as early as the sixteenth century, such as in the Elements series engraved by Nicolas de Bruyn on the basis of models supplied by Maerten de Vos.

Klaus Ertz writes in his certificate: 'In the lower left corner, near the roots of a tree cropped by the picture’s margin, appear such birds as an ostrich, peacocks, herons, eagle owls, ducks, pheasants, and several songbirds, all of which can be assigned to the Allegory of Air. Further birds, including a blue and yellow macaw, can be found in the branches […]. Next to the birds on the ground we can see the semi-nude figure of Venus, wrapped in a wind-blown scarf in brilliant red. Venus is the wife of Vulcan and embodies the element of Air. While her right arm is raised towards the skies, her left arm is held behind the back of the nude figure of winged Cupid, who stands beside her […]. To their right appears the half-dressed and seated figure of Vulcan, Venus’s husband and the personification of Fire. He points towards an anvil in front of him and towards several components of suits of armour, helmets, weapons, pots, and bowls lying scattered on the ground and on wooden chests and stools. Intriguingly enough, Vulcan forges weapons for Mars, the god of war and lover of his wife, with which Venus then equips him […]. From the right-hand side of a wall, the beholder’s eye is directed towards a fire-spitting mountain, an allusion to Mount Vesuvius near Naples, which the painter had visited once, with a small building at its foot.'

Ertz continues: 'From the very outset, allegories and mythological subjects played an important role in the work of Jan Brueghel the Younger. He repeatedly harked back to models that had been supplied by his father, which he copied and modified. We know examples of this subject matter executed by him from the 1620s until well into the 1650s. Compositions showing the workshop of Vulcan, containing various allegorical allusions of Fire, enjoyed great popularity also after the death of Jan the Elder.̍

Ertz dates the present painting to the 1630s and compares it to the following works by Jan Brueghel II dating from the period in question:

(1) Venus in the Workshop of Vulcan (sale, Christie’s, London, 23 June 1967, lot 116);
(2) Venus in the Workshop of Vulcan (ex Collection Baron Coppée, Brussels);
(3) Allegory of Air and Fire (sale, Christie’s, London, 7 July 2009, lot 43)