(Brussels 1568–1625 Antwerp)
A wooded landscape with an ambush,
oil on panel, tondo, diameter 14 cm, framed

Provenance:
The Late Sir Fordham and Lady Flower of “The Hill”, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England;
by descent to the current owners, USA

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the attribution of the present painting to Jan Brueghel I. A written certificate in photocopy (December 2012) is available.

The present panel is from the collection of the Flower brewing dynasty, of the ‘The Hill’, Stratford-upon-Avon, who were instrumental in organizing the celebrations of the tercentenary of William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) birth and the founding and establishment of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, later becoming the Royal Shakespeare Company, in the town. The Flower Collection boasted many fine Flemish works including several attributed to Peter Paul Rubens and the Brueghel family.

Ertz writes: ‘The present painting on panel can be said to be in very good condition. The overlapping, translucent glazes and the white heightening along the outlines of the foliage of the trees and in the costumes of the soldiers have survived in an excellent state of preservation. The brushwork, executed with a pointed brush, is extremely accurate, tracing the most delicate details […]. The stylistic features typical of Jan Brueghel I can be claimed for this small roundel. Although the overall chromatic impression in the form of a gradation of brown, green, and blue hues from foreground to background, one of the most important criteria for the stylistic identification of Jan’s pictures, largely still complies with the three-colour pattern characteristic of Brueghel’s early forest landscapes, the present roundel already betrays a number of novelties, which I will point out in the following by directing attention to three conspicuous examples: (1) a recognisable dissolution of the three-colour scheme of brown, green, and blue for the foreground, middle ground, and background, which is already about to give way here to a more homogeneous overall tone; (2) the view into the left background of the picture, past the trees in the foreground, apparently walkable and as new as the path in the foreground, “pouring out” orthogonally into the depth of the picture; (3) the harmonious play of light and shadow, which becomes particularly evident in the foliage of the tree framing the composition on the right. All of this suggests spatial depth and a three-dimensionality that seems extremely advanced because of its sense of reality. This forest landscape already anticipates the atmosphere of the later, more ‘mature’ sylvan spaces.

The prevalent verticality, visible both in the tree in the right foreground and in the three trees on the left, plus the elaborately interlocked composition and the way it is framed along the left and right margins are traditional devices of the Mannerist landscape approach before and around 1600. At that time, horizontality would not yet play such an important role as in the pictures dating from the years after 1600. The brushwork – a distinct feature of Jan the Elder’s – is still very delicate, detailed, and is particularly noticeable here in the foliage of the trees and the figures involved in the assault.’

To corroborate his attribution, Ertz compares the present painting with the following uncontested works by Jan Brueghel I: (1) Forest landscape with a castle, Museo del Prado, Madrid, circa 1600; (2) Rocky forest landscape with a castle, Waterman Art Gallery, Amsterdam, (1986), circa 1600; (3) Forest landscape with duck hunter, Sotheby’s, London, 9 December 1992, lot 33, circa 1600; (4) Forest interior, Kunsthaus, Zurich, circa 1605; (5) Assault in a forest, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszabie, Warsaw, circa 1605; (6) Forest landscape, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, circa 1605.

Klaus Ertz dates the present painting into the years around 1605.