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DESCRIPTION:
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Without a single element in excess, this enchanting and distinctive floral composition displays the unaffected opulence that is the unquestionable mark of the brilliant art of Jan Brueghel the Younger, one of the best floral painters of his generation. With a restrained layout that calls to mind the work of the Lombard school and in which the casual disarray of the bouquet is only an illusion, the subtly hued and delicately drawn blossoms stand out strikingly against a black abstract background and a simple wooden tabletop.
Applying a style that is considerably less baroque than the one in evidence in his paintings of garlands of flowers, Jan Brueghel still makes clear reference to his father's model here but integrates it into a quite original creation.
The bowl resembles the simplified (without frilled edging) version that Brueghel the Elder uses in his Allegory of Touch at the Prado (Inv. N° 1398). Isolated, and this time with the grapes replaced by flowers, the same bowl was also used on at least two occasions by Brueghel the Elder in independent floral compositions (cf. M.-L. Hairs, Les peintres flamands de fleurs au XVIIe siècle, Brussels 1983, pp. 90-94). Brueghel the Younger also used this type of bowl alone in certain compositions (cf. cat. Gallery De Jonckheere, Spring 2000, n° 34) but it would appear that the combination with the exquisite little vase made of a similar molded earthenware is wholly specific to this composition, and does not occur in his father's work.
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