Galerie Johnny van Haeften, Londres, en 2004 ;

Galerie Salomon Lilian, Amsterdam, en 2005 ;

Galerie De Jonckheere, Paris ;

Acquis auprès de cette dernière en 2005 par les parents des actuels propriétaires (en paire avec le numéro précédent) ;

Collection particulière, France

Klaus Ertz, Christa Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625) : kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, Lingen, 2008-2010 , t. 2, p. 668-670, n° 325

Gerlinde de Beer, "Anmerkungen zum Werk von Jan Porcellis (Gent um 1584-1632 Zoeterwoude bei Leiden)", in Ch. Dumas e.a. (red.), Liber Amicorum Marijke de Kinkelder. Collegiale bijdragen over landschappen, marines en architectuur, La Haye, 2013, p. 15, repr.

By their strangeness and their singularity, Jan Brueghel the Elder’s night scenes never cease to fascinate us. Various themes, infernal or dramatic, were taken as subjects by Brueghel to explore in painting on copper the effects of the flickering lights of fires in the night. As early as 1979, Klaus Ertz classified on one side the works that relate to Sodom in flames, such as Lot and his daughters fleeing Sodom (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, no. 75/28 and Munich, Alte Pinakothek, no. 833) and those that deal with Troy in flames, including our two works on copper: Aeneas and Anchises fleeing the fire of Troy and Aeneas and the Sibyl in the underworld. But Brueghel produced other small-format night landscapes in which he explored the effects of contrasts generated by the representation of flares in the night in religious or mythological scenes linked to the world of hell or demons. This is the case with Orpheus Playing to Pluto and Proserpine (Florence, Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, no. 1890 n. 1298), the Descent of Christ into Limbo (Rome, Galleria Colonna, no. 683) or the Temptation of Saint Anthony (Munich, Alte Pinakothek, no. 1878).

The subject depicted here is taken from Virgil’s Aeneid (II, 671-729). After fighting the Greek army who finally took Troy with the introduction of soldiers hidden in the legendary wooden horse into the city - which can be seen in the distance, on the right side of our painting, Aeneas, a Trojan prince, escapes from the burning city at night, carrying his father Anchises on his back and accompanied by his son Ascanius, bringing the household to safety. This heroic gesture of filial piety during which a son protects his father and his family makes it one of the most represented subjects of the Trojan War. In this work, Rome is depicted with the Castel Sant’Angelo, the bell tower of Santo Spirito in Sassia and Saint Peter in the distance, all taken as a backdrop to represent Troy ablaze.

Jan Brueghel the Elder lived in Rome between 1592 and 1595, where he was remarked for his small landscapes painted on copper. The existence of various small landscapes from this period, known through copies and archival mentions in Roman inventories, testifies to the success of these works. Among them, his nocturnal landscapes are particularly innovative and constitute one of the most remarkable aspects of his work. He created his first landscape of the Underworld in 1593. He then devoted himself to it several times over a period of about ten years. According to Klaus Ertz, Aeneas and Anchises fleeing the fire of Troy and the Vision of Saint John on Patmos from the Galeria Pamphilj in Rome (no. 273) are the only works reliably dated to 1593 that can be placed in the corpus of Jan Brueghel the Elder. Another version of Aeneas and Anchises fleeing the fire of Troy can be found in Munich’s Alte Pinakothek (no. 832, fig. 1), which Klaus Ertz places a little later than our dated painting, probably around 1595. The architecture in the background is largely identical to that depicted here. The Ponte Sant’Angelo, on the other hand, is designed with six arches, whereas in Munich it only has five. In total, six other versions are described by Klaus Ertz in his catalogue (1). Jan Brueghel developed his compositions through drawing, which he used passionately during his stay in the Italian mountains (2). A sheet representing a view of Rome showing the Castel Sant'Angelo and the Basilica of Saint Peter, sketched just after its completion, provides evidence of this preparatory work (Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum, no. AE 397, fig. 2) which he reused in his painted compositions.

Jan Brueghel here deploys all his technical skill to conceive an architecture using the application of paint along a dotted line. By means of light impastos on the smooth finish of the painting on copper, he manages to capture the effects of the light that the fire projects onto the water of the river in a work replete with delightful details to discover.  

1. Klaus Ertz, Christa Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625): kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, Lingen, 2008-2010, vol. 2, no. 325-330.

2. On this question, see the article by Louisa Wood Ruby, “Jan Brueghel d.Ä as a painter. The early years in Italy”, in Brueghel. Gemälde von Jan Brueghel D. Ä. (dir. Mirjam Neumeister), exh. cat. Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, 2012, p. 35-45.