GETTY MUSEUM STUDIES ON ART JAN BRUEGHEL THE ELDER The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark Arianne Faber Kolb THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM, LOS ANGELES © 2005 J. Paul Getty Trust Library of Congress Cover and frontispiece: Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jan Brueghel the Elder (Flemish, Getty Publications 1568-1625), The Entry of the Animals 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 500 Kolb, Arianne Faber into Noah's Ark, 1613 [full painting Los Angeles, California 90049-1682 Jan Brueghel the Elder : The entry and detail]. Oil on panel, 54.6 x www.getty.edu of the animals into Noah's ark / 83.8 cm (21/2 x 33 in.). Los Angeles, Arianne Faber Kolb. J. Paul Getty Museum, 92.PB.82. Christopher Hudson, Publisher p. cm. — (Getty Museum Mark Greenberg, Editor in Chief studies on art) Page i: Includes bibliographical references Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, Mollie Holtman, Series Editor and index. 1599-1641) and an unknown Abby Sider, Copy Editor ISBN 0-89236-770-9 (pbk.) engraver, Portrait of Jan Brueghel Jeffrey Cohen, Designer 1. Brueghel, Jan 1568—1625. Noah's the Elder, before 1621. Etching and Suzanne Watson, Production ark (J. Paul Getty Museum) engraving, second state, 24.9 x Coordinator 2. Noah's ark in art. 3. Painting— 15.8 cm (9% x 6/4 in.). Amsterdam, Christopher Foster, Lou Meluso, California—Los Angeles. Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet, Charles Passela, Jack Ross, 4. J. Paul Getty Museum. I. Title. RP-P-OP-II.II3. Photographers II. Series. ND673.B72A7 2004 Typesetting by Diane Franco 759.9493 dc22 Printed in China by Imago 2005014758 All photographs are copyrighted by the issuing institutions, unless other- wise indicated. Contents The Painted Paradise i The Descriptive Process: Brueghel's Representation of Animals 9 A Pictorial Catalogue of Species: The Artist as Naturalist 21 Brueghel's Artistic Background: The Tradition of Animal and Landscape Painting 32 Brueghel and the Invention of the Paradise Landscape 47 The Courtly Context 61 The Legacy of The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark 77 Notes 82 Index 93 Acknowledgments 98 The Painted Paradise I n The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark [FIG- seventeenth century, which typically represents episodes 1 URE i], painted in 1613, the extent of God's creative from Genesis [see "Brueghel and the Invention of the power is magnificently displayed in the copious array Paradise Landscape," pp. 47 — 60]. In Brueghel's works, of species. On a relatively small panel surface (21/2 x 33 numerous exotic and native European species coexist har- inches), Jan Brueghel the Elder depicts numerous animals moniously in a lush landscape setting. He inherited his and birds with remarkable accuracy and a high degree of specialization in landscapes from his father, Pieter Bruegel finish. He demonstrates his accomplished miniaturist tech- the Elder (1525 — 1569), the most important Flemish painter nique, particularly in the description of the small species. of his time. As his son, Jan was born with a relatively Brueghel articulates every minute hair on the guinea pig high status in society. After six years in Italy, in 1596 he and every variegated needle on the porcupine, as well established himself as the leading landscape and still-life as the intricate patterns on the tortoise's shell [FIGURE 2] painter of Antwerp, his native city. While in Rome and the different shades of red, blue, and yellow in the and Milan, Brueghel painted many landscapes and flower parrots' feathers [FIGURE 3]. He sometimes provides paintings for Cardinal Federico Borromeo, whom he a glimpse of the ducks' and swans' feet beneath the water continued to serve until the end of his life in 1625. In 1606 Figure 1 and even suggests the ripples in the water created by he was appointed court painter to the Archduke Albert Jan Brueghel the Elder these birds' movements. One can also identify the different of Austria (1559 — 1621) and the Infanta Isabella of Spain (Flemish, 1568-1625), types of birds flying in the distant sky, including birds of (1566-1633), who cultivated a magnificent menagerie The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark, 1613. paradise, hawks, and ducks. in Brussels that would provide him with live models for Oil on panel, 54.6 x With paintings such as The Entry of the Animals into his paintings. Thus, Brueghel inhabited the worlds of 83.8 cm (21/2 x 33 in.). Noah's Ark, Brueghel popularized the "paradise land- the elite burgher class of Antwerp, the court of Brussels, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty scape," a new subgenre of landscape painting in the early and the upper echelons of the Italian clergy [FIGURE 4]. Museum, 92.PB.82. Brueghel's paintings evidently appealed to numerous patrons, who shared his particular interest in nature.1 He dazzled their senses with his paradise landscapes, which depict every manner of fish, bird, and quadruped, and his sumptuous bouquets, which include a copious variety of flowers from every season [FIGURE 5]. Brueghel's special- ization in flowers and animals demonstrates his encyclo- pedic approach to exploring the visible world. He devoted close and nearly equal attention to all aspects of nature, whether animals, flowers, fruit, trees, mountains, seas, or streams. The novelty of Brueghel's paradise landscapes lies 2 not only in the impressive assemblage of animals studied mainly from life but also in their presentation as both figures of a religious narrative and as subjects of a scien- tific order. An examination of these various approaches forms the basis of this book. The two main elements to be considered are the strategies employed in the artistic representation of animals, and the scientific and cultural attitudes of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth cen- turies, in particular the emphasis on empirical evidence as opposed to inherited tradition in natural historical inquiry. Brueghel's landscapes were created during a period that produced some of the first scholarly catalogues and encyclopedias, in particular the illustrated natural history Figures 2 and 3 opposite Figure 5 catalogues by the prominent sixteenth-century naturalists Jan Brueghel the Elder, Figure 4 Jan Brueghel the Elder, Conrad Gesner and Ulisse Aldrovandi. Was Brueghel's The Entry of the Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, Vase of Flowers with Jewel, production of The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark an Animals into Noah's Ark 1577-1640), Portrait of Coins, and Shells, 1606. intuitive response to his ability to render species and vege- [details of Figure i]. Jan Brueghel the Elder and Oil on panel, 65 x 45 cm His Family, circa 1612-13. (25X2 x i73/» in.). Milan, tation naturalistically, or did it reflect the interests of his Oil on panel, 125 x 95.2 cm Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, 66. patrons and the European scholarly and courtly culture, (49/4 x 37/2 in.). London, or both? We shall see how Brueghel's particular approach Courtauld Institute of Art to nature imagery and landscapes, together with the Gallery, The Samuel Courtauld Trust, P.1978.PG.362. classifying culture of the time, contributed to the unique 3