Brueghel, Jan the Elder (1568-1625)
Extensive Landscape With Travellers on a Country Road
c.1608–1610
Oil on copper, 33.6 x 46.4 cm
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis
From an elevated viewpoint we see the city of Antwerp at the distant right, a covered wagon in the middle distance, and a marshy stream in the right foreground. The scene is filled with fauna and flora, all finished in the painstaking detail for which Jan Brueghel the Elder is known. The road at left draws us into the painting, while bands of varying greens open up the distant landscape to suggest expansive space. Travelers journey on the left while hunters stalk herons in the marshy grasses at the right. The standing dog on the lower left appears to have a second head, indicating that the artist changed its position. (SLAM)