The Four Elements: Air
after Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels 1568 - Antwerp 1625)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1600 - 1699
Materials
Oil on copper
Measurements
572 x 914 mm (22 1/2 x 36 in)
Place of origin
Flanders (Belgium from 1830)
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 872529
Summary
Oil painting on copper, The Four Elements: Air after Jan Brueghel the elder (Brussels 1568 - Antwerp 1625). One of four paintings depicting the four elements, water, earth, air and fire. Air is represented by the figure of Astronomy, silhouetted against a dramatic sky, accompanied by 'all the fowls of the air'.
Provenance
Accepted by the Treasury in part payment of death-duties from the executors of Edmund Robert Parker, 4th Earl of Morley (1877-1951) and transferred to the Trust in 1957.
Credit line
Saltram, The Morley Collection (accepted in lieu of tax by HM Treasury, and transferred to The National Trust in 1957)
Makers and roles
after Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels 1568 - Antwerp 1625), artist after Hendrik van Balen the Elder (Antwerp 1575 - Antwerp 1632), artist
References
Peintures Flamandes du XV et XVIme Siècle, Louvre, Paris 1953, No.1919, Earth; No.1920, Air, both by Jan Brueghel the Elder; No.4006, Water; No.4007, Fire