Jan Brueghel (Breughel) the Younger (1601 Antwerp - 1678 ibid.) Allegory of Love The viewer is looking from a slightly elevated position at a park landscape that is visually divided into several spatial zones. The front level is dominated by the elements of water and earth. On the lower left-hand side of the picture, a round basin is placed in the light brown earth area, into which a stone sculpture group with dolphins and a putto spouts water. In front of it is a loose still life of Mediterranean fruit, shells and wine arranged in precious Chinese porcelain plates, glass carafes and glasses, with rose petals and a branch of red apples lying on the floor. Next to this, a small brown and white spotted dog barks at water birds that have already been scared away. On the right-hand side of the picture is a pond with yellow irises on its banks, a crane beside it, two swans billing each other and ducks with young. In the middle ground on the left-hand side of the picture, densely leafy trees and an apple tree with ripe, bright red fruit rise up, with several red and white rose bushes in front of them. The right-hand side of the middle ground shows representative park architecture, which also draws the eye to a central group of figures. Plant pots with roses stand on a surrounding stone wall and the entrance is flanked by two large female sculptures. A group of distinguished figures has gathered there with two intimate couples, for whom musicians are playing for a dance. Behind them, a path bordered by trees leads to a pavilion and arched arcades. A lively, cloudy blue sky stretches above the park, in which a triumphal chariot pulled by four doves with Venus and Cupid shooting down appears at the top right. The iconographic interpretation of the content of the present painting is fairly simple and unambiguous - Venus and Cupid and the doves symbolise love, as do the swans in the pond and the food and drink standing prominently in the left foreground. Jan Brueghel the Younger often worked with complex allegories in the 1640s and 1650s, and towards the end of the Thirty Years' War around 1648 he also focussed on the pictorial theme of the allegory of love. The immanent longing for love and peace would therefore certainly have contemporary references. The present painting is closely related to two other known love allegories by Brueghel (cf. Ertz 236-37). All three show a comparable arrangement of the idyllic, paradisiacal park with trees, fountains and swans as well as Venus residing in the sky at the top right; according to Ertz, they were probably all painted at the same time in the 1640s. Oil/copper panel. 70 cm x 87.5 cm. Frame. Enclosed: Expertise by Dr Klaus Ertz, Lingen, 21.12.2012. Cf. Klaus Ertz: "Jan Brueghel der Jüngere (...)", Freren 1984, no. 235-237 with illus. Oil on copper panel. Accompanied by an expertise from Dr. Klaus Ertz, Lingen, 21st December 2012.