Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601 Antwerp - 1678 ibid.) Allegory of the Air In the foreground, the viewer looks at a small plateau painted in iridescent brown tones with a multitude of European and exotic birds, in the centre of which hovers Urania as the personification of the air. This foreground plane is flanked on the left by a tree trunk growing out of the picture, with a large bird standing at its roots. From here, a path leads to the right to two winding, oak-like trees. On the path you can see ducks, a cockerel with hen and chicks, pelicans, cranes and various other birds that populate the entire picture. The branches are occupied by a heron, a hoopoe, an owl, a blue and yellow macaw, a cockatoo, an eagle and two birds of paradise. The hovering muse or goddess of astronomy, astrology and the stars is dressed in a light golden dress blowing in the wind. Urania holds a red-blue macaw and an armillary sphere as her attribute, a starry wreath with a crescent moon encircles her head. Behind Urania, other birds are flying, including a falcon fighting with a heron. In the background, the view leads across a wide valley to a mountain range under a densely clouded sky, where the god Apollo is being pulled in his chariot by two swans. The sun breaking through the clouds illuminates the goddess and the plumage of the birds. Many of the bird motifs are known from other paradise landscapes and allegorical depictions, both by Jan Brueghel the Younger and his father Jan Brueghel the Elder, with whom he received a thorough education. As early as 1616, Jan Brueghel the Elder considered having his talented son travel to Italy, but he did not set off until 1622. In 1625, however, Jan Brueghel the Younger had to return abruptly from Italy to take over his father's workshop after his unexpected death. He continued his father's work intensively at the highest artistic level, but from the mid-1630s he broke away stylistically from his father's tradition. Although Jan Brueghel the Elder had already painted the theme of the Allegory of the Air (see the well-known painting in the Louvre in Paris, inv. no. 1920), the clearly mature style and the overall composition of the present painting, according to Brueghel expert Klaus Ertz, clearly speak in favour of an "autograph work by Jan Brueghel the Younger, painted in Antwerp in the 1940s". Oil/copper panel. 69 cm x 87 cm. Frame. Enclosed: Expertise by Dr Klaus Ertz, Lingen, 10.01.2013 (photocopy). Cf. Klaus Ertz: "Jan Brueghel der Jüngere (...)", Freren 1984, no. 208, 210, 228 with illus. Provenance: Alejandro (Alexandre) de Cabanyes Marqués (1877 - 1972), thereafter in succession; auction Sotheby's, London, 06.12.2012, lot 113. Oil on copper panel. Accompanied by an expertise from Dr. Klaus Ertz, Lingen, 10th January 2013 (photocopy).