Jan Brueghel the Elder with Peter Paul Rubens - The garden of Eden with the fall of man

This painting is the collaborative effort of two famous Flemish painters: Jan Brueghel the Elder, who painted the landscape, and the animals, and Peter Paul Rubens, who painted the figures. Brueghel and Rubens made several collaborative paintings, which were intended as showpieces combining the best of both artists. The great number of exotic animals is indeed impressive. Monkeys, dromedaries and an elephant are among the inhabitants of paradise, as are parrots, a peacock, a bird of paradise and an ostrich. The lion, tiger and leopard coexist peacefully with cattle and deer. The actual subject of the painting is original sin. Tempted by the serpent, Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit. This caused humankind – ever after tainted by sin and guilt – to be driven out of paradise for good.		artist Jan Brueghel the Elder with Peter Paul Rubens title The garden of Eden with the fall of man period c.1615 material paneel dimensions 74.3 x 114.7 cm
Exotic animals Dozens of animals inhabit the paradise Brueghel has conjured up for us. Some species, such as the horse and the goat, were common in Western Europe. Most of those shown here, however, were exotic animals like the parrot, peacock, turkey, ostrich, lion, tiger and leopard. Seventeenth-century viewers were probably filled with amazement at the sight of these animals. Brueghel had become acquainted with some of these species in the zoological garden of the ‘Archdukes’ Albrecht and Isabella, who then ruled the Southern Netherlands. Stuffed animals were probably his other main source of knowledge of these creatures.
Division of labour Recent research has revealed much about the division of labour between Brueghel and Rubens. Brueghel probably took the initiative in this collaborative effort, and prepared the panel for painting. He then sketched in the contours of the composition, presumably in pencil. The first to begin painting was Rubens. In the places indicated by Brueghel, he painted the figures of Adam and Eve, as well as the tree trunk behind Adam and the horse on the left. Brueghel then painted the rest of the picture, starting with the large animals in the foreground, followed by the landscape and the sky. He continued with the foliage of the trees and finished with the smaller animals. Rubens’s supple brushstrokes are clearly distinguishable from the detailed manner of painting of ‘Velvet Brueghel’. Both artists signed the painting: Rubens on the left and Brueghel on the right.
Symbolism The painters included a number of symbolic references, one being the monkey eating an apple to the left of Adam. At first glance monkeys seem a lot like people, but their inability to distinguish between good and evil explains why 17th-century artists often used them as symbols of evil. Here the monkey demonstrates what Adam is about to do. Another obvious symbol is the bunch of grapes in the foliage above Adam. Grapes refer to the wine of the Last Supper and therefore to Christ’s sacrifice. Christian doctrine teaches that Christ sacrificed his life to deliver us from evil. The bunch of grapes thus imply that humankind will be redeemed from sin – introduced into the world when Adam and Eve partook of the apple – by the coming of Christ.
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