An Allegory of Earth

The composition derives from the work by Jan Brueghel I, with figures by Hendrik van Balen, in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome. That work, one of a set of four depicting the Elements, can be dated to circa 1611 by comparison with an eponymous work, signed and dated 1611, in a private collection, Scotland (see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Cologne, 1979, pp. 376-8 and 599, no. 247, pl. 448). Versions of the complete set by Jan Brueghel II, with staffage also by Van Balen, are in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons, and one of the present composition alone is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu. Slight compositional differences between the works, particularly in the right background, suggest that the present work may derive from the Getty picture.