This work was hung in the Tower of the Queen (Isabella of Bourbon, wife of Philip IV) in the Alcázar in Madrid and was a very popular type of representation in Flanders that combined both landscape and everyday scenes. The painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder depicts various activities carried out by peasants, in this case related to the production of products: on the right cows are milked for milk, on the left cows are pressed and kneaded, and in the background a group of men load the products onto a cart to presumably take them to the city. These works were seen as a moralising and didactic depiction of the values of the new, more joyful and peaceful society, in comparison to the works produced by his father, Jan Brueghel the Elder.
Collection: Images
Project: 3. Rural world and urban world in the formation of the European identity., 4. Family, daily life and social inequality in Europe.
Chronology: XVII
Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University
Resource type: Image
Format: Oil on canvas (130 x 293 cm)
Source: Museo del Prado (Madrid)
Language: Spanish
Date: 1621
Owner: Álvaro Romero González (Modernalia)
Identifier: P001444
Copyright: Museo del Prado (Madrid)
Abstract: Two scenes of peasant life in modern times, depicted by Brughel the Elder, circa 1621
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