The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting the Collection of Pierre Roose
Artists: Hieronymus Francken II (Flemish, 1578-1623); Jan Brueghel the Elder (Flemish, 1568-1625)
Date: c. 1621-1623
Medium: Oil on panel
Collection: The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Description
This painting of a private gallery or cabinet of the Flemish collector and statesman Pierre Roose who lived in Brussels is focused on a visit by Archdukes Albert and Isabella, the Habsburg governors of the Southern Netherlands. Isabella is seated, while her husband stands to her right and their host, Pierre Roose, behind.
The walls are covered with paintings by Flemish artists. The sculpture displayed throughout is from various schools, but includes the bronze "Allegory of Architecture" by Giambologna, a Flemish sculptor who made his fortune in Florence. A painted "Allegory of Iconoclasm," depicting people who destroy art as animals, rests against a chair. Visitors examining paintings and objects on the tables draw the viewer's attention to these objects, as well as shells and a stuffed bird of paradise, from the Spice Islands. Pets include a monkey, kept out of mischief on a chain, and a dog, apparently with two heads (an alteration by the artist that has "bled" through). The globe-like object on the table at the left is one of Cornelis Drebbels' attempts at a perpetual-motion clock; the principles which ran it are now lost.