Abundance and the Four Elements

Abundance sits at the edge of a wood in the shape of Ceres, wheat in her hair and a cornucopia under her arm, with the four elements gathered round her. Flora and her flowers stand for earth, a nymph pouring from a shell for water, and above them Vesta and Juno hold on to each other as fire and air, a bird of paradise in Juno's hand. The panel was made in Antwerp around 1615 by two men working to their strengths, and the Prado's catalogue still names both. Van Balen did the figures. Jan Brueghel the Elder did the forest, with every leaf, bird and animal in it. The subject sold well enough to be made again. The museum owns two more versions of the same allegory, one that Brueghel painted on copper in 1606 with Hendrik de Clerck, and one by Brueghel's son.