The Fruit Garland

This picture is the work of three hands. In Antwerp around 1616 leading painters often teamed up by speciality, and the museum spells out the division of labour here. Rubens painted the plump children, his friend Frans Snyders, the still-life specialist, loaded the swag with fruit, and Jan Wildens laid in the landscape behind. Then Rubens went back over the figures with a few final touches. The idea of children hauling a heavy garland came from the reliefs on ancient Roman sarcophagi, which Rubens had studied in Italy. The whole scene is seen slightly from below, which suggests it was meant to hang high, perhaps above a door. It came to Munich in 1806 with the Düsseldorf gallery.