Madonna Floral Arrangement

Flowers have figured highly in paintings. One particularly nice example from the painters of the low countries is the “Madonna in Floral Wreath”.

Rubens’s Madonna in Floral Wreath (with the collaboration of Jan Brueghel the Elder) represents a picture within a picture of Madonna encircled by a floral arrangement and cherubs. This is good of example of the physical realism of low country painters, breaking with the tradition of ethereal treatment of spiritual figures. It uses the talents of Rubens (1577-1640) and Jan Brueghel the Elder, Rubens painting the figures and Brueghel the floral decoration.