A Woodland Road with Travelers

Travelers on foot and on horseback make their way along a sandy track that winds through a dense Flemish woodland. Jan Brueghel the Elder — known as “Velvet” Brueghel for the silky finish of his paint — was one of the first artists to treat the landscape as a subject in its own right, and this 1607 panel sparkles with anecdote: a laden cart, cottages half-hidden among the trees, a sky full of broken light. It is a walk in the woods turned into a hymn to the everyday.