AFA Summer 2020

Summer 102 www.afamag.com |  www.incollect.com Based on a popular composition by Jan Brueghel the Elder (Flemish, 1568–1625), this painting by artist Isaak van Oosten features more than forty species of birds, many of them from South and Central America, West and Central Africa, and the East Indies. By the seventeenth century, menageries, aviaries, and natural history collections were common features of royal courts as European nations widened trade, travel, and colonization in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Exotic specimens were given as diplomatic gifts or eagerly acquired as markers of prestige. The birds and animals in Brueghel’s original painting, which Van Oosten used as his source, were likely sketched by Brueghel at the extensive royal menageries of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II and Archduke Albert of Austria. The theme of the Garden of Eden reflected the makeup and display of menageries and natural history collections, showcasing a variety of animals and birds from disparate lands and habitats—for example, the South American Humboldt penguin next to the European mute swans. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, collectors had more knowledge at their disposal and often made more concerted efforts to specialize or to organize their collections and menageries by geographical region. Isaak van Oosten (Flemish, 1613–1661), The Garden of Eden, about 1655–1661. Oil on canvas, 22¾ x 34¾ inches. Toledo Museum of Art, Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment; Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey (1959.1).