1617-1618—Antwerp, Belgium

Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens collaborate on a series of paintings on the subject of the 5 senses. The Sense of Hearing or Allegory of Hearing depicts a trombone among the many instruments in the room (see Detail 1, below). In the upper-left of the painting is a painting within a painting: a copy of Hendrick van Balen’s Minerva and the Muses, which also includes a trombone (see Detail 2, below and c. 1615, above). The full painting by Brueghel and Rubens is the third image below (images public domain) (Woollett, 91-92; Museo del Prado, Madrid).

Detail 1 from lower-left of Breugel and Rubens, The Sense of Hearing or Allegory of Hearing.

Detail 2 from upper-left of Breugel and Rubens, The Sense of Hearing or Allegory of Hearing, showing a painting-within-a-painting of Hendrick van Balen’s Minerva and the Muses (c. 1615).

Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, The Sense of Hearing or Allegory of Hearing (full painting).