The Four Elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Air

The idea that the world was composed of four elements was first developed in the 5th century B.C. by the Greek philosopher Empedocles and later expanded on by Plato and Aristotle. The human significance of this concept grew over the centuries with the notion that each element governed one of the four humours of the body which in turn related to a temperament. On this basis, fire was associated with desire, water with emotions, earth with stability, and air with thought. The wide variety of engravings of the Four Elements published in the Netherlands in the late 16th century, undoubtedly influenced Jan Breughel the Elder's (1568-1625) adoption of the theme soon after 1600.

Only three surviving series of the elements by Breughel the Elder are known, one of which is now in the Doria Pamphilij, Rome (see K. Ertz, Jan Breughel der Ältere, Cologne, 1979, pp. 599-600, nos. 248-251). The subject must have been popular at the time and ultimately provided the inspiration for similar series by the artist's son Jan Breughel the Younger. The present works relate most closely to the set at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon (K. Ertz, Jan Breughel der Jüngere, Freren, 1984, pp. 357-62, nos. 193-196).