Path in a Forest

1568

Born

1578

His mother dies; a miniaturist grandmother raises the children

After their mother's death, Jan, his brother Pieter and his sister Marie are believed to have lived with their widowed grandmother, the miniaturist Mayken Verhulst. According to Karel van Mander, she was her grandsons' first teacher, instructing them in drawing and watercolour miniatures.

1578 · Lugar de trabajo

Antwerp

1589

To Italy by way of Cologne and Frankenthal

Setting off to complete his training in Italy, as was customary for Flemish painters, Jan first went to Cologne, where his sister Marie lived with her family, and then to Frankenthal, a centre where Flemish landscape painters were active; from there, probably by way of Venice, he reached Naples.

1589–1596

Travel: Italy

1592–1594

Meets Cardinal Federico Borromeo

In Rome Brueghel enjoyed the protection of Cardinal Ascanio Colonna and met Cardinal Federico Borromeo, a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation and an avid collector, who became his lifelong friend and patron. The painter took up residence in Borromeo's Palazzo Vercelli.