Why were the Rubens-Brueghel collaborations so special?
The collaborative works executed by Rubens and Brueghel were very highly prized. They were eagerly sought after by the biggest and wealthiest collectors in Europe, including royalty, and were seen as having considerable prestige. Why?
Both artists were renowned for their unsurpassed artistic quality and belonged to the highest class of artists in Antwerp. Both were also court artists who received commissions from royalty and the leading noble families all over Europe. The individual works of Rubens and Brueghel thus had the highest possible artistic and social status, and it it is not surprising that their collaborations were regarded as exceptionally precious, and became the subject of feverish competiton among their network of wealthy patrons.
Rubens and Brueghel could never paint enough joint works to meet the incredible demand that existed for such works, even though they would probably have been too expensive for all but the wealthiest individuals. Every major collector wanted to get their hands on one of these exquisitely crafted pictures.
The relative rarity, prohibitive price and prestige value of the Rubens-Brueghel collaborations led to a rash of copies, often made by much lesser artists, to satisfy demand. The demand for these collaborative works was such that copies were made, bought and sold as just that - copies. No one pretended that they were anything other than copies, yet they still commanded a ready market.
