Nicolaes Jonghelinck

In the archives of Antwerp, a writ of guarantee by Jonghelinck, dated 15 February 1566 and declaring to be worth 16.000 guilders for his friend Daniel de Bruyne lists "sixteen paintings by Bruegel, among them the Tower of Babel, a painting with the title Christ carrying the Cross, the twelve Months of the Year, and all the others whichever they might be".

Jonghelinck probably commissioned these paintings for his fortified country house outside of Antwerp that was designed by his brother Jacques in 1547 and sold in 1554 to Nicolaes.

[2] They are assumed to be a continuation of an older tradition to make cyclical images of the Labours of the Months, but they were hung by Jonghelinck in his chateau and therefore may simply have been ordered as wall decorations.

Another artist in Jonghelinck's collection was Frans Floris, who made ten panels of the Labours of Hercules (which are now lost and only known through later engravings).

[6] Nicolaas Jonghelinck is listed as the first owner in 1566 (referring to the writ of guarantee above) for several of the paintings that have survived in the Austrian Imperial collection and are still in the Kunsthistorisches Museum today.