Pieter van Avont

[1] On 2 August 1622 he married Catherine van Hertsen in Antwerp cathedral, although they lived in the parish of St. James Church.

[1] Even so, Pieter van Avont was not able to live off his art and operated a side business as a dealer in paintings and prints.

He was appointed captain of the local schutterij (civil militia) in 1633 but he resigned from the position in 1639 giving as the reason the need for him to paint in order to sustain his family.

In his many renderings of the Holy Family, they appear in a variety of roles such as the Infant Christ, John the Baptist and angels.

Figures of naked children also appear in his bacchanals and in allegorical scenes such as the Four Elements and War and Peace.

Jan Brueghel the Elder played a key role in the invention and development of the genre of garland paintings.

[5] The genre of garland paintings was inspired by the cult of veneration and devotion to Mary prevalent at the Habsburg court (then the rulers over the Southern Netherlands) and in Antwerp generally.

Jan Brueghel the Younger and Pieter van Avont painted together The Virgin and Child in a Cartouche with Flowers.

While the work Flora in a Garden with Flowers and Trees (Kunsthistorisches Museum) was referred to in the 19th century as co-signed by van Avont and Jan Brueghel the Younger, it is now believed that van Avont also painted the landscape which had been attributed to Brueghel.