Jan Brueghel

Jan Brueghel kept a tiny room in Antwerp just for his brushes and pigments, where he’d work for hours on end painting flowers so delicate you’d swear a bee might land on them. He started this flower-garland trend after seeing Italian art that paired real blooms with mythical scenes, then ran with it. Try his wreath of 1615, “Garland with Four Butterflies,” where petals glow like they’re lit from inside—find it in Madrid’s Prado if you ever swing by.