Landscape with an Episode from the Conquest of America

Habsburg emperor Charles V reigned over a realm on which ‘the sun never set’. It encompassed much of Europe, including Spain and the Low Countries, parts of Central America and the Caribbean. This is the first painting to depict Spanish soldiers subduing the people who lived there. Mostaert added some unusual elements to give his traditional European landscape an exotic ambience: a monkey, a porcupine and parrots.