Lot 1544 Dα

The present painting is a version of the collaborative work by Jan Brueghel the Younger and Sebastian Vrancx in the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, entitled "Surprise Attack on a Convoy". The painting in the Prado and the present work are almost identical in terms of composition, technique and dimensions (Ertz 1984, op. cit., p. 201, no. 17a).

The work depicts a robbery taking place in a panoramic landscape. Starting from the left edge of the picture, the hilly terrain is bordered by a forest that extends to the horizon, where we see the silhouette of a town in the distance. A broad road winds diagonally from left to right through the hills along a stream. In the foreground we see an attack taking place on a caravan following the road. An armed troop approaches the horse-drawn carts from the left through the stream bed at the command of a captain. In the right foreground, seen from behind, a heavily armoured cavalry rushes forward and opens fire on the coachmen hiding behind the carriages.

In his expertise, Klaus Ertz attributes the landscape to Jan Brueghel the Younger and the figures and animals to an artist from the workshop or circle of Sebastiaen Vrancx. On the basis of stylistic comparisons, Ertz sees a proximity of this painting to works by Jan Brueghel the Elder and dates it accordingly to the late 1620s.