Lot 1033 Dα

This pictorial motif is based upon an invention of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Its meaning has until yet not be determined, however. Probably it illustrates a Dutch saying with moral character.
In the classification of these works Ertz orients himself on a round panel signed by Brueghel the Younger in the Rijksmuseum Twente in Enschede (inv. nr. 59; Ertz 2000, Vol. I, Nr. 130) as well as two further paintings in private collections (Ertz 2000, Vol. I, Nr. 127 and 135). Ertz dates all of these work after 1616 and he proposes that the present work was painted at about this time. To the attributes which characterize the works of Brueghel the Younger are not only the high painterly perfection and the use of the brush which clearly and sharply outlines every detail but also the great expressiveness of the faces.
Klaus Ertz will include this work in the planned Addendum to the catalogue raissoné of the works of Pieter Brueghel the Younger.