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Lot Essay
This is one of only nine autograph versions of a composition that ultimately derives from a drawing of 1559 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (fig. 1; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen). Beautifully preserved and admirable for its detailed handling of paint and expressive characterisation of the figures, this counts amongst the artist's finest treatments of the subject, alongside the picture in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, and the last two examples that appeared on the auction market, each more than a decade ago: at Christie’s, London, 3 July 2012, lot 46 (£825,250); and Sotheby’s, New York, 31 January 2013, lot 36 ($2,210,500).
Bruegel’s drawing was engraved by Philips Galle, and the painted versions are in fact truer to the engraving and follow the same orientation. However, the central figure of Charity in both the drawing and print has been excluded in the paintings. In the original scheme, a personification of Charity stands with a pelican on her head, the symbol of motherly love, and a flaming heart in her hand, the symbol of Christian love. Her position in the paintings is taken instead by an elderly woman in rags holding onto a child. Other changes include the omission of the belt and the bunches of faggots on the platform at lower left in the drawing. It would appear, in fact, that most of Pieter the Younger's alterations tend towards a less austere tone than that achieved by his father. Klaus Ertz points out that the individualised faces, the contemporary ragged clothing, the leafy trees in the background and the bright palette add warmth to the scene that is characteristic of Pieter the Younger (Breughel – Brueghel, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp, 1998, pp. 306-7), and was presumably more suitable to the open market at the time.
The New Testament subject comes from Matthew 25:35-36: 'For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me'. By tradition, the seventh (and final) act of mercy, not listed in this passage, is the burial of the dead. A sixteenth-century village square near Antwerp provides the setting for Brueghel in which the Seven Acts are faithfully depicted (clockwise from lower left): feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned, relieving the thirsty, burying the dead, giving shelter to the homeless, caring for the sick and clothing the naked.
Bruegel’s drawing was engraved by Philips Galle, and the painted versions are in fact truer to the engraving and follow the same orientation. However, the central figure of Charity in both the drawing and print has been excluded in the paintings. In the original scheme, a personification of Charity stands with a pelican on her head, the symbol of motherly love, and a flaming heart in her hand, the symbol of Christian love. Her position in the paintings is taken instead by an elderly woman in rags holding onto a child. Other changes include the omission of the belt and the bunches of faggots on the platform at lower left in the drawing. It would appear, in fact, that most of Pieter the Younger's alterations tend towards a less austere tone than that achieved by his father. Klaus Ertz points out that the individualised faces, the contemporary ragged clothing, the leafy trees in the background and the bright palette add warmth to the scene that is characteristic of Pieter the Younger (Breughel – Brueghel, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp, 1998, pp. 306-7), and was presumably more suitable to the open market at the time.
The New Testament subject comes from Matthew 25:35-36: 'For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me'. By tradition, the seventh (and final) act of mercy, not listed in this passage, is the burial of the dead. A sixteenth-century village square near Antwerp provides the setting for Brueghel in which the Seven Acts are faithfully depicted (clockwise from lower left): feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned, relieving the thirsty, burying the dead, giving shelter to the homeless, caring for the sick and clothing the naked.