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Lot Essay
The composition derives from an original by Pieter Bruegel I that was engraved by Jan Wierix in 1568, the year before the former's death. There is also a rectangular engraving of the composition, published by C.J. Visscher, showing it in reverse with the addition of a landscape; in that, on either side of the title 'T'VARCKEN MOET IN T'SCHOT' is the quatrain: 'Die haer goet als droncken Swynen Brengen door in Venus Kott Moeten nae elendich quynen Eyndelyck int Varckensschott' ('Those who, like drunken pigs, waste their time and good in the house of Venus, will finally have to be pushed, after miserable decay, into the pigsty').
A number of versions are known from the workshop of Pieter Brueghel II. Two have been attributed to Pieter II himself. Of those, one, in the Historisches Museum, Bamberg, is a part of a series of roundels, the others being The arrow maker, The bread eater and The gift.
The pig and turnips in the present composition closely follow those in the depiction of Gula (Gluttony) in the series of Capital sins, engraved in 1558 by Van der Heyden after Pieter Bruegel I.
A number of versions are known from the workshop of Pieter Brueghel II. Two have been attributed to Pieter II himself. Of those, one, in the Historisches Museum, Bamberg, is a part of a series of roundels, the others being The arrow maker, The bread eater and The gift.
The pig and turnips in the present composition closely follow those in the depiction of Gula (Gluttony) in the series of Capital sins, engraved in 1558 by Van der Heyden after Pieter Bruegel I.