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拍品專文
This rare composition by Pieter Brueghel II is one of only four recorded examples, each of which Ertz dates to after 1616 on account of the artist’s spelling of his surname (until 1616 he signed his works P. BRVEGHEL; loc. cit.). The present painting and two others, one on the London art market in 1997 and another on the Parisian art market in 1993 (op. cit., p. 204, nos. E 92 and E 93a), depict the two main figures in slightly larger scale than an unsigned variant in the Schönborn collection at Pommersfelden (op. cit., p. 205, no. E 94, illustrated). Further differences can be discerned in the shape and number of the trees at right and the background figures.
The subject derives from a popular sixteenth-century Flemish proverb that serves as a metaphor for the wife’s adultery and subsequent coverup by literally pulling the wool over her husband’s eyes. The image had been popularized in print by artists like Frans Hogenberg and, most famously, in a painting by Brueghel’s eponymous father, who prominently included it at lower center in his 1559 Netherlandish Proverbs (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie). In the sixteenth century, the lecherous woman was seen as the quintessential example of the topsy-turvy world, which no doubt accounts for its immense popularity in contemporary imagery.
Until recently, the present painting descended with its pendant depicting The Runaway Horse (see K. Ertz, op. cit., pp. 100, 199, no. E 64, fig. 53).
The subject derives from a popular sixteenth-century Flemish proverb that serves as a metaphor for the wife’s adultery and subsequent coverup by literally pulling the wool over her husband’s eyes. The image had been popularized in print by artists like Frans Hogenberg and, most famously, in a painting by Brueghel’s eponymous father, who prominently included it at lower center in his 1559 Netherlandish Proverbs (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie). In the sixteenth century, the lecherous woman was seen as the quintessential example of the topsy-turvy world, which no doubt accounts for its immense popularity in contemporary imagery.
Until recently, the present painting descended with its pendant depicting The Runaway Horse (see K. Ertz, op. cit., pp. 100, 199, no. E 64, fig. 53).