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Lot Essay
Georges Marlier records that both Pieter Breughel II and David Vinckboons painted numerous versions of the present subject, which he describes as Le Joueur de Vielle et les Enfants and another related composition which he calls Pinksteren Bruiloft or La Noce Enfantine (see G. Marlier, Pierre Brueghel Le Jeune, Brussels, 1969, pp. 365-71). He dedicates a chapter to these two compositions, exploring the possibility of an artistic relationship between the artists, such as seems to have already existed between Pieter Baltens and Marten van Cleve one generation earlier. Klaus Ertz similarly explores the origins of this popular theme, noting that as early as 1932, Gustav Glück ascribed the development this imagery to Brueghel (see G. Glück, Bruegels Gemälde, Vienna, 1932, p. 82, no. 74), whereas Korneel Goosens, correctly favored Vinckboons as its originator (see K. Goosens, David Vinckboons, Soest, 1977, p. 107; K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Pieter Breughel le Jeune-Jan Breughel l'Ancien: une famille des peintres flamands vers 1600, exhibition catalogue, Essen, 1998, p. 402, under no. 145). Ertz himself concludes that the present composition must ultimately be considered a reprise of a Vinckboons model (ibid., p. 403).
In the seventeenth century, hurdy-gurdy players were often roving musicians, a step down from their role during the Renaissance as court or cloister musicians. These traveling minstrels were often from the poorest ranks of society - the blind among them - and their presence in towns and villages could become a nuisance. By the middle of the century, traveling musicians needed a license to perform in public. The physical disability of the blind musician came to be associated with 'moral blindness' as well.
While the present composition does not seem to derive from a proverb, there is a moralizing overtone. The connection between moral failing and blindness was addressed more explicitly by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in his composition The Blind Leading the Blind (Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte) the subject of which derives from the Gospel of Matthew XV:13-4, '...if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into a ditch.'
In the seventeenth century, hurdy-gurdy players were often roving musicians, a step down from their role during the Renaissance as court or cloister musicians. These traveling minstrels were often from the poorest ranks of society - the blind among them - and their presence in towns and villages could become a nuisance. By the middle of the century, traveling musicians needed a license to perform in public. The physical disability of the blind musician came to be associated with 'moral blindness' as well.
While the present composition does not seem to derive from a proverb, there is a moralizing overtone. The connection between moral failing and blindness was addressed more explicitly by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in his composition The Blind Leading the Blind (Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte) the subject of which derives from the Gospel of Matthew XV:13-4, '...if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into a ditch.'