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拍品專文
Pieter Brueghel the Younger was celebrated for his quotidian village landscapes, often incorporating narrative scenes from the Bible. Unlike many of these paintings, which were repeated in several versions, this Village Landscape with the Flight into Egypt is among the rarest compositions in the artist's oeuvre. Just three versions were recorded by the Brueghel scholar, Klaus Ertz, of which only two - the present panel included - he considered to be autograph beyond doubt (op. cit., nos. E226 and F228). When this painting reappeared at auction in 2006, Ertz described its condition as ‘truly outstanding' (loc. cit.). A loose and spontaneous underdrawing is visible through some of the thinly painted passages, showing changes to the position of the donkey’s hindquarters, the rungs of the fence, and the supports of the thatched roof of the temporary structure outside the tavern.
The village landscape, divided at center by a pair of trees, is animated by men drinking outside a tavern, women carrying large jugs for water, and travelers walking along a path. The serpentine contours of the path, trees and rooflines, together with the characterful figures, are typical of artist’s mature work. Among the villagers, at the far left, the Virgin cradles the newborn Christ, accompanied by Joseph, who greets smiling on-lookers as they begin their journey into Egypt. The almost incidental inclusion of episodes from the Bible into the Flemish landscape was popular in the sixteenth and into the seventeenth centuries, transporting the distant locales of the Bible into the familiar landscape of the every-viewer. Brueghel II relocated The Census at Bethlehem, The Massacre of the Innocents, and The Adoration of the Magi (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, inv. nos. 2903, 361, and 9132) to snow-capped northern villages, following the example of his father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who invented many of the compositions later echoed by his sons and grandsons.
Ertz suggested that this composition was developed under the influence of Pieter's brother, Jan Brueghel the Elder (loc. cit.). Indeed the composition, especially the placement of the buildings, corresponds closely to Jan’s drawing Village landscape with Saint Martin (fig. 1, National Museum, Stockholm, inv. no. NMH THC 3259). Although no extant painting based directly on this drawing is known, Jan used it as the basis for other paintings, as exemplified by his The Search for the Inn, dated 1605 (fig. 2, Private collection; see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625), Lingen, 2008, pp. 494-495). Ertz argued Pieter could have seen the drawing sometime between 1615 and 1622, when Jan returned from his travels to the northern Netherlands (1613-at least 1615) and was active again in Antwerp. This dating aligns with the usage of the signature ‘P. BREVGHEL’, which the artist adopted after 1616; before that time, he signed instead with the ‘e’ and ‘v’ inverted (2000, loc. cit., see also p. 15).
A second drawing, apparently unknown to Ertz, now in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, complicates this theory (fig. 3, inv. no. 3786 Z). Given to Jan Brueghel the Elder, the drawing is a near replica of the present composition, replete with minor details visible in this painting, such as the man jumping the broken fence, the pair of figures, and pile of sticks at lower left. These similarities suggest that both works derive from a now-lost prime version, likely executed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Stockholm drawing and related painting (figs. 1 and 2) may also have been inspired by this lost protoype. This theory is further supported by yet another drawing of the same scene, given to Jan Brueghel the Younger, last recorded in the van Meeuwen collection (K. Ertz, loc. cit.). Both the Städel and the van Meeuwen drawings include the figure climbing a ladder leaning against the right side of the tavern, a detail Pieter the Younger omitted from the present painting. Instead, he expanded the deep foreground to accommodate additional figures along the path and pushed the city and church spire further into the background, suggesting their presence only through a faint skyline along the horizon.
The village landscape, divided at center by a pair of trees, is animated by men drinking outside a tavern, women carrying large jugs for water, and travelers walking along a path. The serpentine contours of the path, trees and rooflines, together with the characterful figures, are typical of artist’s mature work. Among the villagers, at the far left, the Virgin cradles the newborn Christ, accompanied by Joseph, who greets smiling on-lookers as they begin their journey into Egypt. The almost incidental inclusion of episodes from the Bible into the Flemish landscape was popular in the sixteenth and into the seventeenth centuries, transporting the distant locales of the Bible into the familiar landscape of the every-viewer. Brueghel II relocated The Census at Bethlehem, The Massacre of the Innocents, and The Adoration of the Magi (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, inv. nos. 2903, 361, and 9132) to snow-capped northern villages, following the example of his father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who invented many of the compositions later echoed by his sons and grandsons.
Ertz suggested that this composition was developed under the influence of Pieter's brother, Jan Brueghel the Elder (loc. cit.). Indeed the composition, especially the placement of the buildings, corresponds closely to Jan’s drawing Village landscape with Saint Martin (fig. 1, National Museum, Stockholm, inv. no. NMH THC 3259). Although no extant painting based directly on this drawing is known, Jan used it as the basis for other paintings, as exemplified by his The Search for the Inn, dated 1605 (fig. 2, Private collection; see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625), Lingen, 2008, pp. 494-495). Ertz argued Pieter could have seen the drawing sometime between 1615 and 1622, when Jan returned from his travels to the northern Netherlands (1613-at least 1615) and was active again in Antwerp. This dating aligns with the usage of the signature ‘P. BREVGHEL’, which the artist adopted after 1616; before that time, he signed instead with the ‘e’ and ‘v’ inverted (2000, loc. cit., see also p. 15).
A second drawing, apparently unknown to Ertz, now in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, complicates this theory (fig. 3, inv. no. 3786 Z). Given to Jan Brueghel the Elder, the drawing is a near replica of the present composition, replete with minor details visible in this painting, such as the man jumping the broken fence, the pair of figures, and pile of sticks at lower left. These similarities suggest that both works derive from a now-lost prime version, likely executed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Stockholm drawing and related painting (figs. 1 and 2) may also have been inspired by this lost protoype. This theory is further supported by yet another drawing of the same scene, given to Jan Brueghel the Younger, last recorded in the van Meeuwen collection (K. Ertz, loc. cit.). Both the Städel and the van Meeuwen drawings include the figure climbing a ladder leaning against the right side of the tavern, a detail Pieter the Younger omitted from the present painting. Instead, he expanded the deep foreground to accommodate additional figures along the path and pushed the city and church spire further into the background, suggesting their presence only through a faint skyline along the horizon.