Friedrich Brentel Lauingen 1580 - 1651 Strasburg

The present work is derived, with numerous variations, from Pieter Breugel the Elder's painting of 1568, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.  The differences, which include the addition of a landscape visible through the door to the left, the substitution of a dog and chickens for the seated child in the foreground, and many other small changes, may suggest that Brentel was in fact working from a lost variant of the composition painted by Pieter Breugel the Younger, although it is also possible that Brentel himself invented the changes.

Brentel worked in Strasbourg as a miniature painter, producing gouaches such as this, which are often miniature replicas or variants of paintings or prints by contemporary Flemish and German artists, such as Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens and Breugel.  Over a period of several decades, Brentel established Strasbourg as the leading centre for the production of miniature paintings of this type, and he ran a highly successful studio, with numerous assistants, including Johann Wilhelm Baur and probably also the still life painter Sebastien Stoskopff.