Joos de Momper

K. Ertz, Josse de Momper the Younger, Freren 1986, p. 601, cat. no. 496, reproduced p. 600 (erroneously listed as painted on canvas).

The support consist of five horizontal panels and is cradleded to the reverse. The paint surface is secure and in good condition. Retouching work is evident along the panel joins and inspection under UV light reveals scattered minor retouchings most notably in the sky on the left and in the dark ground and rocks around the central figure group. Offered in a stained wood, painted gold and faux marble frame in good condition.
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Fantastic rock formations and the grottos beneath them such as the spectacular double arch shown here, seem to have fascinated de Momper throughout much of his career and appear in a variety of his works. Although these are undoubtedly imaginary, and the travellers and wayside shrines that populate them equally so, they were no doubt drawn from the memories of his trip over the Alps to Italy in the 1580s and were clearly popular with his clientele in Antwerp and beyond. Another such, painted in collaboration with Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625), depicting gypsies encamped before a cavern and towering outcrops is in the Hague, Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst.¹  Ertz dates the present work to the 1630s and suggests that the staffage is the work of the workshop or following of Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678).

1. See Ertz, p. 653, no. A212.