Circle of Marten van Cleve I

The catalogue illustration is representative for the actual painting. The panel has been laid down on another panel (marouflé). The original panel seems to consist of 2 horizontal planks. No major damages are apparent. The paint surface is generally sound. Some scattered retouchings are visible to the naked eye, e.g. in the sky, in the houses on the right and in the figure most left. The paint surface is under a fairly clear layer of varnish. Inspection under UV light reveals a repaired horizontal split in the sky and another just below the lower edge. There's a larger area of retouching in the sky upper centre and upper left and some smaller scattered retouchings in the figures. Overall, the restoration is nicely done and the painting is ready to hang. Offered in a plain light wood cassetta frame with painted decorations, in fair condition.
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In broad outline, this composition originates with Pieter Brueghel the Elder, but was probably known to subsequent generations of painters through an engraving by Pieter van der Heyden that was published by Hieronymus Cock, from parts of which elements of the present composition derive.
The wedding dance was a much loved composition and numerous versions and variants of the theme emerged within the workshops of both Marten van Cleve the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Younger, who eagerly adapted the source for their own designs. Of these, two other versions which Ertz assigns to the workshop of Pieter Brueghel the Younger come closest in composition to the present work¹. However, the facial types and the strong red colours suggest that the present work is more likely to have originated in the circle of Marten van Cleve.

1. K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere (1564-1637/38), Lingen 1988/2000, p. 735, cat. nos. A1006 and A1009, reproduced.