The Blind leading the Blind,
oil on panel, 31 x 44 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Belgium

The present panel borrows from a 1568 composition by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, De Parabel der Blinden, now conserved in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, from the Farnese collection, whose famous condottiero, Alessandro, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, was governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1578-1592. That masterwork, painted following the institution of the Council of Blood saw Brueghel increase the two blind men from the story in the Book of Matthew from two to six and included a view of Sint-Anna-Pede in the background.

The composition was, and is still, the subject of debate as to whether its political connotations were pro- or anti-Catholic. What is not in doubt, however, is the popularity of the work in both Flanders and the Northern Netherlands. Both Brueghel’s contemporary Marten van Cleve, and artists of the next generation, such as Pieter Brueghel II and Sebastiaen Vrancx painted their own versions of The Blind leading the Blind. Lucas van Valckenborch also depicted six men leading each other into a river as staffage in one of his compositions. In Rotterdam, Pieter de Bloot freely interpreted Brueghel’s motif, as seen in a panel sold at Sotheby’s, London, 10 May 2019, lot 281.