(Brussels 1564–1638 Antwerp)
Lent Bites Carnival,
oil on panel, 26 x 34.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Johann Heinrich Beissel (1784 –1873), Aachen (according to a label on reverse);
art market, France;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to the late Klaus Ertz for endorsing the attribution to Pieter Brueghel II in full on the basis of a photograph.

The present panel shows the remarkable scene of the personifications of Carnival, a well fed rather helpless young man being bitten by the frail and skinny female personification of Lent, observed by a grinning spectator from behind, gazing directly at the spectator. The main composition is captured in a feigned tondo placed on a grey painted background on which a display of food is presented creating an allegory on the fasting and carnival period which are suitable to both characters. To the right of Lent are the typical fasting dishes: a pancake, a terracotta bowl filled with water, empty mussel shells and three eggs surrounded by feathers. By contrast, the food to the left of Carnival is both festive and rich: a steaming pastry, a glistening wine jug and an appetising roast chicken.

The scene’s theme refers to the period prior to Christ’s entry into the city of Jerusalem, when he spends forty days and nights fasting in the desert, later commemorated in the Christian tradition as the season of Lent starting on Ash Wednesday. Before these days of solidarity begin, three days of Carnival are celebrated, a feast originated by the pagans and later included into the Christian tradition. Pieter Brueghel I (circa 1525–1569) integrated this theme in his renowned Battle between Carnival and Lent conserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 1016), in which the two personifications are pitted in battle. Several known copies by the younger Brueghel exist, including a version in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels (inv. no. 12045).

A panel by Pieter Brueghel I known under a slightly different title, the Strife between Carnival and Lent, currently conserved at the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (inv. no. KMS1639), appears to have been the source of inspiration for the present panel. Though the personifications of Carnival and Lent in the Copenhagen panel closely resemble the figures in the later interpretation by his son and studio, key differences to distinguish the present panel from the Copenhagen prototype can be discerned. In the present painting, the wild-eyed observer is positioned behind the action and portrayed frontally, whereas the Copenhagen observer is depicted in profile on the right and whose appearance closely resembles that of Lent. Furthermore, whilst Lent in the present lot is dressed in black with a white headcloth, the depiction of Lent in the Copenhagen picture is of a crazed and boney elderly woman with unkempt hair.

Other versions after the Copenhagen panel and the present composition exist, including a version in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp (inv. no. MMB.1852); and another painted tondo panel was formerly at the Bass Museum of Art, Miami and later sold at Christie’s, New York (see sale, Christie’s, New York, 29 October 2019, lot 813). The present work appears to be the link between the Copenhagen panel and the latter two works.