Jan Bruegel II Sets Troy Alight

Published on 19 May 2023, by Sophie Reyssat

Auction on 03 June 2023 - 14:00 (CEST) - 41, rue de l'Est - 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt

This nightmarish vision of a blazing Troy borders on the sublime. The subject, highly popular with Flemish collectors in the 17th century and treated here with disturbing eeriness by the artist, echoes very real ancestral fears.

Jan Bruegel II, aka the Younger (1601-1678), Aeneas Carrying Anchises from the Burning... Jan Bruegel II Sets Troy Alight

Jan Bruegel II, aka the Younger (1601-1678), Aeneas Carrying Anchises from the Burning Troy, copper, signed, 23.5 x 30.5 cm/9.26 x 12 in (detail).
Estimate: €40,000/60,000

The painting by the last representative of the Bruegel dynasty is as moving today as it was 400 years ago, because its subject is universal. The disasters we have experienced since the dawn of humanity were transposed into religious and mythological tales that have come down through the centuries, from the destruction of Sodom, attributed to divine anger, to the burning of Troy, caused by men. Until the 17th century, scholars of both…

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