Winter Landscape With A Bird Trap. Flemish School, 17th Century

Oil painting on oak panel Presented in a beautiful antique carved and gilded wooden frame. Overall dimensions: 44 x 50 cm. Panel alone: 28 x 37 cm This charming winter landscape is part of the Flemish pictorial tradition of the 17th century, a direct heir to the compositions of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and his descendants. The scene takes place in a snowy village, bathed in a diffuse, cold light, typical of northern winters. The snow-laden roofs, the bare trees, and the figures going about their daily business evoke an atmosphere that is both peaceful and lively. On the right side of the painting, we can see a bird trap, an iconic element introduced by the Brueghels in their famous composition: The Bird Trap (circa 1565). This motif, both anecdotal and symbolic, refers to the fragility of the human condition and the unpredictability of fate. In this work, the painter—a minor Flemish master whose identity remains to be determined—takes up this theme with a certain freedom: the trapdoor is present, but its treatment differs, suggesting a personal reinterpretation rather than a slavish copy. The style, although less virtuoso than that of the great masters, demonstrates a fine mastery of the codes of Flemish genre painting:• Balanced composition, with a diagonal that guides the gaze from the village to the snowy background• Cold and nuanced palette, dominated by whites, grays, and browns• Popular figures, rendered with vivacity and naturalness• Rustic architecture, typical of the villages of Brabant or FlandersThis painting perfectly illustrates the diffusion of Breughelian models in the secondary workshops of the 17th century, where anonymous or little-known artists appropriated the major themes to adapt them to a local or bourgeois clientele. Good condition. Sold with a certificate.