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Description: | Signed: yes Description: This is one of several copies by Pieter Breughel the younger of an original composition of 1560 by his father, Pieter the elder. It depicts the office of a rent or tax collector, with a queue of tenants hoping to pay their dues with produce, rather than money. Underpinning the humour of the scene is a satire on the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands, as the tax collector seated on the right bears a notable resemblance to Philip II of Spain. The injustices of Spanish rule was a recurring theme in the elder Breughel's work of the 1560s, and continued to be relevant when this copy was made more than half a century later. In this image Breughel and Breughel contrast the simple honesty of their hard-working, productive countrymen with the exploitative bureaucracy of their Spanish masters. Several other studio versions of the composition are known, including at the Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide), Burghley House (Stamford), and the Groeningemuseum (Bruges). Such copies of successful paintings were not regarded, as they often are today, as a dilution of the original but a respected studio practice. | Subjects: | figure; everyday life; interior | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Brueghel, Pieter, the younger (Flemish artist, born 1564 or 1565, died 1637 or 1638) Æ After Bruegel, Pieter, the elder (Flemish painter, ca. 1525-1569) | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8535... | Go to resource |
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