Jan BRUEGHEL THE ANCIENT (Brussels 1568 - Antwerp 1625) Lot and his daughters Round oak panel with parquet. 20 x 21.5 cm Signed and dated lower center BRVEGHEL / 1609. Provenance : Acquired on the Paris market circa 1995; Collection of Monsieur D. On June 7, 2023, Dr. Klaus ERTZ confirmed the authenticity of the work based on the photographs presented to him. Jan Brueghel the Elder, also known as "Jan Brueghel de Velours", was the son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and the brother of Pieter the Younger. Following in the family tradition, he drew inspiration from his father's compositions. After his father's death, his grandmother, Marie de Bessemers, widow of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, took charge of his artistic training. He also collaborated with Peter de Goetking and quickly established a reputation as a painter of flowers and fruit. After a spell in Italy between 1590 and 1596, he settled in Antwerp. In 1609, he was appointed court painter to Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella of Austria. His pupils included Abraham Govaerts and Daniel Seghers. He is famous for his flower paintings, but also produced biblical, allegorical and mythological compositions, as well as landscapes. Many of his emblematic works deal with the terrestrial paradise, and are often painted on copper. Our painting is one of the artist's biblical compositions, depicting the story of Lot and his daughters from Genesis. After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his daughters take refuge in a mountain cave. Believing themselves to be mankind's only survivors, the daughters intoxicate their father and unite with him in the hope of preserving their lineage. In this scene, Brueghel moves away from his usual predilection for bucolic landscapes or floral scenes and concentrates on the human drama. The figures are placed in the foreground on the left, leaving the landscape visible and, above all, the fire illuminating the sky. The dark palette, contrasted by shades of orange and red, amplifies the sense of despair and isolation felt by the figures. Even more than a biblical subject, Jan Brueghel depicts here a fire scene in which he can freely express his talents as a landscape artist in a setting illuminated by flames. The theme of fire is central is not only central to this painting, but also to his work in general. Indeed, he deals with this theme in The Temptation of St. Anthony, dated circa 1594 and preserved at the Kassel Museum (see catalog of the exhibition Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere - Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Flämische Malerei um 1600, Tradition und Fortschritt, Lingen, 1997, no. 39, reproduced), then in around 1595 in L'incendie de Pentapolis in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Aeneas fleeing the fire of Troy carrying his father Anchises in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, and also in Loth and his daughters before the fire of Sodom, also in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (see Kl. Ertz, Jan Brueghel D.Ä. Die Gemälde, Cologne, 1979, nos. 25, 26, 27, reproduced fig. 137, 135, 136). As in our painting, the figures are secondary, set aside to give the viewer a full view of the landscape devoured by flames. Although he rarely opted for a round format, the artist is known to have painted four pictures in this format on the theme of the four seasons, circa 1594-1596 (see exhibition catalog Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere - Jan Brueghel der Ältere, Flämische Malerei um 1600, Tradition und Fortschritt, Lingen, 1997, nos. 24 - 27, reproduced).