Museum number
A166
Object
Oil painting: Robbing the Bird’s Nest by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, oil on panel.
Description
A man, wearing a fur cap, buff jerkin and dark breeches, with a horn and sheath on a belt and a short staff in his right hand, stands under a tree, looking downwards to the right and pointing with his left hand to a boy clinging to a branch above . Behind him, a half- filled sack. Two small ponds and farm buildings in the background.
Materials
Oil
On display?
Yes

Further description

Simple name
Painting
Subject
Figure
Dimensions
framed: 6.5000cm (d) x 27.4000cm (h) x 29.3000cm (w)
regular: 18.0cm (h) x 17.3cm (w)
Robbing the Bird’s Nest Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1565-1638) Oil on panel This little oval is based on a larger, rectangular painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A peasant with a sack by his feet points towards a tree. There a thief, robbing a nest, clings to a branch as his hat falls off. The painting probably points to a moral contrasting the precarious position of the thief with the peasant on the ground. Meanwhile, in the background, women can be seen among fishponds and thatched houses, while a pair of white swans floats on the water. A166

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