Fig. 74· David Vinckboons. Boy Bird-Nester, ca. r6o6. Pen and Fig. 75· Hessel Gerritsz (?)after David Vinckboons. The Bird-Nester, brown ink with wash. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam r6o6. Etching. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
headwear that closely resembles that of peasants in the In his own drawing Boy Bird-Nester, ca. r6o6 (fig. 74) and Louvre Cripples as well as the stocky figures characteristic the etching made after it in r6o6 (fig. 75) Vinckboons based of Bruegel's types. (This scene resembles Bruegel's festive elements of his image and his central theme directly on kermis or wedding dance imagery more closely than his Bruegel's prototypes: he shows the same stocky figure types beggar subjects.) and the same nest robbing and, as the inscription on the Here we should mention a forgery of an image of beggars print makes clear, invokes precisely the same proverb.54 In by Bruegel, The Blind, ca. r6oo (fig. 73), attributed by Hans Vinckboons's images, underneath a thick forest canopy Mielke to Jacob Savery, which bears a false inscription and evocative of Coninxloo's settings, two peasants gape and date of rs6zY Like Bruegel's canvas in Naples and a vignette point to the bold nest robber an exemplum of the proverb; the in the background of his Netherlandish Proverbs, rs6o evidently complacent older man appears to instruct the (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemaldegalerie), it may illus younger one while he ignores his own purse, only to have it trate the parable of The Blind Leading the Blind (Matt. stolen in broad daylight by a furtive thief who resembles a rs:r4), but in contrast to that painting it does not show beset ragged robber in Bruegel's painting The Misanthrope, rs68 travelers and focuses as much on a peasant woman with a (Capodimonte, Naples). In the drawing's middle ground a basket as on the picturesque if scruffy vagabonds. 53 farmer prudently leads a cow across a bridge and into a stable, Vinckboons responded not only to Bruegel's kermis a motif that offers a contrast to the danger-filled forest world scenes and beggar figures but also to his use of proverbs, of the foreground and recalls a georgic scene with horses in a which he illustrated or alluded to in a number of paintings clearing in the background of Pieter's Peasant and the Bird and drawings, primarily on peasant themes. Models of this Nester. 55 And in the middle ground ofVinckboons's etching kind that inspired Vinckboons are Bruegel's Netherlandish anglers empty a fish trap, a detail that emulates the careful Proverbs, portraying a comprehensive catalogue of sayings, and productive beekeepers of the Bruegel drawing. The etch the painting Peasant and the Bird Nester, rs68 (Kunsthis ing introduces a new detail, a group of a mother and children torisches Museum, Vienna), and the drawing The Beekeep and dog, their ragged costumes suggesting their poverty, and ers, ca. 1567-68 (cat. no. ro7). The last two works refer to the their equipment, a large cage and long pole, indicating that proverb "He who knows where the nest is has the knowl they live marginally on the bounty of the forest by catching edge; he who robs it has the nest" and also contrast reckless birds-the subject of yet another work by Bruegel, the nest robbing with smug complacency as well as with the Insidiosus Auceps (The Crafty Bird Catcher), ca. rsss-s6 (cat. 6 prudent activity of working with apiaries. no. 27), from The Large Landscapes group of prints. 5