PIETER BRUEGHEL the Younger(Brussels 1564–1638 Antwerp)Winter landscape with bird trap. Circa 1601.Oil on panel.Verso branded with the mark of the City of Antwerp.37.5 × 56.6 cm.Certificate:Dr Klaus Ertz, .Provenance:Private collection, Luxembourg, for several generations.Exhibited:- Wroclaw 2013, The Brueghel Family. Masterpieces of Flemish Painting, The Royal Palace, 23.7.–.- Turin 2017, Brueghel. Capolavori dell’arte fiamminga, Reggia di Vernaria, –, no. III 2.- Japan 2018/2019, Brueghel. 150 Years of an Artistic Dynasty, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 23.1.–; Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, 24.4.–; Sapporo Art Museum, 28.7.–; Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, 8.10.–; Koriyama City Museum of Art, 11.1.–, no. 40.- Madrid 2019/2020, Brueghel. Maravillas del arte flamenco, Palacio de Gaviria, –.Literature:- Exh. cat. Brueghel. Capolavori dell’arte fiamminga, Reggia di Vernaria, Turin 2017, p. 109, no. III 2.- Exh. cat. Brueghel. 150 Years of an Artistic Dynasty, Tokyo 2018, p. 87 and 241, cat. no. 40.- Exh. cat. Brueghel. Maravillas del arte flamenco, Palacio de Gaviria, Madrid 2019, pp. 86–87.The viewer looks out from an elevated position onto a vast snowy winter landscape. A frozen river winds through a village and leads the eye into the distance, where the towers and silhouette of a larger town can be seen. On the frozen river, the villagers are happily engaged in ice skating, curling, and other seasonal games. On the right of the picture and proportionally larger is the bird trap that lends the painting its name. It consists of a wooden door on a wooden pole with a string that leads into the house and is pulled. Numerous varieties of birds have gathered at this spot.Thisposition was to be one of the most popular winter depictions of the 17th century and was decisive in shaping the winter landscape as a genre in its own right. Without it, the artistic development of subsequent generations of artists, as in the case of Hendrick Avercamp (1585–1634), Esaias van der Velde (1587–1630) or Aert van der Neer (1603–1677), would have been unthinkable.Theposition also captures the climatic peculiarity of that period, in which the winter months were characterised by severe and persistent cold, and which was also called the "Little Ice Age".Traditional research holds that theposition can be traced back to the prototype from 1565 by the artist’s father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, which is now in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Brussels (see Christina Currie, Dominique Allart: The Brueg[H]el Phenomenon. Paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Younger with a Special Focus on Technique and Copying Practice, in: Scientia Artis 8, vol. 1, pp. 184–223). Above all, it was due the fact that his son Pieter Brueghel the Younger continually employed thisposition that it attained great popularity. In his catalogue