Abstract:
A technical survey and conservation of the painting is being undertaken by Conservator Genevieve Silvester. The date of the painting is unknown, but it is one of several paintings by Brueghel the Younger depicting the same scene painted between c1616 and 1635. As part of the technical survey, tree ring analysis was applied to establish calendar dates for the five oak boards comprising the panel the painting was executed on and to identify the provenance the timber. This information contributes to the dating of the painting and understanding of the material it is made from. The ring width series from the five boards had end dates in the late AD 1590s and early AD 1600s. Two boards had sapwood rings, providing felling date ranges of AD 1604 – 1628 (PB_P2) and AD 1602 – 1628 (PB_P3). The tree-ring results support the early 17th century date of the painting. Comparison to composite reference chronologies and independent art historical chronologies strongly suggests that the timber used in the panel was from the eastern Baltic region, possibly Lithuania.
