JAN BRUEGHEL the Younger and ANDRIES SNELLINCK (1601 Antwerp 1678) (1587 Antwerp 1653) Diana at the hunt. Circa 1627-28. Oil on copper. 70.3 × 87.7 cm. Expertise: Dr Ursula Härting, 17.1.2024. Provenance: - Drouot auction, Paris, 5 Dec. 1988, lot 82 (attributed to Jan Brueghel the Younger and Hendrik van Balen). - Swiss private ownership. The depiction of Diana, goddess of the hunt, and her nymphs offered here was created in accordance with the Antwerp painting tradition as a collaboration between several painters, presumably around 1627-1628. Andries Snellinck painted the landscape and Jan Brueghel some of the animals, such as a few dogs and the stretch of wild boar, stag and broken deer, which are typical and recurring motifs in Jan's oeuvre and are executed here with particularly high quality. Other animals and the figures are very probably by Antoni Lemens (Freemaster since 1627), who worked simultaneously in the workshop of Hendrik van Balen (1575-1632) and Jan Brueghel the Younger from 1628-29. With van Balen, Lemens must have already become familiar with several versions of Diana with the Hunt, including those that Balen painted with Jan the Younger (see Bettina Werche: Hendrik van Balen (1575-1632). Ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit, Turnhout 2004, vol. II, pp. 372-375). Based on a photograph, Dr Bert Schepers assumes that the figures are by Abraham Willemsen (1605-1672). In 1627-28, Jan Brueghel the Younger received six paintings by his father Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625) with the theme of Diana after the Hunt, which served as models for his own versions (see Ursula Härting: Der Buchhalterische Jan Brueghel d. J. und sein Journal, p. 61, in: A. Tacke (ed.): Der Künstler als Buchhalter, Petersburg 2024, pp. 53-66). Snellinck belonged to the Guild of St Luke, was well acquainted with Antwerp art dealers and worked as a painter, in particular for the firm of the Antwerp painter and merchant couple Matthijs Musson (1598-1678) and Maria Fourmenois (?-1693), from whom he received copper painting supports with commissions for specified subjects. A Diana after the Hunt was included in the inventory of the estate of Andries Snellinck's widow in 1657 (no. 129; see Katlijne van der Stighelen: De (atelier-)bedrijvigheid van Andries Snellinck en Co, p. 335, in: Jaarboek Antwerpen 1989, pp. 330-341). A comparable version by Snellinck on copper (66.6 × 92.5 cm) was last exhibited in 1965 (Brussels 1965, De Eeuw van Rubens, Koninklijke Musea voor schone kunsten van België, 15 Oct. - 12 Dec. 1965, no. 260).