Aeneas and the Sibyl in the Underworld

Sigmund Herrmann, Mannheim, later New York (by 1902); by descent to his niece, Erna S. Blade (until 1991)

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art—Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 6, 2012–January 4, 2013, no. 21.

Beijing. National Museum of China. "Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art—Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 8–May 9, 2013, no. 21.

Walter Liedtke. "Addenda to 'Flemish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art'." Metropolitan Museum Journal 27 (1992), pp. 110–12, fig. 9, dates it probably 1630s; observes that the artist "skillfully mixed motifs from several of his father's compositions" and considers the most immediate precedent for this picture [n.b., field capacity inadequate for entire text].

Ursula Härting. Letter to Walter Liedtke. November 23, 1994, tentatively attributes it to Pieter Schoubroek.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 289, ill.

Walter Liedtke. "Toward a New Edition of Flemish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Munuscula Amicorum: Contributions on Rubens and His Colleagues in Honour of Hans Vlieghe. Ed. Katlijne van der Stighelen. Vol. 2, Turnhout, Belgium, 2006, p. 669.

Walter Liedtke in Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art; Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. [Tokyo], 2012, p. 215, no. 21, ill. [Chinese ed., Hefei Shi, 2013, pp. 50–51, no. 21, ill. (color)].

Peter Barnet and Wendy A. Stein in Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art; Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. [Tokyo], 2012, p. 60, ill. pp. 37, 72 (color).

This picture repeats a composition known from at least three other autograph versions: one in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, no. 6249, and two in European private collections (published in Klaus Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Jüngere (1601–1678): die Gemälde, mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren, 1984, nos. 130–32). The subject is from Virgil's Aeneid, Book VI.