The Museo del Prado presents The Wine of Saint Martin’s Day by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, on view 12 December 2011 -25 March 2012.

The Wine of Saint Martin’s Day after restoration

The Museo del Prado is presenting to the public for the first time The Wine of Saint Martin’s Day by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the leading figure within 16th-century Flemish painting. Following the recent acquisition and subsequent restoration of the painting, it will be displayed in Room D in the Jerónimos Building until 25 March. In addition to highlighting the exceptional nature of a new discovery and acquisition of a work by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (of whom only 41 paintings are known), the presentation of the painting alongside an x-ray of it and an explanatory video detailing its restoration will allow the visiting public to appreciate the key phases within its complex restoration and to assess the final results of that process.

The definitive attribution to Pieter Bruegel the Elder of The Wine of Saint Martin’s Day represents one of the most important discoveries in many years with regard to the oeuvre of this artist, a figure of even greater importance than Quintin Massys and Joachim Patinir, the two other leading Flemish painters of the 16th century. This new addition to the Prado’s collection of one of the most dazzling and complex compositions by the artist means that the Museum now possesses two works by his hand, the other being The Triumph of Death (previously the only other known painting by Bruegel in Spain), a masterpiece by the painter that was formerly in the Spanish royal collection (cat. 1393, Museo Nacional del Prado. Oil on panel, 117 x 162cm, ca.1562). – www.museodelprado.es

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2. Museo del Prado to Acquire Bruegel the Elder Painting
3. Museo del Prado Displays Goya’s The Victorious Hannibal