NIce example of the "Portrait Historié"

Kastern sells on 11 June 2016 an "Old Dutch Master, ca. 1620-1630" portrait of a family in historical context, estimated at 3,000 Euro.

It is a relatively rare work of the "portrait historié" type, the family portrait in an unrealistic, normally historic or mythological setting. It follows most of the typical elements, like having the elders seated (the most important position) and the children standing. There are 10 children shown, and seven additional figures in the background (perhaps children which had already died: other paintings of this type show these are floating heads with wings or tiny angels above the portrait). Sometimes in these paintings the clothes are also pseudo-historical, but here they are more contemporary. The use of this type and historical clothing was apparently due to the wish of the sitters to have a painting that didn't look old-fashioned in a few years time, when the fashion of clothing had changed.

According to the auction description, the historical background could be the Biblical conflict between Israel and Egypt, which was a predecessor (in the view of the Dutch) of the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain. I have to say that I see no trace of anything pointing towards Israel or Egypt here, but I may be missing some clues here.

The painting isn't by the hand of a master, but is painted well enough. It contains elements of the still life (the table with the typical small white bread and the Bokal, the large bulbous vessel in the middle), and also shows some unexpected elements of everyday life of the rich in this period, like the doll in the arms of the girl on the left.

The most comparable example I could find online was the above "Gathering of the Manna", a 1648 family portrait by Dirck Metius (from the RKD). Here as well we have the diagonal top left - bottom right composition, with the family in front of some tents. It only shows a general similarity though, painter and probably date are clearly different.