"Flemish genre painting" is by a Follower of the Master of the Female Half-Lengths

Quentin, from Berlin, Germany, sells on 22 April 2017 a "Flemish genre painting, ca. 1600" of a merry company, estimated at 3,500 to 5,000 Euro.

The work is a variation on a painting sold at Sotheby's London in 2013, which was then attributed to the Master of the Female Half Lengths. It sold for £86,500.

Another, more elaborate version with the story of the Prodigal Son, is kept in the Musée Carnavalet and has been attributed in the past to the same master, or Jan van Hemessen, or Quentin Massys, or the Monogrammist of Brunswick. This version lacks the jester with his marotte though. But it does have what seems to be Paris in the background (the Notre Dame!), which explains what it does in the Musée Carnavalet, which is a historical museum first and foremost.

While the original artist is thus clearly unidentified, the work for sale is a copy of lesser quality, but with some interesting variations which may help people define the original artist (if these variations are based on some original version of course). The exact allegorical meaning isn't really clear to me, but women, alcohol and music all seem to be foolish things to get involved with. Perhaps it is simply another Parable of the Prodigal Son. The estimate may be somewhat high for a clearly less skilled artist, but it is an interesting old work anyway and should be worth a few thousand Euros anyway.