"Attributed to Desiderio Monsù" is copy after Jan Brueghel

Hampel, from Germany, sells on 5 July 2017 an "Attributed to François de Nomé, known as Monsù Desiderio" Burning of Troy, estimated at 5,000 to 7,000 Euro.

It is a copy after Jan Brueghel the Elder, who painted the same composition a few times. One copy is in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, while the other was on the market in Amsterdam in 2005 (both via janbrueghel.net which is an interesting site). A third version was for sale at Christie's in 2004 (via RKD).

The works are not completely identical, but it is very clear that they have the same origin. The figures in the Hampel version are not good enough by far to be by Brueghel though. I also doubt that the ork has anything to do with Monsù, who painted usually more abandoned scenes, not a crowded one like here, and who seems to be unlikely as a copyist anyway.

A copy of the Brueghel was sold at Hampel as well, in 2015, and was then attributed to Pieter Schoubroeck (image via RKD)

The work for sale also reminds me of Louis de Caullery, but will likely simply remain anonymous. The estimate may be a bit too high, closer to 3,000€ may be more realistic, but it certainly is an interesting work.