Sloth: Laborers Asleep in the Fields
| Object type | Painting |
| Genre | Religious |
| Date | 1614 |
| Dimensions | 16.6 x 13 cm |
| Medium | Gouache |
| Signature | BRUEGHEL 1614 |
| Our attribution | Jan Brueghel the Elder |
| Other authorities | Ertz 2008-10, #264 |
| Location/Most Recent Sale | Private Collection |
| Tags | Resting, Parrot, Field, Burghers, Old Testament |
This illustrates the parable of the good and the bad seed: Matthew 13:24-30.
A painting of this image appears in the background of Jan/Van Balen's Allegory of Winter (Ertz 2008-10 #531); Ertz thinks this indicates that there was once a painting of the subject but that is not the case at all -- images were clearly transformed in scale and, no doubt, medium, when being fit into another picture.
There are several painted copies of this work, some of which Ertz has attributed to Jan the Younger. One sold Brussels, Pal. des Beaux-Arts Mar.9, 1953 #15 (panel, 53 x 44); another sold Amsterdam, F. Muller, 15 November 1938 #17 (panel, 59 x 46); page on wiki for second of these. Photographs at RKD represent this second work before and after restoration.