Nativity scene by Pieter Brueghel the Younger's painting sells for nearly €6m

'The Census at Bethlehem' sold for above its estimate, for £5,164,000 (€5,903,300), at Sotheby's Old Masters and 19th-century paintings auction in London this month

Pieter Brueghel the Younger places the Holy Family within a bustling Flemish winter landscape in 'The Census at Bethlehem'.

ARTIST Pieter Brueghel the Younger places the Holy Family within a bustling Flemish winter landscape in his painting   The Census at Bethlehem. Villagers queue to register for the census, children skate, throw snowballs and drag sledges across the frozen ground, and drinkers gather around a makeshift tavern carved into an oak tree. 

The sacred is blended into the everyday as the Holy Family at the centre passes quietly through the crowd in a moving nod to the Nativity. The c1604 work exemplified Brueghel the Younger's ability to capture the divine in the rhythms of ordinary life and is one of the largest known depictions of the subject.

The composition derives from a painting of the same name made in 1566 by the artist's father, Pieter Brueghel the elder, now in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. It is one of the most revered works of the Northern Renaissance. 

Brueghel the Younger was only a child at his father's death, and he devoted much of his career to preserving and re-interpreting these masterful inventions with his own acute observation of daily life and meticulous detail. 

The Nativity has always been a favourite subject for artists. This work sold for above its estimate, for £5,164,000 (€5,903,300), at Sotheby's Old Masters and 19th-century paintings auction in London this month.