The Blind Leading the Blind

These two small paintings are copies of Italian works. The scene of blind people stumbling into a hole is copied from a painting by Domenico Fetti, and the painting of Venus and Cupid from a work by Paris Bordone. Teniers made the copies so that etchings could be made from them. They were intended for his Theatrum Pictorium, a book about Italian paintings in the archducal collection in Brussels.