Jan Miel mainly Dutch and Flemish artists working in Rome. It was customary for the Bentvueghels to adopt an appealing nickname, the so-called 'bent name'. For Miel two different bent names are documented: "Bieco" (which means squint in Italian) and "Honingh-Bie" (which means honey bee and is derived from the surname 'Miele' by which he was known in Italy and which means 'honey' in Italian). In Rome he also became linked to the circle of genre painters whose work was influenced by the Dutch genre painter Pieter van Laer and were referred to as 'Bamboccianti'. The Bamboccianti were mainly Dutch and Flemish
Jan Miel was documented in the studio of Andrea Sacchi. This collaboration is rather exceptional since Sacchi was an important critic of the Bambocciante style of which Miel was an important representative. This stay in Sacchi's studio may have been instrumental in the artist's evolutions towards the "gran maniera" of painting. Miel worked with Andrea Sacchi on the painting (Galleria Barberini, Rome, 1641). It is believed that Sacchi only executed a small portion of the painting himself and that Jan Miel executed the foreground figures after drawings by Sacchi. Old auction catalogues mentioned that Miel contributed the staffage to the landscapes of