| Ranked just below Rubens and van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens became the foremost painter in Antwerp after Rubens's death. Unlike his two rivals, Jordaens did not exclusively pursue the grand manner, often adopting instead a more rustic kind of realism best suited to genre subjects which he brilliantly utilized in other subjects, lending them energy and an earthy humor. His long career spanned sixty years, maintaining a continuity for Flemish painting that neither Rubens nor van Dyck sustained. Jacob began his career as a pupil of Adam van Noort in 1607. In 1615 he joined the Antwerp Painters' Guild as a producer of watercolors and tempera pictures. In 1616 he married his master's eldest daughter, Catharina; Jordaens's earliest surviving paintings stem from that year, though some undated examples are thought to have been produced earlier. His most ambitious commissions soon followed, beginning in 1618 and continuing until 1630. Scholars consider this to be Jordaens's finest period. In 1621 he was selected dean of the Guild of St. Luke. Between 1620 and 1622 the first of his pupils joined Jacob's studio. In 1625 Jacob had a son, Jacob II, who became a minor painter. Rubens held Jordaens in sufficient esteem to ask his assistance (he worked with Rubens for about twenty years between 1620 and 1640) on such efforts as the decorations for the Triumphal Entry of the Cardinal Infante Ferdinand into Antwerp, done between 1634 and 1635. He may also have assisted on Rubens's Medici cycle. Between 1637 and 1638 Jordaens also supplied Rubens with some of the canvases depicting scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, which were intended to decorate the Torre de la Parada near Madrid for Philip IV (Fall of Titans [signed, Madrid, Prado] is based on a Rubens sketch in Brussels, Musee d'Art Ancien). As Rubens's engergies flagged, commissions from noble houses increased despite Jordaens's less aristocratic style. In 1639 Queen Henrietta Maria asked Jordaens to supply twenty-two paintings for her house in Greenwich, and in 1648 he received commissions from the queen of Sweden for thirty-five canvases. Charles I of England ordered The Story of Psyche in seven scenes. Between 1649 and 1652 Jordaens was commissioned for some of the largest paintings for the Huis ten Bosch, including the Triumph of Time and later the Triumph of Prince Frederick Henry. This picture, jammed with figures and action, is regarded as one of Jordaens's most monumental efforts. King Charles Gustavus (r. 1654-60) of Sweden commissioned a Passion series from Jordaens; what became of them is not known. At least sixteen students assisted Jordaens after the late 1630s. His wealth grew substantial enough that in October 1639 he managed to buy a house on the Hoogstraat, next to the merchant Nicholaas Bacx. For this house he painted a series of twelve signs of the Zodiac and eight scenes of the story of Psyche. The deaths of Rubens in 1640 and van Dyck in 1641 left Jordaens virtually unchallenged as a painter. From the 1640s until the 1660s his feme increased. Jordaens was in greater demand than any other artist in northern Europe, keeping the grand manner and fluid style of Rubens alive (albeit in Jordaens's own original manner) for over thirty years after Rubens*s death. Like Rubens, Jordaens also received commissions for tapestry cartoons. Jordaens began producing tapestry designs as early as 1620, though the earliest examples do not survive. The dates for his History of Alexander range from 1620 to 1630. His Scenes from Country Life (e.g., Huntsman Resting with Hounds, two versions, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) date from around 1630, as does his Story of Ulysses scenes (e.g., Ulysses Threatening Circe, Rome, Palazzo del Quirinale). In 1644 he produced cartoons for eight Flemish proverbs for the Brussels factory, and the cartoons for these survive in Paris (Musee des Arts Ddcoratifs). After Rubens's death, Jordaens also provided designs for his Achilles series (e.g., Thetis Leading Achilles to the Oracle, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts). Horses in action are recorded in documents of the 1650s, and a set of horse tapestries called The Riding School is now preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, in Vienna. As late as the 1660s Jordaens was still executing tapestry designs. His last known effort was The History of Charlemagne (Rome, Palazzo del Quirinale). In 1661 documents record an agreement between Jordaens and Jan Lievens* for a painting of Claudius Civilis for the cycle in the Amsterdam Town Hall, and in 1662 Jordaens received a gold medal from the city fathers to commemorate the Peace with Spain and to honor Jordaens. Commissions for the Town Hall in Amsterdam continued through 1665, the year in which Jordaens executed a David and Goliath as a pendant to his earlier Sampson and the Philistines. In 1663 Jordaens was commissioned to produce three paintings for the courtroom of the Landhuis at Hulst, and in 1665 he donated two pictures to the Schilderskammer of the Antwerp Academy founded in 1663. Besides his official histories, which earned him fame and fortune, Jordaens produced a memorable series of narratives based on genre subjects and fables. A gifted portraitist as well, Jordaens adapted his skill at observation along with his talents as a narrator and composer to create images of vivid immediacy and lively spontaneity. A fine example of Jordaens's genre subjects is his painting The King Drinks (Brussels, Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts). Another version of this twelfth-night festivity is found in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum). A related subject, often depicted, was the proverb "The old sing and the young pipe," a signed and dated (1638) example of which is preserved in Antwerp. Rubens was Jordaens's most important source of inspiration. From him Jordaens learned to prepare the bold and vibrant chalk studies from which his paintings developed. Jordaens also adapted Rubens's compositions and at other times copied him outright. Unlike Rubens and van Dyck (who influenced Jordaens's portraiture), Jordaens never lived anywhere but Antwerp. He never traveled to Italy, though he studied such Italian sources as Titian, Veronese, Caravaggio,* and the Bassani via engravings or copies, learning from Adam Elsheimer's* work in much the same fashion. Together with van Dyck, Jordaens studied exhaustively from human models to endow his pictures with a great sense of realism, conviction, and human emotion. Both artists worked from Abraham Grapheus, variously described as treasurer or messenger in the Antwerp St. Luke's Guild. Grapheus is the likely model for Jordaens's powerful characterization of Job (Detroit Institute of Arts). From 1630 on, Jordaens's style varied to accommodate the various subjects and functions of his pictures. His religious subjects maintained the baroque traditions established by Rubens, with Jordaens's own injection of bold visual effects, including dramatic perspective or anecdotal details to enliven the subject. In his genre subjects a blunter, more prosaic realism is introduced into his images, while in his mythologies a heroic monumentality is often found. In all of them he favored crowded, overabundant effects, giving his pictures the sense of bursting at the seams. Though Jordaens himself did not travel, he gained an international reputation and the demand for his pictures extended from Antwerp to Uppsala to London, Vienna, Florence, Turin, Amsterdam, and The Hague. Jordaens's students came from as far away as Poland and Sweden, and the tapestries woven from his cartoons helped spread his fame far and wide. Engravings from Jordaens's designs also proliferated. Jordaens was first and foremost a great storyteller, with a gift for narrating a wide range of subjects from Flemish life and proverbs, stories from Aesop, Homer, Livy, Ovid, and the Bible. As a narrator, Jordaens had a fine instinct for the dramatic and unusual moment – the vivid instant when the story comes to life for all. A key to the accessibility of Jordaens's pictures is his deep affinity for the concrete. He selected poignant, natural, and anecdotal details to endow even the most abstruse story with believability and sympathy. His affinity for the Bible resulted in particularly impressive Passion scenes. Jordaens's mythologies and histories are filled with heroic action and emotion, while his genre pictures scintillate with energy, laughter, a.id life. His portraits are models of observation, candor, Jordaens's genre subjects is his painting The King Drinks (Brussels, Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts). Another version of this twelfth-night festivity is found in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum). A related subject, often depicted, was the proverb "The old sing and the young pipe," a signed and dated (1638) example of which is preserved in Antwerp. Rubens was Jordaens's most important source of inspiration. From him Jordaens learned to prepare the bold and vibrant chalk studies from which his paintings developed. Jordaens also adapted Rubens's compositions and at other times copied him outright. Unlike Rubens and van Dyck (who influenced Jordaens's portraiture), Jordaens never lived anywhere but Antwerp. He never traveled to Italy, though he studied such Italian sources as Titian, Veronese, Caravaggio,* and the Bassani via engravings or copies, learning from Adam Elsheimer's* work in much the same fashion. Together with van Dyck, Jordaens studied exhaustively from human models to endow his pictures with a great sense of realism, conviction, and human emotion. Both artists worked from Abraham Grapheus, variously described as treasurer or messenger in the Antwerp St. Luke's Guild. Grapheus is the likely model for Jordaens's powerful characterization of Job (Detroit Institute of Arts). From 1630 on, Jordaens's style varied to accommodate the various subjects and functions of his pictures. His religious subjects maintained the baroque traditions established by Rubens, with Jordaens's own injection of bold visual effects, including dramatic perspective or anecdotal details to enliven the subject. In his genre subjects a blunter, more prosaic realism is introduced into his images, while in his mythologies a heroic monumentality is often found. In all of them he favored crowded, overabundant effects, giving his pictures the sense of bursting at the seams. Though Jordaens himself did not travel, he gained an international reputation and the demand for his pictures extended from Antwerp to Uppsala to London, Vienna, Florence, Turin, Amsterdam, and The Hague. Jordaens's students came from as far away as Poland and Sweden, and the tapestries woven from his cartoons helped spread his fame far and wide. Engravings from Jordaens's designs also proliferated. Jordaens was first and foremost a great storyteller, with a gift for narrating a wide range of subjects from Flemish life and proverbs, stories from Aesop, Homer, Livy, Ovid, and the Bible. As a narrator, Jordaens had a fine instinct for the dramatic and unusual moment – the vivid instant when the story comes to life for all. A key to the accessibility of Jordaens's pictures is his deep affinity for the concrete. He selected poignant, natural, and anecdotal details to endow even the most abstruse story with believability and sympathy. His affinity for the Bible resulted in particularly impressive Passion scenes. Jordaens's mythologies and histories are filled with heroic action and emotion, while his genre pictures scintillate with energy, laughter, a.id life. His portraits are models of observation, candor, and understanding, while all the best of his pictures are executed with painterly verve. Jordaens's spiritual earnestness is evident not only in his profoundly expressed religious works (note his Calvary at Rennes, Crucifixion at Bordeaux), but in his own conversion from Catholicism to Calvinism, which he openly avowed after the Peace of Munster in 1648. Despite his new religious leanings, Jordaens remained popular with Catholic patrons, undoubtedly because of the sincerity of feeling expressed in his religious works. Jordaens enjoyed fame and honor well into his old age. Joachim von Sandrart visited Jordaens in 1671 and observed that he was still vigorous. When the Prince of Orange, together with Constantijn Huygens, paid a visit in 1677, they noted that Jordaens stayed seated and that his language wandered. On 18 October 1678 Jordaens succumbed to the plague, which carried away his daughter the same night. |
