Jacob Jordaens

Jacques Jordaens ( born May 19, 1593 in Antwerp, † October 18, 1678 in Antwerp) was a Flemish Baroque painter.

Classification

Jacques Jordaens was next to Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, one of the three most important Flemish Baroque painter that dominated, Antwerp school ' in the 17th century.

Although these Flemish painter of the Baroque are often compared with each other, all three artists are very different and must be considered separately from each other as individuals. Rubens was a humanist and van Dyck was born into a patrician family. Both artists were culturally literate, had traveled extensively and spoke several languages. Unlike his contemporary colleagues Jordaens had never traveled abroad to study Italian painting. In contrast to these Jordaens was considered less strongly bound to the court paintings. It is often said that his work to any intellectual and Classical education deprived, based on the assignment of his pictures in the genre painting. However, the need to be contradicted: Indeed Jordaens spent indeed his whole life in Antwerp, apart from a few short trips to rural areas of the interior or to the Netherlands (The Hague), the image will contract - but, like Rubens also painted Jordaens altarpieces, mythological and allegorical scenes. Jordaens was often inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, WHAT has his familiarity with ancient themes very well. Jordaens was not only a successful painter, he was also known for his design of tapestries. After the death of Rubens, Jordaens established in 1640, is the most important artists of Antwerp, and was for many major contracts ( also from major centers) in high demand: In general, the number of his clients increased enormously.

Jordaens is known today for its large and numerous scenic images of genre painting, which is d to the proverbs of his contemporary Jan Brueghel the Elder. lean, such as its most famous photos The King drinks! and as the old have sung, so the boys whistle. Regarding the modern science and new research findings among Jordaens to major historical painters of his time, was to able to intellectually engage with ancient and humanistic image content and to link it with a historical man. Above all, Jordaens is characterized by these remarkable details in his paintings. He stood largely under the artistic influence - in addition to that of Rubens and the Brueghel family - the northern Italian painters such as Jacopo Bassano, Paolo Veronese, and Caravaggio.

Biography

Jacques Jordaens was the first of eleven children, born on 19 May 1593 in Antwerp. Was called His father, who also Jacques Jordaens ( the Elder. ), Was a successful linen merchant and married to Barbara van Wolschaten. His remaining siblings, little will be said: One sister became a nun, two other Beguines and a brother appeared as a monk in the Augustinian order.

The childhood and education of the young Jordaens not much has survived, yet one can summarize by saying that he enjoyed a good education. A good handwriting and the extensive knowledge of the French language these are reflected, which can be seen from several private letters. In addition, Jordaens ' images have an extensive knowledge of mythological stories. These circumstances suggest a life in the wealthy bourgeoisie. Even biblical stories and the subject of religious images were decisive in Jordaens ' works.

Like Rubens, Jordaens studied the teacher Adam van Noort, who was not a great painter, but quite distinguished as a good teacher, like the later fame of his students shows. Jordaens ( the age of 14, began the painting apprenticeship ) and the family van Noort joined not only a student - master relationship, but also an easy camaraderie. Later, in 1616, married Jordaens even the eldest daughter Catharina van Noort, with whom he had three children. It is known that Adam van Noort ' has been, and many pictures of the van Noort Family Jordaens ' the only teacher Jordaens respect and his affection for them. After eight years of teaching Jordaens was recorded in 1615 as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Lucas, who also van Noort was associated. In 1621, Jordaens was appointed by the city council to the Dean of the indebted Guild of St. Luke, which Jordaens tried in vain to reject. But the magistrate saw in Jordaens a worthy and talented painter who could get the debt situation under control, and forced him under threat of a penalty to this office. And indeed, Jordaens was so successful that he had the late thirties of the 17th century about sixteen students and assistants among themselves.

As water signs (water color painter) to Jordaens made ​​at this time a name, what his many watercolor paintings on paper explains that acted as templates for tapestries and etchings. These designs for tapestries are considered the largest orders that accompanied Jordaens in his life. Nevertheless, Jordaens used at the beginning of his career in paintings and oil colors. Over time, Jordaens focused increasingly on painting with oil paints, which was more profitable. Nevertheless, Jordaens had his preference for leaves water and body color, which can be found in many of his paintings.

Jordaens is known primarily for his genre paintings depicting the rural life, but it is less well known as a portraitist. Motives and image issues in Jordaens have often been inspired by proverbs. It is striking that the image topics Jordaens ' recur, such as the ancient mythical Satyr and the peasant, Fruchtbarkeitsallegorien and Bacchanalia.

Many religious and altarpieces belong to the repertoire Jordaens '. Antwerp was in 1650 sanctioned a Spanish occupied territory and Protestantism, yet converted Jordaens public and him have been repeatedly fined for heretical " scandalous " imposed writings. However, this prevented Jordaens not to accept the orders for the decoration of Catholic churches in Antwerp. Especially not after Rubens's death, Jordaens as established itself as the most important artist of Antwerp. Thus Jordaens got with time more and more orders: not only the church communities and smaller cities commissioned him with numerous altarpieces, but also the princes and kings of international origin. Although he was less known as court painter like Van Dyck and Rubens, Jordaens became the Queen of England orders in Greenwich ( 1639/40 ), or Queen Christina of Sweden ( 1648).

Also Jordaens should accomplish started works of Rubens after his death in 1640. Nevertheless, Jordaens found under this abundance of orders still time to complete paintings for private clients, so that up to the end of his life a vast number of paintings are attributable to him. With the large number of jobs ( up to 35 images in large format per year) is a dispute about which of these many works of Jordaens ' hand come from or produced by his workshop. One explanation Jordaens ', which he filed with a notary public, after he was accused of forgery, stating that he was " all [ Images] with his own hand painted new and changed " have. The assistance of students was quite common in the workshops for the artistic time, lived in Jordaens, however.

The wealth of Jordaens ' which comes from his family from the cloth trade in goods, increased in addition to the wedding with the wealthy Catharina van Noort again significantly and the artistic jobs that were always steady in the artistic life of Antwerp, were responsible for the very generous financial security of his family. This Jordaens acquired not only his birthplace in Hoogstraat, but also expanded its budget end of the 1630s through to the early 1640s, years nor more houses. Jordaens took over the years by many embellishments and in the house before (such as decorative paintings and ceiling paintings). So he built a spacious and magnificent estate representative, following the example of Rubens. This Jordaens lived and worked until his death in 1678th He died on October 18 from a disease that was referred to at that time as " Antwerp's disease ".

Works

• 1615 The artist with the family of his father Adam van Noort, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel )
• 1615/16 Abduction of Europa, Gemäldegalerie Berlin
• 1616 The Return of the Holy Family from Egypt, Gemäldegalerie Berlin
• 1616 Christ as a gardener appears the three Marys, Gemäldegalerie Berlin
• 1617 The daughters of Cecrops, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
• 1618 Meleager s Atalanta, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
• 1620 The Satyr and the Peasant, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel )
• To 1620/21 Satyr and Peasant, Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels
• To 1620/21 The Satyr and the Peasant, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
• Ca 1621-1623 Satyr and Peasant, Pushkin Museum, Moscow
• 1623-25 ​​to Allegory of the fertility of the land, Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels
• To 1624/25 tribute of Ceres, Museo del Prado
• 1638 The Bean King, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
• 1637 Apollo as victor over Pan, Nuevo Palacio Real, Madrid
• 1640 Prometheus Bound (paintings ), Wallraf -Richartz- Museum & Fondation Corboud, Cologne
• The sacrifice of Isaac, St. Lorenz Church, Lübeck
• 1640 Diana and Actaeon, Old Masters Picture Gallery
• 1640 The Daughters of Cecrops find the small Erichthonios, Kunsthistorisches Museum
• 1640 The Childhood of Jupiter, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel )
• To 1640/45 The Triumph of Bacchus, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel )
• To 1640-50, the love of Cupid and Psyche, Museo del Prado
• 1650 The Breiesser, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel )
• To second half of the 17th century Meleager and Atalanta, Museo del Prado

Selection of images of some works