Jacob Jordaens, His Life and Work
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"Jacob Jordaens, His Life and Work"[1] (1908) is a work by Max Rooses.
Full text
Jacob Jordaens his life and work.
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JACOB JORDAENS
HIS LIFE AND WORK
BY
MAX ROOSES
CONSERVATOR OF THE PLANTIN-MORETUS MUSEUM, ANTWERP
TRANSLATED FROM THE DUTCH BY ELISABETH C. BROERS WITH 140 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT, AND 32 FULL PAGE PLATES
The three Musicians (Lord Yarborough).
LONDON: J. M. DENT & C°. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON <£ C°.
1908
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
In the Antwerp school of painting in the XVII th century three figures tower above all others, — Rubens, Van Dyck, and Jordaens. Sprung from the same race, they are intimately related with one another in certain characteristics of their art: rich colour, brilliant light, and elegant action; yet each, compelled by his own individuality, pursues a separate way. Rubens is the painter of heroes, as efficient as he is daring. Van Dyck, a poet, ennobles and charms. Jordaens depicts the populace and the burgher life, in his forcible and excessive manner glorifying material pleasure.
Jordaens did not visit Italy, and he never came under the direct influence of foreign art. He was born in Antwerp; and in that city, in his parents' house and the circle of Adam van Noort, and afterwards in a home of his own, he spent his life among his fellow Flemings with their distinctive manners and customs. In this world to which he himself belonged he found a subject worthy of his study, and ample material for a painter who could transfer it to canvas. Held in high repute during his lifetime, he was overshadowed after his death by his two great contemporaries, and even by inferior ones. For a long period that art only was generally esteemed which bore an Academic stamp: it mattered not how insincere and lifeless it might have become if only it imitated the classics, whereas the artist who dared to cast off the yoke of tradition was inevitably banned.
That was Jordaens' fate throughout the XVIII th - century and for a great part of the XIX th - Happily, however, opinion has changed about art in general and about his art in particular. Many reputations which had suffered eclipse have been rehabilitated by the present generation, which reserves its highest appreciation for individual conception, sincere observation, and original treatment, irrespective of convention. Justice has been tardily done to Jordaens; but at last the scales have fallen from the eyes of the critics, and the public also have learned to recognise his extraordinary gifts. The time in our opinion is therefore ripe for a more particular examination of his life and work than has yet been given them, and for paying him the homage he has been so long denied.
At the same time we do not start upon our task without some misgiving. Are we, after all, justified in mentioning Jordaens in the same breath with his two great contempo- raries, and in exalting him to a place beside them in the history of our school? His creations are not, like those of Rubens, admitted by all within the number of the great
VIII AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
masterpieces of art. They do not affect us so deeply or so irresistibly attract us as those of the great charmer Van Dyck. Jordaens is not among the princes in the hierarchy of painting, as these two are. He is a burgher; and too often sleight of handicraft and a commercial spirit distinguish his work rather than a lofty aim and sublime conception. Limited in his invention, he frankly repeated himself, without any concealment of the fact. These are considerations that may well cause us to hesitate in our intention of paying this tribute to Jordaens.
Yet we can oppose to these the other that Jordaens is the greatest painter of actuality in the Flemish school. He studied the people around him, their moods and manners, with interest and attention, to give them back on his canvases ; probing their hearts and sounding their emotions. He loved the beautiful appearances of the world around him: fair skin and the flashes of velvet and satin; soft, healthy limbs; hearty, radiant epicures with no thought save for the pleasures and good things of life; venerable and benevolent grand- fathers enjoying their glass and their song; and as he delights to represent all these, so he scorns and brands the trickster and the hypocrite. Anything vivid and clamorous attracts him, and his pleasure in it is expressed by a loud laugh and a piercing note, and broad and vigorous gesture. Through all his work there sounds from a full throat and a warm heart the refrain „Long live Life!" He set himself uncompromisingly against Academic conventions, taking more delight in a peasant of his acquaintanc blowing lustily ■into his porridge spoon than in the invulnerable Achilles whom he knew only from hearsay. He discovers poetry in every-day life : in his own way he is a poet of heroes when he works into a jolly, bustling epic the doughty deeds achieved by burgher men and women in their homes or on the causeway. Colour and light he adored: they shine and play with unparalleled brilliance and endless variety over his scenes. He was a great friend of our forefathers, whom, better than anyone else, he knew and has made known to the world. These are his claims upon us for the work of grateful homage which we propose to undertake.
CONTENTS.
- -, CHAPTER I. (1593— 1622). Page
Jordaens' An.ces.tors and Parents. — His Birth. — His Childhood. — His Apprenticeship. — Adam van Noort — His Marriage. — His Children. — A Water-colour Painter. — His Earliest Works. — Dean of the Guild of St. Luke ..... .... . .... 1 — 37
CHAPTER II. (1623— 1630). Altar-Pieces. — Allegorical and Mythological Pieces. — Genre Pieces. — Portraits ... .... 38 — 55
■ , CHAPTER III. (1631—1641).
-Jordaens' Second Manner. — The Peasant and the Satyr. — The King drinks. — As the Old Cock crows the
young one learns. — Jordaens as an Animal painter. — Mythological and Religious Pieces. — Portraits. . 56 — 112
CHAPTER IV. (1631— 1641 continued). Jordaens and Rubens. — The Entry of the Cardinal-Infant. — Works for Greenwich House. — Balthasar Gerbier. —
Jordaens' Pupils. — His House . 113 — 127
CHAPTER V. (1642— 1652). Altar-Pieces and Religious Pictures. — Pictures sold to Martinus van Langenhoven and to the Queen of Sweden —
The King drinks. — Mythological Pictures. — Portraits . . . .... . .... 128 — 156
CHAPTER VI. (1652).
The Orange Hall in the House in the Wood, The Hague .... . 157— 171
CHAPTER VII. Jordaens' Etchings. — Engravings after his Pictures. — Tapestries after his Designs. — His Drawings and Sketches 172 — 194
CHAPTER VIII. (1653-1665). Dated Pictures. — Pictures in the Stadhuis, the present Palace, at Amsterdam, in the Court of Justice at Hulst,
and in the Guild of St. Luke at Antwerp. — Other Works of the Period . . ... 195—217
CHAPTER IX. (1666— 1678). The Master's Closing Years. — He Joins the Calvinists. — The Protestants in the Southern Netherlands. —
Jordaens' Last Works. — His Death. — His Place as an Artist. — Jordaens and Jan Steen . ... 218 — 247
Translator's note . ... ... . . • . . 248
Appendix. Catalogue of Pictures in the possession of Jacques Jordaens at his death . . . . 249
List of Jordaens' Works . ... . . ... . 251
Index. . .... . . ... . . . . . .... . 270
Errata . . ........ ........ 276
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PHOTOGRAVURES.
The King Drinks (Detail, Museum, Brussels) . • • ■ ■ Frontispiece
The Four Evangelists (Louvre) ...... • • ..... 29
Portraits of van Zurpele and his Wife (Duke of Devonshire, London) . ... 55
The Porridge-Eater (Museum, Cassel, No. 105) ..... .... . . 61
As the Old Cock crows (Museum, Antwerp) ... • • 75
The Up-Bringing of Jupiter (Museum, Cassel, No. 104) . . • ... . . 89
The Triumph of Bacchus (Museum, Cassel) • • • • .... 91
Diogenes searching for a Man (Museum, Dresden) . . . . ...... ._ 103
The Adoration of the Shepherds (Church of St. Nicolas, Diksmude) . ... . . .133
The King Drinks (Imperial Museum, Vienna) .... .... . 151
The Triumph of Frederick Henry (Detail, The House in the Wood, The Hague) . 171
The Youthful Bacchus (Mr. Max Rooses, Antwerp). ■ • ■ • ■ «73
The Fruit-seller (Museum, Glasgow) • • .... ... 191
The Twelve- Year-OH Christ in the Temple (Museum, Mentz) 213
The Dedication in the Temple (Museum, Dresden). . . .217
The Portrait of a Man (Museum, Budapest) .... ... ■ • • 2 49
X
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
Portrait of Jordaens ... ....
Christ on the Cross (Church of St. Paul, Antwerp) ' '
The Adoration of the Shepherds (Museum, Stockholm) '5
The Peasant and the Satyr (Mr. A. Cels, Brussels) '9
Meleager and Atalanta (Museum, Antwerp) . ■ 35
The Martyrdom of St. Apollonia (Church of St. Augustine, Antwerp) 4'
Fertility (Museum, Brussels) . ... 45
Fertility (Wallace Collection, London) . . 47
The Up-bringing of Jupiter (Museum, Cassel, No. 103) . . 87
The Servant bringing his Master's Horse (Museum, Cassel) '37
Family Portrait (Museum, Cassel) .... . .... .... . 157
Portrait of a Lady (Academy of Fine-Arts, Vienna) . . 159
The Triumph of Frederick Henry (The House in the Wood, The Hague) . .... 163
Christ driving the Moneychangers from the Temple (Louvre, Paris). . . . . . ... 177
The Jester and the Owl (After an Engraving by Peter de Jode, the Younger) 185
The Adoration of the Shepherds (Museum, Antwerp) . . ■ 201
The Last Supper (Museum, Antwerp) 239
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.
Page The Three Musicians (Lord Yarborough) . . Title-page.
Woman's Head (Drawing, Museum, Brunswick) . . I
Study of Oxen (Drawing, Louvre, Paris) 4
Woman's Head (Drawing, Museum, Brunswick). . . 5 The Adoration of the Shepherds (Drawing, British Mu- seum) . 8
Head of a Man (Drawing, Museum, Brunswick). . . 9
Meleager and Atalanta (Drawing, Mr. Masson, Amiens) 12
Woman Drinking (Drawing, Museum, Brunswick) . . 13
The Flight into Egypt (Drawing, Louvre, Paris). . . 16 The Adoration of the Shepherds (Drawing, Boymans
Museum, Rotterdam) 17
The Peasant and the Satyr (Drawing, Mr. Fairfax
Murray, London) 20
The Peasant and the Satyr, (Pinakothek, Munich) . . 21
The Feasant and the Satyr (Museum, Cassel). ... 24
The Holy Family (Museum, New Yorki 25
Democritus and Heraclitus (Museum, New York) . . 28
The Holy Family (Mr. Delacre, Ghent) 29
Moses striking water from the rock (Museum, Karlsruhe) 32
The Disciples at Christ's grave (Museum, Dresden) . 33
The offering to Pomona (Museum, Madrid) ... . . 35
Meleager and Atalanta (Museum, Madrid) 36
Job (Mr. Paul Mersch, Paris) • ■ • 37
Old Woman with Dish (Mr. M. Delacre, Ghent) . . 38
Head of an Apostle (Museum, Brussels) 40
Mercury and Argus (Museum, Lyons) 41
The Miracle of St. Martin (Museum, Brussels) ... 44 St. Martin delivering a Demoniac (Drawing, Plantin-
Moretus Museum, Antwerp) . . 45
The Child Jesus with John (Mr. Wittouck, Brussels) . 48
The Adoration of the Shepherds (Mr. M. Delacre, Ghent) 49
Abundance, (Drawing, Mr. Heseltine, London) ... 52
Pan and Syrinx (Museum, Brussels) .... . . 53
Family Portrait (Museum, Madrid) 54
A Merry Meal (Drawing, Mr. M. Delacre, Ghent) . . 56
Page Neptune and Amphitrite (Duke of Arenberg, Brussels), 58 The Milkmaid (Drawing, Mr. M. Delacre, Ghent) . . 59 The Peasant and the Satyr (Museum, Brussels) ... 60 The Peasant and the Satyr (Mr. A. Harcq, Brussels) . 61 The Porridge-Eater (Liechtenstein Gallery, Vienna). . 64 The Offering to Jupiter (Drawing, Boymans Museum,
Rotterdam)' , . . 65
The King Drinks (Museum, Brussels) 68
The King Drinks (Academy, St. Petersburg) .... 69 The King Drinks (Drawing, Museum, Antwerp) ... 72 Boating Party (Drawing, British Museum, London), . 73 The Circumcision (Boymans Museum, Rotterdam) . . 76 Give and thou shalt receive (Drawing, Mr. Fairfax Murray,
London). 77
As the old cock crows (Louvre, Paris) 80
As the old cock crows (Drawing, British Museum, London) 8 1 As the old cock crows (Museum, Berlin) ..... 84 As the old cock crows (Duke of Arenberg, Brussels) . 85
The Jester (Mr. Porges, Paris) 88
Musician and His Wife (Mr. Duverdyn, Bruges). . . 88
The Serenade (Mr. Leblon, Antwerp) ^ . 89
Never buy a pig in a poke (Mr. J. Rump, Copenhagen) 92 The pitcher goes once too often to the well (Drawing,
Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp) 93
Jupiter and the goat Amalthea (Louvre, Paris) ... 96 The goat Amalthea (Drawing, Louvre, Paris) . , . . . 97 Ariadne in the train of Bacchus (Museum, Dresden). . 98
The offering to Venus (Museum, Dresden) 99
Prometheus (Museum, Cologne) I0O
The Fishmonger, (Museum, Brussels) 101
The Prodigal Son (Museum, Dresden) 102
The Prodigal Son (Mr. Toussaint, Brussels) .... 103 Diogenes searching for a man (Drawing, J. and A. Le
Roy, Brussels) io .
The Tribute Money (Mr. Ringborg; Norkoping) . . 105 The Tribute Money (Rijks Museum, Amsterdam) . . 106
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
XI
Ulysses and Circe (Mr. Tack, Crefeld) .... The Miracle of St. Dominic (Museum, Oldenburg) Portrait of a Man (Drawing, Louvre, Paris) Portrait of a Woman (Drawing, Louvre, Paris) A Music Party (Drawing, Mr. M. Delacre. Ghent) Portrait Of Jan Wierts (Museum, Cologne) . Portrait of Jan Wierts' Wife (Museum, Cologne) . Jordaens' Portrait (engraved after van Dyck's painting) Portrait of a Man (Uffizi, Florence). Hunter with Hounds (Museum, Lille) . Scipio and Allucius (Drawing, Boymans Museum
Rotterdam) ....
Facade of Jordaens' Studio ....
Amorini carrying a festoon of flowers (Ceiling in the
House of Mr. Ch. van der Linden, Antwerp) An Offering to Apollo (Ceiling in the House of Mr. Ch.
van der Linden, Antwerp)
The Visit of Mary to Elizabeth (Museum, Lyons)
Facsimile of Jordaens' receipt for the same .
The Adoration of the Kings (Drawing, Plantin-Moretus
Museum, Antwerp) . . .
Paul and Barnabas at Lystra (Academy, Vienna). Paul and Barnabas at Lystra (Drawing, Mr. Max Rooses
Antwerp)
Saint Ivo (Museum, Brussels) ... .
The Dead Christ (Consul Weber, Hamburg)
The Dream (Mr. Kleinberger, Paris) .
Argus and Mercury (Mr. Ch. Wouters, Antwerp).
Argus and Mercury (Mr. Georges Hulin, Ghent) .
Hercules and Acheloiis (Museum, Copenhagen)
The King Drinks (The Duke of Devonshire)
The King Drinks (Museum, Cassel)
Rustic Courtship (Mr. Emile B. Goldschmidt, Frankfort)
Diana and Callisto (Museum, Oldenburg)
Contest between Apollo and Marsyas (Museum, Ghent)
Head of Satyr (Drawing, Louvre) .
The Triumph of Frederick Henry (Sketch, Museum
Antwerp) . . ...
The Triumph of Frederick Henry (Sketch, Museum
Brussels) .
The Triumph of Frederick Henry (Sketch, Museum,
Warsaw)
Time mowing down Slander (The House in the Wood,
The Hague) • •
Vignette: old Woman (Drawing, Albertina, Vienna). Christ Appears as the Gardener, (Drawing, Mr. Fairfax
Murray, London)
Christ Expelling the Moneychangers from the Temple
(Drawing, Museum, Brunswick)
Jupiter and Io (after an etching by Jordaens) . Cacus stealing Hercules' oxen- (after an etching) . . Pan with sheep and a goat (Rijks-Museum, Amsterdam) Vanity (Drawing, Mr. Fairfax Murray, London). . . Shepherd and Shepherdess (Drawing, Print- room, Berlin)
Page 107 109 no in
"3 116 117 118 119 121
124 125
126
127 128 129
130
n 2
133 136 139 142
143
146
147 150
151
152
154
"55 157
i59
163
165
169 170
172
173 176 177 178 179 180
Page The Master pulls the Cow out of the well (Tapestry from the ,, Proverbs" series, Prince Schwarzenberg, Frauenberg Castle) . .... . . 182
They are good Candles that light us on our way (from the „Proverbs" series, Prince Schwarzenberg, Frauenberg Castle) . ... .184
Hunter returning from the Chase (From the ,,Rural Life" series, Albertina, Vienna). . . ... 186
A Music Party (Mr. Rodrigues, Paris) iS
190
191
193
194
195 196
197 199 200 201 202 206 210 211
Veritas Dei (Drawing, British Museum, London) . The Holy Sacrament worshipped by Patriarchs and
Saints (Museum, Dublin). . . -.
Three Women and a Child (Baron Brukenthal, Her-
mannstadt) . ... . ...
Justitia (Drawing, Print-room of the Rijks Museum,
Amsterdam) . .
The Adoration of the Shepherds (Museum, Frankfort). The Adoration of the Shepherds (Museum, Lyons). . The Adoration of the Shepherds (Jhr. W. Six) . Susanna and the Two Elders (Museum, Copenhagen) Susanna and the Two Elders (Mr. Franck-Chaveau, Paris) Susanna (Museum, Verona). . ...
St. Carolus Borromaeus (Church of St. James, Antwerp) Justitia (Drawing, Hermitage, St. Petersburg) Jesus among the Scribes (Detail, Museum, Mentz) Jesus among the Scribes (Detail, Museum, Mentz) Jesus among the Scribes (Drawing, Mr. Fairfax Murray,
London) . 212
„Be like little Children" (Drawing, Mr. Fairfax Murray,
London) 213
„Be ye reconciled one to another" (Museum, Ghent). 214 Abraham and Isaac (Drawing, Louvre, Paris) . The Triumph of Bacchus (Museum, Brussels) . Escutcheon (Drawing, Rijks Museum, Amsterdam) Study of a head (Museum, Brunswick) . ...
Jesus healing the lame on the Sabbath (Drawing,
Mr. Delacre, Ghent). ...
Isaac and Jacob (Drawing, Mr. Masson, Amiens). The Entombment (Drawing, Rijks Museum, Amsterdam) The Worship of Art (Drawing, Mr. Fairfax Murray,
London) . . .
The Holy Sacrament worshipped by Saints (Drawing,
Mr. Fairfax Murray, London) 229
Three Wandering Musicians (Sketch, Museum, Madrid) 232 Silenus, Flora and Zephyrus (Mrs. Parmentier. Knocke) 233 The Hospital Nuns (Museum, Antwerp) . . . 236
The Descent from the Cross (Church of the Beguinage,
Antwerp) ... . 237
Vanitas (Museum, Brussels) .... ... 239
The Dead Christ (Board of Charities, Antwerp) . 241
The Dead Christ (Drawing, Mr. Rump, Copenhagen) . 242 Portrait of a Man (Louvre, Paris) ... . . 244
Monument erected to Jordaens . .... 245
As the old cock crows (Museum, Dresden). . . . 246
215 216 217 218
221 224
225
228
CHAPTER I.
15 9 3—1622.
Jordaens' Ancestors and Parents — His Birth — His Childhood — His
Apprenticeship — His Marriage — His Children. Jordaens as Water-colour-painter — His Earliest Works — Dean of
the Guild of St. Luke.
J
[ordaens' namesakes, ancestors, and parents. — The family name of Jor- daens was of frequent occurrence in Antwerp in earlier times; at the present day, though it has not disappeared entirely, it is rarely found and then, as a rule, in the worn-down form of Jordens. In the
kr^L=~§siisr ~~?sfe i V sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was
- r . i %-./■ ■'-■.-. |H# borne by many artists who were not related
" ; * to our Jacob. Thus, for example, we find
mention made in the registers of the Guild
~ of St. Luke of one Hans Jordaens, painter,
L^y* w / ) wri ° m 1572 was apprenticed to Noe de
Noewille (Noville), and in 1581 was admitted a free master; of an Abraham who in 1585 was apprenticed to this Hans; an Augustine, painter, master in 1588; a second Jan, painter, a master's son, himself installed as master in 1600; still a third Jan, also a master's son, who entered the Guild in 1619 — 1620; Gaspar, a sculptor, who became master in 1646 — 1647; Abraham, also a sculptor, entered as apprentice in 1641 — 1642 and admitted master in 1649—1650; Arnoldus, painter, apprenticed in 1652 — 1653, a master in 1663 — 1664; and others. In various towns of the North Netherlands also, such as Breda and Delft, in the latter half of the XVI th century and the first of the XVII th we come across painters of the name of Jordaens, who, however, were not related to the Antwerp master.
WOMAN'S HEAD Drawing (Museum, Brunswick).
2 BIRTH PLACE. THE FAMILY POSSESSIONS.
The first of Jacob's ancestors of whom we read in civic documents are his great-great- grandparents: Hendrik Jordaens and his wife Margareta van Uffele. They lived in Antwerp, and died there before 1541. Their son, Simon, was an „oudkleerkoper", that is to say, one who bought in goods for auction and so „rigged" the market; he married Elisabeth van Aelten, and died before 1550. He left two sons, Simon and Peter; Simon was an „oud- kleerkoper" like his father, Peter's business we do not know. This Peter was Jordaens' grandfather, and married Anna Faulx; their eldest son was called Jacob, and was a linen- merchant, or „sargie"-salesman. Jacob married, on Sept. 2, 1590, Barbara van Wolschaten, and their eldest son, Jacob, the great painter, was born on May 19, 1593, and baptised the next day in the Church of Our Lady. His parents had ten other children, eight daughters and two sons, of whom nothing of any importance can be told save that three of the daughters became nuns, and one of the sons a monk. (1)
About Jordaens' birth date there is no doubt. It is true that Jan Meyssens gives it as May 19, 1594 on the portrait of the painter published by him in 1649 and engraved by Petrus De Jode after J.ordaens' own picture; but Meyssens, though he evidently had the authority of Jordaens himself for it, is nevertheless wrong in this date. The entry in the baptismal register of the Church of Our Lady, now in the Registrar's Office in Antwerp, which runs from May 30, 1592 to June 25, 1606, reads quite distinctly: „Anno 1593 20 maij Jams (the name of the father) idem Joordaens (the name of the son) berbel (name of the mother) dirick de moij, elisabeth van briel (names of the sponsors)". Jordaens' father died on August 5, 1613; his mother on February 11, 1655.
The house of his birth. The family possessions. — The house in which Jordaens was born, formerly known as „The Paradise", is situated in the High Street, and bears the number 13; a marble slab inserted in the front gable by direction of the Municipality commemorates the notable event that happened there. A sixteenth century building, it has suffered little mutilation. The stone mullions have been broken away to make place for windows of a newer fashion; but the crow-stepped gable remains, and subjects in old Flemish Renaissance style still decorate the space between the ground-floor and the first storey. Above these are two more floors, besides a garret. The external arrangement has been altered, but one sees plainly that the lower part consisted of a spacious shop-floor, entered from the street, behind which lay a small courtyard. The High Street, at that time the centre of the cloth trade, leads from the Groote Markt to the Oever, both of them among the principal squares in old Antwerp. It was near the Groote Markt that the elder Jordaens had his shop. Farther on, towards the Oever, were the cloth halls of Nieuwerkerk, Armentieres, Weert (in Limburg), Lier, Turnhout, Herenthals and Tournai. These buildings, and several merchant's houses of distinction. in it, gave to the street a stately and picturesque appearance which it has partly retained to this day.
Jordaens' family belonged to the well-to-do middle-class: this is shown by the con- sequence of his parents' house, and confirmed by all the information we possess about the worldly estate of his relations. In 1561 his grandfather and his grandfather's two brothers, Simon and Michiel, sold a pleasure garden and house („speelhoff metten huyse") situate on the St. Willebrords field, close by the town. (2) In 1581 this grand-uncle Simon inherited a house adjoining the Deanery of the Church of Our Lady; and when on
S P q?nard ~oTctt SUr 8-9"" J ° rdaenS - ~ ° hent ' 1852 - ExtraCt f r0m U Messa g"- ** Sciences historiques de Belgique, p. 8.
JORDAENS' CHILDHOOD. 3
October 2, 1659, his widow, Maria de Bodt, died, she left, as the inventory of her estate shows, a fortune of 146,187 guilders, A\ stuivers, of which there was found in her house, in coin, the truly enormous sum of 27,364 guilders, 6 stuivers. (1) When our painter shared in the division of his father's estate with his brother Isaac and his sisters Anna, Magdalena and Elisabeth, on March 18, 1634, he received as his portion the house he was born in; and on March 10 in the following year we find him buying (presumably with the inherited money) two other houses on the Verwersrui. (2) All so many proofs that the family was well-to-do.
Jordaens' Childhood. — About Jordaens' childhood we know nothing. He was fourteen years and a half old only when he was apprenticed to an Antwerp painter. It is clear, therefore, that he was not long at school, but during his term there, short as it was, he received instruction in all the branches taught to a burgher boy of those days; he wrote a very beautiful hand, and could compose a fair letter in Flemish, while pieces extant, written by him in French, show that he possessed an adequate knowledge of that language. His pictures prove that he knew his Mythology sufficiently to make use of it in his art; and when, later in life, he went over to the Reformed Church he became more than usually well-read in Biblical history.
He does not go to Italy. — Jordaens' biographers in earlier centuries — if we may thus entitle those who give so little information about him — are unanimous in laying emphasis upon the fact that he did not visit Italy. Sandrart, the earliest of them, whom all the others followed closely, says: „He remained in Antwerp, and for this was reproached. „People, that is to say, disapproved of his work inasmuch as it discovered that he had not „seen the antiques and the pre-eminent masters of Italy — as he himself acknowledged. „That is why he was eager to come across the best of these, Titian, Veronese, Caravaggio, „Bassano and others, so that he might study them; and certainly he availed himself of „such opportunities".
In our opinion this study of Italian masters and advantage derived from them is only an invention of the German biographer, who thought it necessary to acquit the painter as far as possible from such a breach of good form as daring to be a man of talent without seeking instruction beyond the Alps. For there is in Jordaens' works no trace of playing the sedulous ape to the Italian masters, either in the choice of subject or in the treatment of the material. In the collection of pictures he left behind him at his death, which was sold at the Hague by his grandson in 1734, there occurs not a single Italian example, though he lacked neither the means nor the opportunity of buying the works of those painters whom according to Sandrart he- so much admired. As far as his own practice reveals that reform which art away in the South had undergone in a previous century, this is to be imputed to the influence of the foreigner, not upon himself, but on one in whom Jordaens and all Antwerp artists, his contemporaries, recognised their master and guide — Rubens.
After the return of Rubens to Flanders they all, directly or indirectly, became his
(1) Inventory of all the estate left by and found in the house of the late Jouffrouwe Maria de Bodt, widow of Simon Jordaens deceased, who died on the 2nd of October 1659 in the house called the „Golden Comb" which stood in the High Street here. (Docum»nts in the collection of the late Chevalier Albert van Havre of Antwerp).
(2) F. JOS. VAN DEN Branden. — „Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche Schilderschool", p. 831.
4 JORDAENS' CHILDHOOD.
pupils. They might still visit Italy, still admire as highly as before the masters of the South but they all remained faithful to the master of their own country. They fortified themselves in Italy in the doctrine which they had learned to confess at home - a perseverance that was easy now that home and abroad were no longer in opposition and Rubens had derived from the Italians all that the Flemings could make use of. It is very probable that had Jordaens been better acquainted with the artists of the South he would not have been different from what he was: he stood so far off from them in his con- ception of art; his contemplation of the world and theirs were so entirely different; that he would neither have got enjoyment out of them nor have followed them. In the sixteenth
century Peter Breu- ghel, a brother spirit, took that road across the Alps which all artists of his time pursued in search of perfection ; but he came back unaffected, and remained the most original, the most Fle- mish painter of his age. Nor did his son „Velvet" Breughel, weaken in that Italian air. And though Ru- bens allowed his na- tural high gifts to ripen in it, and drew thence much that con- tributed to his com- plete development, it was without any sacri- fice of originality. Van Dyck remained completely himself while he purified his style there. It was only in the sixteenth century, and in the first half of it especially, that the southern influence worked harmfully, and caused the Netherlanders to forsake their native conceptions, and to see with the eyes and feel with the heart of the foreigner. After 1600 the revolution was complete: a new style was adopted, a new school born, and the visit to Italy, though it might still mature, could no longer transform the Northern painter.
It is not our argument in all this that Jordaens would have learned nothing by going South. In the country where admiration of the antique had become worship, where Da Vinci, Mantegna, Michel-Angelo, Raphael, Titian had reigned, it became second nature with the artist to set a high appreciation upon dignified conception and cunning invention ; there he learned to honour his art and to be exacting with himself; and to all these things Jordaens never attained to any degree. He was often too easily beguiled into an indifferent choice of subject, an inartistic composition, and hasty brushwork; he was not deterred from certain vulgarities that offended without enhancing the truth or the force of his
STUDY OF OXEN. Drawing (Louvre, Paris).
IN THE STUDIO OF ADAM VAN NOORT. 5
scenes. Very possibly, therefore, study of the classics would have refined his feeling and made him more critical of himself, without his individuality suffering or his mastery of execution being weakened.
Jordaens in the studio of Adam van Noort. — The earliest assured information that we possess of Jordaens as a painter is that in 1607 he was received as an apprentice by Adam van Noort. In the registers of the Guild of St. Luke where we find this recorded, his name stands second among those of the nine and twenty apprentices inscribed under the same deanship. Since the official year began in October, we may assume that he was admitted in that month; in which case he was not quite fourteen and a half years old when he entered the studio. Its master is famous for the great number of his pupils, still more for the renown which two of them, Rubens and Jordaens, achieved. Of his own work scarcely anything is known with certainty. Pictures of all kinds have been attributed to him ; of not one of them can we prove that he executed it; and those assigned to him are so different from one another that no one who sees them together can believe for a moment that they are by the same hand. A few drawings of his have been preserved, and there are a few engravings made from his pictures; these undoubtedly genuine works, however, betray no original talent and bear no resemblance to the creations of either of his great pupils. „Qhrist calling the children to him", in the museum at Brussels, the only one of the pictures attributed to him
which resembles his drawings, has not the least affinity to the works of either Rubens or Jordaens. Everything that we know about him leads us to suppose that he was regarded as a competent master in the elements of his art, and as one skilled in the management of the youths in his charge; and that he was a man of dignified nature, notwithstanding the rough humours and other faults attributed to him by a long line of biographers. (1)
Since it is certain that Jordaens had no other master, we might naturally conclude that his earliest works at least must reflect the manner of Van Noort. But our difficulty is that we do not know which are Jordaens' earliest works. The first on which we can venture to put a date is of the year 1617, the first that actually bears a date belongs to 1618. Jordaens was then 24 — 25 years old, and pictures painted by him at that age are certainly not to be regarded as his earliest efforts. To complicate the problem, the two works referred to
WOMAN'S HEAD
Drawing (Museum, Brunswick).
(1) For further information about Adam van Noort and his influence over his pupils, see the author's Rubens' Life and Works, pp. 41—44.
6 MARRIAGE AND HOME LIFE.
differ so greatly that they are the least sure guides possible to the style of the master from whom he learned his craft. Although, therefore, it is not unlikely that Adam van Noort exercised an influence over Jordaens, it is impossible to indicate the direction which it took. But it is indisputable that the pupil was fond of the master; he resided with him during a considerable part of his life; the beautiful, imposing gray head of Van Noort was one of his favourite models in later years; so that not family ties only, but also the respect and affection borne by the younger to the elder, bound the two men to one another.
Jordaens' marriage, his children, his first house. — Adam van Noort was living in the Everdy Street when Jordaens was indentured to him. He had five children, Jan, Catharina, Anna, Elisabeth and Adam.(l) Catharina, the eldest of the daughters, was baptised on August 21, 1589; although she was nearly four years older than Jordaens, he fell in love with her, and they were married in the Church of Our Lady on May 15, 1616, four days before the bridegroom had reached his twenty-third birthday. Three children issued from their union; all of them were baptised in the same church as their parents- Elisabeth, June 26, 1617; Jacob, July 2, 1625 and Anna Catharina, October 23, 1629. The last married Jan Wierts, a born Antwerper who in 1640 was studying law in Louvain, and afterwards lived at the Hague where he filled the office of President of the Council of Brabant. The younger Jacob became a painter, like his father, but neither in the Guild books nor in any other document has mention been found of him; most probably he died in his youth. The only trace of him which has been discovered is a picture in the Museum of Amiens representing The Appearance of Jesus as a Gardener to Mary 'Magdalen and signed J. Jor. junior 1650. A drawing of the same subject made by Jordaens himself is in the possession of Mr. Fairfax Murray in London. The figures and their attitudes are similar, but in the father's drawing the execution and interpretation are looser and more realistic. Shrubs and trees and the entrance of a building in freestone occupy the background. The work of the son is more academic, and at the same time more common. Elisabeth resided with her father all her life, and died, unmarried, the same day as Jordaens, October 18, 1678.
After his marriage, Jordaens went to live with his wife's parents or close to them. The names of both are mentioned as follows in the funeral list of one Jan Moretus, deceased, on March 11, 1618: „Adam van Noort and son-in-law, Everdijstraat". (2) In this street the father-in-law owned two houses, with a porch, garden, and inner house, which he had bought in 1598 and sold in 1622. On the 15 th January, 1618, Jordaens and his young wife bought a property situated in the High Street, on the south side of the house of the merchant Backx, comprising a large inner house with an open courtyard and entrance alongside the porch ; and on this Adam van Noort took a few mortgages to the extent of 2000 guilders. (3) Jordaens and his wife went to live in this house, and later were joined there by her father. On the funeral list of Melchior Moretus in 1634 we find them mentioned as living together in the High Street.
Jordaens as waterpainter. - In 1615, the year before his marriage, Jordaens was received as a free master into the Guild of St. Luke, in the books of which he was
(1) P. Genard. — Album der Lucasgllde. p. 129.
(2) Archief Museum Plantin-Moretus. In this is kept the roll of friends and relations to whom notice was given on the death of a member of the family.
(3) F. JOS. VAN DEN BRANDEN. Op. Cit. p. 816.
JORDAENS AS WATERPAINTER. 7
inscribed as „waterpainter". This word waterschilder can only indicate that he painted in water-colours. The master whose name follows his, Matheus Matheusen, is accorded the same description. In 1610 two other „waterpainters" had been enrolled, — Alexander Adriaensen and Matheus de Peuter. Repeatedly in 1610 and 1613 we find the designation „canvaspainter" (doeckschilder), a distinction of a kind similar to that of „waterpainter". Jordaens is the only one of Adam van Noort's many pupils to whom this term is applied, and this seems to prove that the master's studio was very seldom frequented by a painter of this class.
We are indebted to van Mander for a few particulars about these watercolour painters. Speaking of Peter Vlerick, who was born in Courtray in 1539, he says of him that his father, seeing him „inclined towards the art of drawing directed him to take lessons of one „Willem Snellaert, a Water-colour Painter outside the Tournay Gate, who was somewhat „ better in the Art than the other canvaspainters, of whom as usual there were many in „the town". After various adventures Pieter arrived on a certain Sunday or Saint's day at Mechlin, and rested at the roadside, near the town. Not knowing what to do, he fell to weeping; whereupon some of the passers by asked him the reason, and if he could find no work, and other similar questions; to whom Pieter answered that he was a painter. „And as there are always in Mechlin also many water-painters", van Mander continues, „some of these took him home with them. It was their practice there to pass the canvases „through several hands: one executed the features and hands, another the costume, or the ..Landscape; and to Pieter it fell to make the spaces on which writing appeared". (1) In the same way, also, van Mander mentions in his biography of Hans Bol, that there were in Mechlin at that time about 150 canvaspainters or water-colour painters. (2)
Young Constantyn Huygens, secretary to the Prince of Orange, afterwards William III,
also gives us a little information about the waterpainters. He writes in his Journal, August 3,
1675: „The Count van Homes showed us some tapestries painted in watercolours on canvas,
„on which the outlines of the figures had been printed with wooden blocks; they were
„very effective, but do not resist water or damp". (3) And later, June 16, 1677, when in
Antwerp, he notes further: „The Prince of Orange sent me to see the designs for a work
„which Rubens had made for the emperor; they were hunting scenes, very well executed
„in watercolours. There were seven pieces, about nine ells each". That Rubens drew
designs for tapestries, representing hunting scenes, and painted them in watercolours or
in any other way, for the emperor, is a fiction which Constantyn Huygens allowed himself
to believe. There can be no doubt, however, that such designs did exist; and we may
readily accept it on his authority that sometimes they were painted on canvases upon
which figures had been printed. They were occasionally painted on paper, also, and
Jordaens executed examples of this kind, as we learn from the description of the designs
sent by the trader in tapestries, Frans Smit, to Hamburg on July 5, 1651: Jtetn: two
pieces of paper designs of Horses in Action, painted by Jordaens; one consisting of eight
rolls, the other of nine, at six hundred guilders per piece". (4)
It is not only in the registers of the Guild of St. Luke, however, that Jordaens is referred to as a water-colour painter. Sandrart also, after mentioning a few of his earliest
(1) VAN MANDER. — Het Schilder-boeck, 1618, 1676.
(2) Id. Id. 177a.
(3) Journal of Constantyn Huygens during the Campaigns of the years 1673, 1675, 1677, and 1678. Publications of the Historical Society, Utrecht, 1881. p. 51.
(4) F. JOS VAN DEN BRANDEN. Op. cit. p. 827.
8
JORDAENS AS WATERPAINTER.
pictures, continues in this wise: „These and other excellent works have aroused the jealousy „of the greatly renowned Rubens, who observed how this artist approached him so closely, — „even surpassing him almost in naturalness and truth — that their works were often placed „side by side and compared by art lovers; when to Rubens was ascribed more spirit and „a richer invention, but to the works of Jordaens a better execution and a greater naturalness. ..Notwithstanding this, both, like very sensible men, continued to live in friendship, while „each of them endeavoured to increase his skill.
„It is said, however, that Rubens, anxious that Jordaens should lose his natural gift
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. Drawing (British Museum, London).
„for oil painting, of which Rubens was very jealous, contrived a plan for accomplishing „this; namely, by arranging that jordaens should paint, on paper in water-colours the large „tapestnes which the King of Spain had ordered from him for his palace in Madrid The ..tapestry-weavers were to have worked from these, and Rubens himself had executed the ..compositions in small grisailles. Jordaens, it is true, finished these cartoons beautifully in „water-colours, but the continued practice in this kind of work greatly weakened his highly- „pra.sed and natural gift in oilpainting in which he had formerly excelled; in the same way
PORTRAIT OF JACOB JORDAENS, PAINTED BY HIMSELF,
ENGRAVED BY PETER DE JODE.
IO CHRIST ON THE CROSS.
tapestries. It is true, therefore, that in his drawings our artist remained the water-colour- painter. He did not on that account, however, fall into a cold and meagre manner of colouring; these works prove the contrary, indeed, for they are as richly coloured as his pictures painted in the brightest tones.
It has sometimes been suggested that his father's trade determined Jordaens in the choice of a profession. When the registers of the Guild of St. Luke record the payment of his Master fees in 1615, they call him .Jacques Jordaens, schilder, lijnwatierssone" (that is to say, „painter, linen merchant's son"), thus encouraging us to look for some connection between the business of the old and the art of the young Jacob. Among the cloths which the father was in the custom of selling are said to have been painted wall-coverings which he counted upon his son brushing for him: this is quite possible, indeed very likely; but we have no assured proof of it.
„Christ on the Cross" in the Church of the Dominican Friars at Antwerp. — The year 1617 is the date of the work which we regard as the earliest example of Jordaens' art known to us, — his Christ on the Cross in the Church of St. Paul, formerly the Preekheerenkerk, at Antwerp. Somewhere about this time the Dominican Friars commissioned a series of fifteen paintings representing the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary, to be placed in the left aisle of their church, where they still hang. We do not possess, it is true, any contemporary documentary proof of this commission ; but on the shutters which are generally closed upon the one of the series which Rubens furnished, The Scourging of Christ, we read that the picture was painted in 1617. „Hanc vividam flagellati Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi imaginem, exquisitissima arte depictam ecclesiae S ti Pauli dicavit P. P. Rubens Anno MDCXVII". This inscription was not painted on the shutter until the beginning of the XIX th century, and we know not from what source came the date mentioned in it, but certainly it is not without some foundation. It is confirmed, moreover, by the picture itself, for its style undoubtedly points to about 1617 as the period of its production. With equal certainty we can say that van Dyck's picture, the Carrying of the Cross, which hangs next to it, can belong to no other time. The two works, therefore, confirm, while none of the others in the series contradicts, this date, 1617.
The only document we possess about the commission of the Mysteries of the Rosary is to be found in the archives of the Church of St. Paul, and it is of sufficient importance in respect of the Antwerp school of painting to justify us in quoting it here at length. Two copies of it are extant, both of a date later than the beginning of the XVII th century, and similar save for a few unimportant details. Here is the document:
1. The Annunciation given by Mons. Peeter Spronck painted by van Bael
(Hendrik van Balen) price 216 guilders
2. The Visitation given by Pieter Bouvrey and Jan Bapt. de Vos painted
by Franck 120
3. The Birth of Christ given by Jouffr. Wissekercke painted by Corn
deVos 138 „
4. The Purification.
5. Jesus among the Doctors acquired by several donations, painted by Matheys Voet g6
6. Gethsemane given by the Widow Vloers, painted by David Terriers." . 102
»
\ \
CHRIST ON THE CROSS. 11
7. The Flagellation given by mynheer Lowies Clarisse, painted by mynheer
Pieter Rubbens 150 guilders
8. The Crowning of Christ given by mynheer Adam Verjuijs, painted by Antoni de Bruyn 96
9. The Crossbearing given by mynheer Jan van den Broek, painted by
van Dyck 150
10. The Crucifixion given by Jouffr. Magdalena Lewieter, painted by Jordaens 150
11. The Resurrection given by P. Mag r Bouchet, painted by Arnout Vinckenborgh 66
12. The Ascension given by mynheer Colyn, painted by Arnout Vinckenborgh 120
13. The Outpouring of the H. Spirit given by Corn. Verbeeck, painted by Matthys Voet 102
14. The Ascension of Mary by several donations, painted by Aertsen. . . 66
15. The Crowning of Our Lady given by the Widow Capello, painted by Aernout Vinckenborgh 66
We have no information about Jufvrouw Magdalena Lewieter, the donor of Jordaens' picture. The name Lewieter sounds strange, but we come across it now and then in Antwerp during the XVII th and XVIII th centuries ; once, for example, on two clocks, cast for the balfry of the Church of Our Lady in 1655, on which one Roger Le Witre is mentioned as churchwarden; and again in a reference to a Maria Catharina Lewiter, wife of Sebastiaan Jacobs, who died on March 18, 1702, and was buried in the Saint Walburgis Church. It strikes us as noteworthy that the same price was paid for Jordaens' picture as for those of Rubens and van Dyck; even so early as this, it would appear, he was counted among the great masters.
The picture in the Church of the Dominicans represents Christ on the Cross. The Saviour is dead; his eyes are closed; the head has fallen over upon the left shoulder; the upper part of his body describes a strongly curved line. On the right is Mary, with one hand slightly lifting from before her face the blue drapery which envelops her head and her whole body. Next her in the foreground stands John wrapped entirely in a red cloak, his hands folded as he contemplates the Saviour with eyes full of pity. Also in the foreground, to the right, Mary Magdalen kneels weeping; while behind her appears an old woman in a dark blue garment, one hand to her face, the other at her neck.
It is a scene of sorrow, suppressed by some of the mourners, violently expressed in the case of others. The light is full, broken by shadows varying in tint, but always soft and transparent. On the nude body of the dead Christ falls a strong and warm radiance; the shadows are brown. The twilight shimmers on Mary's neck, and the features of the weeping woman are alight with fiery red reflections. The horizon is aflame with the glow of the setting sun, which is reflected on the feet of Christ and the legs gf Saint John. Down Christ's hands and arms the blood is trickling, so that both below and above the scene is flushed with a red tone. The whole makes a powerful design of light and colour. The tones are broken. The red cloak of John, the blue cloak of Mary, the gold-brown dress and the white linen of the Magdalen have their high-light effects tempered by thin shadows.
That which strikes us most in the picture, and puzzles us, is the complete difference it exhibits from all the works of Jordaens which succeeded it. From 1618 onwards the painter developed a marked individuality differing entirely from that shown by other
12
CHRIST ON THE CROSS.
painters- a tendency to which he remained faithful for many years. Later on he again and again modified his style; but in all the changes which it underwent there is to be recognised a logical progression : it is like a plant, which grows, bears flowers and fruit, attains its full maturity, fades and decays, but through all its development remains itself. The picture of 1617, on the other hand, shows no approach in style to those of later date. May it, after all, belong to a different period? Yet we are denied this solution, for the canvas reveals no closer relation with the master's work in more
advanced years. It is undoubtedly by Jordaens: we recognise in it sufficient general characteristics of his to be able to affirm this unhesitatingly; yet at the same time there are to be detected qualities so unlike any of his later work as to make it stand practically by itself. And if it is asked which are these unusual qualities the answer must be that in this earliest work Jordaens betrays most markedly the influence of his predecessors. That of Rubens is clear: the changing play of light and colour, the tender flesh of Christ's figure and its heavy build, the leaden tint of the legs, the bold swing of the torso, and the sense of drama immanent in the group as a whole — these are characteristics wherein conception and treatment are related to those of Rubens; and they are not to be found in the later Jordaens.
Here therefore we are in the presence of a work in which, though the painter has not yet become wholly himself, he separates himself from his predecessors with sufficient clearness to be distinguished from them, and discovers an originality that makes the work demonstrably his. In the first place, he is here already a colourist, laying on his tones vividly and full in strong yet harmonious combination. Beside it the other pictures of the Fifteen Mysteries, save that of Rubens, appear either screaming or dull. He has broken with Academic convention and follows his conception of the truth. His figures, — the Virgin, John, Magdalen, the old woman — all are people to be met in the everyday world; their features, not without beauty, are yet not idealizecT; they think and act like actual people. John stands affected by the thing he sees but cannot believe, his eyes fixed on the cross, the hands unconsciously held out, one leg moved forward. Mary with quite natural gesture lifts the drapery from before her face, her lips tightly closed with repressed grief, her eyes red with weeping, her hand on her heart
MELEAQER AND ATALANTA. Drawing (Masson, Amiens).
CHRIST ON THE CROSS.
13
as if she would control its beating. More theatrical is Mary Magdalen : her gold-coloured garment and white underlinen are turned down over the hip; in her overpowering grief she seems to forget reserve, and exposes the whole upper part of her body undraped. They are all personages of the sacred story; and at the same time they are ordinary men and women, suffering intensely and expressing their emotions in a natural way.
Jordaens' art had ripened when he painted this canvas. The nuances of light and shade on the breast of Christ, the play of shadow on Magdalen's drapery, the quivering in the background of the evening glow and the reflection on the figures, are cleverly rendered. Jordaens, in a word, is now an artist, exceptionally daring, original in his contemplation of the world and in his conception of his task in
life. The picture has weak passages also : the huddled -,
effect of light and shade on the faces of Mary, John and the old woman; the arbitrary pattern of the shadows on the Christ's body, and the exaggerated swing of its upper part, the want of taste shown in the uncovering of the Magdalen's arms and breast, all indicate that the painter has still to find the way that he is seeking.
Christ on the Cross, Rennes. — A picture treating the same subject in a similar manner is found in the Museum at Rennes. It came from the Church of the Beguinage at Antwerp, where (according to J. B. Descamps) it hung above the grave of the two beguins, Maria de Hester and Clara de Moy. In 1794 it was carried off by the French, and later was given to the Museum in which it is now found. The dead Christ hangs low; the block on which his feet are resting is a few feet only above the ground. The line of the body is perpendicular, the head has fallen forward on the breast, and a lock of hair has strayed from under the crown of thorns. To the left stands Mary in blue-green drapery which completely envelops
her; she fronts the spectator, but turns her head with a fixed gaze upon Christ. Next to her, weeping, is a second woman, with her hands folded, dressed in red, a black kerchief coiled round head and neck. To the right again, a young woman leans — fingers interlaced, head bowed, in an attitude full of tender love and pity — against the Christ. Mary Magdalen has sunk weeping to the ground at the foot of the cross, her head bent on her hand, lost in sorrowful thoughts. Her hair hangs loose; she is dressed in a pale yellow garment over another blue-striped. John standing in the background looks out of the picture a little indifferently; the old woman behind him has her eyes fixed on high.
Christ here is realised in a figure similar to that in the Dominicans' picture. The torso is heavy. Light falls on the breast and arms; the head is in warm shadow. Mary has the same expression of mute, heartrending grief; Magdalen is here, as in the other, conceived in a melodramatic way, sunk to the ground in despair. Very touching is the sweet figure of the woman who presses herself against Christ's limbs. Here also the influence of Rubens
•L J
WOMAN DRINKING Drawing (Museum, Brunswick).
H CHRIST ON THE CROSS.
is distinctly noticeable in the play of light and shadow and in the reflection on the dark- red garment of the woman to the left. The resemblance between The Christ on Calvary in the Museum at Antwerp by Rubens and this picture by Jordaens at Rennes » sinking In the latter work the expression of sorrow is realistically human, not an academical gesture Here we have again a scene of quiet, deep sorrow, of adorers who have gathered in a close circle round the beloved hanging there in majestic motionlessness. Here also some of the figures are less successful: the indifferent John, for example, and the expressionless Magdalen. The two pictures seem to date from about the same time, but in that at Rennes the painter's talent is more refined; in view of the resemblance already noticed to the work of Rubens, which was painted in 1620, we are probably justified in dating this canvas later, say about 1621.
„Christ on the Cross". Teirninck school, Antwerp. — A third Christ on the Cross is found in the Teirninck school at Antwerp. Formerly it stood on the altar of the chapel, but with the other pictures belonging to the foundation it has been brought to the small museum attached to the institution. The picture has been quite recently repaired and cleaned of the dirt which made it unrecognizable; time and renovations, however, have caused it to lose permanently much of its original freshness and soundness. The Saviour has just died; he hangs on the cross in the centre of the scene. To the left stands Mary, her hands folded over each other, her head turned towards Christ; she is enveloped in a blue cloak; deep sorrow is to be read in her face and in her whole attitude. On the ground sits a weeping woman, a child rests its head on her breast. To the right, at the foot of the cross, is seated Magdalen, in pale blue and yellow drapery, her hands folded in her lap and her head leaning against the leg of the crucified. Next to her stands John. He is wrapped completely in a red cloak, which he is lifting with a hand that is hidden under it; his other hand he stretches towards his master. Behind him is a man on a ladder placed against the cross. In the foreground lie bones of dead men and animals. The sky is clouded over.
The colour has been laid on in large, full patches in the draperies of Our Lady, John, and Magdalen. The shadows are dark; so far as we can still distinguish the original colour the flesh is of a pinky brown. Christ's arm is knotted with muscles ; the ribs of the breast can be counted. The unbroken colour-spaces, the brown flesh, the simplicity of the composition, the manner of painting the hair, which (as in the earliest examples of The Peasant and the Satyr) lies on John's head like a thickly matted fleece, point to early execution. As in the painting in the Preekheeren Church, the suffering on the face of the mother of Christ is most touchingly expressed. Several figures in this work are repeated in the „Mount Calvary", which also is in the Teirninck School. Mary in blue drapery, John in red, Magdalen in yellow-brown, are the same in both pictures. It is most likely that this „Mount Calvary" belongs to a date some years later than the picture of 1617. With the other paintings which the Teirninck School possesses it formed part of the collection belonging to Canon Christiaan Teirninck, who died in 1745. No doubt its original place was on one of the altars. It was engraved by Schelte a Bolswert during Jordaens' lifetime, a proof that the painter thought highly of it; the engraving, however, differs geatly from the painting. In it the ladder against the cross is missing. Mary lays one hand on her breast, while the other hangs down. Christ still lives. These alterations Jordaens has made so as to improve the grouping of the figures;
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. 15
the composition gains in simplicity by them, but it has become at the same time stiffer and more formal.
There was in the 18 th century another Christ on the Cross by Jordaens, in the church of the Minimencloister in Antwerp. (1) Still another, from the Church of the Carthusians at Brussels, was sold in 1785 with the pictures of the suppressed monasteries. A fifth, formerly in the Church of the Oratory at Tournay, is at present in the Cathedral of that town; a sixth, once hanging in the Church of St. Gommarius at Lier, is now in the Cathedral of Bordeaux. To the two last reference will be made in another chapter.
The Adoration of the Shepherds, Stockholm. — The earliest dated picture of Jordaens is the Adoration of the Shepherds in the Museum at Stockholm. In it Mary sits with her child upon her lap; at her back stands Joseph, supporting himself by a hand grasping the woodwork of the roof; beside him is a young boy regarding the mother and infant. A shepherd on the left, resting with both hands on his staff, stoops towards the child with a contortion of his neck. Behind him are a young shepherdess with a straw hat, and an old woman with a white kerchief on her head. In the sky, if we look closely, we see angel-heads, hazy, like cloudballs. In the foreground stands a brass gallon-jar for milk, on the broad handle of which is inscribed I. IoRd^nS fecit 1618.
Here we are in the presence of the real Jordaens, the Jordaens we know, who has become himself and expresses clearly, without any timidity or alloy, his conception of his art. The difference between him and his predecessors is great. First of all in the matter of conception. Rubens and hundreds of others in his day and before it represented ihe Adoration of the Shepherds as a scene in which the supernatural played a great part. Mary in their canvases shows her new-born son, a prodigy, to the simple country folks; a heavenly light surrounds his head, and often a white glow radiates from his small body over all the scene. Angels have descended from heaven to announce his arrival and to welcome him; shepherds and shepherdesses kneel before him or gaze at him with respectful admiration and tender him gifts. With Jordaens the Adoration becomes simply a visit of villagers to a woman newly confined. Mary is unmistakeably a mother: her heavy figure, her look of house-wifery, the ripeness of her years and her burgherly ways convey no hint of virginity. She is not in the full bloom of luxurious beauty, with firm peach flesh, glowing with a slight blush, as are the Madonnas of Rubens' conception; her features have grown broad and flaccid with indoor life and the cares of a family. But she is the loving mother; she clasps her child to her breast, contemplating him with anxious pleasure, without pride, without adoration, without exaltation over the unparalleled grace showered upon her; without any spiritual or physical nobility in her features or gestures; she is just a good Flemish burgherwoman, such as the painter had seen a hundred times. So with the child, — a sleeping baby with open little mouth, not naked and not angelic, but warm in swaddling clothes ; carefully tucked in, protected, and coddled by his mother. And so with all the personages. Joseph is not the ordinary insignificant supernumerary figure: his is a strongly drawn head; without patriarchal dignity indeed, but claiming respect. The shepherds and shepherdesses are in all ways people of everyday life: the youngest to the right, for instance, with body bent and features awry from pure tenderness for the sweet babe. The shepherdess with the straw hat is an ordinary young
(1) Reynolds. Voyages, II 179. — P. Genard. Notice sur Jacques Jordaens, p. 31.
i6
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.
lass posing for the pretty fresh peasant girl; and the old one next to her and contrasting with her is a woman from among the neighbours such as is never wanting when a visit is paid to a mother in childbed. They are, all of them, everyday people; neither better not worse than others, healthy and strong, good-looking rather than ugly, as Jordaens liked to see them, as he had seen them in reality and as we shall see them again in later works. Joseph's is the first in the line of character heads which Jordaens is to introduce to us in his works; the shepherd to the left with contorted face expressing his emotion, is the first of many whom he dissects with a certain mocking humour; the shepherdess with
the straw hat, the first of the pretty young women, who pose for him as decorations to his scenes, contriving to preserve a calm and dignity in the midst of excited merry-makers.
The execution is even more characteristic than are the types. The painting is smooth and flat, and has an enamelled hardness. There is little play of light and colour, little modelling in the flesh. The tones are high, unbroken, full. Mary wears a dark mantle over white linen; the young shepherd on the right a green coat, the one to the left a red; all simple colours, which lie vivid and full next to one another. The shadows are strong, the play of them as they flit over the faces is heavy and deep; the contrast between light and dark being sharply defined. It is a deliberate and clearly pronounced break with the flickering tones and tints ... ,. in the pictures of the „Romanists,"
with the tender painting of Otto Venius and Rubens. Jordaens here declares unmistakably his wish to reproduce virile men in a virile manner, without softening, without impoverishment of form and tone. Although later he is to extenuate and to fuse, the chief impression conveyed by him ever remains powerful and tersely natural. The picture was bought in 1779 by Qustavus II of Sweden
^,pJ, h n ere - eX1 ?f an ° the "; T Si ° n ° f thiS SUbjeCt in the P° ssession of P »»<* Lichnowsky at Kuchelna in Silesia, undoubtedly (though it bears no date) of the same period; with glowing
Zv oi T' St r g " ght i 1USty figUreS ' and a solid —el-like -rfac . It is not "a copy of the p.cture described above; it is a second and beautiful version of the same subject, surpassing the first in unusually brilliant execution
Copies by unknown hands are to be found in private collections
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. Drawing (Louvre, Paris).
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.
17
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
Drawing (Boymans Museum, Rotterdam).
The Adoration of the Shepherds. Brunswick. — Jordaens frequently repeated his subjects. This canvas in the Museum at Brunswick approximates most nearly to the picture of 1618; it is painted in exactly the same style and without doubt dates from the same year. The composition also is for the greater part alike in both. Here too Mary sits holding the sleeping doll-like little child, wrapped in pale yellow linen: she presses it lovingly against her breast, looking down on it with tender eyes; but now instead of the housewife, heavy of build and settled in years, she is represented as a very sweet young mother, a girl almost. Of the persons to the right, Joseph has the same imposing face; here also he holds on to the cross- beams of the roof; the boy in front, however, leans on his staff. The shepherd on the left no longer does so, but rests on the brass milk-can. Here too is the young shepherdess with the straw hat, but the old woman is replaced by a shepherd boy, his hand on
his breast. The execution is of the same manner; only, the glimmer of dusk filling the shadows is warmer and its play is rosy on the face of the young shepherdess, brown on Joseph's features.
Closely resembling the picture in the Museum at Stockholm is a drawing in red and black chalk in the British Museum, London. The centre is composed of a small sheet on which are drawn six of the seven figures in the picture, and on strips of paper pasted round this centre new figures have been added. Mary sits in the middle offering the breast to the little child, who has wakened up. Joseph is still there grasping the woodwork of the roof, but stooping forward more. The shepherd to the right is taken from the picture at Brunswick, and from that of Stockholm is introduced his fellow on the left in the twisted attitude. The shepherdess with the straw hat has been replaced by one carrying a hen-coop on her head; the elder woman has been transferred to the left, where three figures have been added, — two old shepherds and a child. There are two new figures also on the right: an old man leading a ram and a child playing the flute. In the background appear the raised heads of a donkey and an ox, while in the foreground sits a large dog. Curiosity as before is still the spring of all these figures, but the scene is enlarged, the action of the figures is more marked, and their features are lighted up with a more lively expression. The drawing is a striking and peculiar piece of workmanship. The lines are laid down strong and broad: neither pen nor pencil has been used; no consideration of fineness has entered into the execution ; but the whole is put upon the paper in broad strokes and smears, and in its ruggedness is held together eloquently by its force and truth.
The Adoration of the Shepherds. Engraving by Marinus.
There can be no 3
l8 THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR.
doubt that to the early years of Jordaens belongs also the Adoration of the Shepherds 1 o u hlgh'thl engraving of Marinas, though the picture itself has not een d scovered. The head of the child Jesus is still like a doll's and he is wrapped in his .mother s g Lent but this time sitting on her arm and looking with curiosity at the shepherds. Behind his little cap an aureole surrounds his head. Mary is a sweet young woman Joseph has become a less prominent figure. The shepherds are conceived quite differ enfly , they are a family, and express in a really touching way their adoration of the little Jesus. The man and the woman kneel before Mary. The woman's finger-tips are joined, and she looks at the babe with loving tenderness; the man has filled a basin of milk from the can and offers it to the infant. Behind these two kneeling figures appears the elder boy who plays on his flute in honour of the new-born child, while the younger blows upon a fire-basket so as to afford some heat to the Babe. In addition there are the grandmother, seen only from the shoulders upward; and a woman carrying a coop on her head, only one of her hands being visible. A softer, more intimate feeling has come into the figures, a greater compactness into the group ; the light falling on the scene is richer and makes greater play. But even from the engraving one can see that the colour is still heavy, the outline of the heads sharp, and the boorish element predominant.
For this Adoration of the Shepherds Jordaens made a rapid drawing in black and white chalk, which belongs to the Museum of Rotterdam. The group is the same, save that there is an additional man's figure, and the smaller boy does not blow on the fire-basket. In the background, in place of the door in the engraving, is a curtain hanging
from a pole.
In the Delacre collection at Ghent there is a drawing which shows great similarity to the one just referred to. The same persons appear in it, grouped almost in the same way. The Babe has fallen asleep on the mother's lap. Mary's head is covered with a shawl.
Among the property left by Rubens (Antwerp 1640) was found also a Birth of Christ, otherwise called the Adoration of the Shepherds, by Jordaens (No. 266 of the inventory). This picture necessarily belonged to the works of the master's early days.
The Peasant and the Satyr. Engraving by Vosterman. — One of the earliest of Jordaens' works was the Peasant and the Satyr. Sandrart confirms this: „One of his „first works", he says, „was taken from the fable of Aesop in which is told how a satyr „made the acquaintance of a peasant in a wood and went home with him, but left again „because he had observed the labourer blow both hot and cold from the same mouth,— an ..excellent picture, which was afterwards cut in copper by Lucas Vosterman." Aesop's fable of the „Man and the Satyr" does not really read in this manner, but as follows : „A certain „man made friends with a Satyr and took a meal with him. It was winter and the man „feeling cold put his hands to his mouth and blew upon them. When the Satyr asked him „why he did this, he answered: 'To warm my hands, which are cold.' When shortly after „this the hot dinner was served, the man blew on it, and again being asked why he did „so, said: 'To cool my food.' Thereupon the Satyr said, 'I will not have your friendship, for „you blow cold and hot from one and the same mouth.' "
In some readings the man is pictured as a passer-by or as a pilgrim, and the satyr takes him to his grotto. Jordaens interprets the story in his own way. The man is a peasant and the scene is laid in his cottage. The painter sought and found an opportunity to paint a peasant's family at table, in the same way as in the Adoration of the Shepherds
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR. 19
he had showed peasant folk quite otherwise occupied. For his first subject from the Gospels he chose field labourers at work; for his first from profane literature he picked out a peasant interior.
The painter cares very little about the moral of the fable: for to him the peasant is not, as with Aesop, a man whom one cannot trust: he is simply a field labourer, „doing himself well" with his porridge dish, and enjoying his simple meal as one of the great pleasures of life. Later we find Jordaens glorifying the same pleasure in other circles. He begins with a lower class in which he observes it in all its grossness and boorishness. All the rest is secondary. The satyr is introduced to surprise and to afford an occasion for a piece of excellent painting in which he supplies a strange element in sharp contrast with the everyday character of the main group.
The picture, which corresponds with the engraving of Vosterman that Sandrart mentions, belongs to Mr. Alfons Cels at Brussels. The peasant family are at table. The wife seated on the farther side, with a child on her lap, dips a spoon into a red earthen dish standing on the board before her. The man is seated on the left, blowing on the spoon, with which he has ladled porridge out of the basin in his hand. Behind him stands a maid, with a straw hat, one arm leaning on a wicker chair in which is seated an old woman. On the right stands the satyr, the upper part of his body naked, gray of hair and flowing of beard, his loins covered with a long-haired goatskin and a girdle of vineleaves. His hand is raised with a gesture appropriate to the admonition he addresses to the peasant. Under the table sits a dog, spotted brown and black; on the wicker chair is perched a cock. The picture differs from the engraving, being, as it stands, smaller both in height and in breadth, so that the mantelpiece behind the satyr, and a part of the arm of the peasant- wench to the left and of the chair on which the peasant is seated, have been cut away. The painter made no other alterations in his work when he gave it to the engraver to interpret, save that he exchanged the little child's cap for a mop of curly hair, and placed an iron trellis across the opening in the wall behind the maid with the straw hat.
This picture is painted in the same manner as The Adoration of the Shepherds at Stockholm, the general tone, however, being browner and darker. The bright colours have been spread upon the canvas in broad patches, full and firm. The white tablecloth and the red earthen dish triumphantly hold the centre; the legs of the trestle in full sunlight also compete for the dominant note; the peasant in his red blouse, in one piece, in one brush-sweep, with his bare legs polished by the open air, and the peasant woman with her smooth face, fair breast and snow-white chemise, do not fall short in strength of tone. Brilliant is the painting of the cock perched on the coop, fresh and broad that of the dog below the table : two first-rate pieces of animal painting. But now Jordaens shows, more distinctly than in his work of 1618, that he is able to go along other roads as well. The satyr, the old woman, and the head of the wench have been painted in shadow. The goat-footed one still exhibits a want of ease in paint, and he is parchment-like in appearance ; but he stands outside the circle of vivid light which holds the centre of the picture, and is bathed in a transparent shadow in which the thousands of little wrinkles and creases of the skin cause movement and variations, while they refine and strengthen the expression of the head. The shadows fall more heavily on the features of the woman and the maid, but in them also life shines through the velvet darkness. The touches have become more exquisite; the faces shine with greater life and spirit amid the fervent glow.
Since we find in this work a variation of the treatment of that of The Adoration of
20
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR.
the Shepherds at Stockholm, we may conclude that both pictures date from about the same year In corroboration of this we may note that the wench with the straw hat in The Peasant and the Satyr is evidently painted from the same sitter as the young shepherdess with her head similarly covered in The Adoration of the Shepherds, and that one model has clearly served for the satyr in the one picture and the St. Joseph in the other. In addition the child on the lap of the peasant woman is most probably Jordaens' eldest daughter, Cathanna; she was born on the 26 th June 1617, and the child in the picture may quite well be about a year and a half old, as Catharina was at the time of the painting.
It is also likely that the mother is Jordaens' wife, Catharina van Noort, whom we meet here for the first time. Her face is strongly characterised by the long narrow oval of its contour, the bulging forehead, the somewhat swollen eyes, the thick lips and protruding
chin. It is no doubt the same figure as the Mary Magdalen of The Christ on the Cross in the Dominicans' church, in which, however, her hair is golden, while here it is black, as in the other pictures in which we find her. Represented as a peasant, she shows signs of bodily strength rather than of quick intelligence. She quite looks the twenty-nine years which she had reached in 1618.
The Peasant and the Satyr. Budapest, Munich, Cassel, etc. — A second painting of the same subject and no doubt dating from the same time hangs in the Museum in Budapest. The composition as a whole cor- responds with that of the preceding picture. The satyr on the right has the same shape and lifts his hand with the same gesture; the young peasant woman here also sits behind the table with the little child on her lap; the peasant blowing in his hands occupies his same place a^the side, and the old woman sits in the same wicker chair with the cock on the top of it; the same dog sits below the table. Only, here the head of the peasant woman is turned to the right instead of to the left and her hand rests on the table instead of holding a spoon; her little child is bare-headed and has a curly shock of hair; the peasant wears a tasselled blue cap, which Jordaens often paints on his head. The young peasant wench with the straw hat is missing; her place has been taken by the old woman in the wicker chair. The painting is darker and coarser than in the previous picture.
A third version is found in the Pinakothek at Munich. The peasant with the blue cap is seated in the same place and in the same attitude as in the two other pictures; the old woman in the wicker chair, with a cock on the top of it, sits next to him, and holds on her lap a child which appears a year older; the mother stands right behind the satyr, who is younger and is seated on a high chair. Behind the father stands a boy,
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR
Drawing (Mr. Fairfax Murray, London).
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR.
21
beyond whom again appears a cow's head thrust forward in the direction of the group ; a dog sits under the table, a cat under the peasant's chair; on the table stands a common red bowl with porridge, and another with fruit. The painting is still smooth and solid without noticeable play of tints. In the lights, however, the variation is richer; in the back-ground towards the left a brownish glow predominates; to the right a heavy dark shadow. The flesh of the satyr is brown, working into heavier tones on his side; that of the peasant is lighter brown; rosy fair that of the woman and child. This child makes the centre of the scene, and is decidedly charming.
The fourth and the most remarkable of these early examples of the Peasant and the Satyr is that which the Museum at Cassel possesses (No. 101, formerly No. 266). Here the peasant is seated on the farther side of the table eating porridge, with the peasant woman, her child on her lap, at his right; and the satyr on a high chair to his left. Between him and the satyr stands a little boy with another dish of por- ridge in front of him. Behind the couple at the table stand an old peasant woman (who here wears the pointed straw hat) and a young labourer with the blue tufted cap on his head. Under the chair of the satyr sits a cat.
The painting in this work is as firm, the colour as brilliant as in the others; the high strong notes are struck in the white linen tablecloth, the red dress and
blue skirt of the woman, the thick light-yellow blanket in which her child is wrapped, the two red porridge dishes on the table. There are found, on the other hand, the softer hues of the fat, wrinkled body of the satyr, the hands and bare feet of the peasant woman, her fairer head and breast, all of which have been painted with the utmost care and with an astonishing art. This satyr is one of Jordaens' masterly figures; all turn to him; he is now the centre of the action, and the artist has certainly made him worthy of the attention which he exacts. The painter with much gusto reveals for us the mind of this half- human creature; it has been a delight to him too to contemplate and admire his giant body. When the goat-legged one observes the labourer at his ambiguous exercise his simple mind rebels; he lifts his arms with an air of reproach, and lets his body sink backwards, his chin on his chest; he fixes his eyes on the equivocal mouth with a gesture that is strikingly eloquent. The satyr's head is such as one can imagine upon a bushman, heavily built, deeply wrinkled, with tangled hair and beard ; the body is massive, heavily furrowed
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR (Pinakothek, Munich).
22
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR.
by the sharp folds of the skin ; the arms are fat and muscular. But on this coarsely built body light and .shadow make beautiful play: the head is shrouded in heavy shadow, searched by a warm glow, with sunny touches on the edges of the wrinkles,, on the fringes of the beard, on the coils of the hair, on the crown of leaves which encircles his head. On the breast falls a powerful, full light, through which the shadows flow over the gentle curves and slight unevenesses of the skin; on arms and hands, again, light and dark are in stronger opposition. It is a picture of the struggle, or rather of the compact, between light and shadow.
The head of the old peasant woman also is remarkable, coming up more quietly and gently out of the sombre, melting glow. The fresh, sweet boy's head roguishly peeps from among these luminous figures, the face without shadow and without care. The cat beneath the chair of the satyr is a little gem of animal painting. Altogether here we have a masterpiece, the first of Jordaens' pictures of which we can say as much ; but though the progress in the painter is most noticeable in it, we are convinced, from the heavy shadows and the sharp contrast of light and shade, that it is one of the earlier works of Jordaens, painted in or shortly after 1620.
Considerable likeness to this composition is discovered in a picture which we know through an engraving by Jacob Neefs. The peasant woman with the child and the porridge-eating man are the same, and here also the satyr sits on a high chair. His gesture however is different. He is represented as persuasive towards the peasant, anxious to make him understand the reason of his distrust. An old woman is pouring milk into a dish which stands in front of the satyr. A cock is perched on a loose shutter, and the dog from the earliest version sits under the table. A new figure has made an appearance. Behind the porridge-eater stands a second peasant who wears the familiar tasselled cap; he is playing the fool, laughing half idiotically, putting out his tongue, and allowing the porridge to trickle down his chin. He is the earliest comic figure that we meet with in Jordaens' work. For the first time also the furniture in the peasant interior is rendered with some detail: the kettle hangs above the blazing fire in the open hearth; from the mantelshelf is suspended a string of onions; cans are hanging against the wall; on the mantelshelf stands the candlestick and in the rack are plates and other crockery. We know this composition also through a small picture (very possibly a repetition of the bigger one which Neefs engraved) in the possession of Mr. Leo Janssen at Brussels.
There is a picture in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg which repeats the same scene, with the variation that the old woman no longer pours out milk for the satyr, but instead is listening attentively to what he says; and that a red dish, not the dog as in the engraving, is under the table.
There is no doubt that Jordaens caused The Peasant and The Satyr to be painted frequently by his assistants or pupils. As a rule they followed his figures and accessories, made a few slight alterations, and painted the whole in the style ot the master, who kept an eye on them as they worked. A picture of this kind is owned by Ridder de Wouters d'Oplmter at Brussels. The peasant is seated at the farther side of the table with his legs crossed below it, and the satyr also has drawn up to the table in front of a porridge dish. The last is the most striking element in the composition. We find in the picture in addition the woman with her child on her lap and behind her a second little child; behind the peasant is an old peasant-woman with a pointed straw hat, and a young peasant. Between the peasant and the satyr we notice a second child's head. The general tone is ruddy-
•-a
JORDAENS AMONG THE PAINTERS OF HIS TIME. 23
brown, without great radiance. The light is tempered over the group of the satyr and the peasant; it falls full and warm on the peasant-woman. It is a respectable example of jordaens' style, too good to be made by a pupil alone, not bearing the master's stamp strikingly enough to prove itself by his hand; a picture, in fact, which most likely came into existence through collaboration of master and pupil.
The Peasant and the Satyr in the Museum at Cassel (No. 102, formerly 93) is another example of a p 1C ture thoroughly in Jordaens' style, though not by his hand. This also is undoubtedly a school picture.
in a
Jordaens' place among the Painters of his time. - Thus five times at least
short period Jordaens painted The Peasant and the Satyr, showing that the subject possessed
an unusual attraction for him ; we may say that in those pictures he found his true way
and fixed his individual style. In this style, individual though it was, there are to be found
in combination the two currents dominant in the period immediately preceding that of
himself and his contemporaries. In the sixteenth century a section of the Flemish school,
the Antwerpers in particular, aimed at observing and rendering the actuality of everyday life!
Quentin Matsys (14609-1530) had begun it. The diggers in the right-hand shutter of his
Laying in the Grave, his Goldweigher (Louvre), his Receiver of Taxes (Antwerp) were
burghers such as he saw at work around him. Jan van Hemissen (1504—1556),
Pieter Aertszen (1508—1573), Pieter Huys (1519—1581), Joachim De Beuckelaer (1540—1573)
painted men and scenes from everyday life. Hieronymus Bosch (1460?— 1516) combined
the monsters of his imagination with the realities of his observation. Pieter Breughel the
Elder (15209—1569) was Bosch's chief follower, but with him there is less of the fantastic
element, and he finds his principal material in the manners and customs of peasant
and burgher. All these artists, to whom we may add Cornelis Matsys, a son of Quentin,
Marinus van Roemerswael, and Lucas van Leyden, remained independent of Italian influence,
Their figures are generally of modest dimension, in full, vivid tones and sharp in outline.
They loved their people, found their doings and dealings picturesque, and though their
heroes were not of a classic beauty, yet they discovered in them lines and contours,
more characteristic than the academic conventions, and sufficiently rich in tint and tone
to offer material for vigorous representations, full of colour.
With these there existed many „ Romanists", who had been to school across the Alps,
and had come to consider their own country and its people too common to be immortalized
on their canvases. They delighted only in noble figures engaged in heroic action, cosmopolitan
figures, with statuesque form, in costumes suitable to any age and any place, in surroundings
without characteristics of country or race. They were artists of the school rather than of life,
of the general than of the particular, of the beautiful rather than of the true. They liked to
paint on large canvases in agreeable, harmonious colours, with charming reflections and
surprising effects of light. Here in Flanders they had first made their appearance with Jan
Gossaert van Mabuse (14707—1541) and Barend van Orley (1488?— 1541), and had with
Frans Floris (1518—1570), with the Franckens, and Marten de Vos, become masters of
Antwerp. In Rubens the school reached its zenith and its goal ; in the place of its prerogative
he established his personal authority, which was respected throughout the seventeenth century.
In his earliest works especially Jordaens remained faithful to the realistic school of the
XVI th century. Like all its disciples he chose for his subjects scenes from the life of the people,
men of sharply marked features, occupied with the affairs of daily life ; in the same way as
24 JORDAENS AMONG THE PAINTERS OF HIS TIME.
Quentin Matsys had painted workers, usurers, and elderly lovers boers or burghers; and as old Pieter Breughel had reproduced peasant men and women feastmg or guzzhng at the festive board, jordaens is the genius of the rich kitchen, of noisy gluttonous parties of mouths agape for song or drink, of downy cheeks delightful to kiss, of buxom bod,es
indefatigable in frolic.
He sought his models among the people about him, and for them forsook the doll-like heads, sweetly tinted, regularly pretty, of Marten De Vos, the academic features of Frans
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR (Museum, Cassel).
Floris, the insipid figures of the „Romanists". He adopted neither Rubens' dramatic Roman- heroic type of men, nor his ripe, plump seductive women figures. Nor did he fall into the other extreme and follow the elder Breughel and van Hemissen in their wooden and grimacing figures. He did not select models remarkable on the one hand for beauty or on the other for vulgarity. His types are ordinary, burgherly; he represents them as roguish, distorted, clod-pated, as it suits him ; when in more dignified r61es, however, they assume a classic symmetry. He favours heads with a long oval, protruding chin and jawbones, eyebrows wide apart; his characters consort better with scenes of home life than with tragic episodes proceeding from violent passions.
CHRIST IN THE GARDEN OF OLIVES.
25
Like his predecessors he elected to paint the manners and customs of peasants and burghers, in strong solid colour; he was infatuated with vivid tones, — full reds that shine and leap forth from a sombre background, brilliant white that lights up a whole canvas. This love he had inherited from the old pure Flemings, from Quentin Matsys, from Marinus van Roemerswael, from the elder Breughel. As in theirs so in his early works, no tone was too powerful, no light too vivid for the presentation of robust figures in all their strength. But he was a son of the seventeenth century as well; from the first he brushed his secular scenes as well as his religious in a grand and broad manner, the figures life-size, lusty in limbs, free in gesture. Gradually he comes more under the powerful influence of Rubens with his irresis- table charm; then, as we shall see later, he paints reli- gious and mythological can- vases of courtly splendour, with glowing light and colour effects, and scenes from the life of the people, full of vital strength and joy of life, with the same brilliance of tones and freedom of action. But he remains ever the keen humorous observer of every- day realities, the friend of his countrymen, the sappy chronicler of the manners and customs of his fellow citizens. Over the scenes of that humble world he lets his frank laugh resound and his glowing colour play. He isolates these homely joys and social gatherings so that they become important events and great ceremonies; he is the epic painter of the plea- sures and carousals of the Flemish burghers; and thus
it was he who welded the realistic painting of the people, which lived through the whole of the XVI th century, with the Italianised art, which had arisen beside it and rivalled it and in the beginning of the XVIII th century overruled it completely.
Christ in the Garden of Olives and Judas's betrayal. - Immediately following his
mention of The Peasant and the Satyr, one of Jordaens' first works, engraved by Voster-
man, Sandrart makes reference to a „Christ in the Garden of Olives, how he is
betrayed by Judas's kiss and after that attacked with fury by a band of jews, bound and
"pulled down while Peter throws the lantern-bearer Malchus on the ground and deals him
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THE HOLY FAMILY (Museum, New York).
26 THE HOLY FAMILY.
furious blows, everything represented during the night with wonderful mastery". Of this picture we know neither what has become of it, nor whether it really belonged to Jordaens' early period. In 1779 a Betrayal of Judas by Jordaens, measuring 4 feet 8 inches in height and 3 feet 9 inches in width was sold in St. Jorishof at Brussels. The picture only brought 7 guilders. In the library of the royal gallery at Copenhagen there is a sketch (46.5 cm. in height and 68 cm. in width) which dame from the castle of Fredenborg, representing the scene from the Gospels described by Sandrart. To the right, slightly elevated above the other figures, is Judas, kissing Christ; Malchus lies on the ground; Peter kneels beside him and angrily lifts the sword with which he is going to cut off his ear. To the left is a crowd of onlookers watching the betrayal. Very probably this is a first sketch for the lost picture.
The Holy Family. — The Holy Family in the Museum at Schleissheim indubitably belongs to this first period of the master. Our Lady is represented as unusually young; she is stooping and holding the infant Christ with both hands; the child lifts up his little hand and looks roguishly aside; her hair is drawn back, and a wide red cloak envelopes her entire figure. To the left we see St. John with his lamb, and St. Anna in a hoodless wicker chair. St. Joseph sits on a wooden chair, resting his right hand on the top of that in which St. Anna is seated. The eyes of all are on mother and child. The painting is characteristic of Jordaens' earliest manner ; the colours lie smoothly, with hard reflections on Mary's red garment, on the child, and on Anna's white head-kerchief. The pale blue drapery of Joseph and the bright yellow wall to the left also aid in making the cool luminous tone predominant.
The Holy Family in the Museum at New York is closely related with that in the Museum at Schleissheim. The group of Mary and the child, St. Joseph and St. Anna is identical in both. There are added to this group a St. Elisabeth, holding the little John on the back of the lamb, and, to the left, two men figures, St. Joachim and St. Zacharias. The child Jesus stands on a globe and tramples upon the snake which lies coiled upon it. Under the globe we see a cartouche on which we read : Radix sancta et Rami. Rom. II. 16.
Not only has the composition become richer in figures, but the grouping also is more artistic and happy. It is a very homely family scene : the elders in it are finding a genial and burgherly pleasure in watching the children at their play. The infant Jesus is represented with his shirt drawn up about him; this is not dignified treatment; it is one of those voluntary or involuntary vulgarities of which Jordaens is guilty more than once, and here not made less noticeable by the unfortunate choice of the pedestal on which the little Jesus has been placed. Notwithstanding this, there is expressed, in the loving attention which all pay the divine child, a feeling of adoration, which communicates to the little family circle a certain sanctity and elevates it above everyday life.
The supposition that this picture dates from the same time as the other Holy Family is confirmed by the figure of St. Joseph, who is painted from the same model in both: an old man with a full beard, a bald head and a sharp nose.
To this part of his artistic career belong, so far as we know them, several other Holy Families painted by Jordaens, in which the figures, though not completely corre- sponding with those of the pictures mentioned above, show a similar conception. This is the case with the Holy Family in the Museum at Dublin, where the child Jesus, crowned with flowers, is holding in his hand a string of pearls. Mary carries
THE HOLY FAMILY - THE FOUR EVANGELISTS. 27
her little son on her arm; behind her stand- St. Joseph and St. Anna and a tall angel. A picture of similar composition belonging to Mr. S. Flood Page was exhibited at the Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1892; another example of the same appeared at the Anguiot sale (Paris, 1875), and was offered for purchase to the writer by Mr. L. Souillie at Paris; a third appeared at the Verellen sale (Antwerp, 1856); a fourth is in the Museum at Lille.
The Holy Family. Brunswick. — Quite different is the conception of the Holy Family in the picture in the Museum at Brunswick. Our Lady is on one knee, amidst a landscape, supporting the upright baby under its arms. St. Joseph, a lily in his hand, stands to the right and takes the little one's arm as if inviting him to go with him for a walk. Over the child hovers the Holy Ghost, while above Joseph's head four little angels are holding a crown and a palm-branch. God the Father sits enthroned on high amidst the clouds. Though mention is made of two other pictures of similar composition,— the one by Mensaert and Descamps as being in the XVIII th century in the Church of St. Catharine at Mechlin; and the other in the Catalogue of pictures which had belonged to the closed convents and were sold at Brussels in 1785, one of which appears once more at the sale Lebrun (Paris),— we cannot agree about their attribution to Jordaens. None of the figures has a distinct Jordaens character. The garment of Mary with its soft reflections, the angels in the sky with their sticky curled hair and chubby rounded bodies, the nebulous God the Father, in no way remind us of our powerful painter. St. Joseph, a heavily built figure with long, dark brown hair, and deeply shadowed skin, approximates nearer to his style; but his goody-goody expression, the lily in his hand, the crown above his head are so insipid in conception that any earlier inclination to agree with the general opinion vanishes forthwith.
A picture which bears much similarity with that in the Museum at Brunswick is a Holy Family which is found in the Museum at Ghent, and belongs to Mr. Scribe. Here also we see the three persons of the Holy Family. St. Joseph holds a palm-branch like a walking-stick in his hand, Our Lady is seated with the child on her lap and wears a hat trimmed on the underside with lining on which is a wheel-shaped pattern; in the sky are floating little angels, holding a crown above the head of St. Joseph. The similarity is striking, the models are the same, but the painting is dark brown in the shadow; notwithstanding its real merit, the most marked characteristics of Jordaens' hand are wanting. The Louvre possesses a drawing of this picture, as doubtful a Jordaens as the painting.
The Four Evangelists. Louvre. — One of the most remarkable pictures of Jordaens' earliest period is the Four Evangelists in the Louvre. All four stand erect, and are seen only to the knees; and all fix their eyes upon the book which lies open on a table. A glimpse of sky shows in the background behind the red drapery which chiefly occupies it. The Evangelist on the left is wrapped in a tawny cloak; the crown of his head is bald, his, hair black, his beard gray. His right hand is held to his beard, giving support to his head; his left arm leans on the shoulder of the younger figure at his side. This second evangelist is draped completely in white; his hands are crossed over his breast, the forefinger of one of them touching his chin; long brown hair waves round his youthful head. The third, of whom only the face is seen, has short gray hair and a gray beard; he leans with one lifted hand against the wall-hangings. The fourth on the extreme right is draped in a dark, lilac-coloured garment, edged with fur; with the left hand he holds
THE FOUR EVANGELISTS.
28
a •„ h, r \aM hand a oen, with which he is about to write;
- sxzxzt zz"ri^, — - - - - --
'" CrellsftT painting is remarkable for its firmness, and for the sharpness of the „„es «h wrinkles and of the strands of the hair, and the angularity with which the drapery fall . The painter throughout is the glorifier of strength; the bold and ev re coourTst who dares to exhibit in the fore-front the broad white drap ry of die young Evangelist, and is sufficiently confident of his ability to make the neutral and darker colours of fhe other fabrics harmonise with it. The tone differs from some o lus former pieces in the abundance of its warmth and brightness, and by the mefing ^ .rans.f.on of
the various gradations. The light flows in a broad stream, falling strongly on the white projected figure, quietly glowing with half force on the yellow brown drapery to the left, falling cooler on the darker one to the right, and decreasing gradually, without bold leap or violent shock.
And in this work Jordaens discovers another side of himself: as a painter of character-heads, as a reader of the human soul. The four Evangelists are all medita- tive, deliberative, stubborn men; three of them are browned by the sun, wrinkled by hard labour as by years, not intellectual, but men who take their mission seriously, in the same way as earlier they had applied themselves to their trade, and who exert themselves to fulfil worthily their new and nobler office. All are looking upon the great book circumspectly: they wish to learn before they instruct. The two in front are completely lost in their study and thoughts; the younger brings a finger to his chin; the elder grasps his beard as if he wished to force his head to attention; the gray figure in the background is slower of wits, the exertion of thought costs him more trouble; after quiet consideration, it dawns upon his mind what he has to learn. The last Evangelist, the writer, divides his attention between the contents of the book out of which he is learning, and what he will write in the book where he notes that which he must teach others; his attenion is strained, his expression bright as in one who is excited with anxiety to understand exactly and to render precisely.
The supposition that the four Evangelists belong to Jordaens' earliest works, which were executed in the early twenties, is not confirmed only by the style of the painting; there are other more material proofs. The Evangelist with the gray hair is St. Joseph from the Adoration of the Shepherds at Stockholm; the figure in both pictures has the same
DEMOCRITUS AND HERACL1TUS
(Museum, New York).
THE FOUR EVANGELISTS.
29
features and in both leans with uplifted hand against the upper wall-hangings. Besides, the picture is one of the first of Jordaens of which we find mention in any document. Among the property left by Pieter Lastman at Amsterdam the Four Evangelists as well as a copy of it was found. (1) This copy no doubt is the picture now in possession of Mr. Eberhard Clemens at Hamburg. Another copy belongs to Lord Hardwick at Wimpole.(2) A third copy is in the choir of the Church of St. John at Mechlin; a fourth in the convent of the Jesuits at Tournay. The last has this peculiarity, that while the others in style and colour are wholly of Jordaens' early time, this is painted in the tone of his later years, with dark and heavy shadows, and flowing paint: one would say it is one of the early works of the master reinterpreted by himself or painted by a pupil about 1660, in the style which our painter had then adopted.
One of these copies (according to the catalogue of the Louvre the original work) was engraved by John Dean in 1776 when it was in possession of V. M. Picot, and was at that time attributed to Rubens and Jordaens.
In the Von Speck collection (Leipsic, 1827) there was a picture by Jordaens, „Four evangelists with an angel behind one of them".
The picture in the Louvre appeared at the Philip van Dyck sale (The Hague, 1753) and afterwards belonged to Louis XVI of France. (3) In several places, such as the Museums at Brussels, Ghent, Caen, and in certain private collections, we find figures probably painted as studies for his Evangelists; the figures in the Abraham and Isaac (so-called) in the Museum at Hamburg are of the same nature. Similar figures appear as Job, as the mourning Peter, or as studies for Apostles.
Jordaens had a predecessor in the painting of this subject, who was at the same time related to him in his art, to wit Joachim De Beuckelaer. The Museum in Dresden possesses a picture by him representing the Four Evangelists: three of them are writing, the fourth raises his hand. Neither in composition nor in the attitude of the figures do the
THE HOLY FAMILY (Mr. Delacre, Ghent).
(1) A BRED.US and Mr. N. DE ROEVER. Inventory of works of art, belonging to Pieter Lastman at Amsterdam, made on the 7th of iu^ 1632 (Oud-Holland .V, 15): „4 Evangelists by Jac. Jordaens. - 4 Evangehsts. Copy by Jordaens."
'^^^J^^V^^^TZJ^^^^ Bvangelis/ who so familiarly lays his arm on his neighbour's shoulder, should be meant for the 12 years old Christ.
3 o DEMOCRITUS AND HERACLITUS.
two pictures correspond ; the realistic character of De Beuckelaer's work is the only feature which we find similar in Jordaens. The younger man certainly works in the same manner as his predecessor, but his figures are different and he has also more strength of expression, and more solidity of colour.
Democritus and Heraclitus. — The Democritus and Heraclitus in the Museum at Brunswick offers more than one point of similarity with the Four Evangelists. The group consists of a fat, well-favoured old man who leans with his right elbow on the globe on which also his left hand rests. His heavy powerful trunk is naked, a violet-blue drapery covers one of his shoulders. This is Heraclitus discontented with the way of the world ; he makes a wry face and looks low-spiritedly askance. Face and hands are brown in tone; a warm light falls on his right arm and shoulder. Democritus leans with his left arm on Heraclitus' shoulder, and rests his open right hand upon the globe as if he sought to explain to mankind his optimistic outlook upon life. He smiles, pleased with his own conception, and mocks at the pessimism of his confrere. He has curly hair, and a short beard; the furrow in his cheek caused by his laugh is hard and deep as a crevice. The fat man has been painted with care, but as a whole not with much strength or spirit; the shadows are unusually heavy. In all probability the picture was painted before The Four Evangelists, when Jordaens' talent was not yet ripe. The figure of Democritus reminds one strikingly of the model who sat for the Evangelist with the curly hair, in the same way as Heraclitus reminds us of the Evangelist with the bald crown and the hand on his beard. Jordaens wished to paint two strongly characterised heads; his intention is quite plain; but when it came to execution, he failed to produce a masterpiece.
The Museum in New York possesses a second example of the same group ; this appeared at a sale at the Hague, on the 3 d of May 1729. In 1855 it belonged to P. A. Verlinden at Antwerp, who sent it in that year to the Exhibition of Old Masters. It was sold at Edouard Verbruggen's in Antwerp in 1868.
At a sale held in Brussels, on the 25 th March 1849, appeared a „Democritus and Heraclitus explaining their systems to the multitude".
Moses striking water from the Rock. Karlsruhe. - Already in his earliest period Jordaens dared to venture on Scriptural scenes of larger dimensions with numerous figures. We know two of this kind: Moses striking water from the rock, which is in the Museum at Karlsruhe; and The Diciples at Christ's Grave, in Dresden. Both pictures have something characteristic: they represent the scene fragmentarily only. In the first we do not see the rock which Moses strikes, nor the water which springs forth from it; in the second we do not see the grave of Christ which the diciples have come to visit. In both pictures the figures are turned to the invisible part of the scene; in the first they are all to the right, in he second all to the left, an arrangement which is also noticeable to a certain extent in The Four Evangelists. In all of these pictures Jordaens wished to paint a group of men agitated by the same thought, and to express this thought, not in a single figure or ma few, but by a whole group moved by the same emot on and showing
as ' fa rlT' ^ ° f ?! gr ° UPS h3S bCen C ° mp0Sed in a ™^y -" forward He ,h P ° h 10 » ° f *** "*"" * COnCerned J 0rdaens has ™de a great tride stov wh0 t,! T V 1 * 5 * W ° rkS a ^ artist -^ renews the conception of history, who boldly takes a slice out of life, not understanding everything of the event,
MOSES STRIKING WATER FROM THE ROCK. 31
yet choosing that in it which grips one most, the essentially human element in it, which he expresses with fearless daring.
In the picture in the Museum at Karlsruhe Moses stands to the right of a rock of which only the side is visible, with a fixed upward look, urgently invoking the Almighty, in the ecstasy of faith in his success, — the figure of a true exorcist. Behind him presses the multitude, moved by more worldly cares, anxiously awaiting the promised spring. In front a boy, quite naked, with his back to us, raising one hand while the other rests on his father's arm; then the father crouching, a green drapery only round his waist, holding a cow by a rope. Behind these two are a young man and an old woman, whose head only is visible. In the centre an old and venerable man, clad in red drapery, evidently a priest, extends his hand with a supplicating gesture, while he turns his worn face upwards with pained anxiety. More to the left a young man, the upper part of the body naked, raises his arm and with wide-open mouth cries out in his sufferings; a weeping child is held up by two hands belonging to an otherwise invisible figure, and a laughing infant is carried on its mother's arm. Also to the left we notice two heavy heads of cattle and a dog jumping up at the erect young man; in the right-hand corner two sheep; on the ground is a brass can, and at the top are three others the bearers of which are invisible.
The picture has a very peculiar aspect, and looks as if it had been painted yesterday. It is clear and loud of tone, as no other work of Jordaens is; the pale lilac-coloured garment of Moses is found nowhere else in his pictures; the nude flesh of the boy and that of his father and of the man who stands erect, have a hard glow, and their outlines are sharp, as if cut with a knife. The light is vivid and of a fierce whiteness; the cattle heads also are hard, with a strange fresh reflection, and dull gray tones. Other parts have been indifferently treated, or are worn, as for instance the lambs' heads, the two heads in the background and the frisking dog. Some of the arms and legs have been attached to the figures in such a peculiar way, that we have some difficulty in saying to which they belong. There is no reason to doubt that the picture was retouched very early, especially in the lights. Another curious fact is that the models are not those from whom Jordaens usually painted. The Moses, the central figure, is to be found in no other picture; and so with the others, — so far as we can distinguish their features, they are as unfamiliar.
On the other hand it is certain that the picture is by Jordaens, and belongs to his early period. The manner of painting the naked backs with their knotty muscles, and the peculiar undulations and swellings of the necks, the mastery in execution of the cattle heads, the faces of the laughing and the crying child, are certain evidence that it is his. The contorted neck and the twisted features of the young man we have already seen in The Adoration of the Shepherds at Stockholm. We find here for the first time the naked backs and breasts which he loved to paint in pictures of later years as so many large reflectors of sunny brightness. Here, too, for the first time animals take a prominent place in his scene, and prepare us for his becoming the chief among painters of large and small quadrupeds and birds. All the painting, so far as we can still distinguish it with certainty after the renovations which the picture has undergone, is undoubtedly by his own hand and of his early years. Masterly passages are to be found in this work : the head of Moses, the heads of the two children, and those of the animals are so vigorously and choicely painted that one does not dream for a moment of ascribing it to any other hand. The picture is a transition between his earliest representations of The Peasant and the Satyr and his Fertility in
32 THE DISCIPLES AT CHRIST'S GRAVE.
the Museum at Brusse.s and must Have b een paint. in the years .med .j^im Another example of the same subjec belong conception,
never been exhibited. The composition oMluspict^ shows y ^
At the right-hand side Moses and Aaron stand on a neignt again
, f + a , Tohr.vah sits enthroned upon a rainbow that arcnes tne
which spring four jets of water. Jehovah " te J^ J ye en> women ^ children rock. All the people come rushing forward to refresh themselves . c , .
fill the ravine; mothers carrying their little ones, a young man his aged J^^™^* from thirst, and express their suffering with eloquence. They carry pitchers and vends varls o t s . Cattle" of all kinds, - horses, camels, oxen, cows asses, sheep and g a s - are being led along. It is too crowded a composition, though a happy subject for the
- animal painter. As far as execution goes it
is not of great value, and is not by Jordaens at all, but by one of his pupils.
The Disciples at Christ's Grave. Dresden. — The other picture derived from the Scriptures and related to the previous one, though less successful, is, as we said, the Disciples at Christ's grave in the Museum at Dresden. The six figures, four women and two men, all turn towards the left, where they (but not we) see the grave of the risen Christ. Only the front of the tomb, the side of the rock in which the grave has been cut, and the white shroud hanging before the cavity, are shown to us. Jordaens wished to represent the attention and astonishment felt by all his characters at the same time but expressed by them in different ways. Joseph of Arimathea full of emotion stretches forth his hands; he stoops over the grave in the attitude of one who cannot believe his eyes; Mary Magdalen, who is seated, her thin garment wide- spread about her, and with ample gesture and draperies occupies almost the whole of the foreground, stretches forth her hands as she turns towards John demanding an explanation of this miracle. John, who is standing behind her, draped in a scarlet cloak, his bare left leg forward, answers her. Mary, whose head only is visible, wrapped in a dark blue hood, and a young woman carrying an ointment-jar, look on, motionless and thoughtful. An old woman carrying a candle gives her full attention to Joseph of Arimathea, her husband or her master, impressed by his great astonishment.
The picture no doubt belongs to the first period of the painter and displays a striking relationship with several other works of the same years. Mary Magdalen is a little loud in dress and gesture, as we also found her in the Mount Calvary in the Preekheeren Church at Antwerp; the St. John is the same figure as the youngest of the Four Evangelists in the Louvre, even as the Joseph of Arimathea repeats another of them: the model who sat for the latter had a peculiar deformity of the left ear, the upper edge of which was turned down at right angles and protruded in a point against the temples. The painting too
MOSES STRIKING WATER FROM THE ROCK
(Museum, Karlsruhe).
MYTHOLOGICAL PICTURES.
33
corresponds with that of the earliest works: the arms and hands of the Magdalen and the bare leg of John are dark brown ; other figures are almost black, as, for example, the old woman with the candle and Joseph of Arimathea; neither lights nor shadows are transparent; everything is hard. The artist's hand is still insufficiently trained; his taste is still unrefined ; his Magdalen is declamatory and his romantic John still suggests an older school. I surmise that the picture must date from about 1617. Jordaens even then had a personal conception of art, as is shown by the Joseph of Arimathea here, who so suddenly throws himself forward, his hands extended as if wishing to feel that which he sees; and in the same way by the old woman with the bit of candle in her hand, a genuine homely figure, less concerned about the miracle than with the strange occupation of her master.
By 1783 the picture formed part of the collection of the Kings of Saxony, and was then catalogued by Guarienti as one of the finest works of Jordaens. In 1734 it was put up for sale with the works left by the artist, and is referred to in the catalogue (under No. 96) as the „Women at Christ's Grave very delightful and elaborated, 7 feet 4| in. high, 5 feet 1 in. wide." At the sale it brought 155 guilders. (1) In the Print-room at Berlin there is a drawing of this composition by Jordaens; it was bought at the sale of Adolf van Beckerath (Berlin, 1901).
Mythological pictures. — In these years also, Jordaens treated mythological subjects.
The earliest picture of this kind is the Offering to Pomona in the Museum at Madrid. The Goddess to whom offering is rendered is not a statue but a living woman, wrapped in red drapery, her head crowned with ears of corn and in her hands a horn of plenty. Before her kneels a boy dressed in a dark
brown smock and light yellow trousers. Fruit lies on the ground before him. A woman in red holding a child on her arm invokes the goddess; next to her stands a copper milk-can, and the head of another child is visible. On the right again are an old woman with sunburnt face, a shepherd with his staff in his hand, two women holding milk-cans on their heads, a third with a straw hat, and finally three shepherds. Next to Pomona, to. the left, are seen two cows; in the background a white curtain, and a blue sky with white clouds.
The picture bears the strong impress of Jordaens. It is a scene from peasant life that he represents ; the characters have been supplied by the world which gave him his figures
THE DISCIPLES AT CHRIST'S GRAVE
(Museum, Dresden).
(1) Catalogue or list of titles of pictures, by Gerard Hoet. Catalogue of pictures by Jacques Jordaens, sold on the 22nd March 1734 in the Hague. Vol. I. pp. 400-406.
5
34 MYTHOLOGICAL PICTURES.
for the Adoration of the Shepherds: the mother with the child is the peasant woman in the oldest versions of the Peasant and the Satyr; the old peasant close to Pomona has an Evangelist's head; the two milk-cans and the pointed straw hat are part of Jordaens' usual furniture. The painting is firm, almost hard, with passages of full, vivid colours, principally red and white; the contrast of fair and brown flesh, of heavy black and pale transparent shadow, is sharp. The figures are rather wooden, without elegance of form or attitude. The work is undoubtedly to be considered, not only as the earliest of his mythological pictures, but also as one of the first of all his works, and must date from about 1618.
In these early days also he painted Meleager and Atalanta. We know two renderings of this subject. The first belongs to Mr. Karel Madsen at Copenhagen. In it the broad, powerful woman from the earliest -examples of the Peasant and the Satyr sits in the centre of the group with a boar's head on her lap. The young, not less powerfully built and flatly painted Meleager stands next to her. To the right are three men, one of whom rests his hand on Atalanta's shoulder. Of a fourth person we see only two outstretched hands. We notice in the foreground the heads of two hunting dogs. The picture is remarkable for its powerful colouring ; the touches on the clear flesh of Meleager and Atalanta are broadly laid on; of a striking variety are the three hunters, the one of a glowing brown with the blue cap so often used by Jordaens, the other with a magnificent, fine silvery head, the third in a red garment of much darker hue. Masterly are the powerful boar's head and the two dogs. There is no doubt that the picture was painted about 1620; the same model served for Meleager as for the youngest of the shepherds in the Adoration of the Shepherds at Stockholm.
Several years afterwards, and very likely about 1628, Jordaens painted his second Meleager and Atalanta, which is in the Museum at Madrid. To the right sits Atalanta, undraped as to one of her arms, one of her breasts, and both her legs below the knees. Red and yellow drapery is thrown round her waist. With one hand she holds a bow; the other rests on the right hand of Meleager, which grasps the hilt of a sword. He is naked to the waist; and turns his head to the right. From that direction are approaching three men, one of whom carries the heavy boar's head which Meleager desires to present to Atalanta. To the left are four hunters on foot, who with great rejoicing hail the bearers of the trophy of the hunt; towering above them are two hunters on horseback, lance in hand. Five hunting dogs crowd round Meleager. In the background we notice the blue sky, slightly clouded, and a little foliage.
The bodies of Meleager and Atalanta are in good, clear light with dark shadows: she soft of limb, he with firmly-built chest and heavy muscles in the neck. Both are the same models as in the preceding picture, but of rather less heavy build and severe colouring. Of the men at the left, he who is nearest the frame has the same unmistakeable gray curly head and sinewy neck of one of the Four Evangelists. For the rest the picture has nothing characteristic of Jordaens. The man who lifts his arms has the brownish dull tone and the knotted back of one of the figures in the St. Martin of 1630. The animals are quite in Jordaens' style, the dappled horse being the same as that in the St. Apollonia. It is not a masterpiece, yet striking in the amorous expression of Atalanta lifting languishing eyes to Meleager, and in his sad, abstracted look. The jubilant figures are powerfully drawn. But the work is weak in composition ; to the well-constructed group of Mr. Madsen the painter has added the roaring band which enters noisily, and he has enlarged the deeply-felt central scene with decorative detail which breaks its serenity and unity.
JORDAENS' DEANSHIP.
35
Mr. Masson of Amiens possesses a drawing in which the five figures from the first of these two pictures re-appear exactly in the same attitude, but with a few slight alterations in the composition; the two dogs and the two extended hands of the man outside the picture are there. Above the three men to the left we see a mounted man riding the same horse as appears in the Madrid picture.
At the sale of works left by Jordaens (The Hague, 1734, No. 89) a Meleager and Atalanta of smaller dimensions appeared ; and another at the d'Hoop van Abstein sale (Ghent, 1889). Parthey notes two versions: one in the New Palace at Potsdam, the other in the Esterhazy collection at Vienna. At the Pierre Wouters sale (Brussels, 1797) and at that of Lauwers (Am- sterdam 1802) appeared the drawing of Mr. Masson, or another of the same subject.
Jordaens' Deanship. — Jor- daens' works very early drew the attention of artists and burghers to himself. In the year 1620—1621, according to the registers of the Guild of St. Luke, he received his first pupil, Charles du Val ; the fol- lowing year Pierre de Moulyn was apprenticed to him. No further infor- mation about either has been pre- served; they were not admitted as masters, and we know of no works by them. It may be supposed, therefore, that they did not con- tinue their studies.
In 1621 Jordaens received a striking token of appreciation, when he was appointed by the magistracy to the post of Dean of the Guild of St. Luke during the next succeeding official year, from October 1621 to October 1622. (1) Entry upon the office was at that moment attended with difficulties of a peculiar kind. In _
1618 the deans of the Guild of St. Luke decided to re-establish the Chamber of Retonc, the Gillyflower, which formerly existed in the Guild; times had quieted down, and they believed that their old and famous dramatic society might be revived to take part as in earlier days in the Landjuweelen and other competitions and festivities. But to do this
THE OFFERING TO POMONA (Museum, Madrid).
(1) F. JOS. VAN DEN BRANDEN. Op. cit. pp. 830, 628, 649.
JORDAENS' DEANSHIP.
36
they required more funds than they could raise, and they therefore petitioned the magistracy
renew their old privileges, and especially one by which they were allowed to
exempt seventy-five citizens from service in the town-militia, in return for which a sum
fZoney was paid by each exempted person into the treasury of the Qui d The Co. ege
o Burgomasters and Aldermen granted the request up to the number of fifty, and thus
heLury of the Painters' Guild was considerably enriched. But he deans at once
ooked out for a new hall in which to hold their festivities, and hired the beautifu
guildhouse of the Old Foot-bow in the Groote Markt. In other ways also they increased
toe expenses of the Guild, with the result that they were again faced with the prospect
of a deficit. To avoid this, on the 12» of Febr., 1621, the dean in office at that time,
MELEAGER AND ATALANTA (Museum, Madrid).
Jan Breughel, and his fellow-governors, requested permission to raise the entrance fee from 26 to 36 guilders. The magistracy, however, refused, and the Guild found itself unable to pay the yearly expenses.
It was at this critical moment that the town authorities appointed Jordaens to take up the deanship. They probably saw in him one who, either because of his private fortune or because of the income which his art brought him, would be able to save the Guild from a painful situation. At all events they must have had a high opinion of the eight-and- twenty years old artist, since they were willing to install him in this high post of honour, in such circumstances, and by an unusual resolution.
On the 28 th of September, 1621, three weeks before the expiry of the old deanship, the magistracy issued the following order: „Deputed and instructed Jacques Jordaens to be Dean of the Guild of St. Luke within this town, on condition of his taking the proper oath, and that for the present year". Jordaens evidently did not exhibit great willingness
JORDAENS' DEANSHIP. 37
to enter upon the office, for two days later, on the 30* of September, the magistracy issued the following: ..Instructed once more Jacques jordaens to come within twenty-four hours after this order, to take the oath as Dean of the Guild of St. Luke within this town, under penalty of a hundred guilders, to be paid according to ancient custom". This time he listened to the instruction and the threat: he answered that he was willing to fill the office for the coming year, and to bear its expenses; but he requested to be held free of the debts incurred by his predecessors. (1) Upon this request the Burgomasters and Aldermen decided, on the 1 st of October 1621, to appoint one of the Aldermen, Jan Happart, to examine the case, and to report upon it. What was his report and what their decision? Very likely Jordaens' proposal was accepted, and he was freed from the repon- sibility of debts incurred in previous years. If this was so, then he entered officially as assistant dean on the 18 th October, St. Luke's day, and in the following year, in October, as senior dean. But there is no proof that such was the case. Neither in 1621, nor in 1622, nor in any year, indeed, do we find Jordaens mentioned among the deans. In the registers of the Guild of St. Luke are noted down as dean for the year 1621 — 1622 Charles van Mallery, for 1622—1623 Antoni Goetkint, for 1623—1624 Abraham Gouvaerts. In the list of names of the deans painted on an old panel in the shape of a three-fold shutter, there are mentioned as deans, for the year 1621 Carolus de Mallery, for 1622 Anthony Goetkint and Abraham Gouvaerts. It is true that the registers for the years 1616—1629 are wanting, but the bills exist, and in these we ought to find Jordaens' name as senior dean in 1622 — 1623. We know from other omissions that these registers were not kept with the same care as those of an official registrar; for example, we are aware of several apprentices of Jordaens whose names are not mentioned in them. But in no case have we discovered any proof that names of deans were inscribed wrongly or omitted.
JOB (Paul Mersch, Paris).
(1) Humbly sheweth Your Lordships' servant Jacques Jordaens, painter, how that he by act of Your Lordships on the 30th September last has been commanded to take the oath as Dean of the Guild of St. Luke within this town. And though suppliant is of opinion that he might as yet have been excused of such command because of many reasons given verbally, yet suppliant wishes to conform to the prescribed order and perform his work and duties as laid down; but suppliant understands that the present Deans have a deficit for the Guild of a considerable sum of money, having spent more than they received, and that they are desirous of laying this deficit on the shoulders of suppliant as soon as he has taken the oath, which would inconvenience him altogether; and that it ought to be sufficient that he do his work without these expenses, and that he should take upon him only the payments which fall in the time of his Deanship. And that no one may dispute this, suppliant begs Your Lordships most humbly to declare on the margin hereof that he shall stand good for the work expected from him and the payments falling in his prescribed time. And that of what he shall receive and spend during that time he shall give a satisfactory account. Doing which etc.
Signed Jacques jordaens.
My lords Burgomasters and Aldermen have deputed Mr. Jan Happart, Knight, Alderman, to inform them as to the contents of this, and after having heard his report shall be ordered accordingly. — Actum 1" Octobris. Anno 1621.
Signed J. BRANDT.
Town archives of Antwerp. — Copy supplied by Mr. F. Jos. van den Branden, Archivist.
CHAPTER II.
16 2 3 — 1630.
Altar Pieces — Allegorical and Mythological Subjects Genre Pieces — Portraits.
The Martyrdom of St Apollonia. — Thus we see that Jordaens was regarded, in 1621, as one of the most important mem- bers of the Guild of St. "Luke. In the course of the years immediately succeeding, his fame increased continually, so that in 1628 he was included with Rubens and Van Dyck in the triumvirate of Antwerp's greatest painters. An event occurring in that year proves this very clearly.
The Southern Netherlands having again fallen completely under the power of Spain, the Catholics, in 1585, hastened to restore their religion to honour. The churches, which had suffered much from the iconoclasts, were embellished with works of art; the old cloisters were reopened and new ones built. The first Governors, particularly Albert and Isabella, contributed all in their power to the revival of the old form of worship. Among other things, it was their doing that the Augustines settled in Antwerp in 1608, and built a cloister on grounds, situated in the Everdystraat, which they acquired partly by gift of the magistracy and partly by purchase. Among the lots which they bought were the two houses mentioned earlier as belonging to Jordaens' father-in-law, Adam van Noort. In 1615 they built a church adjoining their cloister, which was consecrated in 1618. Ten years later the inmates of the cloister conceived the idea of decorating the three altars of this church with pictures. The one destined for the high altar was commissioned from Rubens, and no doubt they consulted him as to the artists whom they should employ to paint those for the other two. They were, it may be said, on a very friendly footing with Rubens, whose eldest son had been sent to their school. They chose Anton van Dyck to paint the picture for the altar to the left, and Jordaens that for the altar to the right. Rubens painted for the high altar a Betrothal of St. Catharine, into which he introduced most of the saints who were worshipped
OLD WOMAN WITH DISH
(Mr M. Delacre, Ghent).
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. APOLLONIA. 39
in the Augustine Church; Van Dyck painted a St. Augustine in Ecstacy ; and to Jordaens was given the subject of The Martyrdom of St. Apollonia, the patron saint invoked by those who suffered from toothache.
These three pictures were finished in 1628. Rubens was paid 3000 guilders, and Van Dyck 600. It is not recorded how much Jordaens received (1), but the com- mission shows that our painter in 1628 was, equally with Van Dyck, ranked immediately after Rubens.
And now about his Martyrdom of St. Apollonia. In the centre of the picture, a few steps lead up to an elevation on which kneels the saint, her hands folded across her breast, wrapped in white drapery with heavy, bluey shadows. An executioner, naked to the waist, pulls back her head by her hair and wrenches out her teeth with a pair of pincers. To the left is an officer in command, mounted on a white and grey dappled horse; he wears an ample red cloak which completely covers him down to his yellow riding-boots. His head-dress is a large turban of white cloth, into which is stuck a yellow plume. Beyond him a second mounted man sits on a brown horse with a white spot on its forehead. Surmounting these is the marble statue of Jupiter seated on his throne: in one hand he holds the globe, in the other the lightning; an eagle beside him; on a pedestal in front a burning censer. Down in the immediate foreground kneels another of the executioners, stirring up a wood-fire in which, in accordance with the legend, the martyr is to throw herself and be consumed. Close by him sits a dog with a brown head, and a white body, grey-spotted. Half way up the picture an old priest, wrapped in a blue garment and a dull brown cloak, stands leaning one hand on a stick, while with the other he points towards the image of Jupiter, urging Apollonia to honour him as a god. Beside the martyr is visible the grinning head of a third executioner. In the sky are eight little angels, of whom one carries a cross, and another, rather bigger, holds in his hand the palm-branch of the martyr.
Like his other altar-pieces, this picture differs greatly from Jordaens' usual style. It is ecclesiastical decorative work, and wholly artificial. The figures are so grouped that they entirely fill the tall canvas (which is rounded at the top): in the foreground the crouching stoker of the fire ; the principal figures on an elevation or on horseback in the centre ; the figure of the god and the angels at the top. No part but is fully occupied; everything in the composition centres round the saint, and, indeed, seems to whirl around her, the more so that most of the figures assume unnatural and contorted attitudes, — the stoker (seen from behind) twisting himself to stir the fire, the saint with her head forced back, the executioner bent over her, the horseman with raised head, the priest with uplifted arm, the little angels tumbling over one another in the sky and the taller one with a foot thrust forth, the dapple-grey with head strained down to its knee: it is all built up in a calculated and theatrical way. But it is a picture of brilliant colouring. From the centre of the canvas shines the martyr, vivid and bright, with fair flesh and light draperies; so, in her immediate neighbourhood, the executioner and the two horses. Framing these with warm, rich tones are the officer in red, the priest in blue and golden-yellow, the man stoking with his brown
(1) 1628. Hoc anno procurata est pictura admodum elegans Sti Augustini in extasi contemplantis divina attributa, a Domino Van Dyck depicta constitit 600 florenis.
Itpm Martvrium Sts Apolloniae a domino Jordaens depictum. .„.„,„ u *
em tebuam P^rocuravfmus insignissimam pro summo ai.ari depictam a peri.iustri Domino PetroPaulo Rubens; est.mata est 3000 florenis (Exfract from the Diarinm Augustinianum, folio 131. Copied and sent to Frans Mo.s by Brother .gnatms Coenen, Prior of the Augustines, the 15th May 1764).
4 o ST. MARTIN DELIVERING A DEMONIAC.
back Higher up the splendour of colour loses itself in the cold marble statue and the nebulous angels. The dominant tones are varied by the playing reflections of colours and colour-spots. The whole preserves a strong fresh glow: a feast to the eye rather than a
drama touching the soul. .
The ample angularly falling drapery of Apollonia, in which we recognize the broad, romantic garment of the Magdalen in Christ on the Cross of the Dominicans and in the Disciples at Christ's grave, reminds us of the works of Jordaens' earliest time. The martyr has the features of the artist's wife. The big dog we have met before in the first renderings of The Peasant and the Satyr. We have already occasionally come across the brown- gold drapery of the priest. We notice nothing here of Rubens' influence, save in the two horses, the dapple grey and the brown with the white spot, the same animals which the great master painted repeatedly. The first of the two is a magnificent detail, and corresponds pretty closely with the dappled horse in Rubens' Mount Calvary in the Museum at Antwerp.
This picture was carried away by the French in 1796 and returned in 1815. It was engraved shortly after it had been finished, and supplied Marinus with a subject for one of his greatest successes. Thus it became known far and near, and took a place among Jordaens' crea- tions which it scarcely merits as a work of art.
In the inventory of Abraham Voet, the Antwerp engraver, made in 1685, a sketch of this picture in colour is mentioned, of which all trace has been lost. (1) A finished sketch on paper pasted on wood was sold at the Doncker sale (Brussels, 1798).
APOSTLE'S HEAD (Museum, Brussels).
St. Martin delivering a demoniac. — Much that we have remarked about the Martyrdom of St. Apollonia is applicable also to another altar piece painted a few years later, the St. Martin delivering a demoniac. It was executed for the high altar in the church of the St. Martin Cloister at Tournay, and is signed in the lower left hand corner: „J. Jordaens Fecit A 1630". Hung later in one of the aisles of the church, in 1794 it was carried by the French to Paris, and in 1811 was presented by Napoleon I to the Museum of Brussels.
(1) F. JOS VAN DEN BRANDEN. - Collection of pictures at Antwerp, (Antwerp Archievenblad, XXII, 45).
ST. MARTIN DELIVERING A DEMONIAC.
4i
Though less so than The Martyrdom of St. Apollonia, it is composed in too theatrical a manner. Below, to the right, on a few steps, we see five persons, four men and a woman, holding the man possessed whom they have brought to the saint. One of them, an old man, partially bald, his back and limbs naked, stands erect beside him, grasping his wrist. A kneeling youth clasps him round the waist with one hand, and in the other carries an iron ring with which to encircle his leg; in this figure the back is nude, and the clothes are turned down round the loins. The third custodian, a man with black curly hair, lays his hands on the shoulder and belt of the sufferer. Of the fourth the head only is visible. The woman, again, kneels on the ground, holding on to the leg of the demoniac. On the extreme right is a child upon whom a dog is jumping. To the left stands St. Martin in full episcopal vestments, wrapped in a gold-brown cloak, embroidered with many-co- loured figures; under this he wears a white surplice, and on his head is a golden mitre. The choir boy beside him car- ries his staff, and the heads of two ecclesiastics are visible. The saint with right hand uplifted exorcises the unfort- unate man, who is convulsively throwing out arms and legs, and with clenched fists and wildly contorted features struggling to escape the hold of his custodians. High up in the background Tetradius, the master of the demoniac, is looking on, his elbow leaning on the balustrade; attending him stands a negro with a parrot in his hand.
As has been said, the picture is theatrically composed : the struggle with the possessed man goes on at a lower level, where some of the figures are standing and some kneeling. A step higher stand the saintly bishop and his escort; a little higher still is seated the master with his servant Such an arrangement, however, is often found in altarpieces. A worse fault is the- want of dramatic co-operation, jordaens was not the first to paint the exorcism of a demoniac. Ten years earlier Rubens had represented a similar scene in his two pictures of The Miracles of St Ignatius, of which one is in the Church of the Jesuits at Genoa, the other (originally painted for the church of the same Order at Antwerp) in the Imperial Museum at Vienna. Earlier still, in one of the pictures which he painted for the Church of the Jesuits at Mantua, he had represented the same drama in Christ's Glorification on Mount Tabor; and before him, Raphael had painted it in a picture of the same name.
Strange to say in all these pictures we find the miracle insufficiently related to the remainder of the composition. In jordaens', the formal irrelevancy is less marked than in those his predecessors; but on the other hand, he fails in unity of intention, and in establishing
MERCURY AND ARGUS (Museum, Lyons).
42
ST. MARTIN DELIVERING A DEMONIAC.
a correspondence between the spirit and the body. The figure of the struggling, writhing man is very affecting by its mad violence and fearful screams ; but the others do not seem to feel and act with him. The erect old man stands in an impossibly awkward attitude; the young man and woman do not seem serious in their efforts; and so with the man with the curly hair. The bishop stands in an attitude sufficiently majestic; he is broad and stately, but empty and bloated; his escort are without expression: the whole group is composed of lay figures. Tetradius looks down upon it all in a phlegmatic manner as if nothing more than an ordinary squabble were afoot. Jordaens is certainly here no painter of saints and no dramatist; and he never became either.
This picture is distinguished by two other peculiarities. The first is a greater brownness of tone than is to be found in any other work of his earliest period. The flesh of all the characters, of the woman and the child as well as of the men, is brown, a dull brown. The shadows sometimes incline more to red, sometimes more to black; here they are a little heavier, there a little more transparent, somewhat warmer or somewhat cooler; but always they are brown, sallow or ruddy, without the appearance of bronze or copper which we are to find in Jordaens' later pictures; in a tone without either glow or strength.
A second peculiarity is the extravagant knotting of the muscles: the back of the erect old man, for example, has the appearance of mountainous ground with a deep valley in the centre and hillocks and furrows on both sides; and so in the shoulder-blades and the rib-frame of the kneeling man, — bulky bones protrude, and deep hollows are seen. Neck and head and breast of the possessed man are a little less violently corrugated, but through- out wildness and exaggeration, degenerating into coarseness, are displayed.
J. B. Descamps, when he saw this picture in 1768, was struck by its unpleasant appearance, and wrote of it: „I have found the composition muddled since it has been restored and repainted. It is now hard and dry; only a few fine heads remain in it." We doubt very much whether the dull, ruddy tone is the result of damage done to the original picture ; it may indeed have suffered, but it is our belief that the original colour was similar in tone to the present.
In the inventory of Alexander Voet, made 1685, is mentioned a sketch of this picture in grisaille. We know of two drawings in which Jordaens has treated the same subject, with, however, considerable alterations. The first is in the British Museum, London; the other, in the Museum Plantin-Moretus, was bought at the Habich sale (Stuttgart 1899).
Parthey mentions among the works of Jordaens a little picture, belonging to Mr. Hemmerlein at Bamberg, representing St. Martin curing the sick and raising the dead, with a glory of angels up on high; quite a different composition evidently from the Delivering of the Demoniac.
We must refer again to a figure in the Brussels Museum picture who takes no part in the action, but is introduced by the painter merely as an accessory. This is the sweet little curly-head to the right, at whom a dog is jumping up. It is without, doubt the portrait of his little son Jacob, who was born in 1625 and so was now about five years old, which age he looks in the picture. The heavy, brown curly locks fall with a warm radiance over head and cheeks, encircling them : the boy is sparkling with health, and with large eyes looks innocently forth upon the world.
Child Studies. — We find this little head in several pictures: for example, in a painting in the Museum at Valenciennes representing two children playing in their cradle. One is a fair little girl, — her hair is tied up on the back of her head, and she is not more than two years old; — who plays a small flute. Her bare neck, on which she wears a coral necklace,
CHILD STUDIES. 43
is softly fair. The boy, who sits beside her, holding a peach in his hand, and is probably a few years older than she, is the curly-headed little fellow from the Miracle of St. Martin, with his uptilted little nose, his chubby cheeks, and wreath of light brown locks through which the sun is playing. A lamb rests its head on the counterpane ; a red drapery hangs over the hood of the cradle. The picture dates from about 1629.
A similar pair of children appeared at the Rothan sale (Paris, 1890). The prince of Ligne possessed a drawing, engraved by Bartsch in the end of the XVIII th century, which represents the child, flute in hand, with the lamb. A great similarity exists between these pieces and the Jesus and John with a lamb which appeared last at the Valentin Roussel sale (Brussels, 1899), where it was bought by Paul Wittouck of Brussels; and previously to that at the Tolozan sale (Paris, 1801). The little Jesus has a rattle in one hand, and with the other strokes a Iamb; St. John lays his left arm on the shoulder of his playmate, and in his right hand holds a cross. It is a sweet, carefully painted, enamel-like picture, of the same period as the one mentioned earlier. At the Winckler sale (Cologne, 1888) appeared a Child Jesus, quite nude, standing on a red shawl, stroking the little John, who kneels before him.
The Museum of Madrid possesses a Jesus and John. In it Jesus strokes a lamb ; he is wearing a white garment fastened at the waist, which covers him from neck to foot. A lock of his brown hair hangs over his ear and forehead ; his eyes are cast down ; his expression is simple, almost that of a simpleton. John, standing farther back, is more lively of expression ; his hair is fair; a lamb's skin is wrapped round him. He carries a cross with the inscription Agnus Dei. To the right we see a fountain. The simplicity of attitude in the child Jesus and the powerful painting of his white garment seem rather to justify the belief that it is by Jordaens; though, since there is nothing strikingly characteristic of him in the picture, its ascription to the master is hazardous.
A picture from the Legends of the Saints of the same period as the St. Martin is the St. Sebastian in the Museum at Angers. The martyr is tied to a tree; he is quite naked, except for a cloth round the loins; his face is painfully contorted, and the muscles lie knotted upon his body; the legs are a rosy brown. Three arrows have already pierced him. In the sky we see two angels who bring him a crown and a laurel branch. A landscape unfolding itself in the distance is furnished with gnarled trees. In the sky warm lights contrast with violent blue. The picture is not strikingly beautiful, but is undeniably by Jordaens' hand.
Fertility. — In the pictures executed by him for churches during this second period (1623—1630), Jordaens departs from his usual manner of painting; not only are they uncharacter- istic of his style, but they differ greatly from one another, as we have observed. But in works in another genre he is to be seen renewing his customary method, and continuing in it that gradual development and transformation which brought him nearer and nearer to the school of Rubens. His hardness decreases; his lights become warmer, his shadows tenderer, his compositions richer and more graceful ; the decorative element grows in importance. Excelling among the works of this transition period are two allegorical pictures which we believe may be placed between 1625 and 1628.
Both are entitled The Fertility of the Earth, or Abundance, or Autumn, and represent a glorification of merciful bounteous Nature. One is in the Museum at Brussels, — a richly furnished, closely-packed scene. On the right side is an old forest god, with goat's feet, carrying a young faun on his shoulders; this little one holds out a vine branch with a bunch of grapes upon it at which a negro, standing in the background, casts a greedy eye.
44
FERTILITY.
There are two satyrs to the left also. One of them approaches the spectator, bearing a large sheaf of fruit and vegetables; the other is crouching down and picks a fig from out of it. In the centre of the picture are four women, who most probably are intended to represent female satyrs, though they display no sign of their lower nature. One advances bearing a cluster of blue and white grapes in her scarlet cloak, which is draped round her back
and arms, leaving the breasts expo- sed; another, a perfectly nude figure, seen from behind, stands erect and with both hands holds a white linen cloth in front 'of her; the third is seated on the ground, the upper part of the body bent ; her head rests on one hand, in the other she holds bunches of grapes; the fourth stands in the background and stretches a hand towards the grapes which the child on the old satyr's shoul- der is holding forth. A second child stands behind the reclining female satyr, and pulls at an iris which springs up in the right- hand corner.
The picture is brilliant in colour, a hymn to Light, a joyous and impassioned song in praise of the wealth of the fertile earth. The figures have been artfully and happily arranged; they are true children of Nature, begotten by the ever fecund mother. They glow as they stand there; the heads of the four satyrs, that of the satyr with the child especially, are as masterly in execution as the goat-footed figure in the Peasant and Satyr at Cassel. The women play the chief r61e. With delight and without fear they display their gleaning and turnincr w* r k™i . flesn - Tne one wno is standing
wen- ov" Z 1 1, T USj ,S a " imP ° Sing fi S Ure: over her ^ even back and 2 ZZel^u* f r T,° f Hght fl ° WS Unbr0ken and ™<*e..ed. jordaens did felr b odv efle H t h T' " d ° WnineSS 0PfleSh; his Concern was t0 exhibit a t nt other . "1 i 7**™ fa their fU " b ^ htness - When, later on, he came paint other such female figures, as for instance in his Candaules, he sought more
THE MIRACLE OF ST. MARTIN (Museum, Brussels).
FERTILITY. 45
after sensuous form and tenderness of tint; at present, still, his work strikes one as being
mainly an exercise of youthful daring. 8
Not less striking are the figures of the reclining female satyr and the crouching satyr-
on them the light falls more warmly than on the woman standing erect, throwing heavier
yet more transparent shadows; from these it is reflected sharply on the satyr to the right and
on the woman with the red drapery; more quietly on the satyr who bears the burden of
the fruit; it exhausts itself on
the female who stretches her
hand towards the grapes. Very
delightful is the play of sun and
shadow over all the figures in
the foreground; particularly over
the little satyr who pulls at the
iris, and to whose hair the golden
sunlight clings lovingly. The
powerful sheaf of fruit on the
one side, and the fruit and vege- tation scattered everywhere, are
undoubtedly by the hand of Snij-
ders, and hejp to intensify the
high splendour of the picture. We have spoken of the
canvases of this time as works of transition, and "certainly The Fertility of the Earth is one of them. The strong smooth colour- ing of the nude female back is still the same as that of the man and the woman in the earliest examples of The Peasant and the Satyr. Her broad back, her awkward attitude and stiff arms, still bear the marks of Jordaens' earliest work; the head of the satyr car- rying the child with his burnt skin, his powerful muscles and the deep furrows in his face, resembles notably the old heads
in the Four Evangelists; but here everything has been softened and enobled, the sunshine has become more abundant and warm, and the shadows play more lightly and happily on the tenderly rounded limbs. The artist's conception of life is brighter, and he regards Nature from a sweeter standpoint.
The picture is signed Joroc . . . fecit. We discover it for the first time at the Delia Faille sale (The Hague, 1730), when it was described as „A picture representing Abundance". On the 27 th of September, 1762, it was put up for sale in the Confrerie Chamber of the art painters at the Hague. In 1763 it still was the property of this artist-society, and was
ST. MARTIN DELIVERING A DEMONIAC
Drawing, (Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp).
4 6
FERTILITY.
referred to then as „A large picture by J. Jordaens, representing the fertility of the earth or abundance, being very beautifully and powerfully painted".
On the 10 th of April, 1764, the Confrerie decided to sell the large picture „if it fetches 8 or 10 ducats, because it takes up too much room, and several other pictures could then be hung in its place." On the 30 th of May following, the picture was sold satisfactorily" for 50 guilders. (1) In 1814 it appeared at the sale of J. T. de Vinck de Wesel's collection at Antwerp; in 1827 at the de Vinck d'Orp sale, when it was bought by the Museum of Brussels.
Mr. Heseltine, London, possesses a drawing made as a design for this picture; and Mr. Georges Querton, Brussels, a painted study for the figure of the nymph with fruit in her lap.
Jordaens treated the same subject a second time in the picture named Autumn which belongs to the Wallace Collection in London. The satyr who carries the child, the negro next to him, the woman who carries grapes in her red drapery, the little satyr who pulls at the iris and the woman who sits on the ground, her head resting in her hand, are the same figures in the London and in the Brussels pictures ; except that in the former the negro plays on a double-flute. The satyr crouching on the left also appears in both ; but whereas in London he is goat-footed, in Brussels he has a man's legs. The real difference between the two works lies in the central figures. Here in the Brussels picture, next to the first satyr-child, stands a second, with curly hair; and taking the place of the woman reaching for the grapes, is an old satyr doing the same. But — greatest difference of all — the principal figure in the Brussels picture, the nymph standing erect, and seen from behind, gives place in the London picture to a beautiful woman, nude except for a blue drapery wrapped round her waist. She fronts the spectator and has nothing satyr-like in her figure. With one hand she holds a horn of plenty, overflowing with fruit and vegetables which strongly resemble those carried by the satyr in the Brussels picture, who has been left out of the London one.
The substitution, for the rather overwhelming female figure with her rigid attitude and her tense colour, of a splendid beauty with elegant gestures and gracefully folded draperies, gives to the whole picture a more pleasing appearance; it becomes finer, more decorative; but it loses some of its character ; it becomes sweeter but more ordinary, and decidedly stands lower in rank than the picture at Brussels. There is no doubt about its being of later date. The manner of the painting alone would prove this; and in addition we note how much more natural and legitimate in the earlier picture is the attitude of the figure in question. In the first the woman stands turned towards the persons who bring her the products of the fields; and there need be little doubt, that it was this audacious attitude, with all the light showered on the back, that attracted Jordaens and chiefly led him to paint the picture. In the second canvas the beautiful woman is posing, and exhibits little relation with those who are approaching her. In the first, a powerful satyr figure bears the burden of the gigantic bundle of fruit and vegetables, x which again is quite a natural conception, with the right man in the right place; in the second this enormous sheaf is held without apparent exertion or difficulty by a beautiful woman for whom it is of course far too heavy. The first, and justifiable, composition was thus changed for one less natural and satisfactory, no improvement, but only loss, resulting from the alteration.
The fruit and vegetables of the second picture were, like those in the first, painted by
(1) Oud Holland XIX, 172. De Confrerie van Pictura, by A. Bredius. .
PAN AND SYRINX. 47
Snijders, in his customary clear, brilliant manner and with his usual fineness of touch. Thus early, as later, Jordaens had the accessories in some of his pictures, more especially still-life and landscape, put in by fellow-painters, with them he worked in conjunction. For example, we find in the inventory of the estate of Jufvrouw Anthonette Wiael, widow of Jan van Haecht, dated July 5—7, 1627, an „Ascension of Our Lady with ten angels, by Qeert Snellincx and Jordaens", and „Two pendants by Tobias van Haecht (the landscape painter) with figures by Jordaens." (1)
Pan and Syrinx. — To this period also belong a few mythological pictures; first among them the Pan and Syrinx in the Museum at Brussels. Syrinx in the Greek mythology was the daughter of the river-god Ladon; Pan, the god of the woods and fields, fell in love with her, and one day gave her chase. She fled, and just as he had almost reached her she was changed into a reed plant. Rocked by the wind, the stems brought forth plaintive sounds. Pan cut off one, and dividing it into little tubes of decreasing length, bound them together as a flute, the Pan-pipes. The painter has chosen the moment when Pan almost touches the escaping figure, and seeks to cajole her into listening to his declaration of love; she raises one arm to protect herself from him. A river-god, resting on his urn, and two satyr children, are present at this encounter, the scene of which is the waterside.
What strikes us most in the picture is the absence of loud colouring and the sharp contrast between light and dark. Syrinx's nude body makes one large bright patch, dimly broken by finely transparent shadows on the arms, neck, and side. The Pan, on the contrary, is brown in tone, with heavy dark shadows covering breast and arms, and the head thrown deep in shade so that the features are scarcely distinguishable. The river-god is of an even heavier brown. Such painting of light and brown, with its softly fair and powerful chestnut tones, we find in no other of Jordaens' works ; the landscape painters of the XVI th century tried to find their effects of light and perspective by means of it, but the painters of the XVII th , Jordaens among others, rejected it for the softer, merging nuances between light and brown. The difference between this work and all his others is so great that one is inclined to hesitate about attributing it to Jordaens. But the head of Syrinx, with loose- hanging hair, eyes veiled with heavy lids, and parted lips, has an expression, somewhat good-natured and sleepy, which we often find in the master; the knotted muscles of the men also are characteristic of him; and the satyr children bear a striking resemblance to those in the Fertility. All this justifies us in ascribing the picture to Jordaens with certainty, and in classing it among the works of the period under consideration.
That he treated this subject we know from Sandrart, who informs us that „once he reproduced, in six days, the life-sized story of Syrinx who flies from Pan into a wood, in a spirited and masterly way." In the sale of Jordaens' estate (The Hague, 1734) there was a smaller Pan and Syrinx, 3 ft. 3 in. high and 3 ft. 3* in. wide.
Jordaens evidently had a great liking for painting satyrs. In every period of his life he drew them or painted them ; now studies of heads, now as tipsy satyrs, again reclining satyrs and nymphs, satyrs with children, or cupids, satyrs pressing grapes, or taking part in more complicated actions. In several of these pictures imitation of Rubens is plainly discernible ; no doubt some of them are wrongly attributed to Jordaens, and are really copies of his great predecessor. In some of these pictures Silenus is introduced, and they are named from the big-bellied glutton.
(1) F. JOS. VAN DEN BRANDEN. - Collection of Pictures at Antwerp. (Antwerp Archivenblad XXI, 326, 327).
4 8
BACCHANALIAN SCENE.
Bacchanalian Scene. - Ghent. - It seems to me that the canvas which was bought a short time ago for the Museum at Ghent at a sale in Amsterdam, and of which the subject cannot be named with certainty, is a satyr-picture dating from this period. On the right hand we see a young woman (the Fertility?) between a male and a female satyr; she is draped in a red and white garment which she holds apart, thus exposing her beautiful nude body Two satyr-children are standing in front of her; a woman or nymph, with her back to us sits on the ground; another, standing erect, carries a bunch of flowers and fruit on a' white cloth and offers them to the undraped woman. On the extreme left sits a river-god In the background are trees between which a canvas has been stretched; and among these trees is an old satyr handing a bunch of grapes to the woman, and a younger one, holding on to the branches. Again the lack of cleverness displayed by Jordaens
in finding suitable figures for symbolic creations detracts from the intelligibility of his picture.
Most probably it belongs to the same period as the Fertility. The nude figures are bathed in a brilliant glow, contrasting sharply with heavy shadows ; powerful light streams through the sky also, and vivid, brilliant reds, whites, and blues, colour the draperies. The painting is smooth, with a tendency to be china-like. It is a bright and happy picture. Beautiful young women, soft of flesh, between rough satyrs with dark brown skins, compose it, as in the large picture in the Museum at Brussels.
Another large and important mytholo- gical picture, the Neptune and Amphilrite, hangs in the Arenberg gallery at Brussels. In the foreground we see two white sea- horses. On one of them Neptune is -seated, and he is lifting Amphitrite on to the other. Two little cupids carry his trident. To the left in the sea we notice a Triton who blows a horn of shell ; two others are trumpeting in the same way, while a fourth rides upon a dolphin. The seahorses are the finest part of the picture. Jordaens here shows as little respect as he does elsewhere for the old gods. Neptune looks like a Silenus, with a warm light without glow on his baggy body; Amphitrite is a fat, blown woman; she sits on a red cloth, the light falling brightly on her with an even lustre. The children with the trident are very sweet; the Tritons to the left insignificant. High overhead waves a large drapery, and hover two angel heads; in the foreground the sea is breaking with curling rollers upon the shore. The horizon glows with the setting sun. The picture is lightsome, bright in appearance, but superficial in the painting. The strong, big-boned back of the Triton in the foreground and the general browny tone indicate that the work was executed about 1630.
The picture is mentioned under No. 162 in an edition of the Catalogue of pictures and antiquities etc. in the Rijks Museum at Amsterdam: „Neptune and Venus drawn by
THE CHILD JESUS WITH JOHN (M. Wittouck, Brussels).
THE HUNTER WITH THE DOGS. 49
seahorses and Tritons". It appeared at the sale of the pictures of William II, king of the Netherlands, (The Hague, 1842 and Amsterdam, 1850), and in that of Neville D. Goldsmid of the Hague (Paris, 1876). It is quite possible that this is the same work as that mentioned in the Catalogue of the pictures left by Jordaens (The Hague 1734, No. 71): „A very large picture being a Sea-Triumph, 8 feet high and 12 feet 5 inches broad". A painting correspon- ding to the one described above was sold in Amsterdam on the 22 nd of May, 1765 at a sale of pictures that came from Saxony.
Jordaens treated the subject more than once. A picture of smaller demensions than the t one described above appeared at a sale in Amsterdam on the 5 th of June, 1765 and at" that of the widow of Robert Geelhand (Antwerp, 1888). In the Catalogue of' the Siebrecht sale (Antwerp, 1754) we find: „A picture without a frame, being a large triumph of the sea with all sorts of sea-fishes". At the Gerard Hoet sale (Amsterdam, 1760) was a drawing of „a triumph of Neptune in black and red chalk and a little colour".
The Hunter with the Dogs. — Besides religious, allegorical, and mythological pictures in which the figures are life-size, Jordaens during this period also painted a few others, of either similar or different subjects, but all of them with smaller figures, and chosen partly in order to introduce animals.
Two such we know. The first, dated 1625, belongs to the Museum at Lille, for which it was bought at the Tence sale (Paris, 1881). It represents a hunter with dogs. He sits amidst a very elaborate, hilly landscape with trees, sounding his horn; before him stand or lie eight dogs, — five greyhounds, two longhaired poodles, and the retriever with brown head and grey coat whom we have seen already in
The Martyrdom of St. Apollonia, and elsewhere. This comparatively small picture (78 cm. high and 120 cm. wide) is a first-rate piece of work; it is suffused with a pleasant warm light, and in every way is bright and joyous. Both colours and shadows are trans- parent. The painter has taken particular pains with the dogs; here, more manifestly than in any other works so far discussed, he discovers himself an animal painter of unsur- passed talent. He himself was the model for the hunter. The excellent landscape was painted by Wildens. Jordaens chose the same subject for one of his designs for the tapestries which are now in the Imperial palace at Vienna. There is a copy in the collection of Viscount Bare de Comogne, at Ghent.
Another work of the same character, though its subject was derived from a different source, is The Meeting of Eliezer and Rebecca in the Museum at Brussels. While it is of larger dimensions, the figures are still small. In the foreground is a well with a round mouth, and beside it a four-cornered sculptured basin. To the right stands Rebecca, giving Eliezer a drink from her jug; a servant holds Eliezer's horse by the bridle, and another has charge of two greyhounds. To the left are numerous servants, engaged in
7
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
(Mr. M. Delacre, Ghent).
THE HUNTER WITIT THE DOGS.
5°
unloading valuable presents from a donkey and two camels. In the broad landscape which compo es the background are (to the left) a' few high trees; and (to the right) , a formed "eTeva castle, into which a herd of cattle pass across the drawbridge; m the distance r hish rocky hill. It is a pleasantly inspired scene, laid in the open campaign; though it takes its title from Biblical history, in reality it depicts an episode of country life. It is cleverly and broadly painted, in tones which run from cool and clear on the one side to warm and dusky on the other. The handling of the figures is pleasant and solid, with a kind of glassy sparkle which throws up the cool lights from out the dull shadows. Corresponding closely to that of the hunter at Lille, this picture doubtless dates from the same time The two greyhounds in the latter are here reproduced in the same attitude, with their necks crossed over each other. The servant who holds Eliezer's horse does so with the same gesture, and wears the same clothing, as the negro with the horse in the
picture at Cassel.
Jordaens painted The Meeting of Eliezer and Rebecca a second time in a picture which appeared at the Huybrechts sale (Antwerp, 1902). There, as in that of the Brussels Museum, Rebecca offers Isaac's messenger a drink from her pitcher. To the left is the fountain, round which three maids and three men are gathered. A dog, a small monkey on the edge of the well, and, higher up, three camels, repeat Jordaens' favourite details. The picture is warmer in tone, but the backs of the men show the same knotted muscles as in the Miracle of St. Martin and in the preceding picture; like the last, it must have been painted about 1630.
Diana's Bath in the Museum at Madrid also belongs to the series of pictures with small figures of this period. Diana and her nymphs are refreshing themselves in a pond, which lies in front of a portico that pretty faithfully reproduces the arcade which in Rubens' house separated the forecourt from the garden. In front at the water's edge, seated or standing, is a number of small women figures. A winged youth stands near by, to whom Diana stretches out her arms. To the left Cupid approaches with a peacock; another of these birds struts alongside of the bath. High above hover three little angels, who scatter flowers ; a little lower are five others ; a motive which Jordaens used again in The Offering to Venus in the Museums at Dresden and Brunswick. The light grey, which is the dominant tone of the picture, is varied with the blue of the drapery; the figures are pale with soft shadows; the work is of less importance than The Meeting between Eliezer and Rebecca at Brussels, but is in the same style.
Portraits. — In the beginning of the XVII th century, as well as in the preceding centuries, the well-to-do Flemish burghers delighted to see themselves immortalized in painted canvases. Not only kings and princes, and nobles of high rank, but also respectable merchants, priests, and all who had distinguished themselves in art and literature, or whose fortune permitted such a luxury, knocked at the doors of our great masters, to have their portraits reproduced in a stately way. It was inevitable that Jordaens also, as his fame increased, should receive these commissions. And, indeed, we find such portraits among the works of the earliest period of his career.
The earliest known belong to Mevrouw the Widow Bosschaert du Bois at Antwerp. They are three in number: a man, his wife, and an old woman, his mother or his mother-in-law. The first bears the inscription : „Aetatis 44. A . 1623", the second : „...3J. Jordaens fecit", (no doubt the 3, the only figure visible on the canvas, is the last figure of the date 1623). The portrait of the old woman bears no inscription, but is undoubtedly of the same period.
i i
PORTRAITS. 51
The man, seated on a bench, is seen in profile; he has short black hair, a moustache and an imperial, and wears a white collar with small flat pleats, edged with lace, white wrist-bands, an ample black coat, with a black cloak over it. The right arm rests on a chair in front of him; in his left hand he holds his black broad-brimmed felt hat. His complexion is rosy, his hands are beautifully shaped; across these and across the head lie deep shadows. His attitude is easy and distinguished, and there is something lively and full of character in his expression. In front of him stands a little pedestal covered with a tapestry, on which rests a small statue. Behind him is an open arch in the style of the time, through which shows the blue sky. To the left hangs a red looped-up curtain. The arch is supported on the one side by a caryatid — a female figure with a double snake's tail, the ends of which encircle each other. The foot of the caryatid carries the inscription.
The woman sits in a very large oak armchair, upholstered with black leather. Behind her is an open arch, in front of which hangs a red curtain in folds. She is seen full-face. The black hair has been combed backwards over small pads. The complexion is fresh and rosy, the expression good-natured. She wears a heavy goffered flat collar without lace, a locket with a coloured miniature on her breast, and a black silk dress. In her right hand she holds a closed fan which is attached by a ring to her thumb. We read the inscription on one of the caryatids of the arch. The attitude of the woman is not so easy and elegant as that of the man, but it is even more distinguished. The painting is careful ; the shadows are less dark, — more of a gray-blue. Gray reflected lights, such as van Dyck employed on his silk stuffs, glance over the black dress. The transparency of the linen and the fair delicateness of the hands are very striking.
The old woman sits in a chair of the same kind as her daughter or daughter-in-law, and in front of a rectangular arch, partially hidden by a rumpled curtain. To the left is visible the side of a column; to the right a caryatid in profile, and on the same side a recess, or a piece of furniture shut in by a large pane of glass, in which can be distinguished a vase holding a tulip. The woman wears a little black cap which covers the hair and falls over the forehead, a small goffered collar, white cuffs, a black dress shot with grey reflections, and a fur boa, which hangs about her neck and down to her knees. She holds a handkerchief in the right hand, and a church-service book in the left. She looks about eighty years of age; her mouth is sunk, her hands are withered. The face has been tenderly painted, in a warm brown tone; the expression is restful.
The three portraits seem to be related to one another; all three figures are seen to below the knee, and are lifesize; they are in the same attitude, and among similar surroun- dings; but judging from the treatment the old woman must have been painted later, say about 1630. All three pictures, too, are of genuine value, showing that Jordaens at the age of thirty was a master in portraiture. The man especially is very successful ; he looks so calm and so distinguished, his attitude is so elegant, his hands are so beautifully shaped. The painting is still solid, but tenderer than in the family-portrait at Madrid. The light is not particularly strong, but its effect is harmonious. The young woman is paler in tone than the man.
From Jordaens' early period, but undoubtedly a little later than 1623, comes the large family portrait in the Museum at Madrid referred to above. The group consists of the father, the mother, a little girl about four or five years old, and a servant. To the right stands the father with his right foot on the cross bar of a chair, his right hand on the back of it. In his left he holds a lute. He is dressed in black with a white ruff, white cuffs, and yellow stockings; the sleeve of the right arm is a yellow bronze. He is a young man in
52
PORTRAITS.
—.ties, good-looking, with .own ^ a mousta che andean imp^The woma,
rirt ^i y 7r r- r^. The h em * h . red , TT ^
from under h r black dress; the front of her bodice is embroidered in gold. She has her right arm round her little daughter, and lays her left upon the child's left arm. The lite maid wears a white pinafore over a yellow dress; her head is covered w.th a blue I wl In one hand she holds an apple, in the other a basket of grapes. The servant stands between the man and the woman, somewhat in the background. She wears a flat straw hat a standing-up collar, a red bodice, a white apron, and holds a basket with fruit in her hand. In the background we notice dark foliage; to the left a parrot on a stick, and a
fountain decorated with a marble dolphin, with an Amor astride it; under a chair to the right is a dog. This is one of the best works of Jordaens in this genre: the grouping is happy, the expression full of life, the colour vivid, firmly kneaded, and finely handled. Mother and daughter stand in the full light; the little girl is simple, the mother distinguished. The maid is in half tones with thin shadows on the face under the brim of the straw hat, while a heavy shadow falls on the white apron; the father is in a darker tone; but a strong light on cheek and collar serves well to throw up the head. There is not the least doubt about the genuineness of the pic- ture, or about the date of its execution : the solidity of the pain- ting, the vivid colouring, the heavy shadows, the unbroken hues, prove it to belong to the early Twenties. The whole handling witnesses to the high pitch which Jordaens' art had already attained.
Henri Hymans expresses the opinion that in this picture Jordaens has painted himself with his wife and eldest child. This child, Catharina, was born in 1617; and as the girl in the picture seems to be about five years old, it must, if this supposition is correct, have been painted in 1622. Jordaens at that date was 29 and Catharina van Noort 33 years old. But the father in the group seems to me decidedly older than 29, and moreover bears too slight a likeness to Jordaens to justify us in recognising the artist's portrait in it. His clothes, those of his wife, and all the details of the picture indicate a family in a much better position than Jordaens occupied at that time.
To the same, or rather to a slightly earlier time belongs the family portrait in the Hermitage. There ten persons are seated in a garden, about a table. The eldest son plays
ABANDANCE. Drawing (Mr. Heseltine, London).
PORTRAITS.
53
on the guitar; the father holds a glass of wine in his hand. To the right sits the mother with a child on her knee; behind the mother a daughter; in front of her again a second daughter; on this side of the table a third, with a dog. Higher up, a servant enters with a dish. Three little Loves are fluttering among the foliage of the trees. The painting is harder and darker than in that of the Museum at Madrid. The picture came from the Walpole collection, and whilst forming part of it was engraved under the title „Rubens and his family".
In the second half of the year 1903 a portrait was placed in the National Gallery, London, which bears the coat-of-arms of the family Waha, „gules, an eagle argent striped sable" and the inscription ^TATIS SWE 63—1626. This work is described as the portrait of Baron Waha de Linter of Namur, and is attributed to Jordaens. It is a remarkable picture; a splendid figure, powerfully painted. The man is turned three- quarters to the left, and looks towards the right; his short, brushed-up hair is touched with gray, moustache and beard are wholly gray; the eyes are small but sharp; he is a healthy-looking carle, and evidently lives well. He wears a white goffered collar, white cuffs, and a black cloak over a black silk coat. Slantwise across the chest runs a three-ply gold chain, and from a belt round his waist hangs a sword with a gold hilt. The left hand rests on the hip, the right on a walk- ing stick. The face is burnt red, the nose scarlet; its colour is shown up by the warm white collar, and against the background of blue sky flecked with little thin white clouds, while to the left can just be seen a bronze- green, almost black curtain, with gold fringes faintly visible.
The painting has something tho- rough, massive and free about it, and this, no doubt, explains its attribution
to Jordaens. But these qualities are not invincible argument, and they are not so con- vincingly displayed as in his indisputable portraits. We may be permitted to express a doubt, therefore. It was certainly painted by an Antwerp artist; neither van Dyck nor Cornelis de Vos executed it, so that we are thrown back upon the alternative of Rubens or Jordaens. The picture, particularly in the hands with their bent finger tips, is undeniably reminiscent of Rubens The chestnut brown reflections on the curves of the figures and the blue- gray modelling also recall the great master. But the head betrays his style less clearly. It is lightly modelled, the colours have been fused, and the shadows are grey. Rubens painted more loosely and freely, and laid down the touches more separately; his flesh is fairer and is animated in a more vivid way by the red tints of the blood which course
PAN AND SYRINX (Museum, Brussels).
PORTRAITS.
54
round the openings of nose and mouth. Here the colour on the face i« more hot; the naintin, is very firm and at the same time very broad; there is something at once bold and colon in the expression; all characteristics of jordaens rather than of Rubens And wh.e we lack complete certainty, in the present state of our knowledge we can attribute the picture to the first with more plausibility than to the second master.
The Duke of Devonshire possesses a double portrait, which for a long time bore the
FAMILY-PORTRAIT (Museum, Madrid).
title „Prince Frederick-Henry of Orange and his wife."(l) The man does not in the least resemble the Stadtholder, and the woman has nothing in common with Amalia van Solms, save that she is stout and short of neck. If there were the least doubt about the figures being wrongly named, it would be dispelled by looking at the coat-of-arms at the top of the picture, which is that of the family van Surpele or van Zurpele, who lived in the XVII th century at Diest in South-Brabant.
The background is taken up by a double arch; of the two openings, the one on the
(1) WAAGEN. Art Treasures in Great-Britain, II. 94.
PORTRAITS. 55
left is open to the air. The lady of the house sits in an ample armchair with a red velvet back, and ample she herself is also, with her round head sunk between her shoulders, and both hands in her lap, — a typical Flemish matron of mature years. The hair has been brushed backwards, a wide collar edged with lace lies on her shoulders, deep cuffs encircle her wrists; she wears a dress of richly embroidered black silk. The man stands in front of the arch to the right; like his wife, he looks about fifty years of age. Solid, and firmly planted on legs set well apart, his right hand on a high walking-stick, the left turned backwards on his hip, he looks out at the spectator with calm eyes. His hair is thick and curly; he wears a large, soft white collar, a black garb, and round the waist a broad red sash, the richly embroidered ends of which hang down behind him; slantwise across his breast is slung an ornate belt from which is suspended a sword with a broad hilt. In the background, between the arches, we notice a caryatid with a satyr-head, above which hangs the coat-of-arms of the van Zurpele, „vair or and Azure, on a bar gules three hammers of the first". In the foreground is a little dog; and on an iron bar which runs across the arch perches a parrot.
The painting is carefully executed, and gives all the details of head, hands, and clothes. The tone is warm and strong; the whole execution masterly. The background is furnished in the same way as in the portraits belonging to Mevrouw Bosschaert-Dubois. Here, as there, the woman is seated before an open arch, decorated with a caryatid with a satyr-head. But this picture is clearly of a later date, say about 1630: the painting is more tender and the shadows are more transparent than those of 1623; on the other hand it does not yet exhibit the fleecy warmth of the portraits of 1640. It is a masterly work, undoubtedly the most excellent of Jordaens' portraits. Excellent, because it has been carefully executed, and is really magnificent in its quiet velvety light; excellent also, because the couple represented are so distinguished and noble : the man with his proud bearing, holding his walking-stick like a commander's staff; the woman, who, though somewhat heavy, has yet the presence of one who inspires instant respect and is accustomed to exact deference.
CHAPTER III.
1631 — 1641.
JORDAENS' SECOND MANNER - THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR — THE KlNQ DRINKS - AS THE OLD COCK CROWS THE YOUNG ONE LEARNS — MYTHOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS
pieces — Portraits.
J'
fORDAENS' SECOND MANNER. — It
is noticeable that Jordaens' manner of painting alters con- siderably after 1630. True, we cannot point with certainty to any . .-.*><, pictures as having been produced
tr\ ftJ^JJlT \ -M \ - . t N^ft£. It* -»J lrsA i J?J immediately after that year: the
earliest date which we find on any work painted after The Miracle of St. Martin is 1637. But in that year the changed direction of his work had already declared itself, and we may conclude unhesita- tingly that the modification to which we allude had been going on for some years, and was first notice- able shortly after 1630. It is this year, therefore, that we take as marking the close of his first period, — the stage of his career in which he distinguished himself by firm and more or less hard painting, by stiff lines, untempered light, and a powerful realism. In his second period, which we date from 1631, he becomes softer and more melting in tone, more downy in his light, more elegant in his forms. He is now evidently under the influence of Rubens; after having resisted it for twelve or fifteen years he submits, like his fellow artists in Antwerp and throughout all Flanders, to his paramount authority. He does not even now renounce his independence: he becomes no servile, or even faithful, follower of Rubens'; nevertheless, the change which we notice in his work is due to the impress of the great master, and it brings Jordaens nearer to him. The transformations which Jordaens' style underwent after he had, for good and all, adopted his second manner are of less impor- tance than those which were noticeable in it during the earlier period; and except the
A MERRY MEAL (Mr. M. Delacre, Ghent).
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR. 57
few pictures which are dated, and those (also small in number) which are mentioned in historical documents, his works in it are difficult to arrange in regular sequence, and it is only after careful examination of them that we can trace the slow alterations of his style. In the case of other masters — of Rubens, for example, and of Rembrandt and van Dyck, — we see the change coming slowly, indeed, but unbrokenly; no doubt in Jordaens' work also similar continuous modifications occur, but they are certainly not so obvious to the eye, and they follow no regular line of development. Thus it is not possible to define them with the same certainty, and no one hitherto has even tried to indicate them. Yet to write the history of Jordaens' art without seeking to arrange his pictures chronologically is to wander blindfold, without a guide for oneself or a light for the reader. And though the task may be difficult, and full of pitfalls, it is also very attractive, for it forces us to study all the characteristics of every one of the master's pictures, and all the transfor- mations of his art in the course of his career.
Jordaens does not now desert subjects drawn from everyday life; on the contrary, more even than in the earlier period he is the painter of homely scenes derived from the manners and customs of the Flemish burghers. But his way of representing these subjects differs considerably from his former treatment of them.
The Peasant and the Satyr. Museum at Brussels. — The picture which shows most clearly this alteration in his manner of painting is The Peasant and the Satyr in the Museum at Brussels. The composition is essentially the same as that of the earlier examples of the subject. Now, however, the scene is laid in the open air, under an awning held up by a pole along which trails a vine. On the farther side of the table sits the peasant busy eating his porridge from a red earthenware pot. He blows on it as hard as he can blow: his cheeks are swollen, and his eyes are closed with the force he is putting into the action. Greedily he goes to work, little minding the laughter and jeers of the bystanders. To the right sits his wife with her child on her lap, her hand slightly extended with a gesture in keeping with her expression, as if she were saying: „Just look at the glutton!" In front of her stands a dog; behind her is a maid who has fetched her master a glass of beer; to the left is the satyr with uplifted arm, venting his indignation at the doings
of the peasant.
It is a beautiful symphony of light. The woman and the child are set in the full sunlight, which does not glow but rests softly on her healthy and rosy face, her white linen, her copper-yellow bodice, and on the white and red dress of the child. The light falls more warmly on the peasant. His skin is brown, and boldly touched in; his blowing works it into crinkles and folds which bring a play and "sparkle into the dusky glow of his face On the heavy, wrinkled, knotted, kneaded body of the satyr lies a sultry moisture over which floats a quiet light that glows and softly glistens, that here and there breaks through, disappears, and reappears on the surface a little higher up. It gains in strength on the shoulder; reaching the head, it becomes sharper, and flickering through the dark browns causes forehead and nose to stand out vividly. The whole head is a marvel of deep dusky tones and reflections, lacking firmness of lines but with flaring touches which cause the lump of tonality to sparkle with life The old servant in dull half-tones, and the scumbled background, throw the foreground figures into relief and add to the misty impression of the whole.
The transformation in Jordaens' style, of which we have spoken, is here complete, and
58
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR.
the difference between this work and those of the previous period is immense. Perhaps we still discover something of his early hardness in the awkward gesture of the peasant woman's extended arm, and in the stiff folds of her smiling face; but for the rest all the movements have become more supple, all the forms more yielding, all the tones softer. No fierce glow, no vivid, full colour is to be seen any longer; everything is wrapped in a velvety warmth, a suppressed glow, and a melting light.
In the peasant we recognize Jordaens himself, and in the peasant woman his wife; both seem to be about forty, and very probably the picture was painted in the second half
of the Thirties.
In the collection of Mr. Fairfax Murray in London there is a drawing into which is introduced a piece of tapestry whereon the same scene reappears. The figures, however, are
NEPTUNE AND AMPH1TRITE (Duke of Aremberg, Brussels).
given at full length, while in the painting we see them as far as the knees only. Jordaens frequently painted this scene from peasant life, and in later years he took greater advantage of the assistance of his pupils in the production of slightly altered repetitions of his former versions of it. Thus the Count de Beauffort at Brussels possesses a copy of The Peasant and the Satyr in which the principal figures are the same as in the engraving by Neefs, while the accessory figures have been altered. All of them have been derived from earlier versions, but they are painted in a dark brown tone, with black shadows such as Jordaens introduced into his canvases in later years only. The picture in the collection of Mr. A. Harcq at Brussels is a much-altered copy of this favourite subject of Jordaens. It was painted in his studio by a pupil of undeniable talent, who, however, did not possess the powerful touch of the master and easily degenerated into caricature.
THE PEASANT AT HIS PORRIDGE.
59
The Peasant at his Porridge. — We must now speak of certain pictures related with the preceding, into the composition of which, however, Jordaens introduced considerable alterations. Evidently he realised that his illustration of Aesop's fable was insufficient, insomuch as the blowing peasant could only be pictured in one of his contradictory actions; and that (since this blowing figure was, after all, the real essential in the scene) he might easily and without great loss leave out the satyr and confine himself to the painting of the peasant and his household. He took this step in a picture in the Museum at Cassel, called The Peasant at his Porridge.
It is rather astonishing that in recasting his old subject he takes the whole group, with the exception of the satyr, from the preceding picture; with this difference, however, that here, as in the drawing of Mr. Fairfax Murray, he paints the figures full-length. The feeding peasant, the mother with the child, the servant behind them, are absolutely the same in shape and colour as in the Brussels picture. In the background we notice the same vine climbing against the trellis-work. On the table are the same dishes; and in front of the table sits the same dog. The satyr has given place to an old peasant in a red blouse with bare legs, who throws back his head to drink from a pewter jug. The fantastic form which he still preserves recalls the wood-god to us. Between this drinker and the peasant stands a girl, who is biting a slice of bread and butter; on the ground to the right is seated a little boy. The little girl reminds us very much of the maid in the Fertility; the little boy of the one in The Miracle of St. Martin. In the foreground in the middle of the picture stands a grazing goat.
It is a very pleasant rustic scene, in which boorish simplicity and uncouthness are mingled with artful arrangement and attractive figures. The general tone is the same as that
in the picture at Brussels ; an abundance of soft light broken by transparent shadows envelops the scene. The golden tones are dominant here also ; they are carried throughout the entire picture, and are seen in the straw wall in the background, the yellow blouse of the peasant woman, the yellow dog, the fair hair of the children, the warm hues of the sky; but the sunniness is firmer, the colouring more vivid. The sultry indefiniteness of the satyr has been transferred to the drinking peasant and to the little girl in front of him. These figures, and indeed the whole work, have been executed in a masterly way. The Porridge-eater at Cassel and The Peasant and the Satyr at Brussels rank among the most perfect pictures which Jordaens produced in his altered manner of painting. The second, like the first, dates from the second half of the Thirties, but we are unable to say which of the two was the earlier. The
THE MILKMAID
(Mr. M. Delacre, Ghent).
6o
THE PEASANT AT HIS PORRIDGE.
work at Cassel is known to have been there as early as 1749, and was carried off by Jerome Napoleon, and returned in 1814. We shall find later that Jordaens used four of the figures from this picture and from that in Brussels for the composition of the cartoons in the Proverbs series of tapestries.
A second picture, corresponding in almost every detail with the preceding, is in the Museum of Strasbourg. It is signed and dated on one of the legs of the table, J. Jordaens 1652. The nakedness of the urchin is covered by a branch of the vine which he holds in his hand. It is a very mediocre repetition of the other, cold in lighting, the flesh looking as tough as leather: a painting, in a word, heavy and lumpish. It is certainly not by Jordaens;
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR (Museum, Brussels).
at the most, unless we assume that the signature is altogether false, it is the work of a pupil, who inscribed on it the name of his master and the date of his copy. The original work was painted some twelve or fifteen years earlier than the date found upon this one
In the Liechtenstein Gallery at Vienna there is a simplified version of the same subject. The peasant eating his porridge and the old servant who holds the glass of beer and the jug in her hand are all that has been retained from the central group. To the left we see a young woman with curly hair who laughingly lays her hand on the shoulder of the peasant. The picture hangs too high and is too badly lighted for us to say more about it.
A similar subject is treated by Jordaens in A Peasant Meal, representing a woman, two children, and a shepherd seated at table, which appeared at the D. G. von Schauss-
THE KING DRINKS. 61
at e M P uni n ch aUSen ^ (C ° l0gne ' 19 ° 1); ^ '" A Pe ° Sattt FamUy ' m the Michel Collection
The King drinks. - About 1630, or at all events shortly thereafter, jordaens began to treat a second subject inspired by the manners and customs of his people (and more particularly of the Flemish burghers). Once having chosen it, he never wearied of it but
P . ai l Jt? gam and again; lt Pr ° vided him with material for sever al of his masterpieces;
it exhibited him in the fullness of his individuality, in all his joy of life, in all his
mastery as a painter.
This subject is called: The King drinks, or The Epiphany. In Flanders and else
where the feast of the Epi- phany has been an institu- tion for centuries; aged
people of the present day
still remember when it was
celebrated in every house- hold ; in these later times it
is less frequently observed,
and in all probability it will,
like so many other customs,
disappear altogether. On
Epiphany day, January 6,
the family and relations
gather round the board. One
of the dishes is a cake, which
has been baked with a bean
in it; the cake is cut in as
many portions as there are
people present. He who finds
the bean in his plate is
declared king; he presides
at table, and commands the
obedience of all the others.
The fun is started by his
assigning a r61e to each of them, and together they spend a merry night eating,
drinking, singing, and doing all sorts of jolly things. From what we know of the customs
of that day these gatherings must have been not merely merry, but even very noisy and
hilarious. And so, at any rate, Jordaens painted them.
Besides the King, and the Queen whom he appointed, there were a Counsellor, a Secretary, a Chamberlain, a Steward, a Treasurer, a Cup-bearer, a Carver, a Confessor, a Doctor, a Porter, a Messenger, a Singer, a Musician,' a Jester and a Cook: or a few of these, if the company did not muster the full seventeen, which, however, was seldom the case. The Queen (who was never wanting), was the only female character, although of course the fair sex was not excluded from the fun. In one of the versions of The Epiphany, — that in the Imperial Museum at Vienna — Jordaens has indicated all the different officials
THE PEASANT AND THE SATYR
(Mr. A. Harcq, Brussels).
62 THE KING DRINKS.
by means of little scrolls, which are pinned on to their caps or clothes, or are lying before them on the floor; in this picture are the Fool, the Carver, the Medico, the Queen and the Messenger. It is clear that, in Jordaens' pictures at least, the roles have not been decided by lot: the King is always the oldest, the Queen the prettiest, of the company.
In these Epiphany festivities the master found an opportunity of painting the Flemish burghers at table. When Rubens and van Dyck bring topers and tipsy folk upon the scene, they always choose for these characters figures from the pagan Olympus: Bacchus, Silenus, Satyrs and Bacchantes are their heroes and heroines. The elder Breughel, again, paints weddings celebrated by peasants and peasant-women; Teniers also goes to the villages for the kermis-people. Jordaens' choice, on the other hand, falls upon townspeople of the well-to-do middle class. It was they whom he knew best; he lived with them, he had often sat at table with them; he knew how they enjoyed themselves, how valiantly they engaged in a meal, how loud their laugh and their song — how wild the one, how witty the other; how sentimentally this one and how shamelessly that behaved when excited by wine. The elder people among us still recall those ancestral bouts: the festive meals which began shortly after midday and did not finish before midnight; when the menu contained at least a dozen substantial dishes, where during desert witty songs were sung, and when the end was satisfactory only if the departing guest stumbled through the streets with uncertain steps in the small hours.
In the seventeenth century they must have been even more wonderful affairs. The flourishing state of the Southern Provinces, more especially of the town of Antwerp, had come to an end in the last quarter of the XVI th century. The dreadful struggle with Spain, which raged from 1567 to 1585, had closed with the taking of Antwerp by Alexander of Parma and the rehabilitation of the King's power in the Southern Netherlands. The war with the Northern Provinces lasted until the Peace of Munster in 1648. After this year until the end of the century, Flanders was continually the scene of struggles between Spain and France, though Antwerp at that time was not directly concerned in them. People lived from day to day in a state of uncertainty — a state neither of war nor of peace, which did not allow the country to recover from the exhaustion caused by troublous times. Commerce was destroyed by the closing of the Scheldt; industry was interrupted by the apprehensive feeling in the country. The decline in the power of Spain as well as of the Spanish Netherlands became each year more rapid, and poverty increased in proportion; the burghers were oppressed by heavy taxes, which they might rebel against, but still had to pay. The Flemings enjoyed no longer an independant existence, but were ruled by Governors sent from Madrid. A present decline, a future without hope — such was their condition. They were moving slowly, but steadily, without jolting and pushing, to the abyss, and by the time that the seventeenth century had come to an end, they had reached the bottom: their resources were dried up, art had dwindled away, and all spiritual life seemed to have breathed its last.
If it be true that those people are happiest who have no history, then were the Flemings a notable illustration thereof. They no longer played a role in the world; battles were fought on their soil, but they took no part in the fight; they lived on what was left over from former prosperity, and on what the tough industry, the inextinguishable love of work, and the stout spirit of the people could still achieve. Now and then complaints about the steady decline were heard; yet the burghers did not lose courage or cheerfulness; they seemed to adapt themselves to the dark times, and to regard adversity as a normal condition.
THE KING DRINKS. 63
The people hardened themselves to their fate, and with all the evil gratefully accepted any little good that came their way. They did not take things too much to heart, but enjoyed with a certain wantonness the days of respite, the hours of unconcern.
It was due to this stubborn resistance to ruin, that the Flemish school of art reached the period of its greatest glory in the first half of the seventeenth century; thanks to their unquenchable cheerfulness, the burghers in those years of general depression never lost a chance of enjoying themselves, and of enjoying themselves exceedingly.
We have sketched elsewhere the features of these festivities. (1) The deans of the Guild of St. Luke squandered its money, and sometimes their own savings as well, in yearly dinners which, about the middle of the XVII th century, had become the principal events in that old and venerable institution. In 1648 there was disbursed for the Knor (or „small dinner"), which was held on the day when the new dean entered office, 200 guilders; and for the grand dinner, on the day of St. Luke, 481 guilders (about 9000 fr. of our present money). In 1676 the dean, Theodoor Verbrugghen, expended 1300 guilders upon a dinner; yet the entire income of the guild amounted to 1800 or 2000 guilders only. In consequence, in 1678, it was found necessary to limit the expenses of the banquet to 1000 guilders.
This was the order of things in the immediate surroundings of Jordaens, and it was nowise different in other circles. I have before me the annual accounts of the dinner of the Lofmeesters in the chapel of Our Lady in 1671, the year in which Balthasar Moretus, of the family of Antwerp printers, was installed. Jufvrouw Moretus, mother of the newly chosen master, gave a breakfast and an „evening meal" for the procession of the Lofmeesters, and a banquet when her son was escorted home. On September 29, 1671, on St. Michael's day, Balthasar Moretus himself gave a small dinner, and on the 24 th of January following a grand banquet which lasted three days. On the third day one and a half awm (an awm was equal to about 40 gallons) and one eighth of an awm of hock was drunk, and this cost some 166 guilders, about a thousand francs of our coin. The whole banquet cost him 944 guilders, 9 stuivers, — about 5500 francs. Sixty persons sat down to it; the first day there were served three courses with forty-two varieties of dishes; on the second day there were forty-eight different dishes; appetite had evidently languished a little by the third, for on it there were only forty persons present, and no more than thirty-five dishes on the menu. When on the 9 th of July, 1673, Balthasar Moretus again gave a banquet, in honour of his son's marriage, it cost him 1667 guilders, 4'/ 4 stuivers, or about 10,000 francs to-day: to the confectioner alone were paid 530 guilders and 3 stuivers, that is, about 2000 francs. (2)
Such was the manner in which one dined in the XVII th century at the tables of well-to-do burghers. Houses where we should have least expected such worship of pleasure and feasting were not behind-hand in these cheerful practices. In the registers of the Falcon Cloister in Antwerp, (3) we find on every page almost bills for small festivities celebrated on the occasion of the ordination of novices. Let me give one example. On the 10 th of February, 1664, nineteen persons celebrated the „Marriage" of a novice; fourteen visitors were staying in the convent from Saturday night until Friday morning. They brought with them seven knuckles of ham, three tongues, cheeses, apples, cakes; and the nuns entertained them as follows :
(1) Willem OOIER (New Sketch book, p. 120).
(2) Archives of the Museum Plantin-Moretus. Bills.
(3) State Archives at Antwerp.
6 4
THE KING DRINKS.
„First, 20 white loaves, each half a stuyver, a salted leg of mutton, 2 hams, 2 pieces of dressed meat, 3 dishes of rice, 3 dishes of mutton-stew, with sausages and meat-balls, and 3 dishes of mashed prunes: these for the first course.
„Item, 3 capons, a venison, a roasted shoulder, 3 dishes with forced-meat balls, 3 dishes with little cakes.
„Item, each one's share of dessert put in a dish, and set before her; it consisted of a large piece of almond tart, a mossafoel, a piece of biscuit, a white letter, and 20 sweets of large Spanish sugar, and wine from the gilt dish in which to drink the bride's health."
On the second day the feast was continued on the same lavish scale. We also get an insight into how things went on at table. After summing up all that was consumed that day, the account proceeds:
„Item, the dessert, 3 dishes Spanish sugar and 3 dishes of aniseed, which they divided in a rude way by snatching and grab- bing it to their plates; then there were 19 fancy dishes thrown into a lottery and marked with figures, of which each received according to the draw. There was great jollity, and the wine flowed liberally." And this was not always the end. The report of a similar wedding celebrated in the same cloister in 1673 finishes thus: „The friends all went home, quite content, on a waggon decorated with evergreen; there was violin music and singing, and some were drunk."
Such was life in the convents, and evidently the sisters, far from taking offence at these feasting parties and their consequences, looked upon them as great fun, and were even rather proud of them. They considered them great events in the life of their cloister. In the same way as the Moretus family recorded with glee, one by one, the hundred dishes which they offered to the Lofmasters, the Falcon sisters chronicled with full details the weddings which they celebrated. In those turbulent days people who chronicled such events regarded them as glowing passages in their own and in Flemish history.
The authorities, however, looked upon this excessive banqueting and junketting in another light, and did whatever they could to moderate it. In the 16 th and 17 th centuries they repeatedly issued decrees against the carousals held on the occasion of weddings and
THE PORRIDGE EATER
(Liechtenstein, Vienna).
THE KING DRINKS.
65
funerals. To cite one of many examples, mention may be made of the ..Proclamation and Ordinance against the revels at Weddings, banquets and Funerals" issued on the 30 th of September, 1613, by the Arch-Dukes Albert and Isabella, which was only a repetition of earlier proclamations of their own and of one even of a former Government, on October 7, 1531.
This ordinance states that the abuse, nothwithstanding former proclamations, had reached to such a point that „one has known as many as five or six hundred persons gathered at a wedding, to the great inconvenience and impoverishment of our subjects, besides the improprieties, quarrels and fights which such a great multitude involves." The Arch-Dukes therefore forbade the invitation of more than thirty-two couples to a wedding or the prolongation of the festivities beyond two days. At funerals it had become the custom to have a banquet on the day of the interment and another the next day; it was now forbidden to entertain any but a few friends and rela- tions „with all moderation and propriety," and these on the day of the funeral only, under penalty of a fine. (1)
The impression left by these saturnalia upon the foreigner, and particularly upon the sober Spaniards, can be gathered from the Cardinal-Infant, Governor of the Southern Provinces in 1635—1641. He was present in 1639 at the great fair at Antwerp, and on the day following wrote to his brother, Philip IV: ..Yesterday they held here their great festival, which is called the Ker- messe ; there went out a large procession with many trium- phal cars : finer in my opinion
than that at Brussels. After the procession they all went off to eat and drink, and at the end they all got drunk, for unless they did that they would not count it a festival here. They live, upon my word, like beasts." (2)
This is not very polite, and one must make allowance for it in the mouth of a Spaniard who given to sobriety himself, considers drunkenness as the greatest of all vices. But it certainly was true that at this time the Flemish people were fond of show and excessive eating and drinking - more so than was decent, and more so probably than other nations. Not only was there a banquet at the Guild of St. Luke when a new dean was appointed,
(1) Proclamations of Flanders, II, 171, 737, 738.
(2) Letter of Aug. 29. 1639 (JUSTI- Velasquez. II. 458).
THE OFFERING TO JUPITER
Drawing (Boyinans Museum, Rotterdam).
66 THE KING DRINKS.
but it and all other guilds, societies, companies, and Chambers of Rhetoric improved every occasion in the same manner. No new magistrate was chosen, no eminent visitor arrived in the town, no bargain was struck, no notable event happened, without people gathering round a board where food and drink in abundance were served.
On July 30, 1672, the Governor issued a proclamation prohibiting banquets at the expense of the community on the renewal of a magistrate's term of office, at the settlement of accounts, at fairs or on feast-days, on the passage through the city of important personages, unless it were to reward them or to show them gratitude — from which we gather that it was the habit to feast at all such times.
On mournful occasions it was the same. At the funeral of a notable man, a great part of the population seemed to feel the need of expressing its sympathy by consuming dainty dishes and of drowning grief in deep draughts of wine. When Rubens was buried there not only was a banquet in his house for the family and friends ; but there was one also at the town-hall, attended by the members of the Magistracy and the Treasury, which cost 250 guilders (about 1500 fr.), another to the members of the Confraternity of the Romanists at the „Golden Flower", when 126 florins were spent, and a third at the „Stag" to thirty-four members of the Guild of St. Luke and the „Gilliflower", which cost 182 florins. (1)
The King drinks. Cassel. — That which was an offence to the Spanish prince, and a licence that the authorities tried to bridle, offered subjects to Jordaens which delighted his heart. Flemish people busy feasting, singing, love-making, in the midst of noise and hubbub, were to him so many choice models. True, he represents the land of Cocagne by the feast of the Epiphany only, but he gives us various versions of it. One incident, however, is constant in them all: that moment during the feast which he paints,— the solemn moment when „the king drinks", and all the company applaud this important act, and proclaim it with vociferous cheering. The pictures which represent this subject are called indifferently therefore „The Epiphany" and „The King drinks".
Jordaens neither took nor asked advice from any one as to his choice of scenes of quiet or noisy fun; lie was led to these subjects by his own intuition. Yet it ought to be observed that in Flanders and elsewhere immediately before his time, as well as during it, similar jolly or disorderly scenes were treated with life-size figures. Michel Angelo de Caravaggio (1569—1609), the Italian naturalist, had introduced knaves and sharpers as heroes; his pupils, the Dutchman Gerard Honthorst (1590—1654) and the Frenchman Valentin (1591—1634?), following his example, painted by preference groups of dicers or musicians. In Flanders itself, also, Theodoor Rombouts was fond of representing subjects of this kind. But Jordaens, though he painted carousals, introduced no knavish tricks into his pictures; he was a jolly and bright-spirited man himself, and the actions and gestures in his pictures also are full of liveliness, while Caravaggio, Honthorst, Valentin and Rombouts, even in their merriest gatherings, are, compared with him, sad in tone, and stiff and timid in gesture.
Of the examples of Jordaens' Epiphany known to us, the oldest is that in the Museum at Cassel. At a well-furnished table sits the merry company. To the right, at the head of the table, appears the king, ready to drink, holding in one hand the rummer, in the other the glass wine-jug. With a paper crown on his head, and a vivid red cloak around him,
(1) MAX ROOSES, Rubens' Life and Works, p. 620.
THE KING DRINKS. 67
he looks rather soft, and not very imposing. Behind him stands the jester with a fool's cap on his head and his mace in his hand; he lays his arm on the shoulder of a maid who holds a pewter jug. Next to the King sits the Queen, a young laughing woman with a shouting child on her lap, who looks with interest at her drinking neighbour. Then follow to the left: an old man with red cap, red collar and blue clothes, holding a whistle between his fingers; an amorous girl, with silver tinsel in her hair, who rests her arm on the shoulder of the old man; a singing man raising his glass. To the left: a father with a curly-headed child, a young man standing erect, who helps himself to wine, a satyr-like old man trying to embrace a young girl; a man turning sick, and a woman who laughingly comes to his assistance and supports his head. In the foreground we have a trooper with a beaker in his outstretched hand, calling out excitedly. On the floor a dog is busy upsetting a tray with dinner-ware, and a cat hides under the table. The back- ground is the wall of the room, with a few windows to the left.
The lighting of the picture is unusually powerful. There is an exceedingly brilliant glow upon the group composed of the king, the young woman and her child, the player on the pipe, and the two young women. The fool and the old woman are standing in a warm, dark shadow; the group to the left floats in a hazy brightness,— a little pale, like moonlight, and without solidity. The trooper in the foreground stands out against the light in massed, soft shadow. All this is very varied, almost unnatural and artificial; a conglomerate of very different people, very different actions, and very different lighting; merry and noisy enough, exquisite in treatment, but yet unsatisfactory. The light is still pronounced, the figures are sharply defined against the dusky background. Unity is wanting. One group of people is busy about the king; another is perfectly unconcerned about him, and has been pushed to the left in consequence. In this way the merry company is divided, in grouping and action, into two sections. The king, who ought to be the link which unites all, is rather a sorry, doddering figure, not at all attractive.
There are beautiful passages and exquisite figures in the work ; but Jordaens' art is not yet ripe, and there is no doubt that the picture dates from the early thirties. The -queen is the artist's wife, and the child is his. The model for the pipe-player with his drawn, deeply-furrowed face, and sinewy neck is the same as for one of the Evangelists, and for the satyr in the Abundance. All this we regard as a proof that the picture belongs to a comparatively early time.
The King drinks. Valenciennes. — In the Museum at Valenciennes there is a copy of this picture, which, however, omits the four persons to the left. It may be said with absolute certainty that it is not by Jordaens; it is an old copy, a careful but characterless work. The picture is interesting in as much as it shows us what the copies made in Jordaens' studio were like, and how far he stood above his followers. The figures have no muscles, no life; everything is rounded off, polished, enervated. The colour is without life, the light without brilliance; there is no transparency in the shadows, which do not merge into the light Everything is limp and smooth. The people are not really merry. They are Jordaens' men and women, but his spirit has not been breathed into them : artificial little puppets who open their mouths and eyes, but do not see or sing. This unhappy copy shows as distinctly as do his own works how joyous was Jordaens' spirit, and how well able he was to inspire everybody and everything with life and merriment. At the Massius sale (Paris 1825) appeared the same picture, or one similarly curtailed by the cutting out of the left group.
68
THE KING DRINKS.
The King drinks. The Louvre. - A second version of the same subject is in The Louvre It evidently belongs to the same period as the first, though of a later date, say about 1638. This is the date on the picture As the old Cock crows, the young one learns in the Museum at Antwerp; one of the principal figures, the young mother with the child on her lap, corresponds exactly in both, in form as well as in execution.
In 1638 Jordaens' manner of painting underwent a considerable change; now he aims at elegance in drawing, bright light effects, transparency in the shadows, and shows great judgment in his composition. He does not always avoid uncouth or even repugnant figures, but he does paint pictures in which everything is thoroughly sedate. His Epiphany in the Louvre is an excellent example of this altered manner.
THE KING DRINKS (Museum, Brussels).
Once more the company is seated around the table, with the king at the head, but this time to the left. He lifts the beaker to his mouth ; he wears on his head a silver-paper crown, round his shoulders a dark robe, under his chin a white table-napkin. Beside him, at the table, sits an old man, who raises his glass, and behind him again stands a young fellow who with extravagant gestures fills his own tankard. The young mother, the queen, sits on the farther side of the table, in the centre, beautifully dressed, with a red- velvet, feathered hat on her head. Behind her stands the fool, who lays his hand on her shoulder ; in front of her, her little boy. To the extreme right a boy, with a pewter beer-mug in his hand, is singing at the pitch of his voice; besides him are an old woman, and a maid who carries a dish of waffels on her outstretched hands. In front of the table is
THE KING DRINKS.
69
a golden-haired young woman in a red dress ; next to her a dog and a basket of table utensils. We are again in the world of well-to-do burghers; the people are well-mannered in their merrymaking — not disorderly, scarcely even free-and-easy. The young fellow on the one side shouts rather loudly; but on the other side sits for the first time the king of the day in the person of the grandfather Adam van Noort, looking like a saint, enveloped in a glowing shimmer of light. The mother has put on her best festive garment, and sits motionless so as not to crush her splendid array. The young woman in the red dress, with the flowers in her hair, is the sweetest girl in the world, — blushing with health, sparkling with life, chubby in the velvety light which clothes her cheeks. They seem to be gathered here more for our amusement than for their own; they are dressed too finely, too richly; we admire them
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THE KII^G DRINKS (Academy Museum, St. Petersburg).
because they exhibit all that is finest in light and colour that can be displayed on people's head and clothes. Jordaens' awkwardness has disappeared, but with it has gone part of his originality. This is even more observable here than in the preceding picture.
As a colourist he has undergone a noticeable and striking change. His people have no longer the firmness and solidity of his first period; they have all become more or less soft and unctuous; especially the mother and the child, and the singing youth; light and colour now flow and play more sweetly, and the effect obtained is softer, more exquisite. He has also become more aristocratic. The young mother behind the table wears a white cambric bodice, over which is thrown a transparent gauze kerchief, a white pearl necklace, and a pale green bodice with golden yellow lining; before her stands a glass cup filled with Rhine
70 THE KING DRINKS.
wine; her neighbour holds a gold cup towards her; the child on her knee with the light brown hair wears a sunny yellow waistcoat and a white collar. All this sun, these tender tones and reflections, make her a rich centre of luminous, transparent and intermingling colours and hues. Round this lovingly embellished figure, carressed with delight, the others group themselves in fuller, broader, flatter tones, according as they recede towards the frame. The little chap to the right is warm and sunny; the three persons behind him are duller and deeper in shadow; the flesh of the young woman in the red dress, and of the fool with the yellow cap, seems to melt into a luminous haziness. The drinking king is darker, like all on the left side : but there also everything is tender in tone, alive, rejoicing in the sunshine, and standing out in relief against the neutral background, which is cooler behind the warm figures and warmer behind the cool. Nowhere are vivid, strong points of light to be found, but everything basks in a soft glow; all the accessories as well as all the personages have been painted with masterly skill. The king and the fool are especially finely touched.
The King drinks. Brussels. — A third version which must have been painted shortly after the last is the smaller of two in the Museum at Brussels. Here the king sits in the centre on the far side of the table, and by this change the composition gains in unity. But the scene has become more noisy; it is a little later in the feast than in the preceding picture, the moment when all the company are cheering and shouting in honour of the king; they have already been drinking sometime, and have not finished drinking yet; the fun threatens to degenerate into dissipation; all have not got that length yet, but some are already behaving with impropriety.
The king brings his glass to his mouth; over his dull green fur-lined tabard he has tied his snow-white serviette. To the left, behind the table, are two very pretty, laughing, roguish women, wine glasses in hand. To the right are a singing boy and an old toothless woman. Behind the table stand the fool, who smokes, and holds up his pipe on high, a bagpipe player, to whom (for the first time) Jordaens gives his own features, and a young cup-bearer who holds up his glass. In the foreground, to the right, a mother with a wine goblet in her hand and a screaming child which lies flat across her knees; to the left a young man, both arms uplifted, with a pewter can in one hand and his cap in the other, while a dog puts its paws up against his legs; farther to the side a man, crying- and singing-drunk, drops a basket of table ware. At the top is the inscription on a cartouche: „It is good to be a guest in a free inn." Thus it is not so much a patriarchal family scene, where old and young pay due respect to the various dishes and season them with merry talk and fun; but a mixture of lighthearted happiness, excessive jollity, and coarse excitement. Jordaens must have been more attracted by the kaleidoscopic and coarse elements in the festivity than by the more sedate jests, for all his Epiphanies, except the one in the Louvre, show this combination of pleasant and repugnant figures.
This picture is delightful in colour. The king is the central figure in it, as he is the principal person at the feast. He sits enthroned in full light, in all his dignity, in the midst of this far from solemn company. He seems to laugh all over, with his puckered cheeks, which narrow his eyes and broaden his mouth, the folds which merriment brings on his venerable head, his lusty complexion, the white table napkin under his chin, and the crown of silver-foil on his head. The cup which he holds in his hand reflects the light in bright rays, and by its sparkle enhances the happy figure. The king is set between the noisy drinker
THE KING DRINKS. 71
(with the strong colour in head and waistcoat, and the powerful warm tone in his gold yellow sleeves and trousers, and the dark shadows on his flesh) on the one hand; and on the other, the bagpipe player in warm, soft tones over which float misty shadows. On either side of these figures, the lights are high and luminous. To the right is the tipsy woman with the child in her lap. The light falls brightly on her golden dress and overlays it with all the various tints of old and new gold. Her powerful neck is as if modelled in congealed light; with soft modulations running up into the red flush on her cheeks and down to the grey shadow between the breasts. That neck is a masterly piece of painting, delightful in its high and calm splendour, in firmness and tenderness. Between the golden garment and the rosily tinted flesh runs a blue band which heightens the warmth of both by the contrast of its coolness. The red dress of the child, his white linen, his blue skirt, also combine to add greater variety and richness to this colour symphony.
On the left another tone dominates; there the light is sharper, fresher, livelier. The tipsy mother and screaming child are no longer present. Their place has been taken by two charming young girls; one of them with a little white cap on her head and a white cambric kerchief over her shoulders, the other in a pale yellow dress with muslin edging over the breast. On these charming young figures lies laughing bright sunshine; a thin, gray shadow, which steals upwards from their cheeks, mistily clothes their flesh : all about them betrays softness, youth and happiness. They are children of the spring who have wandered in among these coarsely carousing guests. The weeping, tipsy fellow in front of them who stumbles with the table ware, and the jolly figure of the fool above, serve to enhance still further their refined merriment.
The accessories have been painted with all the craftsmanship in which Jordaens is unsurpassed; the glasses from which the king and the women drink, the pewter cans, the tumbling table-ware, the pasties, the dishes, all are beautiful in their broad and tender brushing. Here, as everywhere else, the expressions of the figures are eloquent, rightly observed, and reproduced with ease. They make quite a patternbook of drunkenness. The king (as the Flemings say) „rejoices in the Lord"; he has a fine palate, and exults over the glass which provides him which so much enjoyment. The two little women have just taken a sip or two, and already are getting into a laughing mood. The young man with his arms in the air is obstreperous: the world has become all too small for him. The sprawling servant is done for; he would, if he could, continue the carouse, but his capacity for it has gone. The mother with the child on her lap arouses compassion or disgust; her eyes are wavering, her hand is limp, her voice without ring.
The picture is undoubtedly one of the best versions of this subject in the style and dimensions of As the old cock crows, in Antwerp, and dates from the same time, about 1638. It is perhaps Jordaens' most perfect achievement.
The King drinks. Engraved by Poletnich and Pontius. — A work that has the closest possible resemblance to this version of The King Drinks, is one which was engraved in 1769 by J. F. Poletnich. All the figures in the two works correspond exactly. The only difference is that on the right-hand side in the engraved picture the head of a fool is introduced which is wanting in the Brussels painting. A few heads have also been added in the background to the left. In the foreground to the right (to the left in the engraving) stands a child with a dog, and in front of the table a richly ornamented jug. In the engraving
72
THE KING DRINKS.
the tipsy mother does not hold the wine glass in her left hand, which is otherwise occupied with the child lying face downwards on her knee. Were it not that in other places also the two renderings differ, one might believe that the engraving is a reproduction of the original painting out of which Jordaens had left this single vulgarity. The engraving bears this inscription : Jac. Jordaens pinxit 1639. I do not doubt that this date was on the picture, and that it indicates the year in which the painting from which the engraving was made, as also the one at Brussels, was executed.
Jordaens repeated the same subject several times in later years, but the version which he had engraved by Pontius undoubtedly belongs also to the period we are now investigating.
THE KING DRINKS (Water-colour drawing, Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp).
That picture itself is unknown to us. It represents the king sitting facing us at the centre of the table, raising the glass to his lips. To the right are a man who holds up a pewter pot, a woman with a straw hat, a trooper with a pipe stuck through the brim of his cap, stretching his leg over a bench, a fool, and a mother carrying her child. To the left are a mother with a child on her knee, a bagpipe-player, an old woman in a basket chair, and next to her an old man and another man who is sick, and whose head is held by a woman. The foreground is occupied by a child playing with castanets and a dog.
Jordaens made a drawing for this engraving; it is still in existence, and belongs to the Antwerp Museum. It is by far the most carefully worked little watercolour piece (in many colours, — brown, blue, yellow, red, etc.) which we possess of the master. Of the same dimensions as the copper plate, it has been executed with a fineness of line and touch such as one would expect from a miniaturist rather than from a „ history" painter. In this drawing
THE KING DRINKS.
73
Jordaens had originally sketched the mother giving her child a drink, but on a slip of paper attached to the finished sheet, he drew the child face down upon her lap, the vulgarer posture we find in the engraving by Pontius. For the rest the engraving and the watercolour drawing correspond exactly.
Jordaens attached to the drawing for the engraving the inscription „It is good to be a guest in a free inn", which we have found already on the picture in the Museum at Brussels described on an earlier page. On Pontius' engraving we read : „Nil similius insano quam ebrius" („Nothing comes nearer a mad man than a drunken man"), a proverb which Jordaens painted afterwards on his „Epiphany" which now hangs in the Imperial Museum at Vienna.
BOATING PARTY (British Museum, London).
Since we cannot find a painting to correspond with the engraving, it is allowable to suppose that Jordaens did the drawing specially for the engraver, and never transferred it to canvas. The painting which most nearly resembles it is the picture in the Museum of the Academy at St. Petersburg. The centre group is exactly the same in both compositions : on the right hand side the King, the mother with the child, lifting a wine glass, and the bagpipe player behind her; on the left, the singing woman with the soldier next to her, and the man who with one hand lifts his tankard while he thrusts the other into the bosom of the woman nursing her child. As has been explained already, Jordaens altered this last figure in his drawing. The group, composed of the two old people in armchairs and the woman who is assisting the sick man, which in the engraving is on the left hand side and ought to be on the right in the picture, is wanting here. In the painting the figures are not full-length,
10
74 AS THE OLD COCK CROWS.
as in the engraving, but are seen to a little below the knee only. The picture at St. Petersburg is undoubtedly one of the best renderings of the subject; it is painted very finely and tenderly, without much force, in a soft tone with half-warm insinuating light, quite in the style of As the old cock crows (of the same year, 1638) in the Museum at Antwerp, to which it would make an excellent pendent. Other versions of the same subject painted by Jordaens in later years are to be discussed farther on. Let us here, however, mention a drawing in the Print Room at Berlin, which shows a good deal of similarity with the picture in the Brussels Museum already described.
As the old cock crows, the YOUNG one learns. Antwerp. — It was during this period between 1631 and 1641 that Jordaens began to treat the third of his favourite subjects, — one illustrative of the proverb: As the old ones sing so the young ones peep, the Flemish equivalent of our „As the old cock crows, the young one learns". The meaning of the proverb is quite plain: As the old birds sing, so the little ones try to; in other words: the children follow the example of the parents. Jordaens takes the proverb as literally as possible. Voluntarily or involuntarily he changes it slightly. Instead of interpreting it in the real sense: As the old ones sing so the young ones peep; that is, As the old ones sing so the young ones bring forth their first peeping sounds, he alters „to peep" into „to pipe" (to play the pipe) and depicts, next to the singing grandfather and grandmother, the grand- children with pipes at their mouths. The moral remains the same: „Like parents, like children"; or „So shown, so imitated". Sometimes he uses the moral lying in the proverb instead of the metaphor in which it is expressed, and writes on his scene: Ut genus est genius concors consentus ab ortu. The Latin is not very clear, but consentus no doubt stands for consensus, and there is never any doubt about the meaning. „The mind of the child corresponds from its birth with the mind of the race".
This truth, in his conception of it, suggested to Jordaens material for a homely scene, in which old folks and young make music, both in their own way. As a rule his characters belong to the well-to-do middle class; they are rather dignified folk, and behave very sedately; he paints them in a scene of quiet, homely pleasure. What the young ones learn from the old is a cheerful spirit and a happy nature. This, at least, we conclude from the earlier versions of the subject; in the later, as we shall see, the scenes become noisier and the children are set an example by their parents in other things besides singing and piping.
The picture in Antwerp Museum bears the date 1638. Jordaens seems to have thought it more important than his other versions, for he chose to have it multiplied by the engraver. Schelte a Bolswert engraved one of his masterly plates after it. Did Jordaens think more of this picture because it was the earliest, or because it had succeeded best, or because it translated his thoughts in the most fitting way? We do not know; the one reason does not exclude the other, and it seems to us that he might have been affected by all at the same time.
In the Antwerp version the family, consisting of grandfather, grandmother, mother and two children, are seated behind the table, on which stand a pewter wine-jug, a rummer with hock, a ham, a pasty, bread and fruit. The house-dog rests his head on the table, and with ears pricked-up listens to the music. To the left sits the grandfather with a song book in one hand, and the other raised to beat time. He is a distinguished-looking old man with a full beard, long hair, and an Adam van Noort head. He wears glasses, a black scull-cap, a dark robe. Behind him stands a bagpipe player (Jordaens -himself), blowing on his instrument
AS THE OLD COCK CROWS. 75
with cheeks puffed out. In front of the grandfather stands a little boy, leaning against the table, blowing with all his might into a whistle which he holds in both hands. Behind the table is the mother. On her loose locks sits, a little awry, a stylish blue silk bonnet, decked with feathers and precious stones; round her neck she wears a double string of pearls, over her breast a fine muslin bodice; her youngest child sits on her lap, and he also tries to pipe with all his might. To the right sits the grandmother in a hooded basket- chair: in one hand she holds a page of music, with the other she keeps her glasses up. At the top is the cartouche with the inscription J. Jord. fecit 1638.
It is a group of distinguished people, painted in a distinguished way. The table is richly decked, the colours are splendid, the faces fine. These folks are taking their fun calmly, almost sedately. The room is sunny like their hearts. In the burgher houses where this picture hung, generation after generation learned to look at life from the most pleasant and most beautiful side. The picture is also cheerful and charming on account of its rich, full, and strongly variegated light. On the face of the young mother it is sharp and clear and struggles with heavy shadow; on that of the grandfather it shines mistily through the velvety glow. The colours are rich : the scarlet dress of the child on the mother's knee, the firm, enamel-like face of the young woman, her splendid soft white bodice, the fine embroidery of the kerchief across her shoulders, and her light amber-coloured sleeve, form the heart of this resplendence of colour. To the left it merges into the golden tint of the bagpipe, into the parchment binding of the song book, and the warm, flickering complexion of the old man and his dark gown; towards the right it subsides into the white linen upon the head and shoulders of the old woman in her sunny brown chair. The delightful still-life in the picture, — the table-dishes and food, — and also the dog's head, all full of light, respond with their charming display of many colours and fine touches to the glowing centre.
Here, as in other productions of the painter, the heads of the two old people are particularly interesting on account of the flowing softness with which light and shadow mingle on their faces. Compared with them, the young woman with her fair enamel-like complexion is cold and lifeless. Equally great is the difference in their emotional life; while the grand- father and grandmother are wholly absorbed in their occupation, every feature bespeaking full attention, their daughter sits, cool and indifferent, staring at her father, concerned about nothing save only to look beautiful.
In the engraving by Schelte a Bolswert we notice some slight alterations, no doubt added by Jordaens himself to the drawing after his picture. The shape of the cartouche on which the proverb has been written is different, and the letters are differently formed. On the canvas also the letters have been repainted, and the originally larger ones have been replaced by smaller, but the date has not been touched. While in the engraving the back of the chair on which the young woman sits is partly visible, in the picture it is not, and there also her hair is curlier and her breast more exposed. From the picture we can see that the original canvas was a little larger on all sides, especially at the top.
A picture almost entirely corresponding with the one in the Museum at Antwerp appeared at an anonymous sale in Paris at the Hotel Drouot on the 10 th of June 1893. There were these differences in it, — on the hood of the old woman's chair perches an owl, a cat sits on the ground to the left, and a parrot perches in a window recess, while there is a full back view of the dog. The persons correspond in both pictures; but that of Antwerp is oblong and the figures are seen down to the knees, while the other is upright, and the figures in it are full-length.
7 6
AS ME OLD COCK CROWS.
At the Julienne sale (Paris, 1767) there was a picture representing the same subject which was catalogued as engraved by Schelte a Bolswert, — but this is a statement which must not always be accepted literally. The two pictures appearing at these Paris sales may have been the same, or they may have been two copies made by pupils or assistants, with slight alterations.
As the old Cock crows. The Louvre. — A second version of the same period, which we are probably right in dating a year or two earlier than the preceding, is the Louvre picture. The characters are the same: grandfather, grandmother, mother, two children
THE CIRCUMCISION (Boyman's Museum, Rotterdam).
and the bagpipe-player; but they are differently placed and posed, and there is introduced among them a young woman with a {child on her arm. The grandfather here sits facing us at the table, which again is richly laden with eatables and drinkables; he wears a black cap on his head, spectacles on his nose, a table-napkin under his chin, a fur- trimmed black cloak over his shoulders; he sings,, and holds one hand to his breast, while with the thumb of the other he lifts the lid of a pewter-jug which stands on the table before him. Next to him, to the left, sits the grandmother singing from a broad-sheet on which one can decipher: Een nieu Liedeken (A new song). She wears a white tight-fitting cap, a white kerchief over her breast, and a black dress; and she sits in a high-backed but
AS THE OLD COCK CROWS.
77
hoodless basket-chair. In front of her is a child in a pale blue dress, playing the pipe. At the right-hand side of the table sits the mother holding out a glass with her right hand, while with the left she carelessly lifts up the little shirt of the child on her knee. Her hair is golden, and is decked with flowers and pearls; a string of pearls is round her neck; she wears a red garment round her loins, white linen across her breast, a white skirt and a blue apron. Her child, who also holds a pipe to his mouth, is dressed in red over a white undershirt. Behind the grandfather stands the bagpipe-player with a powerful Jordaens' head; and a singing maid carrying on her arm a child who plays the pipe. On the back of the grandmother's chair is perched an owl; on the wall to the right
y ii ) iiii ani i *-Si--H ■ h , i '
GIVE AND THOU SHALT RECEIVE (Drawing, Mr. Fairfax Murray, London).
hangs a bird-cage. In front of the table stands a child. To the left we see a window, through which the warm sunlight enters the room. In the centre at the top of the picture is the cartouche with the inscription already mentioned: Ut genus est genius concors
consentus ab ortu. „*_,..,
As in the last canvas, so here the several members of a well-to-do family give and take lessons in sociability and in looking light-heartedly upon life; but though they still sing and play with all their heart, composure is far to seek, for noisiness has taken its place and the people stretch their lungs in singing and piping. Though the young mother does 'not join in the singing, she joins in the fun; and it no longer consists merely in
78
AS THE OLD COCK CROWS.
making music. The wine glass in her hand, the wine jug in the grandfather's, and the duller eyes of both and of the servant, are enough to show that they have not allowed their throats to grow parched.
The picture is like the former, rich in light and colour, festive in appearance. Mother, child and grandfather sit in full brightness, the grandmother half in the shadow; the figures in the background stand altogether in the shadow. This is heavier here than in the picture of 1638, but it is always downy and soft, and got by quick light strokes, that leave no heavy, dark impression, but bring out the bright tones well; only the maid with the child on her arm stands in coal-black shadow, and has that spectral appearance which Jordaens has given to certain figures introduced into the background of others of his pictures in order to throw the figures in the foreground into sharper relief. The principal personage is the singing grandfather (painted with a full brush), who takes life to his arms, and gives forth the reflection of it from flesh and eyes as from a
polished mirror.
This picture, like The King drinks in the Louvre, formed a part of the celebrated Lebrun collection. Both works were bought by King Louis XVI; As the old cock crows at the sale of 1791, the other a little earlier.
A great similarity is to be discovered between this Louvre canvas and one belonging to the Earl of Wemyss, at Gosford House, .which was exhibited at the Royal Academy Winter-Exhibition in 1889. It was then discribed in the catalogue as follows: „Round a well-furnished table are seated a number of persons eating and drinking; on the 1. a woman with a glass in her hand, and a child on her knee blowing a whistle, leans towards an old woman next to her, who is singing from a paper which she holds; beyond her again is another child blowing a whistle; then comes an old man with a jug in his hand, who also appears to be singing; behind is a man playing a pipe, and another man pointing to a bird-cage in his hand; on a screen in the background is perched an owl; and in the foreground, near a chair on which is some fruit, a dog is seen coming from under the table."
As the old Cock- crows. Dresden. — A fourth version of .As the old cock crows belonging to the same period is possessed by the Museum in Dresden. The personages figuring in it are those of the Antwerp canvas, while in features they resemble more those in the picture in The Louvre. At Dresden, as at Antwerp, the grandfather sits to the right and holds a page of music in his hand; the grandmother is seated next to him in a large hooded chair, with her glasses on, and she sings from the same sheet. In front of them stands a little boy playing the pipe. On the right-hand side of the table sits the mother, who as in the Paris picture holds up her wine-glass, while the child on her lap puts a pipe to its mouth. She wears a large straw hat with a feather, a pale blue dress, with pale yellow sleeves; her bosom is veiled with a white kerchief. The bagpipe player stands in the background. In front of the table is a wine-cooler with richly-worked earthenware cans ; on an empty chair to the right a little dog; on the back of the chair a parrot; on the table are all sorts of viands, bread, cheese, a waffle, a pewter can, a metal mug, a burning candle. Higher up to the right is a recess with a skull on two books, and a paper with the words, Cogita mori; next to that a tulip in a glass. In the middle, at the top, a cartouche with the words; Soo D'oude Songen Soo Pepen De Ionqe.
In brilliancy of colour this picture stands far behind that at Antwerp. The tones are
AS THE OLD COCK CROWS. 79
neither vivid nor powerful, but subdued, — wan blue, faded yellow, dull brown; and the light in the same way is suppressed, robbed of some of its strength, as if it fell into a low-ceiled room. But there is something remarkable in the thin transparent shadow which lies over the whole scene, and the harmonious veil which it spreads over the picture. The pewter, the silver cup, the glass which the mother holds in her hands, sparkle with a few bright reflections; the cut cheese strikes a fine, firm note. The figures, too, are inferior to those of the Antwerp picture. The young woman, with her up-turned lip and her heavy double chin, is not engaging; the children, the bagpipe-player (again Jordaens himself), and even the old folks have been negligently painted. Their expression is not so well felt; they show no animation in their singing and playing. The young mother appears to listen to her child reluctantly; all of them look more like accessory figures than interested participators in a merrymaking. The picture bears every sign of being a rendering of a subject already treated, in which the painter no longer took much interest; it lacks the pith of a first version, and most likely was painted not long after that in Antwerp, about 1641.
As the old cock crows. WOrzburq. — The fifth version is in the palace at Wiirz- burg. In addition to the six customary figures, — grandfather, grandmother, bagpipe-player, and the mother with her two children — we find in it a jester with a cat on his arm (who, as we shall see, was also painted by Jordaens separately), and a third child. The grand- father seated at table facing us, a flat, four-pointed cap on his head, sings from a sheet held in both hands, on which we read: Een nieu liedeken van Callo {A new song of Callo). (1) The grandmother, standing erect behind him, joins in the singing; one of her hands resting on his shoulder, the other on the table. The bagpipe-player and the piping child stand to the right; the mother is seated on the extreme left, song-book in hand; one child stands behind the table, the other in front of it, both playing the pipe. The standing fool with the cat occupies the background; the dog ^tands in front of the table. Through the window in the rear we get a glimpse of the houses in the town; while a mirror on the wall reflects the old woman's head. With inexhaustible fertility, Jordaens has once more varied the grouping and expression of his stock figures. The composition is less stiff, the mood happier; the grandfather shakes with laughter; the grandmother is enjoying herself thoroughly; the fool is in his element. A sharp light falls through the window upon the group to the left, most fully on the young woman whose partially exposed bosom and white collar gleam brightly. The light diminishes in its fall to the right; still it lies in strong bright patches on the heads of the old people and on the table. Heavy shad6ws conspire to throw up the more strongly-lit portions in a magnificent way. The picture dates from about 1640, and was engraved at Paris, in the second half of the XVIII th century, by F. A. Moitte.
As the old cock crows. Berlin. — There are many points of similarity between the Wurzburg picture and one in the Museum at Berlin. In the latter the grandfather sits singing at the table, facing us; the grandmother, seated to the extreme right, with a
(1) The last word is not very legible. On a copy of the head of the old singer in possession of Mr. Victor Jacobs, advocate, Antwerp, we find Callo; in the Wurzburg canvas it reads more like Callo. According to the former (and more likely) reading, the man is singing a song in celebration of the victory of the Spanish troops over the Dutch at Calloo, near Antwerp, in 1638 This, if right, proves with certainty that the picture was painted about 1640.
8o
AS THE OLD COCK CROWS.
page of music in her hand, has her head reflected in the mirror on the wall; a bagpipe- player also is in the far-off corner to the right; two children are playing the pipe, while a third looks on. In the background is a window through which are seen women in the fields; on the table are two jugs and two wineglasses. On the other hand, here there is no fool- while to the left are introduced two women, seated and singing. A parrot has perched 'on an open window-shutter; a dog sits in front of the table, and a cat on a chair. The elders are singing lustily, with all their heart. The grandparents look rather less distinguished than usual; the two young women, however, make a sweet group. The room is mostly in shadow, but through the window (which occupies a considerable part of wall to the back) there enters a flood of warm light, which touches the old man's head, and
AS THE OLD COCK CROWS (Louvre, Paris).
the heads and shoulders and arms of the two young women, and scatters patches of brightness here and there over the scene. The picture lacks the fine brilliancy of the Antwerp and Paris works. The shadows are heavy and lacking in transparency. It is not a work by Jordaens' hand, but one by a follower who, however, was not a nobody. Evidently, too, the master retouched some portions, particularly the head of the grandfather.
Besides Jordaens' various versions of As the old cock crows, there exist many copies. Thus in the Gallery of the Duke of Aremberg we find a very faithful one of the Wiirzburg picture. It is rather weak and flabby in the painting; evidently the work of a pupil
AS THE OLD COCK CROWS.
81
retouched by the master. The head and hands of the grandfather, the child to the right, and the dog, seem to have been painted by Jordaens himself.
And we know that Jotdaens, like Rubens, was assisted in his work, and made no secret of furnishing clients with pictures which were only partly his own handiwork. In a deed, dated August 25, 1648, to which we shall make further reference later on, he acknowledges that certain pictures which he had sold to Sr. Martinus van Langenhoven two years previously, — an As the old cock crows was among them — „had been copies, but that to improve them and to enhance that which displeased him in the originals, he has, while altering them, painted with his own hand, overpainted, and repainted, in such a way that he regards them as principal (original) pictures, as good as any of his works produced in the ordinary way". Such a picture undoubtedly is As the old cock crows in the
AS THE OLD COCK CROWS (Drawing, British Museum, London).
Aremberg gallery; a second is the copy of The King drinks to be found in the Museum at Valenciennes; and we shall meet with others later. The copies were not in all cases complete. For example, the picture at Valenciennes, mentioned a few lines above, renders a part only of the Epiphany at Cassel, and later on we are to discuss a picture which contains only a portion of the Munchen Museum version of As the old cock crows.
Concerts, Jesters, Proverbs. — Jordaens was particularly fond of representing merry companies, especially musical gatherings, concerts, and serenades. Several examples of the last class are mentioned in catalogues. Mr. Leblon of Antwerp possesses a „Senerade". The beauty honoured on this occasion sits laughing at an open window, clasping a little dog in her arms. Evidently she does not take the demonstration of her admirers very seriously, and is rather amused at all the pother. In front of her, and almost on the
82 CONCERTS, JESTERS, PROVERBS.
same level, are standing three men ; two of them playing the flageolet and the third a bag- pipe. Looking on are an old woman, a little boy who is singing from a page of music, and a greyhound. The bagpiper has Jordaens' features; the laughing girl's is exactly the same head as the woman's with the basket of fruit in the Museum at Glasgow. The picture is painted in a very warm woolly tone, without great force of colour, and evidently dates from about 1638. Jordaens treated the three musicians separately in a picture which belongs to Lord Yarborough. The execution excels that of the larger canvas. The painter represents himself as the pipe-player, and the earnestness and conviction with which he enacts the character are really comical. Again, in a picture which is the property of Mr. Duverdyn at Bruges, he represented a man and a woman playing, he with a violin, she with a tambourine. The man may very well be the portrait of a musician.
The jester with the cat, whom we have met already in the picture As the old cock crows at Wurzburg, forms, as we have said before, the subject of a separate picture by Jordaens which was engraved by Alexander Voet. The jester is represented with his cat in his arm, and wearing a cap, half-blue, half-yellow, that hangs over head and shoulders. The picture appeared at the Nuncio Molinaris sale (Brussels, 1763), the Thomas Schevinck sale (The Hague, 1767), Mrs van Griensven van Berritz sale (The Hague, 1862), Nicolas Nieuhof sale (Amsterdam, 1877), and the Beurnonville sale (Paris, 1881). A smaller picture, representing the same figure, appeared at the Bruyninck sale (Antwerp, 1791); another, in which the fool looks through a window, is catalogued in the Wilson collection (Paris, 1873 and 1881).
The engraving by Alexander Voet represents the head and shoulders of a fool, who wears a fool's cap with bells and feathers; he is laughing and holding a cat in his arm. In the print he is framed by emblems of folly. The title of the picture is given as Fatuo ridemur in uno („We all laugh through this one fool"), and under it stand the verses, —
Ick pronck met veer en klinck met bel My kittelt tlieve minne Spel Hupz en vrolyck laet aent grysen Lach ick vuijt al 'sWeirelts wijsen. 1)
At the Martin Robyn sale (Brussels, 1758) appeared a work representing two foojs, a man and a woman, playing with a cat (4 feet 2 in. high by 4 feet 3 in. broad). This picture, at present in the possession of M. Porges at Paris, is a delightful piece of work. The man is clad in a blue- and yellow-striped costume ; he wears a cap, trimmed with bells, and decked with a feather, and holds a cat in his arm. Seated next to him is a young woman, holding his fool's mace and laughing at him. She wears white linen and a scarlet dress. Both figures are leaning out of a window, and the light and colour on both are brilliant. The head of the fool is splendid. What fun! what roguishness! His laugh animates his whole being, and infects everybody who looks at him. Jordaens is here an easy first; probably no one else ever painted so jolly, so witty, so comical a head.
At the Bogaerts sale (Antwerp) appeared a picture by Jordaens in which was repre-
1) „I prink me with feather and jingle my bells; The sweet game of love diverts me; Blithe and merry, eluding old age, — A snap! for the world's wise-acres."
CONCERTS, JESTERS, PROVERBS. 83
sented a fool tying a little bell round the neck of a cat. It bore the inscription : „He shall bell the cat." This was not the only picture in which he treated proverbs; he was a burgher, and had a great regard for burgher wisdom and spirit.
As the old Cock crows is a case in point, as we have seen; and there are others. He seems to have had a preference for those into which cats could be introduced. The Louvre possesses two copies of a drawing, on which is written the proverb it illustrates : „ An old cat does not play with a ball." An old man is seated at table; an old woman in a hooded basket chair is next to him, and lifts a glass of wine to her lips; next to her again is a young woman with a child on her lap. At the extreme right-hand corner of the table stands a second young woman. A cat sits under the old man's chair; a boy seated in the foreground tosses her a ball of worsted; but she looks at it with suspicion, and does not stir. The work bears a mutilated signature „J. Jordaens" and (probably) the date 1648. This copy is on public view; the second, which is kept in a portofolio, differs from it in several respects. Besides the cat which the boy is tempting to play, there is a second, sitting in the foreground, and watching what the other is doing.
A drawing which appeared at the Habich sale (Cassel, 1899) represents an old woman offering to sell some animal in a bag to a poulterer. Next to her stands another woman with a child; in the background is a young couple busy sweet-hearting. At the top, on a cartouche, is to be read: „One cannot buy a cat in a poke" The sheet seems to bear the date 1672. Another drawing illustrative of the same proverb belongs to Mr. J. Rump at Copenhagen.
The Print Room at St. Petersburg possesses a drawing with the inscription:
„Gaept als men de pap u biedt Oft anders en crijgdij niet." 1)
A peasant family is seated round a table like the family in The Peasant and the Satyr; several children are sitting in front of the table, the father and mother behind it facing us; a dog to the right, cows to the left. The parents are eating porridge, the mother offers one of her children a spoonful and recites for the occasion the little rhyme above.
A small picture which forms part of the Steengracht collection at the Hague treats the proverb: „The pitcher goes once too often to the well." A young woman stands near a well with a broken pitcher in her hand. A peasant seated on the ledge of a rock addresses the girl ; next to her stands a peasant woman leaning against the rock. Near the edge of the well stand a hunter, grinning at the young woman, and a woman who looks at her. The maid with the broken pitcher listens with a stupid, confused face; maybe, judging from the lines of her figure, her conscience accuses her of a more serious fault than the breaking of a pitcher. A much larger picture of the same subject appeared at a sale at Amsterdam held on the 30 th of April, 1821.
A watercolour drawing presented by Mr. Cardon of Brussels to the Museum Plantin- Moretus shows another rendering of the same proverb. It contains only three people: the girl with the pitcher, the old woman admonishing her, and a man leaning on the edge of the well. The scene is represented on a piece of tapestry hanging from a beam carried by two
1) „When offered porridge, gape, Or else you'll go without it".
8 4
MYTHOLOGY.
caryatids. Jordaens wrote the title of the subject across the drawing: „De Krayc gaet soolange te waeter totdat sy breeckt"; with the date, 1638.
A drawing in black and brown representing an old woman and a man, each holding a lighted candle, belongs to Mr. Eug. Rodrigues of Paris. Between the two figures stands a young woman holding an ordinaal; lower down are a child with a basket, or it may be a fire-basket, and a dog. At the top is written the proverb: „Het syn goede keersen die voor lichten", a modification of the proverb used often in earlier days, „The candle which leads gives the best light".
Mythology. Jupiter fed with the milk of the goat Amalthea. Louvre. — The
AS THE OLD COCK CROWS (Museum, Berlin).
years from 1631 to 1641 were for Jordaens a time of great industry. His talent had fully ripened. All that was angular and hard in his painting had been toned down. His fame was established; commissions and patrons arrived in large numbers. Another class of subject, besides domestic scenes, for which he showed a great preference, was the mythological'. From the history of the inhabitants of Olympus and their relations here on earth, he chose neither the tragic nor the epic episodes, but only the homely ones, - those in which the gods and goddesses and their families were seen in familiar intercourse, either among themselves or with ordinary mortals - the little Jupiter who is being refreshed with the milk of the goat Amalthea, and cries with thirst; Bacchus traversing the open with his merry band of satyrs and bacchantes; the judgment of Midas; or scenes in which
MYTHOLOGY.
85
nymphs exhibit the splendour of their nudity. Or, again, others in which animals play an important role, — Prometheus and the eagle, Argus with the cows he has to watch, Neptune and his seahorses. The sublime and supernatural elements in the legends, invented under the clear sky of Hellas by an art-loving population, attracted him little. He transformed these ideal creations into a material actuality, and made the gods and goddesses of the South burghers of his own northern country.
The Rearing of Jupiter was his favourite subject: a naked nymph who milks a goat, — the rough-haired Amalthea; the screaming little Jupiter, who has forgotten his godly serenity; a goodnatured or mocking satyr who takes part in the homely scene, — what better subject could our painter of animals and citizens wish for?
His first version of it, which is in the Louvre, may be considered the most original,
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AS THE OLD COCK CROWS (Duke of Aremberg, Brussels).
and the most important, seeing that the painter chose it for an engraving by Schelte a Bolswert. The scene is laid at the foot of a slight incline. There in the centre stands the goat Amalthea with her hindlegs towards the onlooker. The nymph is seated on the ground, her legs half-doubled under her, and with nothing save some linen round her loins; she rests one hand on the animal's back, and with the other draws the teat and makes the milk squirt into a red earthenware dish. She turns her head to the little Jupiter, so that we see her full face. Jupiter holds his milk bottle in his hand, and cries bitterly. To the right sits a satyr, who is bending down a branch of a tree to attract the attention of the little god, and so keep him quiet. At his feet lie various vegetables. It is a gem of broad, tender painting, sound and spirited. The nymph is quite a
86 THE REARING OF JUPITER.
Rubens' woman, powerful in build, but without heaviness, delicate in feature, but not over- refined and not affecting a charming pose. There is something a little wild in the startled and anxious looks which she casts at Jupiter, and in the hair, which is massed in a tangle on her head; she is painted in full, warm sunshine, without fantastic play of light, and with a minimum of shadow, even through which plays a luminous reflection. It is nature in its most wholesome aspect rendered by the richest art. The nymph is the principal figure; the little Jupiter and the satyr are supplementary. The young god with his soft, chubby flesh and the firm, brown satyr, throw into relief the powerfully treated nude nymph. The goat is one of those masterpieces of broad, fat painting which leave Jordaens an unequalled limner of animals. Through the heavy, long, shaggy fleece, the light flickers upon the hind quarters, while the head disappears in velvety shadows. The background consists of a landscape with a heavy, dark tree and some smaller growth, standing out against a blue sky, flaked with warm white clouds; all making an austere framework for the powerful, thoroughly natural painting. Without doubt the picture dates from the time when the master's style still possessed all its firmness; when, for example, he still gave sinewy necks and deeply furrowed faces to his satyrs.
The engraving by Schelte a Bolswert introduces a few alterations from the painting. The satyr holds up a tambourine; while in the painting a brass milk-can standing behind the goat is wanting. The canvas seems to have been slightly curtailed along the top and along both sides.
The Louvre possesses a drawing representing the nymph, milking the goat Amalthea; a study for the picture, but differing from it in details. In the Museum at Brunswick also there is a drawing of the same figure, corresponding with the painting, and signed A° 1671 *■£■; on the back of it a little Jupiter has been scribbied holding a feeding bottle in his right- hand; a satyr stands beside him.
The Rearing of Jupiter. Cassel. — A second beautiful interpretation of the same subject hangs in the Museum of Cassel (No. 103, formerly No. 94, in the catalogue). The nymph is seated on the ground in pretty much the same attitude as in the preceding picture; only here she has turned her head to the goat she is milking, so that we see her almost in profile. Amalthea has put a leg into the milk-pail, and tipped it over, and the white liquid flows over the ground. She has also turned her head round to the front, and in so doing upset the earthenware jug as well. At the sight of these mishaps, which threaten him with unquenched thirst, Jupiter has commenced to scream, and throws up his arms. Beyond him is a nymph, resting her head on her arm; she looks out at us with an enticing expression. Still higher up in the composition sits a nude satyr, playing the pipe. To the left, in the foreground, a few sheep and a goat; a view of distant hills in the background.
As in the previous picture, so here the principal figure is the nymph milking. Her form is even more voluptuous, but it is less-elegant; her expression also is less animated, more rustic. The modelling of the flesh on breasts and limbs is indicated by blue-grey tints; a slight flush plays over the curves of arms and legs. Her face is in dim light, warm and trans- parent. Jupiter is a capital study of a naughty child in ungovernable passion. The golden-haired nymph looking on confides to us, by her roguish look, her sense of the humour of this transformation of the divine into the human. She reminds us forcibly of the beauty in The Serenade belonging to Mr. Leblon of Antwerp, and of The Fruitsetler in the Glasgow Galleries. She is more slender of figure, sweeter of nature, more mischievous
THE REARING OF JUPITER. 87
in expression than the milking maid. On the other hand, the satyr is just a mass of fat, seen in dim, transparent brown light. The picture has been carefully painted throughout; soundly and naturally, without any attempt to embellish or to vulgarise. It is in Elysian decorative style; yet about the characters and their actions there lurks someting scornfully sarcastic in this representation of a heavenly household.
The catalogue of the Cassel Museum offers a suggestion that in this picture (and also in the one to follow) it is the upbringing of Bacchus, rather than of Jupiter, that is treated. But there can be no doubt about the subject. We know that Jupiter was fed from the milk of the goat Amalthea, but never heard so of Bacchus. Besides, the inscription which Schelte a Bolswert engraved under his print (no doubt with Jordaens' consent) solves all difficulty, if indeed there ever was any. In it we read:
Quid mirum natura Jovis si sedat Amori
Et vaga per thalamos ambulet illicitos. Ecce inter Satyros nutritur lacte caprino,
Naturam caprae suxerat et sequitur.
(„Can it be wondered that Jupiter is guided by love, and strays to unlawful beds: behold how he is nursed with goat's milk, amid satyrs! He has sucked in the goat's nature, and acts according to it").
This moral in the picture is a little far-fetched; but from the inscription it is quite clear that Jupiter was Jordaens' young hero, and the engraver's also; as, indeed, has been the general opinion for more than two centuries. Jordaens, moreover, was not the first painter to treat this subject. It seems very probable that he had seen casts of antiques which gave him his inspiration, in the same way as Poussin was led to treat the same subject through seeing the original pieces of sculpture at Rome.
There is in the Cassel Museum a second, but less important, rendering of this subject (No. 104, formerly No. 95, in the catalogue). In the centre, half-kneeling, half-squatting on a blue cloth, the nymph milks the goat. Beside the copper pail into which she is milking stands an earthenware pot. She turns her head to the little Jupiter — he is not crying here — who has a reddish yellow scarf over his back and arm. Seated next to him is a satyr, giving him a drink from a dish. In the background stands a large peach tree, round which a gourd winds its branches.
Jordaens has signed this picture Jac. Jordaens fe., an unusual thing for him to do. Although undoubtedly by his hand, it does not hold very high rank among his works. The painting is firm and smooth, the shadows dark, the flesh of a brown tone. The goat is less successful than in the other treatments of the subject. Everything is rounded-off, commonplace, without, without any play of colour and light. From repose the fair body of the nymph and that of the little god is emitted a certain radiance; the sky also is warmly luminous: these are the best and most animated parts of the work. We were struck at the same time by the Rubens-like character of child and nymph.
At the Loquet sale (Amsterdam, 1783) appeared another Rearing of Jupiter, with life- size figures. The nymph sits in the foreground, milking Amalthea; she looks sideways at the crying child. To the right is seated an old woman, with a tambourine in one hand, a copper milk-can in the other. To the left, a looker-on, sits a goat-footed satyr. Various fruits strew the foreground. This picture was again sold at a later sale at Amsterdam, October 19, 1808.
Another of these pictures, smaller in dimensions, appeared at the de Vinck de Wezel
88
TRIUMPH OF BACCHUS.
THE JESTER
(M. Porgfcs, Paris).
sale (Antwerp, 1814). In it Jupiter, attended by Bacchantes and lying on his back, is being fed from the goat Amalthea: a satyr holds up her leg. Two satyrs are playing the pipe; a third embraces a woman. With these is a second goat. A picturesque landscape forms the background. This picture was bought by Stier d'Aertselaer. At his sale it was assigned to Mrs Wellens, Brussels ; to appear once again at the Stevens sale (Antwerp, 1837). I came across the torn fragments of it quite recently, exposed at an auction.
M. De Buck of Brussels possesses a still smaller version, which appeared at the Jordaens exhibition of 1905. There, in a landscape, appears the little Jupiter, lying on his back, being nursed by Amalthea; a satyr lifts up her leg, and a nymph holds
her by the neck. Behind the goat appears a young satyr, who plays the tambourine; and
to the right an old person with a basket of fruit. We observe a second goat against a
tree to the left. It is a neatly painted little piece, warm in tone and smooth in texture. Mention must also be made of a Childhood of Jupiter which came up at the Vrancken
sale (Lokeren, 1838). The young god lies
in a cradle, beside which stands Rhea,
his mother, looking down upon her son
who has escaped the wrath of Saturn.
Two nymphs are attending on the child. In 1652 Jordaens himself hit upon the
episode as the subject of an etching. Here
the little god lies on his back at full length,
sucking the teat of the goat; a nymph
seated beside them presses the udder.
A satyr holds Amalthea by the horns.
Another plays the pipe. On one side we
see a copper milkcan, and a tree with
a gourd round the stem.
Triumph of Bacchus. Cassel. — Of all the dwellers in Olympus, the one who attracted Jordaens most is, of course, Bacchus — the god of wine; the leader of merry processions, composed of all the revellers and carousers, all lovers of the bottle, of Amor, of joke and laugh, who could possibly be found among the immortals TE^SST
90 FEMALE BEAUTY.
is half-open, the lips are without mobility. The old woman who pours out the wine for him is painted i'n darker warm-brown tones; her features are wrinkled and bony. The young woman with the loose cap looks like a Flemish Bacchante: chubby, amorous, with an expression on her face of pleasant roguishness. There is no single full, strong tone dominant;- a vaporous softness lies over all, heightened and enlivened by the golden yellow drapery of the young woman to the left, and of the small boy to the right. The accessories — the tambourine, the brazier, the drinking utensils on the pole held by the negro, the coat of the goat— are all bathed in a velvety glow of light which adds to the charm of the whole.
The picture dates from the period which we have at present under review. The Bacchus is represented with that corrugated torso which we have observed in the works of Jordaens painted about 1630. The misty tone which veils everything, however, belongs to the late thirties; the little pipe-player is one of those figures with which we meet in examples of 4s the old Cock crows between 1638—1640. The work was in the possession of the Duke of Hesse as early as 1749.
From an old copy of this painting in the Museum at Arras we again perceive how little of the magic of Jordaens in this period remains where he has not himself inspired the figures with life and soul. They become empty forms, without spirit or brilliancy, who grin without laughing, and repel by their coldness instead of attracting by their bright joyousness. There is a second old copy of this work in the collection of Prince Branicki at Warsaw. A Bacchus and seven other figures appeared at the Robyns sale (Brussels, 1758).
Nymphs. Female Beauty. — Of mythological figures besides the jolly Bacchus and the squalling Jupiter, Jordaens delighted particularly in the nymphs, the nude nymphs. They personified for him female beauty. During the years of which we are writing, his female types underwent great changes. He had begun, as in The Adoration of the Shepherds, by painting the Flemish mother, in burgherlike simplicity, with complexion and flesh deadened by confinement in living-room and kitchen, without down, without bloom. A year or two later, in the earliest versions of The Peasant and the Satyr, he takes for his model the Flemish peasant-woman, of whom his wife must have been a type, — sturdy in build, with regular features and rosy complexion, a long oval face, heavy jawbones, and protruding chin. He endows her with little spirituality: for him, she is the fertile mother, the generous nurse, the careful housewife. He likes to contrast with her the young peasant wench, of high colour and roguish expression, — the pretty flower of the field. A little later still he is attracted by the nymphs. In The Fertility of the Earth he painted the type, exposing herself in all the splendour of her nudity: beat upon, on the broad surface of back and loins, by the full, clear light, she discovers the gauche confusion of the undraped woman, or, carelessly and boldly displays the firm, shining flesh, and feasts on her own triumphant beauty. Jordaens attains this ideal in the nymph who is milking Amalthea. She is power- fully and opulently built, with a head that would be perfect in its symetrical beauty, did not the wide space between the eyes impart to her a certain wildness of expression. He contrives to make the powerful limbs and solid torso look slender, and folds them grace- fully and naturally; he makes the whole figure twine and bend, so as to bring out its full perfection. Then, in his domestic festivities he presents to us the same woman splen- didly garbed; her beauty softened by the vaporous veil he casts over her. Or, again, he paints her as a young maid of more timid .charm and artificial embellishment. Next he passes from tender plumpness to the fleshiness which, for example, we find in his later
FEMALE BEAUTY. 91
Susannas and nymphs, with their large-boned bodies amply developed, devoid of their former suppleness, or even wobbling masses of fat, robbed of all grace, such as one is too apt to regard as Jordaens' true and choice ideal, whereas he only painted them at intervals among others, and mainly in the last stage of his career.
One of the finest of his paintings of nymphs is the Sleeping Nymphs with Cupid which belongs to Mrs Bougard of Brussels. Three nymphs lie asleep on the ground. The nearest reclines on her back, with her arms above her head; a white cloth around her waist. The second, to the right, rests her head on her arm, which lies on a scarlet cloth, the upper-part of her body supported by an elevation of the ground. The third, turning her back to us, has her face hidden on her arm. Cupid stands to the left, bow in one hand, arrows in the other. A piece of red drapery with a broad golden border is suspended above the sleeping nymph on the right; to the left appears the open country, with small trees and some water. In the foreground beside the nymphs lies a basket of flowers; and on the ground near by a sleeping little child. The scene is bathed in full light, with abundance of tender shadows, — blue-gray on the nymphs, downy-gray on the Cupid. The head of the love god is particularly deep in shadow, wrapped in brown tints, in the same way as Jordaens afterwards veiled his heads in gray. The flesh has no longer the early hardness, but has become more flakelike, as we find it about 1640.
That which strikes us most in this work is the beautiful female bodies; they are plump, but not exaggeratedly so; naturally supple, like Rubens' nymphs, — indeed, were it not for the rustic features of the foremost, and a certain coolness in the shadow, one might easily take them for Rubens' figures. The Cupid is quite a Jordaens' child, in the manner of the curly-headed boy in The Miracle of St. Martin. Fine spots of light fall on his chest, while plenty of shadow lies over the rest of his body. Each of the nymphs is beautiful, but the arrangement of the group is less happy. The variety of broken light on the three nude bodies is remarkable. It falls most strongly on the nearest nymph, the warm flesh tints modulated into the strong blue shadows; on the tender flesh lies a white cloth, bolder in colour; the second is of a softer, duller hue, with dimly shaded modelling, while her locks melt away in shadow; the third one is still more lost in shadow, her head half blotted out in it. There is an agreeable play of beautiful bodies, rising out of the quiet, melting background, where nothing distracts the attention. From the carpet the red radiates with a quiet glow, which throws a warmth over the two sleepers higher up. When the picture appeared at a sale held in Amsterdam on the 7 th of June, 1738, it was described as „Sleeping nymphs with Cupid, being a capital, good picture".
Among the effects of Jordaens (The Hague, 1734) was scheduled a picture, „Three nude women and an angel", 3 ft. 1\ in. high, by 3 ft. 5 in. wide, which was smaller therefore than the preceding, and was valued at 10 guilders, 10 stuivers only. At the Joh. Lod. Strantwyk sale (Amsterdam, 1781), a work was catalogued as „Three nymphs sleeping in a clear, beautiful landscape and regarded by Cupid ; a little further off are some cows grazing, and a castle on the water's edge". At the Neyman of Amsterdam sale (Paris, 1776) was a drawing, „Three nymphs sleeping under an awning stretched between two trees. Cupid and several animals complete the composition". Evidently the subject is the same as that in the preceding picture; the accessories only being varied. We also find at a sale at Amsterdam on May 14, 1832, „The three Graces and one or two children in a landscape", and a picture very similar to the foregoing at the Pieter Lyonnet sale (Amsterdam, 1791), described as „A nude nymph resting in a well-wooded landscape. Before her stands
92
ARIADNE IN THE TRAIN OF BACCHUS.
Cupid, with an arrow in his hand, as if he wished to pierce her. Further details are several land- and water-birds".
Ariadne in the train of bacchus. — The picture with this title in the Dresden Museum presents, both in subject and in execution, a great similarity with the other we have just been discussing. Here also are to be seen several nymphs lying on the ground. Ariadne, seated on a small elevation, is what the Flemings call a „ thick, fat puss", — more flabby than chubby. She is surrounded by other three nymphs; one turns her back to us; a second reclines on the ground, resting on one elbow; the third sits straight up and regards the spectator full face. All are as fleshy as Ariadne, but less plump in form than she. From the left hand side two satyrs approach, carrying a cornucopia, full of fruit
and vegetables. One of them is fat like Sijenus, the other is much more slender. A Cupid offers an apple to Ariadne; two satyrs are seated in a tree behind her, one holding a bunch of grapes in his hand ; a young woman is offering an artichoke, while a fat satyr, leaning his head on his hand, looks on.
The two women, of whom we have a back view, are beautifully painted, with tender modelling of the luxurious flesh. Ariadne is too fat — „fat as mud" as the Flemings say — ; the nymph seen in full front is too dull in the lighting; the little woman, bringing the vegetables is particularly sweet; the other figures, especially the satyrs, are rather blurred. The principal group reminds one very much of the nymphs in Mrs. Bougard's picture; except that the Dresden one is fatter, and more empty ^ and puffy. Jordaens here painted women who doubtless were beautiful. uj< his eyes; but to ours he has made Chinese graces of them, heavy and flaccid. The picture probably dates from the same time as the Diogenes and the Prodigal Son at Dresden.
At the. Gustave Couteaux sale (Brussels, 1874), a picture appeared treating another episode in the history of Ariadne. Bacchus meets her after she has been deserted by Theseus on the island of Naxos ; he falls in love with her and succeeds in consoling her, Ariadne is seated on the ground in a landscape decorated with a monumental fountain, and holds a tendril of the vine ; her shoulders are covered with a panther's skin,, and she offers the god a bunch of grapes.
At a sale in the Hague on the 18 th of July, 1753, appeared a picture of Bacchus and
DO NOT BUY A PIG IN A POKE
Drawing, (M. J. Rump, Copenhagen).
DIANA REPOSING.
93
Ariadne; at the Johan van Nispen sale (the Hague, 1768) was a painting, and at the Klinkosch sale (Vienna, 1889) a drawing, of the same subject.
Diana Reposing. — In the same style was Diana Reposing at the Kums sale (Antwerp, 1898). It is a picture of an exuberant mirth. In the centre of the scene is Diana, enthroned on an elevation. She is seated, with her legs crossed, on a crimson robe; a warm white cloth is wrapped round her limbs and on her chubby flesh falls the bluish light of the moon. To the left is a nymph stretched out upon a blue cloth with a yellow border; one hand, holding her foot. A second nymph to the right, with the full light falling on her back, which is turned towards us, is wrapped in mallow-coloured drapery. Behind the goddess stands a nymph in yellow, the soft moonlight falling on her face; a fourth sits asleep, her head resting on her knees. The produce of Diana's hunt — roe-bucks, hares, birds, a boar — is spread on the ground or hangs from the branches of the trees. From the left arrives a procession of quite a different nature. In front is a corpulent satyr with goat's- feet, who carries, pressed against his heavy paunch, a basket with delightful fruit; his naked brown, crinkled skfn stands out in a strong light; his eyes sparkling with sensuality, and his wanton, laughing mouth explain sufficiently the sensations which the beautiful goddess and her followers have aroused in him. Behind him is another satyr blowing his pipe; and one of Diana's maidens defends herself from the attempted embraces of a third. In the fore- ground trips a satyr child with
tambourine and pipe. In the background is an awning stretched between two trees. The game and fruit have been painted by Snyders in his firm, highly-coloured style. The picture was bought by Mr. Tony Dreyfus in Paris. It passed through the Lecandele sale (Antwerp, 1881), the Countess de Rubiano sale (Brussels, 1838), and the van Schorel sale (Antwerp, 1794); and it was etched by the painter Andreas Lens when
it belonged to Schorel.
There exists a second version of the subject, which was found in the Lebrun collection (Paris 1777) and was engraved by Dambrun in „Lebrun, Galerie des peintres flamands et hollandais" The composition is the same; only there are nine nymphs round Diana, some standing some sitting. The implements for the hunt are missing in the foreground; a greyhound sits between the satyr with the basket of fruit and the nymphs. Later, the picture appeared at the Abbe Guillaume de Gevigny sale (Paris, 1779), and at the Fesch sale (Rome 1845) At the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, there is a weak copy of it. In the
THE PITCHER GOES ONCE TOO OFTEN TO THE WELL
Drawing, (Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp).
94 THE OBLATION TO VENUS.
catalogue of the collection of Salzthalen, which has passed to the Brunswick gallery, mention is made of a picture of a similar composition.
The oblation to Venus. — The Museum at Brunswick possesses an Oblation to Venus of the same period. To the left stands the marble statue of Venus with a cupid in a recess cut out of a rock. On the ground in front of her kneels an old man, wrapped in a red cloak; a little satyr is busy fixing a wig with two horns over his bald crown; a cupid beside him points to a satyr and a woman, who are billing and cooing, thus indicating the signifiance of the horns. On the top of the rock five satyrs are engaged hanging flower-garlands between the trees. Towards the sanctum of Venus a group of nude Bacchantes is approaching. The first carries a lighted torch; the five following her are carrying wreaths of flowers in their hands and on their heads; the last one induces a reluctant woman to come along with her, guiding her by the hair which has fallen over her face; then follow women dancing or being carried by satyrs; to the left are another courting couple, and a man who is holding a woman down on the ground. A satyr, seated in a tree, is playing the pipe. In the centre of the upper part of the picture a group of love-gods is floating in the air; the foremost of them carries a flaming heart. In the background we notice a mountainous landscape.
The picture is undoubtedly by Jordaens, though for a long time there was uncertainty regarding it. It represents a playful, indecorous scene of exuberant emotion, with magnificient but heavy female figures ; very decorative in the accessories and indeed in the whole com- position. The group of cupids in the sky is especially delightful; it recalls the amorini of Sandro Botticelli in his Christ's Birth in the National Gallery, London, and is the most charming group Jordaens ever painted. The picture is brown in tone, without much glow; the muscles are knotty, the draperies fall angularly, and everything points to a date about 1630. The Museum at Dresden possesses a very fine replica of this picture from Jordaens' atelier. One of these pictures, or else a third example, appeared at the Schorel sale (Antwerp, 1774).
Jordaens as an Animal Painter. — We have been discussing certain of Jordaens' works which repeat the same subject; during this period, also, we come across several others in which the same material is treated in different ways. If one had to point out a characteristic common to them all, it would be that they give up a considerable space to the animal world. We have remarked already, and do so again here, — because in our opinion too little attention has been paid to the fact — that Jordaens was a first-rate animal painter, the equal of the greatest Flemish artists in this genre, and they are acknowledged to have been the greatest in the world. Wherever he could introduce animals into his work — and where could he not do so? — he seized the opportunity; he painted large animals and small, but the large by preference ; quadrupeds, birds r fishes, all were accept- able to him so long as he could pour his colours over their fur, and make their feathers sparkle with precious stones, and their scales glisten with gold and silver. Sometimes he borrowed assistance from a professional painter of animals; but in such cases, no doubt, he did so with the object of saving time rather than in the hope of producing better work by their four hands than he himself could achieve with his two.
A picture in which (as an exception) he did not paint the animal, — very possibly because it was a bird, not a quadruped, — is The Chained Prometheus in the Museum at
THE FISHMONGER. 95
Cologne. The fire-robber is chained to a rock, his head hanging downward, one leg straight up, the other doubled; he screams loudly with pain. The eagle has stuck one of his claws into the abdomen of the martyr, and pulls forth the bleeding liver. In powerful flight the gigantic bird extends its two wings, thus filling the whole scene from right to left. Higher up we notice Mercury, holding on to the branch of a tree; lower down is the female statue to which Prometheus desired to impart life. Prometheus is given knobbly muscles, and knotted lumps of flesh cover his breast and arms; Mercury's flesh is as deeply furrowed. Both figures markedly recall the Miracle of St. Martin; and the picture, which is not of very great value, is probably of the same date. The eagle was painted by Snyders, and is smooth and firm, and without play of light, as that master always painted his birds.
The Fishmonger. Brussels. — One of the pictures in which an ample space is occupied by still-life is The Fishmonger and Poultry-dealer in the Museum at Brussels. To the right we notice a counter, on which meat and poultry are spread; suspended by hooks from a hoop are poultry and game; there are baskets with fruit, and vegetables are lying on the ground. To the left, an old man is engaged in emptying a hamper of fish upon the floor which is already strewn with lobsters and crabs. Beside him stand a young girl with a brass pan in her hand, and an old woman of whom the head only is visible. The picture is signed AN F A 1637. The monogram is to be read, „Adriaan van Utrecht, fecit", showing that the still-life was painted by that artist, Jordaens undoubtedly painted the three figures, and has done so with much care and art. The old man with his brown, grainy, wrinkled face, white hair, white beard and bare knees, has the head of Adam van Noort. The girl's is a taking, chubby little face, the eyes a little oblique, Chinese-wise; her head is encircled by an abundant wreath of curls, through which the sunlight plays. We recognise an old acquaintance in the aged woman with her brown skin painted in shadow. The still-life is a masterpiece in Jordaens' warm, brilliant tones ; we cannot doubt that he touched up the whole of it, and especially the poured-out fish. If any one would dispute this, let him, compare any other fish and poultry picture by van Utrecht with the one discussed here, — that, for example, in the Museum at Ghent, which is signed in the same way. He will notice at once how cold and wan the still-life is beside the glowing and ardent painting in Jordaens'. The figures in the Brussels picture are of importance to us because they are strongly characteristic of the master's manner of painting in 1637. The man is powerfully built, and vigorous in his actions ; the young woman poses, her eyes fixed straight in front of her, doing nothing, smiling in a simpering manner; there is little of the people apparent in her, — she plays the winning maiden, the „got-up", pretty miss. Particularly striking is the hazy, flowing vapourous light, which hovers over the faces, and surrounds them with a warm, soft glow. The shadows have become more abundant and darker than in earlier years, without, however, losing their warmth and transparency. The vivid passages flash out like so many crystallised lights. The picture in the Brussels Museum was bought in 1887 ; it had appeared in 1837 at the Stevens sale in Antwerp. The Museum at Hanover possesses an insignificant copy.
Jordaens repeatedly put in the figures in pictures of shops or storerooms, where other hands had painted game, poultry, and vegetables. Parthey mentions an example at Prague, in the Stratow collection: „A table with bread, game, and poultry; a man embraces a woman; to the right an old person." 1)
1) G. Parthey. Deutscher Bildersaal. Jordaens No. 100.
9 6
THE GIFTS OF THE SEA.
At the Paulus van der Speyck sale (Dordrecht, 1805), there was a study of a woman standing before a table on which were a few fillets of salmon, a fish-kettle, and other kitchen utensils. It was catalogued a Jordaens. At the Salamanca sale (Paris, 1867) appeared The Shop of a Poultry-dealer. On a table lies poultry of all kinds ; high up, from a cross beam, hangs an eagle, a child trying to pull at its head; on the floor, vegetables and accessories; on a wheelbarrow a hamper with fruit. In the background we see a man in a red coat, carrying a basket of poultry; a saleswoman, wearing a straw hat holds a child on her arm, and points to its little brother who stands laughing by.
In the hall of the Guild of the Young Cross-bow at Antwerp there hung, about the
JUPITER AND THE GOAT AMALTHEA (Louvre, Paris).
middle of the eighteenth century, a picture of which Berbie says: „A fityj picture by Joannes Feyt, Anno 1645; painted, full of all sorts of wild Animals: Dogs, Hares and Birds, with a Swan, and several Dogs, with 5 figures painted by Joannes (sic) Jordaens, as beautiful as Rubens; this picture was completely spoiled three years ago, through the carelessness of a framemaker, who rubbed Olive Oil on the back of the canvas, through the moisture of which nearly all the paint on the front has fallen off." 1)
The Gifts of the Sea. — There is much similarity between the canvas in the Brussels Museum and a picture in the Schonborn Gallery at Vienna entitled The Gifts of
1) Gerardus Berbie, Description of particular pictures etc. Antwerp, 1756. p. 58.
THE GIFTS OF THE SEA.
97
the Sea. Neptune has taken a fish from the water and holds it up on his tripod. Two sea-gods blow on a conch shell. Amphitrite carries a tripod from which large fish are hanging, and two sea-nymphs are near by. To the left we see Cupid on a rock, fishing with a rod, and Mercury pointing out a fish to him. To the right are two more sea-goddesses, and a sea-nymph, taking a piece of coral from the water, and carrying a string of pearls. This gigantic picture is a masterly example of Jordaens in his bright, fat manner of painting, with soft, transparent shadows. The fish and the accessory work are ascribed to Jacob van Es, but the similarity between the still-life in it and in the picture at Brussels is so marked that we do not hesitate for a moment to say that here also Adriaan van Utrecht painted the fish and Jordaens retouched them. And we have as little doubt that both pictures date from about the same year.
It seems evident, however, that there were other still-life painters with whom Jordaens collaborated. At the Ferdinand van Plattenberg and Witte sale (Amsterdam, 1738) was a large picture of dead game and poultry and fruit by Frans Snyders „with a figure by Jordaens". Again, at the sale of the painter's own effects there were a Wreath by „Velvet" Breughel with a little figure by Jordaens (necessarily painted before 1625), and a Fruit-piece by „ Father" Segers with little figures by Jordaens. At thejacob de Wit sale (Amster- dam) was mentioned „a Holy Family in a beautiful wreath of fruit", — very probably the picture which now belongs to Mrs. Errera at Brussels.
Belonging undoubtedly to the same time as The Fishmonger at Brussels is A Woman with Black Cherries possessed by Lord Darnley. A young woman holds in her hand a dish of black cherries, from which she has lifted one. Behind her stands a man on whose hand is a parrot biting at the cherry which the woman holds out to it. The old man is the same as in the Brussels Fishmonger, and the woman is the maid from the fishshop ; she is painted wholly in a warm tone, and wears a white collar on her red bodice. She sparkles with sunshine; her loose, wavy hair surrounds her chubby face like a tender aureole. The old man is a burnt brown tint, with the warmest glow that Jordaens ever put upon a face; with white hair and a white beard. He is in love: his small eyes sparkle lustfully, and perhaps it was Jordaens' intention to personify here what Flemish people call an old „kreekenplukker" (picker of black cherries). The two warm figures stand out luminously against the cool blue sky and the gray window which form the background. The picture was in the collection of the Duke of Choiseul, and was engraved by S. Couzeau in 1771. Mr. F. de Witte of Antwerp possesses a picture which repeats the same group,
- ' 13
THE GOAT AMALTHEA
Drawing, (Louvre, Paris).
9 8
THE PRODIGAL SON.
but in a lighter, paler key, and with a few alterations in the accessories. Both pictures prove, as do others also, that Jordaens sometimes liked to repeat a subject with a trans- position of key; in this case, for example, the first treatment is altogether in gold, the second in silver; the one in warm sunshine, the other in pale moonlight.
A drawing representing a woman with a smiling face, holding a parrot in one hand, a stick in the other, appeared at the Hazard sale (Brussels, 1789).
The Prodigal Son. Dresden. — This picture, in the Dresden Museum, treats a subject drawn from Biblical History, but as a matter of fact is more allied to the genre of mixed animal and figure painting, to which belong the pictures we have just been discussing. It introduces us into a farm-yard. The farmer is surrounded by his domestic animals and
ARIADNE IN THE TRAIN OF BACCHUS (Museum, Dresden).
cattle, — a white horse, a couple of white and brown cows, four pigs at the trough, and a dog. In addition to him we find his old wife, with a brass milk-can in her hands, a young farm maid with one on her head, and a child playing the whistle. In the back- ground to the right is seen a landscape under the setting sun. In the centre appears the Prodigal; he is quite naked, save for a rag of white cloth round his loins. He holds out a hand, begging for a copper, and cries with hunger; not only his expression, and his stretched-out hand, but all his body also begs and laments. The people appear sympa- thetic. The farmer holds out his hand encouragingly, the two women regard him with a kindly curiosity; the dog only shows aversion from the strange intruder, and bares his teeth. But the Biblical tale — the touching story of the young ne'er-do-well and of .the people to whom he appeals for help — is a secondary matter. The great concern is the animals, and the art with which they are painted. The dog is excellent in his threat-
THE PRODIGAL SON. 99
ening and suspicious movement; the other quadrupeds have been fluently yet tenderly brushed in. Like the whole scene, they are suffused with a warm light which seems to penetrate them and make them transparent. Men and animals are enveloped in a sunny vapour, which deprives them of all hard outlines, of substance even, and infiltrates them with its fine glow of light.
How far we are from the hard and wiry Jordaens of the first period ! He has become completely his own antipodes. Instead of the hard, enamel-like surface of his earlier period, his painting now shows a transparent thin impasto, soaked and swimming in oil. He aimed at being tender and radiant in his light, and warm and brilliant also, and this he achieved when in 1637 he adopted this new manner; but with rapid steps he fell into an exaggeration, and in his pictures of 1641 and 1642 he has lost himself in a mazy style, without firmness, without strength, his figures wanting in bone and muscle, imbedded in fat. Fortunately this excessive reaction was not lasting; before the forties are half past he returns to a healthier and sounder method.
THE OFFERING TO VENUS (Museum, Dresden).
The picture invites comparison with The Fishmonger of 1638; from the group in the latter are derived the various figures in this one; the shopkeeper there is the farmer here, the maids are the same, and the old woman in the shop figures now as the farmer's wife, the same in features, but in the one dressed like a towns-woman, and rigged out like a country woman in the other. Their softness has increased, however, and comes nearer to that in the 1641 portraits. The Prodigal Son may be placed between the two dates 1638 and 1641 It is not a masterpiece; but swimming in light as it is, it has an importance by virtue of showing plainly Jordaens' turning-point. It appeared at a sale at Amsterdam on June 26 1742, and Was probably bought for the Elector of Saxony, for as early as 1753 we find 'it mentioned in an inventory of the royal collection at Dresden.
Jordaens repeatedly treated the subject on a smaller scale. At the sale of pictures left by him (The Hague, 1734) was one of these. Another is in the professed house of the
100
DIOGENES LOOKING FOR A MAN.
Society of Jesus in Antwerp. The Museum at Lille possesses a third, which, however, cannot compare with that at Dresden in artistic merit.
In the Jordaens exhibition at Antwerp in 1905 two of these smaller versions appeared. Both are conseived characteristically: evening is falling; on one side of the picture the sun is setting behind a house in the valley, which is framed by its radiant beams; on the heights on the other side, the farmer and his wife emerge from their farm; in the centre kneels the Prodigal Son, who has brought his herd home, begging with outstretched hand for food to appease his hunger. One of the pictures, that of Mr. Wouters of Ghent, discovers a
landscape on which the gloaming has fallen deeply; the beams of the departing sun lay sharp touches of light on men and animals. In the other, belonging to Mr. Tous- saint of Brussels, in which the evening is less advanced, the con- trast between day and dusk is consequently less acute. Both pic- tures reveal a very remarkable side of Jordaens' talent, a dreamy sensi- bility of the realistic artist for the charm of an evening landscape in which the figures disappear into the approaching night, which throws a fantastic halo over the slumbering earth. Both, too, give fresh proof that he frequently painted the same subject, similarly conceived, in different keys.
Diogenes looking for a Man. There is in the Dresden Museum still another picture in which animals and still-life are conspi- cuous. This is Diogenes looking for a man. True, the fearless and bold philosopher stands in the centre, undeniably the principal actor in the scene, but it is evident that the painter was less concerned with him than with the accessory persons and objects. Diogenes wears no other garment than a hide round his loins ; with one hand he leans on a heavy staff, with the other he holds aloft a lantern. All about him is the stir and bustle of the market place, — buyers and sellers, spectators and idlers; armed men are looking at the cynic. A woman with a child on her arm sits on the ground and seems to shriek with delight over this weird apparition and his strange action; a boy is kneeling beside her with his hands on her lap, and a vegetable market woman sits by her wares. To the left: a few saleswomen, a young courting couple, and an old man leaning on a stick and laughing at the scene; two other men have climbed
.PROMETHEUS (Museum, Cologne).
DIOGENES LOOKING FOR A MAN.
IOI
upon the pedestal of a column the better to watch the commotion. To the right are four old men, looking on, and two of the Town Guard on horseback; and in among them all, two cows, a donkey, and a couple of pigs. In the foreground are all sorts of fruit and vegetables. The market-place with its busy stir and lively diversity of people, animals, and other objects, was that which principally attracted Jordaens; here was the manifestation of the corporate, serried life of the people in the streets; he did not paint the market-place of Athens, though he clothed his figures in a sort of antique drapery, but a market in the Flemish country, and those whom he introduced into the scene were the peasant women who brought their wares to Antwerp and offered them for sale there upon the pavements, and the cattle-dealers who drove their cattle and swine into its market. The heaps of fresh- cut greenery and foliage, the rich and many-coloured fruits, — the cattle, so many radiant
THE FISHMONGER (Museum, Brussels).
sunny blots in between, — had often charmed him, and he employed them now as the furnishings of a large scene with which the people's costumes and bare skin mingle their variegated hues. He was not the first Fleming to be fascinated by the bright colour of the market-places. Joachim De Beukelaer had painted them before him; Pieter Aertsen and Pieter Huys had chosen models from among vegetable women and cooks. But Jordaens conceived the scene in his own way. Joachim De Beukelaer, in his „Ecce Homo's," intro- duced them in the foreground, as something apart from the historical action; as a kind of "stage-scene, a still-life alongside which the living persons appear. The others had chosen figures with vegetables typical of their occupation. With Jordaens the market with its multitude combines with the action, and is reproduced in all its full and busy stir; it is the scene of the heterogeneous life of the people; it spreads itself out in the open air, sparkling with light and colour, full of bustle and noise. The figures who appear are large, their gestures broad; and these are interpreted by a powerful art.
102
DIOGENES LOOKING FOR A MAN.
It is quite a drama, at once amusing and philosophical. The cynic, with his mocking laugh and piercing look is searching for a man, and with exasperating chuckle signifies that none is to be found; the vegetable women who deride and pity the queer doings of the wise man; the little boy who frankly laughs at him; the two lovers who seize the moment when all attention is diverted from them to be very sweet to each other; the old men and women who are looking on astonished and laughing (among whom the fat one with the eyeglasses, who posed to Rubens for the Pharisee, strikes us most); the guards standing by, vigilant yet unmoved; and last of all the few wiser people who ask if after all this quest of Diogenes is as foolish as it seems — one reflecting, finger on mouth, another next to him looking on calmly with compressed lips; a bald man who with his chin in his hand bends forward against the column with an astonished curiosity to see what this
THE PRODIGAL SON (Museum, Dresden).
curious creature intends doing: — they are all characters in a comedy, the comedy of the people's life, shrewdly observed, simply constructed, with Diogenes as a nucleus, and set in action with incisive humour and sparkling verve.
The colour is abundant and rich, the light warm and penetrated with a dull glow. Diogenes' brown wrinkled skin, the transparent shadows of his flesh, the variegated tints of the vegetables, of some of the draperies, and of the cattle, leave the tawny colour dominant; to which respond the red of some five garments and the white of a few draperies and of the horse. Supreme, however, is the all-penetrating sunshine, shimmering through, slightly thinner to the right, more strongly to the left. In this happy atmosphere the roaring drama of market life unfolds itself.
The fleecy airiness of the whole picture shows it to be a work of about 1640. The swine too, have been painted in the same way as those in The Prodigal Son; the sweet
THE FERRY BOAT AT ANTWERP.
103
lass who is held under the chin by her lover is the same as the one in the Fish-shop at Brussels; Jordaens repeats this group more than once; the boy with the whistle also we find recurring in several pictures of this time.
In 1695, the picture was mentioned in the inventory of Sebastiaan Lierse, under the title „A large picture Diosines, painted by Jordaens"; and afterwards, on the 20 th of April, at a sale in Amsterdam: as „Diogenes, a capital picture." It was bought in 1742 by de Brais for the Elector of Saxony. At the sale of Jordaens' goods (The Hague, 1734) appeared a smaller example; and in the Catalogue of the F. Bernard Stanstead sale (London, 1783) and van Geertruyen and Beeckmans sale rAntwerp, 1850) mention is made of a „Diogenes searching for a man". Messrs. J. & A. Le Roy at Brussels possess a drawing in colour, representing the left side of the Diogenes, and signed: „J. Jordaens, 1642", most probably, the date of the picture itself.
The Ferry boat at Antwerp. — Sandrart mentions another scene of popular life
THE PRODIGAL SON (Mons. Toussaint, Brussels).
painted by Jordaens, which he describes thus: „So he has also reproduced, along the length of the long hall, the large ferry boat of Antwerp in an incomparably fine way; in which are to be seen animals and people who all work according to their trade". One can understand how this scene, which he must have witnessed often at Antwerp, would fascinate Jordaens and that the riverside, the boatmen and the crowd of passengers added a peculiar attraction to it.
The picture seems to be the same as that which for many years, and until quite recently, hung in the Castle of Finspong in Sweden, (2.77 m. high and 4.68 m. broad). It bears the title, „St. Peter taking the penny from the fish's mouth", and it is true that on the right hand side of the picture, which represents a ferry boat, we do see a man who has pulled a fish out of the water and is looking at the coin he has found in its mouth. But this is merely a secondary episode.
Only the group to the right (that of the apostles who are standing round Peter) concern themselves in the least, about him and his find. All the others remain indifferent
104
THE FERRY BOAT AT ANTWERP.
to him : they are, indeed, no more than ordinary passengers in a- ferry-boat. They form two groups, apart from the companions of Peter. The first, in the centre, comprises a man hoisting the sail and a second pushing off the boat, two strong fellows naked to the waist, behind whom, watching them at their work, are several villagers. Among these is a child who cries because its orange has fallen into the water. There is an ox, also, with its head on
the gunwale. In the second group, to the left, are a sailor, pushing off the boat from the shore, and some of the populace, including a woman in a straw hat, holding a child on her lap, and with her feet over the side of the boat, and a negro. A horse hangs its head and neck over the side. The picture is very decorative, admi- rably fitted to embellish a wall- panel in a large hall; the figures are varied, in nature and attitude ; the groups are well composed, and happily united; all is life and movement. The painting is rather superficial, but light and colour are diversified and harmonious. The picture is believed to have been taken from the Netherlands to Sweden by Louis de Gier, a native of Liege, for whom the castle was built, or by his son (also a Louis de Gier), about 1695. It was exhibited at the Jordaens ex- hibition at Antwerp.
The Museum at Amsterdam possesses a smaller picture treating this subject, partly in the same, partly in a slightly different way. St. Peter, who pulls up the fish, the man hoisting the sail, one of the two men pushing off the boat, the child crying for its orange, the woman with the straw hat, all fill the same part in both compositions, and are almost identical in action ; the majority of the other figures, however, have been altered. To the right has been erected a rude staging under which is gathered a number of people Over it peep the towers of the town. This Amsterdam picture is emphatically neither a sketch nor a replica, but a second, smaller version of the bustle and confusion on a ferry-boat It seems to me to belong to the middle of the Forties. An intense, strong light casting heavy shadows, falls on the multi-coloured crowd; there is a sharp contrast between the
DIOGENES SEARCHING FOR A MAN, Drawing (J. and A. Le Roy, Brussels).
THE MIRACLES OF ST. DOMINIC.
105
figures on the boat, §0 distinctly picked out, and those on the landing-stage and on the shore, which are a dull grey in tone.
A third picture with a boat for its centre of action belongs to Mr. J. Heinrich Tack of Crefeld. Here we have a vessel in which several men, all naked to the waist, have taken their seats; the boat is being pushed off at the prow and the stern. On the edge of the water we see four cows. Behind and above them are seen two more. Beside them stands a woman in antique drapery, and a soldier in armour, she holding up her left hand, he his right, as if they were vowing a compact. In the background is a landscape. The meaning of the picture is not clear. It has been supposed to represent Circe and Ulysses at the moment when the goddess takes an oath that she will not change his companions into swine on their departure. It seems as if here Jordaens had seriously attempted to represent a scene from Greek mythology.
THEJTRIBUTE MONEY (M. Ringborg, Norkopfng).
A picture of similar composition appeared at the Thomas Schwenck sale (The Hague, 1767) and at the Jean Tack sale (Amsterdam, 1781). In the first it was catalogued as A Contract, a title that refers to the pair with uplifted hands in the background.
The Miracles of St. Dominic. Oldenburg. — Though undoubtedly Jordaens painted altar-pieces during the period now under review, we cannot point to any of them with absolute certainty. But there is one, The Miracles of St. Dominic in the Museum at Oldenburg, which to me appears to belong to this period. There is more than one point of similarity between it and The Miracle of St. Martin in the Museum at Brussels. The background of both is occupied by an open portico, while in the foreground a demoniac is writhing convulsively; the woman who is holding the sufferer is the same in both pictures; one of the two monks looking on in The Miracles of St. Dominic has the features of the master of the possessed man in The Miracle of St. Martin. But there are also
14
io6
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.
important differences. In the Oldenburg picture we see the miracle-worker within the opening of the arcade, with rolling clouds under his feet, and both hands outstretched; on his left hand a white rose stands upright on its stem; near his right shoulder flutters a white dove; he wears the white robe of his order, with a black cassock, and oyer it a red-gold stole. Directly underneath the saint is a naked man, rising out of his coffin, the lid of which is being lifted by a brawny workman. More in the foreground we see a demoniac, struggling to free his arms from the chains which bind them. He is held by a man in a slate-blue garment, a woman in red with a blue apron, a kneeling boy with with a red waistcoat and yellow trousers, and a man bending forwards; all implore the assistance of the saint. Beside the woman lies a dead child; a greyhound stretches out its head to sniff at it. To the left we notice a young woman in a white shift and light yellow skirt, with two children; behind her, an old woman; both raise their faces to
THE TRIBUTE MONEY (Rijks Museum, Amsterdam).
the saint. Higher up are several spectators. Surmounting the arcade hangs a picture repre- senting Our Lady and the Child. The little Jesus bends forward as if to look forth from the frame upon the scene.
The saint is a gentle, beautiful, young, figure, with half-closed eyes expressive of rapture. A strong, warm light plays over the whole scene, with brown shadows on the lower part, and cool shadows on the woman with the two children and on the two vene- rable men higher up on the right of the canvas who are looking down on the scene. The picture, which has been loosely brushed, is powerful in relief and light-effects; and much clearer in tone and brighter in colour than The Miracle of St. Martin. It was evidently painted some little time after that picture, yet apparently in the first half of the Thirties.
The Flight into Egypt — There are a few pictures which bear the date of the last year of this period, 1641. First at all, a Flight into- Egypt belonging to Mrs. Bosschaert—
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 107
Dubois of Antwerp. The holy family is shown travelling through a landscape. Mary sits on an ass, the child Jesus on her lap; she wears a white kerchief over her head, a red dress, and a blue cloak wrapped round her. Joseph walks in front; he is bare-headed and wears a blue garment over which a gray plaid is flung; an ox walks besides him. A large angel draped in yellow, pointing out the way, is preceded by three little angels; the first carries a basket with clothes On his head, while the two others guide the ox by a cord. In the background we see a landscape, with small trees on the left and a large one on the right. The picture is signed : J. Jor, fe. 1641.
The work is important on account of its bright tone and suffused light (wherein it closely corresponds with the last pictures painted in the Thirties), as well as of the freshness of the landscape, which stretches out against the gray sky. The effect is decorative, and probably the picture was painted for an overmantel.
ULYSSES AND CIRCE (M. Tack, Crefeld).
In the Church of St. Anthony at Antwerp there is a copy of this work, evidently from the school of Jordaens. The large angel who shows the way to Joseph is missing. There are changes also in the landscape : to the right stand four large trees, and a fifth is found in the centre.
Pontius engraved the principal group. Mary, Joseph and the three little angels with the ox are walking along the bank of a stream across which they evidently intend to wade. The large angel has been left out here also. In the background an idol („Adonis" is the inscription on it in the engraving) standing on a pedestal and holding a ball in its hand, is shown broken in twain, the upper half tumbling forward.
Waagen mentions still another Flight into Egypt in the collection of Prince Schuwaloff at St Petersburg. There exists a drawing of this subject in black, red, and white chalk (with a few other colours), which appeared at an Amsterdam sale (30 th October 1780), the Pierre Wouters sale (Brussels, 1797), and the Walschot sale (Antwerp, 1817). The catalogue of the last describes it thus: „Mary seated on an ass led by Joseph ; they are preceded by angels."
108 JAN WIERTS AND HIS WIFE.
Portraits. — In this year, 1641, Jordaens painted a few portraits, of which one, a man's, appeared at the Huybrechts sale (Antwerp, 1902), and now belongs to Messrs. Colnaghi, London. The subject is a corpulent gentleman, seated in an armchair on a red cushion. He faces three-quarters to the side, and wears a hemispherical cap, a black silk jacket, a collar with limp pleats, and plain turned-over cuffs. He is seventy-three years of age, gray-haired and gray-bearded. Very peacefully he sits there, calmly looking in front of him, installed in a wealthy house, amid all the signs of luxury! The right hand lies on the arm of the chair; in his left hand, resting on his leg, he holds a folded paper. In the background an arcade between two columns is open to the air. The picture is signed on the pedestal of the column, to the left, Aetatis 73 Ao. 1641. Here more than ever the atmosphere is impregnated with warm light which spreads a golden vapour over everything, and imparts to the painting a genial tenderness. In none of his other works does Jordaens show to the same degree this very striking quality; after 1637, in The Fishmonger at Brussels, we see him inclining to this nebulous style; in 1641 he has reached its extreme limits; in the second half of the Forties he discards this exaggeration and again adopts a concise manner. The dates of the pictures marking this development are incontestable proof that he affected the style in question for a few years only.
The Museum at Brussels possesses the pendant to this portrait, the wife of the distinguished-looking gentleman. She is seen full-face, and sits in a wide chair with both elbows on the arms, her hands in her lap; in . her left she holds a handkerchief. She wears a dress of black flowered-silk, with gold buttons down the front, a striped black- silk cloak edged with fur, a white goffered collar, a white cap dressed in open shell shape on the temples. She is a distinguished-looking, well-to-do, good-hearted, burgher wife, sixty-six years old. The picture is inscribed, {ALtat) is 66, 1641. The painting is of the same style as the man's portrait, except that the flesh is decidedly unpleasant; the face is cream-coloured, with green tints which give the sitter a sickly appearance, and stain the forehead, cheeks, nose and chin; the eyes are watery. Everything in the work is tender and transparent enough, yet the portrait is decidedly unattractive.
The Louvre possesses two unusually well preserved studies for these two portraits, executed very broadly and in full colours, and ranking among Jordaens' best drawings. The figures are identically the same as in the painted portraits, but the accessories show some slight discrepencies.
In The Museum at St. Petersburg there is an old copy of the man's portrait which came from the Crozat collection.
Portraits of Jan Wierts and His Wife. — The Museum at Cologne possesses the portraits of a similar couple. The man, seated in an arm chair, is seen almost entirely in profile; his right arm rests on that of the chair, and in his left hand is a paper on which we read: Eersamen dischreten Sr. Johan Wierts Coopman totte Ant. Behind him, to his left, ar,e an open window with a broken arch, and a caryatid which rests on the cornice of the mantelpiece. On his left is a table with a red cover, a wine-glass and grapes. Above him is a piece of a red drapery. The man has a strong, healthy face, ruddy cheeks, short gray hair, a gray pointed moustache, and a broad imperial. He wears a black dress, white soft lace collar, and cuffs.
His wife sits in a chair of similar shape in the same room; the window is open and we see both caryatids of the mantlepiece. She is placed three-fourths in profile, and
JAN WIERTS AND HIS WIFE.
109
wears a black dress, a stiff, goffered collar, lace cuffs; with strings of pearls in her hair, round her neck and wrists, and on her breast, and large pearl earrings. In her right hand she holds a fan (of which we see the handle only), fastened to her wrist by a string of pearls.
These portraits have the same warm vaporous tone as the two preceding ones, but are more firmly painted. Here, again, the woman is less successful than the man; and here also we have a couple from the well-to-do burgher class, blessed with wealth and health. The designation, „Jan Wierts, mer- chant at Antwerp", causes us to be pretty certain that these are the portraits of the parents of Jordaens' son-in-law; the title „merchant proves that the man is not the son-in-law himself. Under the frame on the man's portrait we find another inscription, which unfort- unately, however, has partly dis- appeared, and reads, „AETATIS 48. 16....". (The two last figures are quite illegible). Probably the father of Jordaens' son-in-law was about the same age as the artist himself, in which case the picture must have been painted about 1640.
We seem to identify these pictures with two which appeared at the Gemert sale (Antwerp, 1778), — „Two portraits of a Merchant and his Wife, very powerfully and beautifully painted".
A female portrait, belonging to Lord Chesham, may be ascribed to the same period, but some ten years earlier in it, say about 1631. It represents a lady holding a little dog. She wears a bronze-green dress, a white muslin scarf over her breast, and white sleeves. In
the background we notice a balustrade, a column, and some dark-blue drapery. The painting is very soft, fine, and fused. On the flesh, and over the whole picture, the dominant tone is a brown-gray that reminds us of that which Jordaens, in 1630, spread over The Miracle of St. Martin. Features and attitude are particularly distinguished; but although, as a whole, the picture looks rather too aristocratic for Jordaens, yet we do not for a minute hesitate to ascribe it to him. The flaky softness of the flesh, the good-natured expression, the slack eyelids, are characteristic of him ; the little dog which the woman carries on her arm resembles that of the beauty in The Serenade of M. Leblon.
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THE MIRACLES OF ST. DOMINIC (Museum, Oldenburg).
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JORDAENS' PORTRAIT.
Jordaens' Portrait. - At this time, about 1640, Jordaens painted the portrait of himself which is known to us only through the engraving made from it by Peter dejode and published by Jan Meyssens in his collection: Image de divers hommes d 'esprit sublime qui par leur art et science debvront vivre eternetlement et des quels la louange et renommee faict estonner le monde. A Anvers mis en lumiere per Jean Meyssens peinctre et vendeur de Part au Cammestraet Van MDC XUX. jordaens' engraved portrait bears this inscription : Jacques Jordaens. Excellent peinctre en grand, faict connoistre son esprit releve par sa belle maniere de peindre est inventif en toute sorte d'ordonnances, soit en poesie histoire, en devotion et d'autres, il a faict les belles choses racourtantes pour le Roy de Suede et
plusieurs autres princes et seigneurs, est ne a Anvers Ian 1594 (this ought to be 1593) le 19. de May, a faict son apprentissage chez son beaupere Adam van Oort, tenant sa demeure en la ville de sa nais- sance. J a. Jordaens pinxit. Pet de Jode sculpsit. Jo. Meyssens excudit. Jordaens in this portrait looks like a man of about fory-five; so we may take it that he painted it about 1638. He wears a flowing garment which is buttoned on to his shoulder. His left hand is outstretched, and holds a roll of paper; at the neck the points of a soft collar fall over his cloak. We find among Meyssens' portraits other sitters amply draped thus in a kind of Roman toga, but none of them with the garment thrown about him so carelessly as- in the case of our painter; and none of them concerns himself so little about elegance and distinction. In the arrangement of his hair we find the same disdain of appearance, bordering on uncouthness. The body has become heavy, and the head seems to have expanded in proportion, and to be unusually big and, especially, broad. The forehead is high, with two slight wrinkles; the eyes look across it to their right with a bold, rather impudent expression; they are not quite alike, for above the one the eyebrow is pencilled regularly, while that above the other is slightly drawn up; the nose is thick, the jaws are coarsely modelled and strongly protruding. He wears a turned-up moustache and an imperial; his hair hangs down to his neck in long locks on both sides; on the top of the head it is brushed into a tuft. His appearance is in fact unshapely and without form, but enlivened by the large, bold, piercing eyes; a doughty man, little concerned about adornment or dress, deliberate in expression,
PORTRAIT OF A MAN Drawing (Louvre).
JORDAENS' PORTRAIT.
in
full of strength, thinking and acting according to his own light, and heedless of other people's opinion.
At the Philip van Dyck sale (The Hague, 1753) appeared the picture after which this portrait was engraved; it was described as „The portrait of Jordaens, painted by himself in a powerful and manly way, for engraving".
A drawing of the same picture came up at the Artaria sale (Vienna, 1886).
In several of his pictures Jordaens painted himself, generally blowing the pipe, with puffed-out cheeks. He takes upon himself the role of the eater in most of his versions of The Peasant and the Satyr, and that of the bagpiper in those representations of As the old Cock crows, and The King drinks, and in Serenades, in which the bagpipe plays a part. It has to be observed that it was only after 1635, when he had turned forty, that he adopted this habit of assigning to himself a place in his pictures. In the works of the last twenty years of his life we come across him no more.
Van Dyck had painted him ten or twelve years earlier, about 1628. Even in that portrait he had heavy, strong features, and a thick moustache and imperial; but his hair was arranged with more care, and the tuft was smoothed down. One hand, with the five fingers outspread, lies on his breast. Instead of the plain linen collar, falling with two points over his cloak, he then wore a broad and elegant one of muslin, hanging limp across his shoulders. Round his wrists are cuffs of the same material; he wears a jacket with buttons across the chest, and a cloak across one shoulder and
drawn round the waist. He has an air of distinction as he faces us shrewdly and fearlessly, more distinguished than rude. Van Dyck as was his habit has lent him some of his own ostentation and elegance.
In the collection of self-portraits of artists in the Uffizi at Florence hangs a ..Portrait of Jordaens" so-called. There is a slight likeness between this model and our painter, seen in the heavy, strong, somewhat coarse features; but the resemblance is not so great as to cause us to believe for one moment that it is a portrait of himself. But it is certainly a work by his hand. The face is longer and narrower than his, and the nose more oblong, and broader in bone; the eyes lie deeper, the chin is larger, the thick brown red hair is brushed away carelessly, moustache and beard are thin and downy. They who labelled the
PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN Drawing (Louvre).
ii2 JORDAENS' PORTRAIT.
portrait with the name it now bears were thinking of a Jordaens in the early Twenties; but even so great an advance in age could not account for such a change of features.
The man in the Uffizi wears a soft, full muslin collar; an ample cloak is thrown over the upper part of the body; with his right hand he holds a book against his breast. The execution is broad in brushwork; the handling loose and bold. The Museum at Edin- burgh possesses an old copy of this picture.
There are other portraits of Jordaens and his family, rightly or wrongly so indentified. Thus there was at the Prince de Conti sale (Paris. 1777) a group, „Man, and Wife", more than half-length, catalogued as „The portrait of Jordaens and his wife." The woman is giving a plum to a parrot. The picture was sold for 2000 francs. It came originally from the Due de Choiseul sale (Paris, 1772). It is the portrait of the woman with the black cherries, in the picture discussed by us on p. 97. In 1763 the Society of Painters in the Hague possessed two pictures described as Jordaens, and the latter's housewife" (1)
At different sales we find genuine or fictitious portraits of Catharina van Noort. In one of them, at the Jean-Leopold-Jos. de Man d'Hobruge sale (Brussels, 1820), she wears a red dress, a white collar, a broad-brimmed hat; with both hands she holds a basket against her breast (canvas: 78 cm. high, 61 cm. wide). Another canvas (68 cm. high, 54 cm. wide) appeared at the Thore-Burger sale (Paris, 1892); a third (92 cm. high, 72 cm. wide) at the Febvre sale (Paris, 1882). We cannot determine the accuracy of this identifi- cation ; all that we know of Jordaens' wife is from those pictures in which it seems likely that he chose her as his model.
A girl's head in the Lubeck Museum seems to me to be one of Jordaens' children. She has rich, fair hair, brown eyes, small nose and mouth; it is more a sketch than a finished piece of work, and brown in the shadows.
(1) 1763. Memoir of the pictures belonging to the Confraternity of Painters at the Hague, all being marked with a P. „Nos. 80 and 81 „The portrait of Jordaens and that of the latter's housewife bought at said sale being there Nos. 11 and 12". The said sale was that of Mr. G. Copius. (A Bredius. The books of the Hague Society of Painters. Oud-Holland XIX. 72).
CHAPTER IV.
1631 — 1641 (Continued).
JORDAENS AND RUBENS — JORDAENS' PUPILS. — His HOUSE.
THAT Jordaens and Rubens were acquainted in their youth admits of no debate. The earliest indisputable evidence of this is their each painting at the same time one of the three altar pieces for the Augustine church at Antwerp. This was in 1628. It is certain that Rubens was consulted by the fathers as to the choice of subjects and of artists to execute them ; and equally so that Rubens recom- mended Jordaens, and discussed with him the St. Apollonia which he painted for the right-hand altar.
The Entry of the Cardinal- Infant. — We find the two masters collaborating, for the first and only time in their lives, in the middle of the period 1631 — 1641. It was at the end of 1634 that Rubens was commissioned to prepare plans and sketches for the decoration of the city on the occasion of the State entry of the Cardinal-Infant Ferdinand, brother of Philip IV of Spain. On account of the speed with which the work had to done, and its vast extent, he called in the assistance of a considerable number of his fellow-artists. For most of the painted panels, of which a great many were used in the erection of the theatres and triumphal arches, he made hasty little sketches, leaving them to be worked out and finished by his assistants, within his own studio and outside.
To Jordaens and Cornelis de Vos was allotted the painting of the Arch of Philip, one of the two principal ones in the scheme of decoration. The contract for the work was settled on November 28, 1634, the sum agreed upon being 4200 guilders. It had to be completed by January 8, 1635. Over and above the contract price, the two artists were paid for supplementary work, — first 700 guilders, and afterwards another 54. From top to bottom, and on the two sides, the triumphal arch was covered with paintings. The subject
A MUSIC PARTY Drawing (Mons. M. Delacre, Ghent).
ii 4 ENTRY OF THE CARDINAL-INFANT.
chosen for the front or principal panel was The Marriage of Maximilian of Austria with Mary of Burgundy. On the summit sat enthroned Jupiter and Juno, with Providence and Time beside them, and next to these again the symbolic figures of. Austria and Burgundy. This group and the four figures standing by themselves were carved in outline, and stood out in relief against the sky. Above the portico and on its sides appeared a number of Spanish Kings, — Philip I and Philip II, the Emperor Maximilian I, and Philip III, the Emperor Charles and Philip IV. In addition to these, this grotesque colossus was composed of caryatids, cartouches, syrens, and other decorations. On the main panel on the other side of the arch was painted the Marriage of Philip the Fair with Joanna, Infanta of Spain, and above it allegorical figures representing the power and benevolence of the Austrian Imperial house; round the portico were the portraits of Ferdinand of Aragon, the Cardinal-Infant Ferdinand, Isabella of Castille, and the arch-dukes Ernest, Albert, and Isabella.
Jordaens, with Theodor Rombouts, put some accessory work upon the paintings on the Temple of Janus which were executed by Theodor Rombouts, Jan Cossiers, Artus Wolfaert, and Geeraard Weri.
When the festivities were over, the municipal government of Antwerp decided to present the Cardinal-Infant with the principal works of art and sculpture composing the decorations for the state entry, but first had them re-touched by some of the leading artists. Thus even Rubens did some fresh work upon two canvases which he had painted for the Stage that stood near the Church of St. George. He also repainted the portraits of the arch-dukes Ernest, Albert, and Isabella on the Arch of Philip, and they are now in the Brussels Museum. Jordaens, again, was commissioned to do similar touching-up for several others, — as, for example, the centre piece for the stage of the „Welcome", near the Church of St. George, representing The Arrival of the Prince. Cornelis Schut, who had executed it originally, declined to re-touch it; for this work Jordaens received 300 guilders, and he was paid the same amount for freshening up the two pictures on the sides of the Arch of Ferdinand, in which Caspar van den Hoecke and his son, Jan, had represented the Battle of Noordlingen and the Triumphal March of the Cardinal-Infant after the battle.
Of Jordaens' original work, which he also retouched, there have been preserved the two principal pictures in the Arch of Philip; in 1899 they were in the possession -of Mr. Simon, in Paris. The Battle of Noordlingen, painted by the van Hoeckes, and retouched by Jordaens, is in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. It is a large canvas, in which appear the Cardinal-Infant and Ferdinand, King of Hungary, galloping from the left to the right, each with a commander's baton in his hand. The battle wages on the slope of the hill and in the valley to the right; in the foreground we have a dense crowd of foot- soldiers in armour. It is very noticeable how Jordaens has enlivened and heightened the effect of the picture by casting a bright light upon the Cardinal-Infant and on the armour of the soldiers, and carrying it over the crest of the hill into the background.
In the Museum at Madrid is an Apollo, Conqueror of Marsyas by Jordaens (No. 1637 in the Catalogue). Apollo, still holding his lyre, has taken king Midas, his asinine critic, by the beard. Marsyas, on the right, sits playing his flute. A richly-garbed satyr looks on. The pictures formed part of the Metamorphoses of Ovid, commissioned from Rubens in 1637 by Philip IV for the Torre de la Parada, of which a great many were done by assistants and pupils from the master's sketches. Twenty years ago the sketch for this particular picture was in the Pastiana collection at Madrid. Jordaens' painting from it measures 1.81 m. in height, as do several of the series, from which we conclude that this also was one;
THE DISCIPLES AT EMMAUS. 115
it bears the painter's signature (J. Jor), and is entirely in the nebulous manner of this stage of his art. In the same museum there is a copy of it (No. 1636) by a pupil.
The Disciples at EmmaOs. — The Madrid Museum contains a picture by Rubens which is astonishingly like Jordaens' work. It is Christ with the Disciples at Emmaiis. Jordaens treats the same subject in a picture which the Brunswick Museum possesses. In it the Saviour is seated to the right, at the head of the table; he lifts up the bread, which he blesses as he looks heavenwards. The two disciples, seated on his right and left, have recognised him, and extend their hands in amazement. In the background we notice a maid carrying a dish on which is a basket with food. To the left the fat host is busy pouring wine from a pewter jug into a glass. On the table are viands; a dog sits under the table, a cat under the chair. To the left, also, there is an open door, giving a view upon a landscape ; to the right, a mantel-shelf, with kitchen utensils on it. The picture is painted in a roasted tone; the shadows of dusk prevail. Christ has an emaciated, ascetic face; he wears a violet-blue garment, and has a white table-napkin on his knees; the other persons have full-blooded, round heads; the gray disciple is a fine figure; the dark one, taking off his cap, has a powerful head; the host is a caricature of grossness; the maid, very full-bodied, is painted in a soft luminous tone. The harmony of the evening light reminds us of The Last Supper at Antwerp; but there the lighting is stronger than in the Brunswick canvas, in which the shadows are less transparent, duller, and softer. The work is by Jordaens' hand, and executed with care; but it is less successful than the other; though the composition is good, and the exalted expression of Christ and that of astonishment on the faces of the diciples, are well rendered.
Its similarity to Rubens' picture strikes one so much that the latter at first sight calls to mind Jordaens' work. In Rubens', the figure of Christ, in form and attitude, is the same as in Jordaens'; the gestures of the diciples also are similar, and the host is the same amusing fat figure. Rubens, however, represents the host holding the jug and glass in his hand, but not pouring the wine. The picture was bought from the house in which Rubens died by Philip IV; in the catalogue of Rubens' works left behind him at his death it is mentioned as having been painted by the master, and it was engraved by one of his usual engravers, Jan Witdoeck, under the master's name. It is, therefore, as certainly his as the Brunswick picture is by Jordaens, and no other explanation of the peculiar resemblance is possible than that Rubens here followed that master.
Works for Greenwich-House. — In the last months of Ruben's life, he and Jordaens were competitors for a commission of a set of pictures intended for the ceiling and walls of the cabinet of the Queen of England in the palace at Greenwich (Greenwich-House), built by Inigo Jones. (1) On the 4 th of November 1639, Balthasar Gerbier, deputy at Brussels of the king of England, Charles I, put the required information on paper, and sent it to Edward Norgate, one of the clerks of His Majesty's Seal, to deliver to William Murray, gentleman of the King's bedchamber, with whom the commissioning of the pictures lay. Immediately on receiving the necessary instructions, and also the dimensions of the paintings he was to commission from Jordaens, Gerbier had copies made, but translated into French, so that it should not appear for whom the works were intended. He made use
(1) NOEL SAINSBURY, Papers relating to Rubens. Pp. 212—234.
n6 WORKS FOR GREENWICH-PALACE.
the Abbot of Scaglia, then residing in Antwerp, who appeared to him to be the most suitable person to arrange matters with Jordaens. Scaglia, who was also kept in ignorance of their destination, undertook the task; and a few days later was informed by Jordaens that his price for the work would be 680 pounds sterling, and that he could not undertake to have it finished in less than two years. He wished to be paid for the sketch when he did one, and this Gerbier also thought desirable; and in accordance with the custom of Antwerp painters, he suggested that he should dispatch two or three pieces of his work at a time, as he finished them. Gerbier desired William Murray to recommend this arrangement to His Majesty, and to see that the work was paid for as it was received by bills of exchange drawn on Lionel Wake, of London, or on his father, Lionel Wake, in Antwerp. If His Majesty approved of all this, William Murray was to take the exact measurements by means of packing threads, at the ends of which were to
be fastened pieces of parchment, indicating the pictures to which the said measurements referred.
Jordaens drew up a specification in French, which has been preserved. It runs: The ceiling consists of 9 pieces,
large and small, to cost. . . 2400 guilders In the first quarter of the hall, .-j^^^^^^mM^^tm on the mantelpiece, 3 large
pieces, to cost 1800 „
In the second quarter, where there are two balconies, and where their will be five pieces, large and small, to cost about 1000 „ In the third quarter, where there is a balcony on the eastside,
3 pieces, to cost 700 „
In the fourth quarter, where the door is, shall be two large
pieces, to cost 900 „
6800 guilders
PORTRAIT OF JAN WIERTS
(Museum, cologne). To this is added, in a different hand-
writing, „which makes 680 pounds sterling" (1). Gerbier, a trusted friend of Rubens, was jealous at the idea of this important work for the Royal palace going to any other than the greatest of the Antwerp masters; and on Febry. 4th, 1640, he wrote to Edward Norgate, requesting him to ask the King whether he would not prefer Rubens to do the work, if that painter would undertake it for the same,
(1) The note of Jordaens the painter.
Le sofit consistant en 9 pieces tant grandes que petites importera pour Ie prix flo. 2400
Au premier quartier de la salle sur la cheminee 3 grandes pieces qui importeront flo. 1800
La deuxieme quartier oil il y a 2 balcons oil il y aura 5 pieces tant grandes que petites importera environ . . . flo. 1000
Le 3me quartier oil il y a un balcon vers levant 3 pieces estimSes a flo. 700
Le 4me quartier oil est la porte il y aura 2 grandes pieces quy importeront flo. 900
t,r- ■_ i con ,m x faClt .... flo. 6800
Wich makes 680 ffi sters. ^^
(Document of Jordaens: London. Public Record Office. Foreign Papers — Flanders 82).
WORKS FOR GREENWICH-PALACE.
117
or about the same, price as Jordaens. „Both men," he wrote, „are Dutchmen and not to seeke to represent robustrous boistrous druncken-headed imaginary Gods, and of the two most certaine Sir Peter Rubens is the gentilest in his representations: his Landskipps are more rare and all other circumstances more proper." Gerbier had asked Rubens to make a drawing, which he might submit for the King's approval, but Rubens did not seem inclined to comply with the suggestion. Meanwhile Jordaens had forwarded his sketch ; but Gerbier delayed its reaching the King, and kept urging that the commission should be given to Rubens. His representations, it would seem, were not greatly heeded at the English Court, and negociations with Jordaens pro- ceeded. Gerbier instructed Scaglia, his colleague in diplomatic errands, to talk the matter over with Jordaens; and he wrote to Inigo Jones, the King's architect, on March 24 th that he would send word to that painter, through the Abbot, to make the features of the women in the first work intended for the Queen, as beautiful, and their figures as elegant and slim, as possible.
Rubens in the meantime had fallen seriously ill, and indeed was now beyond cure, but Gerbier had not lost heart, and on May 9 th he told Scaglia to propose to Jordaens to confine himself to the pictures for the walls, and to let Rubens execute those for the ceiling. „Perhaps", he wrote, „the Sieur Jordaens will be very glad to get rid of the said sofito, on account of the fore-shortenings, and that Mons Rubens will not make any difficulty (being in a fit state to work) about undertaking the said sofito." By this time Jordaens had painted a picture from the sketch
which had been sent to England and returned to him through Scaglia with instructions for its improvement, to which he attended. He was still ignorant of the fact that the commission was destined for the King of England, but had set industriously to work upon it.
Rubens was asked his price for painting the ceiling. The renowned master had entered upon the last month of his life, but he could not give up all idea of work, and answered that he would undertake the commission for the sum of 2000 patakons, — that is 480 pounds sterling, or half as much again as Jordaens' price. Rubens proposed — so Scaglia reported — to depict in the centre the Feast of the Gods : on one side, Cupid, striving to make Psyche fall in love with a mortal, and falling in love with her himself; on the other side,. Psyche's
PORTRAIT OF JAN WIERTS' WIFE
(Museum, Cologne).
n8
WORKS FOR GREENWICH-PALACE.
ascent to heaven. The six other pictures could be replaced by grotescos without figures. Rubens' death on May 30 th , 1640 put a stop to all this intrigue; and Jordaens, now (as Gerbier expressed it) the „prime painter" in his country, received, the full commission.
Of its execution we cannot speak with certainty. On December 18 th , 1640, the painter had received 100 pounds sterling as an advance upon it. When Scaglia died on May 21 st , 1641, Jordaens, we know, had seven scenes in hand for him (1), and these undoubtedly were intended for the Queen's cabinet at Greenwich. In his correspondence, from which these particulars concerning the negociations have been drawn, Gerbier does not refer to the matter after 1640, and he left Flanders in August 1641.
What has become of these paintings? The Greenwich Inventory mentions, among the
works of art originating from the palaces of Charles I, eight pieces by Jordaens, valued at 200 pounds sterling. These, it would seem, were the pictures of which we have been speaking (2).
Was a „ Feast of the Gods" executed for the ceiling, as Rubens had proposed, and if so was it painted by Jordaens? We greatly doubt it, though we cannot speak with certainty. It seems to us curious, and worthy of notice, that the large „Feast of the Gods" in the Lacaze Collection in the Louvre, which is attri- buted to Jordaens, is less characteristic of him than it is of Rubens. A picture with a similar subject and a similar ascription was mentioned in a former catalogue of the Royal Museum at the Hague but it has disappeared from the present edition. The same or a similar painting has come up at various sales also. A sketch, differing in composition, however, from the Louvre work, appeared at the Ravaisson sale (Paris, 1903).
What subjects did Jordaens choose for Greenwich? We are nowhere told. But Gerbier's correspondence shows plainly the intention that the ceiling pictures should illustrate the history of Psyche, and we may assume with some confidence that this also was the theme given to Jordaens for the walls. And we know that he repeatedly painted the story of love. At the sale of his works at his death (the Hague, 1734) we find three versions of it: a ceiling of five pieces and two small flower-pieces, together 23 feet long and 17 feet wide (No. 74 of the Catalogue); a large square piece with four large oblique pieces intended for the ceiling of a large room, representing the story of Psyche, painted by Jordaens for Queen Christina of Sweden, together 24 feet in length, 22 feet in width
JORDAENS' PORTRAIT
(Engraved from Van Dyck's painting).
(1) F. Jos. VAN DEN Branden, History of the Antwerp School of Painting. P. 837.
(2) Claude Phillips, The Picture Gallery of Charles I. P. 45.
WORKS FOR GREENWICH-PALACE.
119
(No. 78) ; and a separate piece, Cupid and Psyche, 2 feet 6| in. high, by 3 feet 1 in. broad (No. 52). When, later on, we come to speak about the pictures he made for his own house, we shall see that for the ceiling of one of his rooms also he painted the story of Psyche.
After the death of Rubens, the king of Spain, Philip IV, bought from his house a great number of pictures by the deceased master. Among these were two unfinished works, a Hercules and an Andromeda; and the painter's heirs commissioned Jordaens to put the finishing touch on them, and paid him 240 guilders for so doing. The first picture has been lost; probably it was a Hercules killing the sons of Earth, which is mentioned in the inventories of pictures belonging to the Spanish Crown in 1686 and in 1700. The other is the Perseus and Andromeda now in the Madrid Museum. Andromeda is fastened to the rock, and Perseus, who has slain the monster, is about to loosen the rope which binds her to it. The picture is a gem of art, and had it been produced by Rubens alone we should call it one of his most charming master-pieces.
Jordaens' work upon it has not done it any harm; he has managed to make his colours consort with those of his predecessor so well that we can hardly distinguish one from another. The reflections on the head and naked, arm of Andromeda seem to have been laid on by him, and the little cupids in the background were probably retouched by him; and, far from contrasting with the rest of the picture by a less rich colouring, these parts appear to have had greater bril- liance communicated to them by Jordaens.
Two of Jordaens' pictures were included in Rubens' estate: No. 266 in the inventory, The Birth of Christ which we have mentioned already; and No. 265, a History of Ulysses and Polyphemus (as the French Catalogue calls it) or Polyphemus and Ulysses on canvass (as the English text has it). We do not know what has become of this picture; and the
same has to be said of „an Ulysses, painted on metal", mentioned in an inventory of the goods of the painter Jeremias Wildens, son of Jan, who died on the 30 th of December 1653; as well as of a large picture with figures, „Ulysses recognized", appearing at a sale held in Amsterdam in May, 1715. The picture „Ulysses discovered by the Princess Nausicaa" which came up at the Nicolaus-Cornelis Haselaer sale (Amsterdam, 1742) is now in the possession of Mr. van der Ouderaa, artist, at Antwerp; and a „Ulysses at the feet of the daughter of Alcinous (on canvas)", probably the same as the preceding, was put up for auction at Amsterdam on the 29 th of April, 1817.
Jordaens a pupil of Rubens. — By more than one writer, Jordaens has been called
PORTRAIT OF A MAN (Uffizi, Florence).
120 JORDAENS A PUPIL OF RUBENS.
a pupil of Rubens. If by this is meant that he received lessons from the great master, or frequented his studio, the assertion is wholly without warrant. But if it merely conveys the opinion that from his predecessor Jordaens learned much, it is true enough. As we have explained already, there existed, immediately previous to the appearance of Rubens in the Antwerp School, a delight in high, full colours and powerful forms, such as is plainly shown by the works of Abraham Janssens (1575—1632). Sharing this taste at the beginning of his career, Jordaens gave expression to it in a manner all his own. From the very first he was a colourist, though, as a colourist, violent, hard, and rough, as he was in all his thoughts and actions. Half way in the Thirties, when he himself had turned forty, he distinctly exhibited the influence of Rubens in his attempt to let one colour intrigue with another, and to introduce into his canvases nuances of tone and play of light and shade. He learned to render his colours transparent, to refine their scale and to catch and to mingle in his painting the rarest reflections. More than once he modified his manner; and having ranged himself with the school of Rubens, never deserted it; but was never at any time a were imitator of Rubens himself. After his spell of nebulous tones, he becomes again, as he was before 1637, the powerful colourist par excellence. Throughout the whole of his career almost, his light, his unbroken sunlight, is stronger and bolder than that of Rubens ; just as his colour is firmer, and his shadows heavier than those of the great master. Rubens is always softer, more harmonious, more tender; his play of light and shade, of radiance and reflection, of colour and tint, is richer, looser, and altogether more distinguished. While he is the painter of the fair, clear light, the other is equally that of the warm and ruddy glow; and while Rubens in his brushwork becomes swifter and more playful as time advances, Jordaens grows duller and heavier with his years.
And so it is also with their form, and their conception of life. Rubens remains to the end the heroic painter, the historian of noble figures and noble action. Jordaens, on the other hand, is always the burgher, introducing his characters into the scene as he had met them in daily intercourse, in their every day life, and, even when placing them upon a higher sphere, preserving them faithful to their own natures. He treats saints and gods and goddesses in a familiar way, and brings them down to his plane rather than himself rising to theirs ; a realist who strikes us more by his keen observation than by his sense of drama. Rubens ever ennobles; he dramatises his characters, making heroes of them, and lifting them into elevated regions of life and emotion. Jordaens is the student of the actual, of real life and the individual man; he reads in the human face, as in an open book, all that is passing through the mind, and interprets what he sees with equal ease and clarity. His grinning satyrs, his mocking fools, his half-debauched Bacchus, his king the bon-vivant, his hypocritical or vindictive pharisees, and his whole world of laughing, joking, courting, noisy characters, are drawn from nature, and keep alive in his canvases the life he watched in them. Jordaens' taste was always less refined, less academic and polished; but this in itself explains why he preserved greater terseness, and greater daring and variety. True, in the second half of his career, he followed the example of Rubens, and gave his models more elegance of action, but even then he remained the painter of everyday life in all its varying moods.
The consequence of his lack of refinement, as shown in his work, is its inconsistency. From an exquisite discrimination he easily falls into coarse insensibility, and from sharp observation and wonderfully neat expression into slovenly carelessness or vulgar foppishness. But throughout, his enormous energy never fails him, and low as he may fall, he easily
JORDAENS* PUPILS.
121
rises again. Artists in his day were not so conscientious, and the public not so critical, as in ours: a painter of repute might come short of his best without endangering his good name. The aristocrats of the art, Rubens, van Dijck, Teniers even, were more jealous of their fame than Jordaens: he was a democrat in art, — frequently too much so. But unequal as he might be, and often as he proved unworthy of his own talent, he never ceased to be himself; and though the path he took was not always the right and noble path, at least it was always his own, and he never slavishly followed the guidance of another.
Jordaens' Pupils. — In Gerbier's correspondence we have proofs of how high Jordaens stood in the estimation of connoisseurs and buyers, and another proof of the repute which he had attained is to be found in the large number of pupils who entrusted themselves to
HUNTER WITH HOUNDS (Museum, Lille).
his guidance. On the 11 th of August. 1641, there were in his studio six such, (though not one of their names is mentioned in the registers), all of whom „learnt the Art of painting at Signor Jacques Jordaens'" (1). They were Jan de Bruyn, twenty-one years old; Hendrik Wildens and Hendrik Kerstens, both twenty years of age ; Daniel Verbraken and Jan Baptist Huybrechts, both nineteen; and J. B. van den Broek, eighteen. This is the second time we come across important omissions in the registers of the Guild of St. Luke concerning facts which we have to mention about Jordaens; in 1621 his deaconship is not recorded, and now the names of six of his pupils are not given. Both cases prove that though, generally, we may assume the trustworthiness of the official books of our painters' guilds, yet they leave much to be desired as regards completeness and accuracy.
In 1623—1624 Jordaens had accepted two other pupils: Jan Kersgiter and Mattijs Peetersen; in 1633—1634, Rogiers de Cuyper; in 1636—1637, Henderick Willemsen; in 1640 — 1641 he receives another, Hyndrick Rockso; in 1644 1645 another, Gilliam de Vries;
(1) F. JOS. VAN DEN BRANDEN, History of the Antwerp School of Painting. P. 817.
16
122 JORDAENS' HOUSE.
in 1646—1647 he accepts six new ones, Orliens de Meyer, Jan Goulincx, Andris Snyders, Conraet Hansens, Adrian de Munckninck, Pauwels Goetvelt. All these are mentioned as his pupils in the registers, but nothing further is heard about them ; evidently they did not get the length of being masters. No doubt Jordaens received several more; but after this year of great abundance we find only a few others mentioned : Arnoldus Joerdaens in 1652—1653, and Mercelis Librechts in 1666—1667, both as unknown subsequently as all the others. We possess far too little information about Jordaens' pupils: only the names of a few of them, no more. Until recently, we took it for granted that Jordaens did not found a school, and that he had no followers except Jan Cossiers ; and about his collaborators and assistants we were as much in the dark. But when in 1905, while arranging for the exhibition of his work, we were asked to assist in making a selection, from the numerous pictures sent in, it struck us how many of them were clearly imitations of the master: pictures evidently never touched by him, but executed in his studio or outside it, by painters who had been apprenticed to him, and who had not only cribbed his colour and his drawing, but also stolen his subjects as well. Who they were, we do not know, but we do that they differed in talent and merit. All of them stand below the master; but while some made caricatures only of his creations, others displayed so much talent that we sometimes feel inclined to ask whether it was not possible that the fickle Jordaens on occasion took liberties with himself, and painted a work which though very different from his good pictures was yet not altogether unworthy of him. However, all his pupils, assistants or followers, whether clever or insignificant, have this in common, that they are unknown, and most probably will remain so.
Jordaens' House. — At the end of this period of eleven years, Jordaens had a house built for himself, in which he took up his abode and remained until the end of his life. On the 15 th of January 1618, he purchased a large back-house with an open courtyard in the Hoogstraat, and a porch, giving upon the street, situated immediately to the south of the house of the merchant Nicolas Backse. The year after he received (on the 16 th June, 1633) his share of his father's estate, he bought several properties ; and no doubt in those imme- diately following he became richer through the proceeds of his art, for on the 11 th October, 1639, he added to them Nicolas Backse's house, called „de Halle van Lier" or the „Turnhout Halle", now No. 43. As this building stood in front of the back-house, in which he had lived since 1618, both properties formed one lot. Jordaens then had both back and front house pulled down, and in 1641 built a commodious dwelling on the space thus left available (1). _ This dwelling consisted of two houses, one in front, another at the back, the latter built round an open space which stood in direct communication with the Hoogstraat by means of a large porch situated on the south side (2). Between the front- and the back- house lay a small courtyard. Coming through the large portico into the large forecourt, one faced the studio of the painter; on the three other sides also were low buildings of two storeys. In the wing on the south side (to the right of the entrance) was a drawing-room, the ceiling of which was decorated by Jordaens with the History of Psyche.
(1) Documents in the possession of Mr. Ch. van der Linden. - F. Jos. VAN DEN BRANDEN, Op. cit. p. 831 - SlMIT and VAN GRIMSBERGEN, Leven van Rubens, p. 512. - AUG. THYS, Straten van Antwerpen, p. 564.
(2) In the deed of sale of the house situated next to that of Jordaens, drawn up on the 13th Febr., 1749 it is mentioned of this property that it is: ..standing and situated in the hoogstraete between the house called the small golden helmet on the one side and the entrance of the portico leading to the backhouse, formerly having belonged to Jacques Jordaens, and separated from this, coming over the entrance of the portico of the afore-mentioned backhouse, the entrance of which may and must remain of the same height and widith as it is already."
JORDAENS' HOUSE. 123
Johan-Jacob Wierts, President of the Privy Council and the Audit-Office of H. M. the King of Great-Britain (William III), Prince of Orange, and his sister Susanne-Maria Wierts, wife of Anthonis Slicher, Counsel-in-Ordinary at the Court of Holland, Zeeland, and Friesland, the only remaining children of Jordaens' daughter, Anna-Catharina, and of her husband Johan Wierts, sold the house of their grandfather, on the 27 th of September, 1708, to Jacobus Ambachts. The property was then described as comprising „a beautiful building of blue freestone, as well as the embellishment and decorations inside it, com- missioned and made by the famous art-painter, Jacob Jordaens, also the pictures, running ceilings or shortenings adapted for the ceilings in the two back-rooms, lying next to one another on the south side of the garden, mostly painted by Jordaens".
The house was again put up for sale in 1713, and on this occasion was bought by Joan-Carlo van Heurck, merchant and almoner of the town of Antwerp. After the death of his widow, in 1763, it passed to her son, Johan-Carlo van Heurck, Counsellor of Commerce and of the Mint, who sold it a year later to the widow of Laurentius Solvyns. By a deed of 23 d August, 1770, it became the property of her son Laurentius-Petrus Solvyns, who paid 18,000 guilders for it. He found the house in exactly the same condition as our painter had left it. In the deed of sale it is thus described: „A large dwelling with lower rooms, courtyards, back-house, different drawing-rooms, a garden now converted into a courtyard, previously three dwellings called the Halle van Lier or Turnhout Halle, grounds, and all the appurtenances standing and situate in the Hoogstraat here, between the said house on the one side to the south, and the Weert Halle on the other side to the north, and in addition another house standing next to it, having a large porch also, with the grounds and appurtenances and with all embellishments in the said house being fixtures, including the figure with its pedestal standing in the courtyard against the separating building, and the furniture, such as panelled fire-places, looking-glasses, ceiling with pictures, and other ornaments, fixed and on panels, being as others specified in his marriage contract on the 3 d August, 1765, before the notary Melchior Kramp". The wainscotings and the fire- place which are mentioned here were introduced by one of the owners in the course of the XVIII th century, as was also a ceiling in the style of that time. They remained in the house until 1880, when the proprietor at that date had them taken down and transferred to his own house. Laurentius-Petrus Solvyns had the facade at the north side of the court- yard removed, and an exit made, which is still in existence, into the Reynderstraat.
On October 22, 1823, the merchant Joannes Franciscus Henricus van der Linden bought the house from Jufvrouw Maria Theresia Gertruda Solvyns, for the sum of 19,500 Nether- land guilders; and up to now it has remained the property of his descendants. He had the front building pulled down and rebuilt in the style of his day. The new building stretches across the courtyard, where formerly stood the portico that led to the building at the back.
Of the old building, three only of the four sides along the courtyard are still in existence : of two of them, the studio and the wing opposite it, the facades remain as they were in Jordaens' day. They give us a very favourable idea of the original structure, and are excellent examples of the so-called „Rubens' style", prevailing at that time: solid in construction, with decorations in good relief, the lines of which are broken without being involved or erratic. In the facade of the studio we notice a porch in the centre, above which is a head of Bacchus in a niche, and on either side a pilaster with an Ionic capital and fluted shafts crossed by three bands. Above the porch is a balcony with a
124
PICTURES IN JORDAENS' HOUSE.
balustrade, and behind it an arched window with scrolled ornaments, surmounted by a triangular pediment, under which is a bust in a round niche. To the right and left are two flat-arched windows in the ground floor, and two windows with arches with broken corners on the first floor. The whole front is crossed by strongly marked bands. The fagade opposite this is in a similar, but rather more sober style. Above the bust in the pediment we read the date 1641.
The Pictures in Jordaens' House. — The paintings with which Jordaens decorated the ceilings of his large room facing the street (which had the shape of a Greek cross), of his drawing-room giving on the inner court, have also been preserved. The first series, representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac, were taken down in the eighteenth century and sold, with the other pictures, after the death of Mr. Joan Carlo van Heurck, the
owner (1). The purchaser carried them to Paris. In 1802 they were bought by the Administrators of the Palace of the Senate (the Luxembourg), to be placed on the ceiling of one of the halls there, and this was done in the following year. The twelve pictures were framed in the roof of the east gallery of the palace, which now forms part of the Library of the Senate, and are there still.
They are so badly lighted that it is difficult to see what they represent, or to estimate their artistic value. They are quadrangular pieces, each measuring about 2 metres by 1.50 m., and each containing either one figure or a group of two or three figures, in a painted frame. In the catalogue of the Museum of the Luxem- bourg, compiled by Mr. Ph. de Chenevieres, they are described thus. —
I. September (Libra). A woman crowned with fruit holds in one hand a horn of plenty full of grapes, signifying the vintage; in the other she holds a pair of scales
II October (the Scorpion). A Bacchic festival. A young satyr carries on his shoulder old Silenus, who is drunk, and holds a bunch of grapes in his hand. Both are crowned with vine leaves and followed by a Bacchante playing a tambourine. The Bacchic festival indicates that in this month the vintagers amuse themselves, and rest from their work to enjoy the fruit of the vintage. In the frame we notice the scorpion.
(1) According to Mensaert (Le peintre amateur et curieax Rni«i.i« not , ■,«« ,, when the aforementioned book appeared. ,t was theref™^^
SCIPIO AND ALUCIUS Drawing (Boymans Museum, Rotterdam).
PICTURES IN JORDAENS' HOUSE.
125
III. November (the Archer). The centaur Nessus abducting Deianira, and crossing the river Evenus; he is armed with a bow and arrow.
IV. December (the Goat). The nymph Adriadne milks the goat Amalthea, to give food to the little Jupiter. Beside her we notice the child with a bowl in his hand.
V. January (Aquarius). A youth in the midst of the clouds showers streams of water upon the earth.
VI. February (Pisces). Venus and Cupid, armed with his bow, sail across the waters, boisterous owing to the wind. They try hard to keep about them the thin draperies in which they are clad.
VII. March (Aries). The month in which the trees bud. Mars in full armour holds a sword in one hand, and with the other waves the war torch as he descends from the rocks. A shepherd playing on a lyre accompanies him and is fol- lowed by a ram.
VIII. April (Taurus). Jupiter in the shape of a bull, a wreath of flowers round his head, abducting the nymph Europa.
IX. May (Gemini). Two chil- dren drive a chariot on which Venus is standing. Her veil is lifted by the Zephyrs. Cupid, holding an arrow, leans against his mother. One of the children scatters flowers upon the earth.
X. June (Cancer). Phaethon, whom Apollo had entrusted with his chariot, approached too near to the earth and therely caused fright- ful destruction. To end it, Jupiter killed him with a flash of lightning and cast him into the Eridanus. We see him falling down.
XI. July (the Lion). Hercules, having slain the Nemean lion, has wrapped himself in his skin and leans on his club; in one hand he holds the apples he has won from the garden of the Hesperides. Beside him is a youth carrying a sheaf of corn.
XII. August (Virgo). Ceres, crowned with ears of corn, holds in one hand a sheaf, in the other a sickle. She sits on a chariot drawn by serpents. The young Triptolemus, inventor of the plough, is next to her, and carries a torch with which he lights her way, in her search for her daughter Proserpina, abducted by Pluto (1).
The second series of ceiling-pictures were in the drawing-room, to the right of the inner
THE FACADE OF JORDAENS' STUDIO.
(1) A. HUSTIN, Les Jordaens du Sinat (Extrait de I' Art. January 1904).
126
PICTURES IN JORDAENS' HOUSE.
courtyard. They remained there till 1880, when the owner of the house, Mr. Charles van der Linden, had them taken down. Five of these pictures were in the exhibition of old pictures, during the Rubens' festivities of 1877. These five the owner had placed on the ceilings of his own house; the three others he kept without making use of them.
The eight pictures represent subjects from the fable of Amor and Psyche, for which Jordaens seems to have had a decided partiality. There are three large oblong pieces among them, about 2.50 m. broad by 2 m. high, and five smaller ones measuring about 2 m. in height and 1.25 m. in width. They represent:
I. The Love of Amor and Psyche. The amorous couple are in a chamber with a dome-shaped ceiling. Amor holds a wine-cup in his hand and rests one elbow on Psyche's knee.
II. Psyche's curiosity. Amor, a little child, lies sleeping in a bed. Psyche, undraped, holds in one hand a pair of scissors, and in the other a lamp, from which the light falls on Amor. Above them hangs a piece of red drapery.
III. Amor's flight. Psyche is still in bed ; when Amor escapes through the window, she
attempts to hold him back, but in vain.
IV. Psyche is car- ried up to Olympus.
V. Olympus. In the centre are seated, in a circle of glory, Jupiter, Juno, Venus and next to them Ga- nymede and Cupid, Round about them along the four sides the gods and goddesses: Apollo, Hercules, etc.
VI. An offering to Apollo. In front of the statue of the God with the lyre are several priests, one of whom is carrying an incense-boat. There are also the heads of an ox and a ram. This piece is dated 1652.
VII. Six little angels floating in the air, carrying a festoon of fruit.
VIII. Four little angels carrying a festoon of flowers.
Nos. II, III, IV, VII, VIII are the small and Nos. I. V, VI, the large pieces.
The whole is far from being a masterpiece. The painting is in a brown, ruddy tone, out of which colour and light emerge fragmentarily, without real strength or brilliancy. The foreshortening is not successful, and, generally, shows the figures telescoping into one another, huddled together in ungraceful groups; masses of flesh with unsightly projec- tions and tortured shapes. In addition there are some grossly realistic accessories which remind one of a caricature rather than of a serious treatment of the charming Greek fable.... The Olympus and the Offering to Apollo have neither clarity nor elegance in the attitude and foreshortening of the personages represented. Offensive details and awkward com- position betray Jordaens' lack of a sense of delicacy and elegance, natural or acquired. He shows himself in this work, as in many others which we shall not discuss, the Flemish
AMORINI CARRYING A FESTOON OF FLOWERS
Ceiling in the house of Mr. Ch. van der Linden, Antwerp.
PICTURES IN JORDAENS' HOUSE.
127
commoner, frank in his realism, and coarse in his humour, which borders on caricature when interpreting everyday facts.
These two series of ceiling-pictures were not the only decorations which Jordaens painted for his house. It is said that when Mr. Solvyns bought the property, eight days were occupied in the sale of the pictures which the house contained. Among those which were sent for sale to the Chamber of the Kolveniers there were, in addition to the twelve ceiling-pictures of the Zodiac, which we have mentioned, the twelve Apostles and the chaste Susanna (1). To which of the many Susannas that Jordaens painted this refers cannot be decided; very likely it was a piece for an overmantel or a panel of one of the rooms. No doubt the twelve Apostles also decorated one of the walls.
Of these last we come across a copy in the Museum at Lille in the church of St. Maurice. The twelve Apostles have been painted in groups of three, on four panels. The work, however, is of little value and is painted in a dark-brown tone. In addition we find in many places Heads of the Apostles: a St. Paul and a St. Matthew, in the castle at Berlin ; another Apostle in the Museum of the Academy at Vienna; a fourth in the Museum at Brussels; a fifth in the Harcq collection in that city; a mourning St. Peter, in the possession of Mr. Hannet at Brussels; a second mourning Peter at Mr. Gevers — Fuchs' at Antwerp. A St. Peter and St. Paul appeared at the Ravaisson sale (Paris, 1903); and in a sale of pictures from the suppressed convents (Brussels, 1785) another, which had been the property of the convent Leliendael at Mechlin ; a St. James, a St. Matthew and a St. Peter were at the Ridder Georges de Wargny d'Auden- hove sale (Brussels, 1897), an Apostle at the Beurnonville sale (Paris, 1884); etc. Most of these pictures belong to an earlier period, — that in which Jordaens painted the Four Evangelists now in the Louvre.
AN OFFERING TO APOLLO
Ceiling in the house of Mr. Ch. van der Linden, Antwerp.
(1) P. G£nard, Notice sur Jacques Jordaens, pp. 17, 34.
CHAPTER V.
16 4 2—1652.
Altar-pieces and Religious Pictures - Pictures sold to Martinus van
Lanoenhoven and to the Queen of Sweden — „The King
Drinks" — Mythological Pictures — Portraits.
T
<he Visit of Mary to Elisabeth. — Jordaens was now established in his new home; his name was made, and commissions flowed in upon him. He was the first painter in the country, and his talent was still ripening. After 1642 he abandoned the nebulousness which had characterised his style in the five or six years previous. He recovered his earlier firmness, but without the harshness that had accompanied it; his light became fuller and warmer, his colour more vivid and rich; his brush-work broader and more supple. Here begin the years of his highest prosperity, greatest strength, and full maturity.
Rubens had died in 1640, and after that year it became the custom of the directors of Church-furnishings, in the larger as well as the smaller communities, who wanted altar-pieces from the hands of the best painters, to turn to Jordaens for them. In 1641, those of Rupelmonde, near Antwerp, did so, commissioning from him a picture representing The Visit of Mary to Elisabeth, for the altar of the Church of Our Lady in their commune. On the 30 th of May, 1641, the burgomaster commissioned the painter to execute the work, and the churchwardens paid the burgomaster 12 guilders and 1 penny as remuneration for his expenses incurred on this occasion (1). On the 14 th of October the picture was
(1) Item reimbursed to the Burgomaster Martens, the sum of twelve guilders and one stuyver for the same amount advanced by him in treating with Sr. Jordaens painter at Antwerp and arranging about the painting or scene on the altar of Our Lady on the XXXth May 1641 (Rupelmonde. Church accounts from 1639—1641. Mentioned by FRANS DE POTTER in his History of Rupelmonde, p. 161-162).
THE VISIT OF MARY TO ELISABETH (Church of Notre Dame, Rupelmonde).
THE VISIT OF MARY TO ELISABETH. 129
the picture was finished and delivered, and 350 guilders paid to Jordaens for it; he received nine guilders in addition for the „azure" used in the picture. The receipt, written in the painter's own hand, is still in the archives of the church. We reproduce it here, and quote its contents, which are follows.
..Received by me the undersigned, from the Honourable Sr. Frederick Verstraeten, clerk of the town of Rypelmonde, the sum of three hundred and fifteen guilders. Item for the azure 9 guilders, and that for the picture for the altar of Our Lady. In witness thereof has written this, under date this 14 th of October 1642.
359 guilders. Jacques Jordaens.
The picture was carried off by the commissaries of the French Republic, and in 1805 given to the Museum at Lyons, which still possesses it. A copy, which stood on the altar of the Sunday-school attached to the .church, was restored in 1880 and placed in the church itself. It passes now for the original picture.
$* ■ .y^c^x^rJt y& r>**^ - QH? 1 ^ ^^ ****** fXr ^>
Jordaens places the scene in front of the house of Elisabeth, an imposing building in white stone with a flight of steps leading to the entrance. Elisabeth has come forward to the top of the flight to greet the Virgin, who has mounted one or two steps. She is followed by Joseph, carrying a traveller's pack, a stick, and a pewter drinking vessel. Elisabeth's husband, a venerable, gray old man, takes him by the hand. Elisabeth receives her cousin very warmly: she lays his arms on those of Our Lady as if to help her up the stairs. To the right, at the side of the staircase, and fastened to the pillar, is the ass, eating grass. Elisabeth wears a white kerchief over her head and shoulders and a black gown; Mary a straw hat, a dark dress, and over it red and blue drapery; Joachim a dark garment and a gold-coloured mantle; Joseph is bareheaded, and wears a green blouse which hangs down to his knees.
It is a bright picture of many colours, happy in its general tone. The people are true to nature, with the simple, quiet expression of burgher folk who are glad to see each other again. Elisabeth and Joachim are evidently a well-to-do couple; Joseph and Mary are as clearly peasants. In The Visit of Mary to Elisabeth Jordaens followed
17
130
THE ADORATION OF THE KINGS.
Rubens, not as his predecessor had painted . the subject on the right shutter of The Taking down of the Cross in the church of Notre Dame at Antwerp, but as he had had it engraved by Pieter de Jode. He did the same later in the case of The Dedication in the Temple, executed by Rubens on the right shutter of the same picture, in his painting
which is now in the posses- sion of the Dresden Museum.
The Adoration of the Kings. Diksmude. — This picture, dated 1644, is on the High Altar in the Cathe- dral at Diksmude. The altar was erected in 1643 — 1644 by Jacques de Cocx, stone cutter, of Ghent, for 2,850 pounds parisis or guilders; Jordaens was paid for his work the sum of 1800 guil- ders. (1)
In this picture also Jor- daens remained faithful to Rubens' rendering, for this Adoration of the Kings is painted after one which the great master executed in 1625 for the church of St. Michael's Abbey. The Virgin with the Child sits to the right; a king is kneeling before her, and beside him stands another; the negro fills the centre of the picture. In the top right hand corner appear the escort, with horses and camels; down below, to the right, lies the ox. Like Rubens, Jordaens here wished to create a scene upon which the eye could feast: beautiful garments, worn by royal per- sons, and decorative figures
THE ADORATION OF THE KINGS
Drawing, (Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp).
(1) This altar has been made by Master lacaues de Copy etnn» ™«., „* ^v. (Diksmude Church Resolution-book 1645) ' ""^ at Ghetlt ' and has cost 2S5 ° PCound) p(arisis)
™ p^r^his %^7^i^:vv e delivery of the picture in the High — ™ -
vanD^d^em^Cte^^^ *. Vear ,« (Oa.ette
THE ADORATION OF THE KINGS. 131
in a rich environment. The mother and her child, the kings and their pages, the foreign soldiers and their horses and camels, and the ox and the ass with which he was careful to furnish the stable, afforded him, as it had his predecessor, rich material for a brilliant painting. But he conceived his splendid colour-scheme in a different way from Rubens. The latter had made the kneeling king in white robes the centre of his rich colour poem ; Jordaens desired and found something more out of the common. He placed in the centre of the picture a negro king, and gave him a green robe, in the same way as Rubens did ; but instead of the bright green, he chose a dark bottle-green, and just as one would in painting glass, he caused bright metallic reflections to play and undulate on the material, so that where the light strikes it, it reflects almost silver white, and where it is in shadow it becomes so dark that one hardly distinguishes any colour. Round this very singular, sumptuous, powerful splash of colour he arranges more ordinary rich tones, forming a harmony of clear distinct notes. The kneeling king has a white silk cloak, with gold embroidery, and an ermine collar, on which lie a gold chain and a red tassel; the one standing erect wears a scarlet cloak over a white linen under-garment; the Virgin a gray- blue drapery over a red garment, and white linent Above these glitter and shine the glowing faces of the men in the suite and the lookers-on, with their red caps and blue waist- coats, and in among them a red parrot, a white dappled horse, a white and gray ass's head, the ash-coloured heads of the camels, and the noble ox, more splendid even than the masterly bit in Ruben's picture; the ever-ready, ever-welcome auxiliary which is always at Jordaens' service when he requires showy supernumeraries. The picture is a festival of colour, and none the less so because its light is shed broadcast over the large surface of the canvas, and makes it radiant with bright, silvery sunshine.
Jordaens thought less of the distinction and elegance of his personages. His Virgin, it is true, is one of the sweetest figures that he ever painted, and the kneeling king has an imposing presence; but the one standing has the appearance of being gruff and pays homage with evident aversion, and awkwardly: he looks like a burly sea-captain made to swing an incense boat. The negro king, in bending forward in a sidling attitude to look at Mary, loses, in his astonishment, all royal dignity.
The retinue and the lookers-on are people of the masses, — grinning, laughing, mocking, trumpeting, and amusing themselves each in his own way while the festive spectacle proceeds which is displayed before their eyes.
But this rough yet genial jollity does not detract from the gaiety or the sunny glory of the whole: and the picture remains one of the wonders of Jordaens' brush, a gigantic mosaic of precious stones, in which everything glitters with vivid, bright hues, or reflects the soft play of light. It stands as one of its greatest triumphs of Flemish colouring.
On the foot of the vase, which stands before the kneeling king, we read the in scription Jac. Jord 1644. In 1736 the picture was cleaned by Hendrik Pieters; in 1794 it was carried off to Paris; on the 30 th March, 1816, it was replaced on the altar at Diksmude ; and in 1884 was restored by Mr. Maillard of Antwerp.
Jordaens painted and drew the Adoration of the Kings more than once. At the Nicolaas Nieuhof sale (Amsterdam, 1777) appeared an Adoration in which the composition corre- sponds in a striking manner with that of the Diksmude picture.
At the sale of his pictures left at his death (the Hague, 1734) was one of the same subject, (9 feet, 4 inches high, 6 feet 7 inches wide), which fetched 150 guilders. It is probably the picture which is now in the Museum at Rotterdam. In the same Museum we
132
PAUL AND BARNABAS AT LYSTRA.
find the Christ Bearing the Cross, forming a pendent to the Adoration of the Kings, which was also sold from the estate of Jordaens. Both belonged to the collection of King William II, and were put up for sale in 1850 and 1851. At the Viruly van Vuren and Dalem sale (Amsterdam, 1880) they appeared once more; in this year they were presented to the Museum at Rotterdam by Mr. C. E. Viruly. They are two roughly executed pictures, not by Jordaens' hand but from his studio; The Bearing of the Cross, especially, is dark, possessing neither brilliancy nor colour, with an accumulation of figures; the Adoration of the Kings has richly coloured passages, strongly marked against the burnt tone of the background. Both pictures seem to have been painted by Jordaens' pupils under his influence during his later years.
The Plantin-Moretus museum possesses a drawing of the Adoration of the Kings
PAUL AND BARNABAS AT LYSTRA (Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna).
which bears a considerable likeness to the picture at Diksmude. The general disposition of the scene is the same; but the attitude of some of the personages is different- for example, the Virgin encircles the Child with her left arm, not her right, the kneeling king holds the gold vessel in one hand, and the camels are differently placed; but it was evidently Jordaens' intention to follow the general lines of the picture. It is signed 1653 4 Aprilis J. Jrds. s '
thP m UL AN ° f BA r A r/ T LYSTRA - - The date ° f the Paul and Barnabas at Lystra in h Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts at Vienna is 1645. In the background? to the left, we not.ce a temple with the statue of Jupiter in front of it. On the step of the statue r
PAUL AND BARNABAS AT LYSTRA.
133
Paul and Barnabas whom the priests and the people invoke and pay homage to as gods. A priest swings a censer before them; two acolytes beside him carry candlesticks. In the foreground to the left two servants of the temple are leading two bulls; there are also a man pouring wine from a jug into a costly vessel, two children who carry crowns, a man with a vase on his head and a woman with cymbals, a boy playing the pipe, and a mother with her child. To the right are a woman - and a child, each offering a crown ; a lame man holding up his crutches towards St. Paul ; and a few men and women, several of whom have stationed themselves on the pedestal of a column, and, like others looking from the temple while leaning over the balustrade, watch the scene before them.
PAUL AND BARNABAS AT LYSTRA. Drawing (M. Max Rooses, Antwerp).
St. Paul is astonished and annoyed; he, who came to preach against idolatry, is now himself worshipped in an idolatrous way. With one hand he grips his robe close to his breast, and the other he stretches out with a repudiating gesture. With an expression of horror he turns his face from the deluded crowd. Barnabas throws up both his hands, astonished and affrighted at what he sees.
It is a well-composed scene, carefully drawn and painted; the colour is abundant and rich, without excess; the effect of the light is cooler towards the right and warmer towards the left, with melting tints on the body of the woman carrying the cymbals. The expressions and gestures of St. Paul and Barnabas are unusually striking; passionate in the case of the first, more sober in that of the latter. The feeling of adoration and of trust in the
I34 SAINT IVO.
superhuman powers of the proclaimed of the new doctrine is expressed with great variety in the attitude and gestures of the multitude. The picture is signed : /. for fecit 1645.
It appeared at an anonymous sale at Amsterdam on the 30 th of August, 1640, and at that of Catharina Backx, widow of Allard de la Court (Leiden, 1766).
Jordaens must have executed a second picture treating the same subject ; this second one was of smaller dimensions, and an upright, while that at Vienna was an oblong. It appeared at the Pieter Leenders de Neufville sale (Amsterdam, 1765) and the Nicolas Nieuhof sale (Amsterdam, 1777).
At the Hermitage at St. Petersburg there is a St. Paul at Lystra, catalogued under Jordaens' name, which however is wrongly attributed to him.
The author possesses a drawing (73 cm. high by 98 cm. wide) in red- and black- chalk, heightened with a little blue-green and white watercolour paint, in which the same subject is treated by Jordaens, but in a very different way. Most of the accessories have been retained, but the groups and some of the personages have been arranged differently. It is the largest drawing that Jordaens or any other Flemish painter ever made. In the Albertina at Vienna there is a drawing which is a copy of the group of five persons to the right in this picture.
Saint Ivo — Brussels. The picture of Saint Ivo, receiving the poor pleaders, which is to be found in the Brussels Museum, is dated the same year, 1645. The holy lawyer stands in the centre of his office. He is enveloped in a red, velvet toga edged with ermine ; hair and beard are long and gray. He raises the first finger of his right hand, as he speaks to the poor who have come to beg for his assistance. These are standing to the right, near the entrance to the room; they are a mother, kneeling, and holding a child who strokes a dog which is jumping up against the woman; then a peasant in a bluish-green blouse, his cap in his hands which he extends in supplication ; a peasant woman wearing a straw hat, and next to her two children. To the left three clerks are seated at a table which is covered which a red cloth. On some shelves over their heads are books and registers, a bag with money, and office utensils. A dog is coming down the steps leading to the lower part of the room. The scene takes place in a large room in the style of the time, with a window in the centre of the background and an open door to the right. A flood of light streams into the room past the window, and falls warm and bright on the persons to the right; gradually it decreases, but remains soft and transparent over all the picture. The scene has been kept subdued, broken by the vivid passage of light- to the right. The colours are rich ; red is the predominant tone, and subordinate to it browny-yellow and bluish-green; it was the artist's intention to reproduce the play of full sunlight over sombre shadow. Form and tone are solid. The whole makes a kindly, homely scene which passes in a burgher's house where clerks are busy with their office-work, and poor people have come to throw themselves at the feet of a grand gentleman. Ivo is a venerable figure, yet, stately and noble as he may look, is still a man of business and a burgher, and conveys to us no idea of a saint. The grouping in this piece of religious genre, which Jordaens treated with care and liking, is particularly fortunate. The canvas is signed: J. Jord. fecit 1645.
It appeared at the Bruynincx sale (Antwerp, 1835) and was attributed to Gerard Legrelle. In 1898 Sedelmeyer sold it to the Museum at Brussels. Jordaens made use of this com- position for one of the tapestries in the series of „Proverbs", belonging to Prince Scharzenberg, for which he received the commission on the 22 nd of September, 1644, from the Brussels
SAINT IVO. 135
tapestry weavers, Frans van Cotthem, Jan Cordys, and Boudewijn van Beveren. The tapestry, representing the history of Saint Ivo, bears the inscription: Ingens est usura malum, mala pestis in urbe („Usury is a great evil, a bad plague in the town").
The Antwerp Museum possesses a painting, purchased within the last few years in England, treating the same subject and executed about the same time. Most likely it served as an altar piece; it is much larger than the preceding one, and is not an oval? like it, but an upright. Here also the saintly lawyer stands in the centre of the scene, in the same attitude, and robed as before. In front of him kneels a woman with a child on her arm; to the right stand an old man, an old peasant woman, and a few children asking for his assistance; to the left a young man handing him a document and an old one looking on. In the background are a barred window between two pilasters and an open door; below, to the right, a dog whining and a smaller one jumping up at the kneeling woman. A warm light falls on the, saint and on the figures to the left; the two persons at the back stand in the dusk. The whole is, like the other picture, in a warm tone, tempered by abundant shadows. The canvas has been slightly darkened by time, so that the light has turned brownish, and no more gives its full bright effect. Here, also, the saint is rendered an imposing figure in his red drapery with his white hair framing his austere face.
A picture treating the same subject is in the Standehaus at Breslau; another appeared at the Cuypers de Rymenam sale (Brussels, 1813). The Catalogue of Prince de Ligne (1794) mentions a drawing, washed in sepia, where St. Ivo is to be seen seated at a table, and surrounded by several people, begging for his assistance.. At the J. J. de Raedt sale (Mechlin, 1839) appeared a St. Ivo of which the catalogue gives the following peculiar description : A charity-dispensation bureau with eleven figures. Poor people enter, among them a beautiful woman, who throws herself on her knees, while the clerks plead for her. The clerks pleading for her are van Dyck (standing), , Velvet' Breugel, Heyman, and Dullaert." The picture was 1.52 M. high and 2,06 M. wide, — almost twice as large as that in Brussels.
A picture, undoubtedly dating from the same time, which Jordaens also used as a model for one of the cartoons in the tapestry series „The Proverbs", commissioned on the 22 nd September, 1644, is The Negro bringing his master's horse, in the Museum at Cassel. The scene is placed in the grounds in front of the steps leading to a castle, the entrance to which is through a colonnade. Near this building stands the proprietor, a great gentleman, dressed in a yellow jacket, trunk-hose, high riding-boots with spurs, a lined black cloak, and a black hat with feathers. Beside him stand a young woman dressed in black, white and yellow, a hunting dog, and a servant pouring water into a horse-trough. In the centre of the picture we notice in the principal group a negro in a loose, gold-yellow blouse, a white cap, and white stockings; he holds by the bridle a white dappled horse, with a red saddle. The horse paws the air. To the right stands Mercury, draped in a blue garment which covers only half of his body, a blue winged hat on his head, and his caduceus in his hand. What the god of commerce and thieves does here, in the midst of this burgher scene, is not quite clear; he is an emblem either of the calling of the respectable landlord, or else of the less reputable occupation of the horse- dealer. It is a well-ordered scene, full of bright light and merry bright tones. The prancing horse is a beauty, with fine head, springy action, and glossy skin. The proud master, who is looking on in such a dignified way, the young woman who looks so charming, and the tenderly painted Mercury, are all figures full of animation, standing out excellently against the luminous, cloudless sky.
136
SAINT IVO.
In 1653, Jordaens again used this theme of the horse being brought to its master, in one of the cartoons that he painted for Carlo Vinck, which served as a model for a set of tapestries which are at present in the Imperial palace in Vienna. In it we see Mercury bringing a horse to Louis XIII, king of France.
A religious picture belonging to the same period is the Dead Christ, from the collection of Consul Weber at Hamburg. Christ has been taken down from the cross and lies huddled in the foreground, the upper part of the body lifted and held up by Mary Magdalen. On his pale flesh [fall bluey gray shadows; the head fades away into half shadow. Mary
SAINT IVO (Museum, Brussels).
Magdalen kneels beside him weeping, clad in white deep in the shadow, which falls over a red skirt. A young woman arranges the shroud near Christ's feet. The Virgin sits weeping and lamenting behind the dead body; she is wrapped in a dark blue-coloured dress, over which she wears a bright, azure-blue cloak. One hand is stretched forth, the other she holds to her breast. There is great eloquence in the way in which her deep emotion is expressed. St. John, dressed in red, stands with folded hands. Nicodemus rests his arm upon the ladder, his hand supporting his head; Joseph of Arimathea looks on and an old woman holding a basin stands behind. The tone of the whole is clear and tender, without being soft. Not only in sentiment, but also in the painting, this picture approaches Van
MARTINUS VAN LANGENHOVEN. 137
Dyck's style, — more markedly so than any other of Jordaens' works. It came from the collection of the Duke of Marlborough.
Pictures sold to Martinus van Lanqenhoven. Jordaens' manner of working. — During the years 1646—1648, very important commissions were given to Jordaens. In 1646 he sold five pictures at one time to Martinus van Langenhoven. The fact is known to us through an indenture perserved in the town-archives at Antwerp. (1)
From this deed we gather that on the 25 th of August, 1648, the painter appeared before the Notary van Cantelbeck and declared that the five pictures, which Martinus van Langen- hoven had bought from him about two years previously, had been painted, repainted, and altered by his own hand, so that, although he had treated the same subjects before, he regarded them nevertheless as original. According to the wording of the notarial deed, which, however, owing to its long-winded style is not very clear, he in this way affirmed the genuineness of the pictures which he began, finished and delivered about 1646, namely: As the old cock crows, Candaules, Argus, and Vulcan. Here, then, we have the names of four of the five pictures sold, as well as a statement by Jordaens regarding his different methods of work. There were pictures which he finished without any assistance whatsoever. There were others, copies, that he caused to be made, in which he corrected and completed what did not please him in the originals, and so touched and retouched and repainted them, that he deemed them to all intents and purposes his own work. And, indeed, we find versions of his most favourite subjects, of which more than one copy exists showing alterations of greater or less importance. It is also true that some subjects were repeated by him without the assistance of a collaborator. But it is equally certain that some pictures which are given his name, and had their origin in his studio, were painted by pupils, and repeat more or less closely one of the master's canvases, without however having been retouched by him. In other pictures he assisted more or less, but not so as to entitle us to say that he converted them into works of his own. A similar usage existed in other Antwerp studios in his day; in that of Rubens for example. That painters, who looked for profit from such practices, should sometimes find buyers who doubted the complete genuineness and authenticity of works produced in this way, and refused to accept them as good wares, can easily be understood. Other purchasers accepted the collaboration of assistants, the price being arranged accordingly. This is shown by the deed of notary subscribed to by Jordaens and Philip Silvercron in 1648, about which we shall speak shortly. Such a practice had also the effect of doing harm to the good name of the artist by allowing pictures to pass as his work which were unworthy of him. One is accustomed to find, in Museums, works by Jordaens which, though not of first-rate quality, have nevertheless been painted by his hand; but when we see the innumerable pictures in
(1) 25 August 1648. — Appeared in person Sr. Jacques Jordaens, art-painter here and known to me, notary, and he, deponent has in witness hereof, said, declared and affirmed that it is true that the five paintings which Sr. Martinus van Langen- hoven bought' from him, deponent, two years since, have been painted, repainted and altered altogether by his own hand in such a way that notwithstanding the same subject has been painted before by him, deponent, from which conception they derive their origin through which he, deponent, being moved to do so, had the same copied, and to improve and amplify that which displeased him deponent in the preceding ones, has changed all of them with his own hand, painted and repainted them in such a way that he, deponent, considers them as original pictures, as good as his other ordinary works: to wit the picture As the old cock crows and Candaula the Argus and the Vulcan, which deponent has begun from the beginn.ng, without malice. Thus declared at the house of me, notary, in the presence of Guilliam van Craesbeck, master of his Majesty's mint, and Gasper van Cantelbeck merchant, inhabitants of this town, as witnesses.
' JACQUES JORDAENS,
H. VAN CANTELBECK, notary. Communicated by Mr. Jos. van den Branden, archivist of the town of Antwerp.
18
138 PICTURES ORDERED BY SILVERCRON.
private collections attributed to him, we feel disturbed by the* quantity of works of small value, somewhat in his style and treating his subjects, in which we find some of the qualities which distinguish him, which bear his name, yet are, in the main, not his work, but that of his pupils, or of his assistants, imitators, and copyists. Whoever these men were, we do not lose much by not knowing their names, for most of their pictures are without the slightest artistic value. No master was so difficult to follow as Jordaens.
Pictures ordered by Silvercron for Christina, Queen of Sweden. — On the 21 st of April, 1648, Johan-Philips Silvercron, living at the Hague, ordered from Jordaens, in his own name, as well as in the name of Hendrik Hondius, thirty-five pictures the subjects of which were to be arranged later on. They had to be 3 ells and one and one eighth of an ell wide and 4| ells high. They were intended to serve as ceiling pieces and so had to be painted in foreshortening. For every picture, 80 pounds Flemish was to be paid (that is 480 guilders); this being 16,800 guilders (or about 100,000 francs, Flemish) for the complete works; they had to be finished not later than May 1,1649, and the artist undertook that the pictures should be „well and ingeniously painted, partly by himself, and partly by others, as it should suit Jordaens. And that which was painted by others he was bound to repaint in such a way that it should pass as his, signor Jordaens', own work, upon which he was to put his name and signature" (1).
We do not know the subject treated in those 35 pictures. It can hardly be doubted that they formed a connected series, and were executed for some distinguished person. If we consider the works of importance which Jordaens can possibly have painted about that time, and if, also, we take into account the agents through whom the commission was given, we must conclude, it seems to me, that they were executed for Christina, Queen of Sweden. The capricious Queen, who abdicated her throne in 1654 at the age of twenty- nine, had, Sandrart her contemporary tells us, a spacious hall painted by Jordaens and the artist received great honour on account of it. Sandrart does not say what these works represented, nor of how many canvases they consisted; and we do not know what has become of them.
The names of the agents corfirm our surmise that this work was executed for Queen Chistina. In fact, the Silvercron who negociated with Jordaens was none other than Johan-Philips de Bommaerts, Swedish correspondent, afterwards commissary for Sweden in the Netherlands, who is mentioned in 1651—1652 as living at the Hague. He was a stepson of Peter Spierinx Silvercron, Seigneur of Norsholm, who from 1633 to 1667 was first Councillor of the Swedish legation at the Hague, and afterwards Swedish Resident. (2) He was a lover of art and sent several pictures by Gerard Dou to the Queen for her collection. (3)
In 1648 Johan-Philips Silvercron was only 18 years of age, so we may take it that he took his step-father's place. Hendrik Hondius was a Dutch engraver, who engraved portraits of several famous Swedes of his time. He was evidently employed as tutor to young Johan-Philips. Here, then, we have two men standing in the closest relations to the court of Christina of Sweden; and we may suppose that they came to Jordaens acting upon the instructions of that queen. This suggestion can the more readily be accepted, not only
(1) F. JOS. VAN DEN BRANDEN, Op. cit. p. 828.
V oor FmZ^-^S^TS^F^ '" ZWSde " «" N °°™*<» « »•»>»»» naar Ar M a, be ,an gm (3) Sandrart, Der Teutschen Academic p. 321.
PICTURES ORDERED BY SILVERCRON.
139
from the fact that Christina, according to Sandrart, had a hall painted by Jordaens, but also because we know from trustworthy documents that she knew Jordaens, and corresponded with him. As early as 1645, when she was only 19 years old, the Swede, Joris Waldou, an old pupil of Sandrart, was apprenticed to Jordaens at her request, through the inter- vention of Harald Appelbom. The letter in which she recommends her protege still exists, and we give a literal translation of it below. (1)
What has become of the 35 pictures we do not know. The most competent connois- seur of works of art in Sweden, Mr. Olof Granberg, assures us that they never arrived there, and that Christina, when she left her country in 1654, did not possess a single picture by Jordaens.
On Jordaens' portrait, published by Jan Meyssens in 1649, we read that Jordaens „a faict les belles choses racourtantes pour le Roy de Suede". By these foreshortened pictures must evidently be understood ceiling pictures; and instead of „Queen" of Sweden, „King" has been written by mistake.
Sandrart and Houbraken assure us that Jordaens painted for the King of Sweden, Carl Gustave (1654 — 1666), twelve pictures repre- senting Christ's sufferings; but this obviously was after 1649. We have no more information as to what became of these pictures than we have of the fate of the others.
We have mentioned already that Jordaens painted for the Queen of Sweden a „Story of Psyche" as a ceiling, which was not delivered. In the catalogue of the pictures left by him at his death we find it described thus: „A large square piece, with four oblique pieces, serving as a ceiling-piece for a large chamber, repre- senting the History of Psyche, painted by Jor- daens for Queen Christine of Sweden ; altogether
THE DEAD CHRIST (Consul Weber, Hamburg
(1) Christina, Queen of Sweden by the Grace of God, Our grace and pleasure, trusting in God Almighty. We desire that you, Harald Appelbom, should be informed that some time ago we recommended to the Resident Spiring, the son of our head cook Georg Waldou, in order that he might study the art of painting abroad in Holland. We hear that he is making good progress. We shall be delighted if he continues in this path, so that he may learn the said art thoroughly, and be of some service to us afterwards by means of it. Resident Spiring is coming to hand in his report about the said Waldou. Seeing that he has no opportunity of studying in Amsterdam (where he is living at present,) and being too young to be sent to Italy or any other foreign country, Spiring considers it advisable that he should be sent to Antwerp, where there are excellent painters, for example Jordan. Since, however, Spiring stays at the Hague, and might perhaps not find a good opportunity to interest himself in Waldou's studies, and seeing that you are living in Amsterdam, and near Waldou and the Resident Michel Le Blon, with whom Spiring already has been in frequent correspondence on the subject, you are better able to see to it. That is why we charge and order you, to come to an understanding with the aforesaid Le Blon, and to see that the said Waldou goes for about two or three years as an apprentice to the aforesaid Jordan, to practice the art of painting and to be well instructed in all in which he still falls short concerning the principles of art, and to get a thorough training in great and small, and average history pictures, landscapes, and all other necessary things. But seeing that art is also very well learned by good and real genuine pictures, an arrangement has to be made with Jordan for how much he will undertake to instruct him in the art of painting thoroughly. You will also make arrangements about all he may require for living, — for his lodgings and all the rest, as well as his studies, and what he may require, to live with Jordan at Antwerp. We have written to Spiring concerning this, so that nothing should be wanting either to you or to Waldou. See to it, also, that the aforesaid Waldou travels in perfect safety, impressing him to be on his guard against the popish religion, as well as other evils which might be pernicious to him. The works which he makes under guidance of his master can be sent successively here.
We have charged you with this, and recommend you to the mercy of God Almighty. CHRISTINA.
Stockholm, 19"> of August, 1645.
(Communicated by Mr. Olof Granberg.)"
H0 KING CANDAULES.
24 feet in length and 22 feet wide". The ceiling fetched 150 guilders. Again we do not know what has become of this work.
As the old Cock crows, the young ones learn. Munich. — We have better infor- mation about the five pictures bought by Martinus van Langenhoven in 1646, or rather, about three of them. In the Forties, Jordaens frequently painted his favourite subject, As the old Cock crows, the young ones learn. In addition to that mentioned in the deed of sale with Martinus van Langenhoven, we hear of one which was sold. in 1645 to a certain Jeronimus de Lange. On the 13 th of December of that year the Burgomaster and Aldermen dealt with a letter of complaint in which Jordaens informed them that Jeronimus de Lange had bought from him „a certain painting of the subject ,As the old Cock crows, the young ones learn', for the sum of five hundred guilders, on behalf of, as he said, J. Baert, living in Haarlem". On the 28 th or 29 th of June, 1645, the picture was finished, and de Lange himself had come to Antwerp and carried it off. In December, it was still in his house; but, though Jordaens had inquired of him several times as to the payment, de Lange had always failed to settle the account, professing that Baert refused to accept the picture. Jordaens remarks that he has nothing to do with the reason given, and asks that the Magistrate shall do justice by him (1).
One of the copies of As the old Cock crows is dated 1646, and, therefore, would seem to be the picture of Martinus van Langenhoven. It belongs to the Pinakotheek at Munich, and is clearly distinguished from all the other renderings of the subject. At first view it reminds one of an Epiphany, and, indeed, if the grandfather had a crown instead of his velvet cap on his head and if there were not a little boy singing beside him, the picture would correspond exactly with the familiar representations of The King drinks. For there in the foreground at the near side of the table sits the young soldier, raising his wine-glass and turning towards the old master of the house; the latter, also, has a wine-jug instead of a page of music in his hand; both certainly are singing, but all the same drinking seems to be their chief occupation. At tha other side of the table stands a man with uplifted jug, shouting with all his might; a charming young woman, also with a wine-glass in her hand, reminds us of the Queen of the festival. To the left a man chucks under the chin a chubby maiden, who only feebly resists him. All the characters give one more an idea of the jollity of Epiphany night than of the quiet, homely pleasures of a musical family. Evidently Jordaens wished to combine the two subjects of drinking and singing, and render them at the same time. It has become a scene of „Long live Happiness!" He never represented one jollier or brighter; quite as boisterous as an Epiphany feast, it is without the repulsive details which we sometimes find in his representations of it. A golden light pours over all the scene, with coppery light-effects 4o the left, and a darker tone to the right. The light is not a fierce glow; it is tender and velvety; the shadows are transparent. The work is one of Jordaens' great, masterly pictures.
With a few modifications, we find the same scene, and nearly all the personages, in a drawing in the possession of the British Museum (See the reproduction on p. 81).
King Candaules. — The „Candaules" delivered in 1646 to Martinus van Langenhoven, is the picture now in the Stockholm Museum. It treats the first part of the tragi-comic
(1) Archives of the town of Antwerp. Communicated by F. Jos. van den Branden. Archivist.
KING CANDAULES. 141
story played in the country of Lydie in olden times. The king of that country, Candaules, had a wife, whose uncommon beauty he used to praise excessively. One of his courtiers, Gyges by name, had shown himself rather incredulous when listening to all this praise, and the king, wishing to prove himself in the right, proposed that Gyges should judge for himself with his own eyes. He hid his favourite, therefore, in his wife's bedroom at the hour that she retired, and in this way gave him the opportunity of seeing the Queen when unrobed. She, hearing what had .happened, was so indignant at the indiscretion of her husband that she went to look for Gyges, and gave him the choice between killing Candaules and marrying her or being killed himself. Gyges did not hesitate: he killed the king, married the widow, and ascended the throne.
Such is the story. It suggested to Jordaens one important instant only, — that of the indiscreet act. Purposely he has laid stress on Candaules' inconsiderateness, and has gone as far as he possibly could in doing so without becoming distinctly repulsive; one sees well enough, however, that he found a roguish pleasure in venturing to the very edge of the abyss. The Queen has dropped her last garments; she has her linen over her arm, her nightcap on her head, a string of pearls round her neck, no more. She stands there in dazzling nudity; placing one foot on a low stool, so as to mount into her bed, a bed with dark red curtains and golden posts, she turns her head a little, not to the side on which the men are standing, where she might have discovered them, but towards us spectators, so that we can see her pretty young face. To the right are the two gentlemen : Gyges, the indiscreet, astounded by the undreamed-of beauty of what he sees, forgets all caution, and thrusts his head desirously through the curtain behind which he has hidden himself; and Candaules, the royal bungler, stretches his crowned head forward over his minister's shoulders.
Jordaens on this occasion found an opportunity of painting a woman who realized his ideal : a sweet, kind little face, a body soft as down, a chubby back, not too broad, tenderly undulating from the arms down to the hips, and below that widening amply, with that slightly mottled flesh which mothers in the Flemish country, speaking of their children, call „sausage meat"; legs chubbily rounded, and joining themselves firmly to the twin bones above. This without doubt is the woman of Jordaens' dreams, in her full beauty and charm, and nowhere, we may say, does he show his preference more distinctly than in this picture. But he chose this model, not merely in order to put upon canvas the figure of a woman after his own heart, but also to revel in the lustre which shines from voluptuous flesh and fair skin. Such splendour of light, such magnificence of tints he presents nowhere else for our wonderment. Fearlesly and boldly he showed the beauty of which Candaules was so proud, and for which he, Jordaens himself, also wished to engage our admiration. The back forms an enormous and overpoweringly luminous mass, in unison with the white linen on the arm and by the side, yet relieved by its whiter shade. Warm transparent shadows nestling in the folds of the flesh and of the linen, and in the retreating foreshortened planes, heighten the effect of whiteness, giving it still greater intensity and life. The charming woman occupies all the scene: her brilliancy puts everything else in the shade. The two men in hiding, and quite in the background, are treated in such a dark tone that they seem almost blotted out, and lose all their importance in consequence : they act as an off-set merely. It seems certain that the picture was painted in 1646, and was sold in that year to Martinus van Langenhoven. Of its farther adventures, we know only that it was given to the Museum at Stockholm, in 1872, by Count A. Bielke, in whose family it had been for a long time.
142
THE DREAM.
Jordaens painted this subject once only. True, we find in the Pinakotheek at Munich a „View in an Art room" (Karel-Emanuel-Bizet, No. 934) dated 1666, in which he painted a group consisting of Mercury, two Muses and three Cupids, looking at a canvas on which he has represented the history of Candaules; but the grouping of the small figures in this miniature painting differs entirely from that in the Stockholm canvas, and there is no reason to conclude from it that there exists another of similar composition on a larger scale.
The Dream. — A picture which in certain passages shows great similarity with the history of Candaules is The Dream, or the Apparition by Night. A man lies asleep in bed, and to him in his dream appears a female figure whom we see standing on a cloud to the
right. She is quite naked, and like the wife of Can- daules is seen in back view; in front of her she holds a white cloth, which she lifts up with one hand, while the other keeps it against her body. The sleeper in his excitement has upset the pedestal table near his bed, andthecandlestick has fallen to the floor. To the left a man and a wo- man are looking on at the scene with astonishment. The first carries
u - u 1 . . . a burning candle
which casts upon his head and that of the woman a warm light, and causes the shadow of his hand to fall on the panel of the open door. The Schwerin Museum possesses a version this subject, the nude woman in which might succesfully challenge the wife of Candaules by the splendour of the painting.
A second version of less importance appeared at the Thore (Burger) sale (Paris 1892) and in that of van Hall (Antwerp, 1836). In 1905 it belonged to Mr Klienberg of Paris and was exhibited by him in Antwerp. ^nenoerg or Pans,
Argus and Mercury. - The third picture which Martinus van Langenhoven bought was an Argus Jordaens painted more than one subject from the histor of IoTwS and we canno say with certainty which of them is in question here Very ikely however' it was one of his most important renderings of the legend. Every on k ow^ 't s t or'
THE DREAM (M. Weinberger, Paris).
ARGUS AND MERCURY.
H3
Urged by jealousy, Juno, Jupiter's wife, changed his mistress, Io, into a cow, and appointed Argus, the many-eyed, to watch her. At Jupiter's command, Mercury sends Argus to sleep by the music of his flute, stones him to death, and carries off Io. Jordaens follows another reading of the legend, causing Argus to be killed with a sword.
The most important version seems to be that which Jordaens had engraved by Schelte a Bolswert. Grazing in a luxurious landscape, on the banks of a river, are four cows. Argus sits on a slight elevation, very near the white cow into which Io has been turned. Beside him is his dog, and at his feet Mercury, who, laying aside the flute with which he has made Argus fall asleep, draws the sword with which he is going to kill him.
ARGUS AND MERCURY (Madame Chs. Wouters, Antwerp).
The painted picture, which represents the same scene, but in a slightly altered landscape, is in the Museum at Lyons. From a comparison of it with the engraving, we find that the painting has been cut down considerably at the top, as well as at both sides, so that the greater part of the landscape, and the hind quarters of the cow, to the right, have disap- peared. The painting is in a brown tone; the brushwork is masterfull, but rather rough; the animals are good, but without great distinction. Mercury stands out well against the dark glow. Formerly the picture belonged to the de Cevry collection, which passed into the hands of Debon, from whom it was bought for the Museum at Lyons.
Another picture with the same subject is in the possession of Sir Archibald Campbell
I44 ARGUS AND MERCURY.
at Garscube. (1) Waagen describes it as less brilliant in colour than the picture (The Prodigal Son?) at Dresden, yet good and original.
Jordaens did not paint only this scene of Argus's history, but represented all the other acts of the drama as well. The first of these we find rendered by him in a small picture, dated 1640, which was for sale in 1905 at a Brussels art-dealer's. Argus and Io appear in a landscape, two nymphs and a river-god completing the scene. The picture has as a pendant a Mercury, playing Argus to sleep with his flute.. Both works are carefully executed and charming, though a little dark.
Another scene preceding the engraved one is represented in a picture of small dimensions belonging to Mr. Paul Meyerheim, at Berlin; it discovers Mercury arriving among the shepherds. The slender figure of the god is unusually elegant. The next scene is shown in a small picture belonging to M. Delbeke of Antwerp; here Mercury has just arrived, and finds Argus in the midst of his herd. Another part of the legend, again, is represented in a picture which was sold at the Menke sale (Antwerp, 1904), and bears the inscription J. Jord. fecit 1647. We see Mercury playing the flute close by Argus, who is falling asleep. Behind him, a little higher up, stand Io and three cows. To the left are trees on a river bank, and in the foreground four sheep, a dog, and a goat.The picture is warm-brown in tone, and has little artistic value.
Next we have Mercury, sharpening his sword on a rock. This action is reproduced by Jordaens in a picture of greater importance in the possession of Mevrouw Ch s - Wauters at Antwerp; it bears every sign of having been painted in Jordaens' earlier period.
Another incident in the story of Argus and Mercury is represented in a picture of less value iq the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. Mercury's sword is uplifted, ready to cleave the head of the sleeping Argus. The scene is placed in a landscape, in which we see Io and other cows.
Jordaens chose the same subject for an etching, which is dated 1652. Argus is asleep, with his head on a piece of rock. Mercury, kneeling with one leg on the stone, has raised his sword to kill the sleeper. Argus's stick lies on the ground, and the dog barks at his master's murderer. At the other side we catch sight of the head of the cow, Io.
A picture representing the same scene belongs to Mr. G. Hulin at Ghent; in it, however, we have not one cow, but six ; two to the left and four to the right. The painting is tender, the tone clear and warm, the colouring magnificent. The picture came from the collection of the Earl of Shrewsbury at Alton Towers.
Several other works appearing at sales in the eighteenth century represent this particular scene, — Mercury preparing to cut off Argus's head.
In 1902 a small picture of little value was offered to the Antwerp Museum, — Argus slain. To the right, and on an elevation to the left, are seen cows; in the foreground lies Argus's dead body, the head severed from the trunk. Juno puts the eyes of the victim on the tail of the peacock. It was sold in Leipsic on the 21 st of November, 1905, at Rudolf Lepke's.
At the Johan van der Marck sale (Amsterdam, 1773) was a picture described a follows: Juno is represented standing, leaning against a white cow; Argus on a hillock is resting on his stick, and beside him are four cows and a barking dog; in the foreground lies a spotted cow. All this is set in a landscape. In the clouds is seen Juno's chariot drawn by two peacocks."
(1) Waagen, Art Treasures in Great-Britain, III. 292.
CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 145
Among the contents of Jordaens' estate at his death there was a picture indicated in the catalogue merely as „Argus".
It was no doubt the opportunity of bringing upon the scene the beautiful Io, changed into a cow, and also the whole herd watched by Argus, that tempted the master to depict the same fable so frequently, and to elaborate all its details. Men and gods he could find always and everywhere, but scenes in which animals play the principal role are scarce, and once he found one he made good use of it.
Vulcan. — Of the fourth picture sold by Jordaens to Martinus van Langenhoven, called A Vulcan, we know little. Is it possible that it treated the same subject as the Arms of Achilles, appearing at the sale of Jordaens' estate (the Hague, 1734), or as that in the sketch for Thetis receives the Arms of Achilles from the Nourri sale (Paris, 1785)? We can only ask the question.
Conversion of St. Paul. — We possess positive proof that this picture, which seems to have gone a-missing, was painted in the Forties for the altar of St. Paul in the church of the abbey of Tongerloo. In October, 1647, Jordaens received 400 Rhenish guilders upon its delivery. (1)
At the sale of Jordaens' effects the same subject appeared, only in a smaller version.
Hercules. — A few dated pictures also belong to this period. First of all, there is the Hercules and the Nymphs, filling the Horn of Plenty, belonging to the Museum at Copenhagen, and signed J. Jor. fee. 1649. Hercules, leaning on his club, is represented standing beside a bull (the river Acheloiis). He has broken off one of the animal's horns, and three nymphs are busily employed in filling the horn with fruit and flowers. A nymph and three satyrs are looking on ; two old satyrs and a young one are picking fruit from a tree. In the back-ground is a landscape. To the left are three ducks in a pond, and to the right a group of fruit and vegetables. It is a large and decorative picture, very soft and velvety in light and colour. The group of nude nymphs, — voluptuous in form, as always, — is very enchanting. The bull is a beautiful animal; the flowers and fruit are by the hand of another painter. As early as 1653 the picture belonged to the King of Denmark, and in March of that year a black frame was painted for it. (2)
Antiope. — The second dated picture of this period is The Sleeping Antiope in the Museum at Grenoble. The nymph lies asleep under a canopy stretched between trees on the bank of a river. Beside her lies her quiver, and behind her stands Eros holding a torch. To the right Jupiter, in the shape of a satyr, is stooping over her, and watching her attentively. There are also two satyrs behind a hillock spying at the nude sleeper. The picture is dated J. Jord. fecit 1650. Notwithstanding this signature, the Catalogue throws doubt on the genuineness of the work; but wrongly so. The picture certainly is a little soft in the painting, and lacks the master's usual brilliance of colour; but it is genuine nevertheless. It is probably the same work as appeared at the Mensart sale. (Amsterdam, 1824), and was catalogued as bearing the date 1660.
(1) F. Waltman van Spillbeeck. The former abbey church of Tongerloo and its art treasures (Flemish school, 1883, p. 183).
(2) Communicated by Mr. Karl Madsen, Conservator of the Royal Gallery of Paintings and Architectural Works at Copenhagen.
19
146
THE KING DRINKS.
The King drinks. — During the Forties, Jordaens resumed his favourite subject, The King drinks, and treated it several times. One of the best versions of this period is in the Museum at Brussels (N°. 242 of the Catalogue). The picture is much larger than the other of the subject in the same Museum. The king sits enthroned in the centre of the table facing the spectator, a pasteboard crown on his head, a Venetian glass in his uplifted hand; rejoicing in the fat of the land, his eyes half-closed, ogling and slabbering to the full satisfaction of his entire being. The scene about him is rather riotous. To the right are two women : one, with a golden fork in her hand, half-stupid with wine, her hair out of curl, looks on with a vacant stare; the other, almost as far advanced, has in one hand a large wine-glass, and with the other holds a child on her lap. Next to her stand two children, one blowing a flute, the other leaning on a chair. Behind the women are a
ARGUS AND MERCURY (M. Georges Hulin, Ghent).
comical figure lifting his red fool's cap, a bagpipe-player, a singer, his head thrown back- wards in song, and an old and a young woman. To the left, beside the king, are a girl with roguish laughing features, embraced by an enterprising rascal, and a man whose pipe has upset him, so that his wife has to hold his head while he is sick. Behind the king is an excited singer with a fool's cap on his head; holding up both hands, one grasping a beaker, the other his cap. At the side are about half a dozen persons, some drinking, some making fun. In the background are an open window and a painted landscape in a richly carved frame. A parrot sits on the open window-shutter; a girl in a chair plays with a little dog; there are also a wine-cooler, a basket with table utensils on which a cat is resting, and a dog partially seen. On the table are cakes, wine-glasses, a roasted fowl on a dish, and a gold sugar-basin.
In itself the scene is not attractive; it depicts drunkenness in all its stages and conse- quences. Almost everybody is fuddled; the king's dignity has vanished in a fit of laughter,
THE KING DRINKS.
H7
the eyelids of the pretty women at his side are getting heavy, their mouths remain open; the men either bawl and howl or behave unbecomingly; everything swings and whirls confusedly together, excited, unrestrained, without care, and without fear.
Light and colour elevate the scene, however, causing us to forget its offensiveness. To the right everything is bright; the woman with the child wears a white cap, a white kerchief, a white apron; the child a white shirt. All this white is broken by blue-gray shadows, which have a tempering effect. The whiteness of the serviette on the king's breast, and of the linen worn by the persons to the left, is quieted down in the same way, and tempered by heavier shadows. But this cool, clear tone is warmed and enriched by the red
HERCULES AND ARCHELOUS (Museum, Copenhagen).
passages on the clothes, the caps, and the table-cover. The group to the left is subdued but no less rich in colour. Ten figures are packed together in it, active, and lively in gesture ; dull-red and blue colours predominate, shining with a clear, twilight glow, cooled by the shadows and reflections, and standing out in harmonious tranquillity against the dim, umwavering light from the window. The background is not less magnificent in colour ; the wall is covered with a picture in a mellow, dark tone; the fool, the bagpipe-player, and the singer, in a demure key, are standing against this quiet ground, broken by sober spaces of blue, yellow and red, hastily touched in with a sure hand, guided by a sensitive eye. The painting bears evidence of Jordaens' full maturity : his hazy golden tone of earlier
I4 8 THE KING DRINKS.
date has become cooler, the colours are crumby, the painting granular, and the style points to the picture being executed about 1650. It was bought in 1897 from Mr. Bourgeois, art-dealer at Paris and Cologne, and appeared at the Pommersfeld sales (Wurzburg, 1857 and Paris 1867).
A second slightly modified version is in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. The composition is almost the same; only, there are thirteen figures instead of twenty-three. Four figures are left out on the extreme right, — a man, a woman, and two children ; four on the extreme left ; and a child next to the king and another in the foreground. There is only one dog, and it is differently placed. In the background is neither window nor picture. The basket with table utensils in the foreground is missing, and the figures are seen, not quite in full length, but nearly so. It is a magnificent picture, carefully-painted in a light tone with thin transparent shadows. The action is agreeable; the wine is beginning to mount to the heads of the company, causing them to be rowdy. The picture seems to me to date from a few years earlier than the preceding.
The King drinks. Brunswick. — The version of The King drinks in the Museum at. Brunswick resembles the other two pictures in several points. The king is the same; so are the two women to the left, — the one with the fork in her hand and the other with the child on her lap. The fool tries to embrace a young girl, who wards him off; a mirror against the back wall reflects this couple. On the open window-shutter sits a parrot; at the table is the child with the curly head; in front of the table, a second. Besides these there are eight other persons at the farther end of table. The picture is not by Jordaens' hand, but was executed in his studio; a sallow brown tone is predominant; the incisiveness of the master is lacking everywhere; his figures are there, but not his painting.
We ourselves once found a better rendering of the same composition at an art-dealer's ; but the picture had been narrowed, and the fool trying to kiss the young woman and the mirror reflecting the group had been left out.
Still another version appeared at the van der Schrieck sale (Louvain, 1861). The king lifts the glass to his mouth. The queen offers him a cake. A drinker behind him lifts his glass, and shouts: „The King drinks!" Another to the extreme left puts down his pipe so as to drink from the jug which he holds in his hand. In the foreground we see the head of a dog. Afterwards the same picture appeared at a collector's sale at Brussels, in a year not mentioned in the Catalogue.
The King drinks. Vienna. — The most important of all the versions of this subject is the picture in the Imperial Museum at Vienna. It was taken from Flanders by the Arch- duke Leopold-Wilhelm in 1656 with his collection, and together with it was bequeathed to the Imperial court. In the catalogue of the collection, compiled in 1659, the work is described as „a large piece in oilpaint on canvas, on which a king's festival is represented. Original piece of Jordaens, painter at Antwerp". It was therefore painted not later than 1656, and (judging from the style) a few years before that date. It bears an inscription on a cartouche at the top : Nil similius insano quam ebrius („Nothing resembles a mad man so much as a tipsy man"). The painter indicates thus plainly his intention of representing a drinking-bout with all the offensive things seen on such an occasion. Notwithstanding this declaration, it is clear that it was also the painter's intention to represent the Epiphany faithfully according to ancient custom. What he did nowhere else, he does here: to each person he gives
THE KING DRINKS. 149
one of the r61es which are generally taken up at an Epiphany meal, and inscribes on little scrolls of paper, lying on the ground or fastened on the people's clothes, the title of the part each of them plays.
At the head of the table, to the right, sits the King with the pasteboard crown on his head, drivelling at his wine-glass, and holding the wine-jug in his hand. Beside him, at the farther end of the table, is seated the Queen enthroned, a charming woman with a fork in her hand; opposite her is the Steward, a young, strongly-built trooper, who raises his glass with violent gesture and loudly exclaims „The King drinks!" — the signal for all to drain their glasses. Next to him are a second pretty woman and an old one. At the head of the table, to the left, a young fellow fills his rummer; a second smokes a pipe; a third is attempting to kiss his neighbour. At the farther end of the table are the Fool, holding up his glass, and shouting with all his might; the Singer, a tipsy young carle; an old woman, looking kindly at the King; the Carver, holding a slice of meat above his mouth; the Messenger, who has stuck his pipe through the band of his cap ; and behind the King's chair the Cook, a jolly character, well-clad with fat. In the foreground are the Medico, Who is sick, a dog, a cat, two costly metal vessels, and a child drinking. In the background we catch sight of the border of a tapestry; to the left is a window, and on the wall a mirror, in which two of the guests are reflected.
This mirror and the window have appeared in pictures described already. The trooper in the foreground reminds us of a similar figure in one of the two versions in the Brussels Museum, and in the picture As the old Cock crows in Munich. The guest attempting to embrace his neighbour, the fool behind the King lifting his glass on high, and the sick man, we have also found elsewhere. But the other figures are introduced for the first time, and the general grouping is more fortunate than before. The queen sits here, as in other pictures, very stately, and motionless, while the King quietly enjoys his fine wine ; but the others are all astir: one and the same impulse causes them to fling up their arms and open their mouths, the necessity to give expression in an excited way to their rollicking fun.
How magnificent is the clear brilliance of colour upon the whole revelling group! A glittering, radiant light vibrates on the faces of the feasters, on their shoulders and arms, on their white linen and brightly-coloured clothes ; producing where it strikes passages that sparkle against the brown background. The latter is luminous with a warmth that seems buried in it, and emerges here and there in little touches on a dress, on a glass, on a basin, on the dog and the cat. Even the brown seems to be imbued with the lustre that glows beneath it. The shadows have sharp angles that make one think of mountain-tops behind which the sun is setting, or of lamp-shades covered with brown gauze. Where the light falls, it does not merely brighten: it fuses flesh and fabrics; the chubby softness of some of the cheeks and the brilliance of some of the garments, have a dazzling effect. All this, even more than the excitement of the figures, communicates to the scene a sense of merriment, and enhances the bright, pleasant appearance of the carousal.
When Jordaens had repeatedly represented the Epiphany feast, the notion came to him of painting a merry company without the man with the paper crown. He did so in a picture which belongs to the Duke of Abercorn. In it he has chosen as personages several of those who generally served at a Beanfeast, added a few to it, and in this way composed a party of merry men and women. The first are soldiers; the second barmaids, or camp- followers. They sit feasting under the foliage of a vine, trained over trellis-work; three young women reminding us of the merry companions of the drinking King, and as many
150
THE KING DRINKS.
soldiers- the trooper with his beaker in the air; a second drinking calmly; another stand, ng and shouting loudly; and a fourth, with more of the appearance of a jonker who al bw himself a great deal of liberty with one of the ladies. To the right ,s a bagpipe-play r ; to thTleft L servant, who with plate, can, and glass tumbles across a chair; and finally the landlady, chalking up the reckoning. In the foreground are some ducks a dog and a pig. It is an uncommonly merry picture, owing to the mood of he people ^ and ite happy scheme of colour and light; not a very edifying scene, indeed but a thoroughly charming and meritorious work. A full, warm light falls on two of the girls- who are seated there in white and pink dresses, and on the man in olive-green ves and yellow trousers, raising his cup; to left and right, the light becomes softer and dimly warm, but
THE KING DRINKS (The Duke of Devonshire).
it is dominant everywhere; the shadows are few and thin. All are alive and about, enjoying the moment pleasantly and to the full; the personages at the table shouting, singing and laughing; the animals below it: the ducks quacking, the dog jumping up, the pig that comes walking along, as if it understood that here, where life is led so merrily, he is in his proper place.
In the Delacre collection at Ghent is a drawing, a sketch for the same subject (See picture on page 56).
The picture was painted about 1644, for in this year, or in the subsequent one, Jordaens used it as a design for one of the tapestries in the „Proverbs" series, where it bears the title Male partum, male dilabitur („Badly got, badly spent")-
RUSTIC COURTSHIP.
151
Rustic courtship. — More than once in speaking of the versions v of The King drinks and Diogenes searching for a man which have been described already, we have mentioned an amorous couple, where an enterprising fellow takes a girl by the chin, and tries to kiss her. Jordaens thought the group so really delightful, that he wished to treat it separately; and this he did in a picture belonging to Mr. Emile Goldschmidt at Frankfort. A merry fellow, whom Jordaens endowed with his own features, dressed in a blue blouse and a dark cap through which he has slipped his pipe, takes hold of a fat, fresh wench with one hand by the chin and with the other round her shoulder. She wears a white chemise, with light blue straps across it, and holds in her arms, over which the sleeves are rolled back, a basket containing apples and plums. She does not object to kissing. Her chin is clasped between the fingers of the rascal; her eyes are half-closed, her mouth is open.
THE KING DRINKS (Museum, Cassel).
She is all laughter, just as is the face of her companion with his broad visage, wide-open mouth, and small roguish eyes. The painting is as pleasing as the action: the colours are clear, the light is warm, the execution lovingly cared for. One cannot imagine a more pleasant, agreeable group. The woman is the same as in the Fruit-seller in the Museum at Glasgow. With it and the Male and female Fool of Mr. Porges at Paris, this picture is undoubtedly the most complete and happy expression of Jordaens' love of life; a picture embodying Flemish roguishness, a thoroughly healthy representation of courtship among the people.
Mythology. — Jordaens' fame reached its zenith after Rubens' death, and among other proofs of the approbation which his works received we may mention that even
152
MYTHOLOGY.
then he was flattered by having copyists, and that their copies, acknowledged as such, were exposed for sale at the art-dealers'. Thus we find in the inventory of the effects of the Antwerp picture-dealer, Herman de Neyt, who died on September 8, 1642 „a canvas after Jordaens, being a Bacus". In the inventory of the painter and art-dealer Jeremias Wildens Janszoon, deceased, December 30, 1653, occur a Bath of Calisto and an Acteon after Jordaens. The original Acteon appeared later at the Abbe Guillaume Gevigny sale (Paris, 1779), — Diana in her bath and two nymphs are looking at Acteon, who tries to surprise her; there is
a rocky landscape in the back- ground. The original version of Calisto and Diana, which must date from the Thirties, appeared at a sale at Amsterdam on June 11, 1797, and now belongs to the Museum of Oldenburg. It is comparatively a small picture (81 cm. h. by 120 cm. w.), brilliant in colour, radiant with delicate flesh. The scene is placed in a hilly landscape, with a brook rushing down from rocks between the trees. One of the nymphs is putting her feet into the water, a second is emerging from it; several others are preparing to enter it. On the bank are two nymphs uncovering Calisto to prove her pregnancy. The guilty one resists with all her might, and calls upon Diana for help or mercy. The severe, chaste goddess on discovering this lapse in one of her followers raises her hand with an astonished and disapproving gesture. It is an exhibition of dimpled, voluptuous women in a charming light and delightful sur- roundings; and might lead us to think of one of those painters of nymphs who were to be found in Jordaens' time, — a Hendrik or a Jan van Balen, for example, - were it not for the inordinate size of all the inhabitants of the pagan Heaven, and the impudent rudeness with which the friends of Calisto discover her guilt.
In this inventory of Jeremias Wildens also we find mention made of a Judgment of Midas; and pictures with the title „King Midas", or „the Judgment of Midas" or „Midas among the Goddesses of Music" or „Apollo and Marsyas" occur in many other sales and collections. There was a Judgment of Midas among Jordaens' effects (2 ft 4 in h., 3 ft 10
RUSTIC COURTSHIP (M. Emile B. Ooldschmidt, Frankfort).
ATALANTA AND HIPPOMENES. 153
in w.); we come across it again at the Robert Neufville sale (London, 1736) and in the Hendrik van Limburgh sale (the Hague, 1759).
In addition to the picture in the Madrid Museum, already discussed on p. 114, we know of two others treating this subject. The first was bought at the sale of the Huybrechts collec-* tion at Antwerp for the Museum of Ghent. The two rivals have taken their places at the feet of Bacchus. Marsyas is to the right, crouching down as he blows his flute with all his might. Apollo on the left, lute in hand, awaits his turn. Behind him are three Muses. To the extreme right Midas, in his regal cloak, is present at the competition. The painter had made the two sides of the picture a sharp contrast in colour and light. The right side is bathed in a warm, brown tone, without solidity in the lights or brilliance in the colours. The group to the left, Apollo and Midas, on the contrary, are radiant with light and brilliant in tone; on the fair skin lie bluey-gray, transparent shadows, which lend a mellowness to the figures, and take away a look of porcelain which the high gloss would otherwise impart to them. On that side the execution is extremely careful, and, the lines are sharply drawn. The picture seems to have been painted in the beginning of the period which we are now discussing.
The Rijks-Museum at Amsterdam possesses a small scene representing the Punishment of Marsyas. Marsyas, in appearance a fat, brown satyr, sits on the ground, surrounded by a bevy of nymphs. One of them binds his arms behind his back; a second keeps his head still, while a third cuts his long ear with a pair of scissors. Several others are onlookers, like Apollo, who stands beside him. The nymphs are nude; two of them are seated on a red cloth; Apollo appears in gold-yellow drapery. The figures are sharply coloured and porcelain-like, after the style of van Balen; in his style also is the land- scape, — the pool of water, the little brook running down the hill, and the blue sky. The picture, by its appearance, and especially by the exaggerated heaviness of the figures, recalls to mind the „Procession of Bacchus" in the Brussels Museum, and must date from about 1650. It was probably the same work that appeared at the van Swieten sale (the Hague, 1731), and at the Six sale (Amsterdam, 1734).
Atalanta and Hippomenes. — At this time Jordaens represented once or twice the contest between Atalanta and Hippomenes. On the first occasion he painted the king's daughter and the amorous prince racing between two barriers which separate them from the curious public. To the right are a man with a white turban, seated on a white horse, and another with a black cap on his head, on a brown horse. Over one of the barriers are leaning a fat man with a bald head, a man with a red cap, and a third putting his fingers to his nose ; lower down we notice two children and a dog. To the left, against the enclosure, are seen two trumpeters, three spectators, and two children. The racers are running straight towards us. Atalanta is completely nude, save for a yellow scarf round her waist; she stoops to pick up the apple. Hippomenes, also quite naked, holds an apple in each hand. The picture is painted in light gray tones with transparent shadows; the flesh on the man's body is dull, the muscle strongly marked; that of the woman is tender; the figures to left and right also are in warm soft tones, in the style of his work about 1641, though the picture bears the date 1646. It appeared at the Latinie sale (Antwerp, 1905).
Another version of the same subject is in the author's possession. The figures are almost the same; except that the racers are seen running alongside one barrier only; the
20
i54
FAMILY PORTRAIT.
colours are more solid, and sharper; and the action of the principal figures is not so well rendered. The picture was bought at the Beysterbos sale (Amsterdam, 1899).
It was either the first or the second of these pictures that appeared at the van Gennep sale (Antwerp, 1778), and at the Sels sale (Antwerp, 1822).
Family Portrait. Cassel. — We do not know with certainty of any portraits painted by Jordaens during this period. We believe, however, that the family portrait in the Cassel Museum belongs to it, — to about 1650. It is one of the most remarkable pieces of its kind that we know. A whole family, consisting of nine persons, is represented here, — father, mother and seven children. The painter has not allowed them to pose idly, one next the other; most of them are occupied with one another, and not with the spectator. In the background to the left stand the father and the mother: he a strapping old man, she a
DIANA AND CALISTO (Museum, Oldenburg).
healthy woman of fifty. Passing from left to right, we come to the eldest son in violet- coloured clothes and black cloak, playing the mandoline; the youngest son, of whom only the head is visible; the second sister, dressed in red, holding a nosegay in her hand, and, like the youngest brother, looking up at father and mother; the third sister, in a red bodice with blue sleeves, smilingly offers a basket of flowers to the eldest one; the second son lays his hand on the shoulder of the latter, and looks towards the frame; the eldest daughter wears a gold-yellow dress, with pale, blue-green skirt and white kerchief, an amber necklace round her throat, gold earrings with pearls in her ears, and a wreath of flowers in her hair; some of the flowers have fallen already into her lap from the basket which her sister offers her; finally, to the right is the second youngest son, standing behind his eldest sister and touching her shoulder with his hand. To judge by the sweet tenderness with which the eldest daughter of the house is surrounded, and by
FAMILY PORTRAIT.
155
the flowers offered to her, one would say that the family are holding some festivity in her honour, — on the anniversary of her christening, or on her betrothal perhaps.
It certainly is the finest family group that Jordaens ever painted, and one of his master- pieces. The magnificent colour alone would entitle it to this verdict. The yellow dress of the eldest sister, her white linen, the red chair on which she sits, the flowers in her lap, and the play of broken light on all these, are very charming. The red dress of two other sisters, the red cushion on which the eldest son sits, the red collar of the father's cloak, the creamy kerchiefs of the younger sisters, form a superb and delightful harmony. Not less vivid are the tones of the flesh : the bare arms, neck and face of the eldest sister, the sunny
THE CONTEST BETWEEN APOLLO AND MARSYAS (Museum, Ghent).
head of the second, with the warm shadows on cheek and neck, the tenderly tinted face of the youngest, which lies completely in the transparent glow, the light fair head of the youngest son, are all different from one another, and all equally beautiful. The father has a fine, intelligent head. The mother has been rendered with a few strokes, — almost sketched, indeed ; she is all alive, with brave eyes, and a loving, somewhat anxious, face. Most of the children bear her features, — heavy nose, small eyes. The eldest daughter looks good-natured, a little simple and shy, touched perhaps by the tokens of affection offered to her; the second one has a massive head and is rather coarse in features, though saved from ugliness by the sunny brilliance which radiates from her fair flesh, her loose-hanging locks, and her linen kerchief ; the youngest daughter most resembles the mother, — her face is one sparkle of colour and
156 THE WOMAN WITH THE LOCKET.
brightness. The boys are more decided in expression: the eldest calm and serious; the second looking at the spectator with an inquiring gaze; the third keener of spirit; the youngest a naive, healthy schoolboy.
The group is compact, but it has movement and brightness, and is as full as possible of natural action. The painting is both solid and broad, the brush-work loose but well thought out, — a dab, a smear, and the effect was got! The play of direct and reflected light is full of life, — a continual breaking and mirroring, profuse, vivid, and splendidly glowing. The modelling is got by gradations of blue; the light is abundant, but every- where transparent and mellow.
The Woman with the Locket. — A portrait in the same manner as the family at Cassel is that of a woman in the Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts at Vienna. The sitter has broadly waving locks through which play golden tones; she wears white pearls in her hair and ears and a white muslin kerchief over the shoulders. On her breast is a rose. She looks towards the left, turning her head to do so; and holds a locket, — a man's portrait mounted with precious stones — in her hand. The painting is very loose and broad, the colour light and transparent.
CHAPTER VI.
16 52.
The Orange Hall.
T
»he most important of Jordaens' works in this period, and, indeed, the most re- markable he ever produced, were the two pictures (and the larger of them especially) which he painted for the Orange Hall. This was the name given to the central and prin- cipal hall in the palace that Amalia van Sclms, widow of Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, built for herself in the Haagsche Bosch, and generally known as The House in the Wood. Amalia van Solms was married to the Stadtholder on the 4 th of April, 1625. She was greatly attached to her husband, whom she both loved and highly admired. She followed with warm interest his career as a states- man and a military commander, and often, by advising him, shared deeply in the events of his glorious tenure of the office. Frederick Henry was an ardent lover of art. He collected many works by the best painters of his day. It was no less his delight to possess a mag- nificent palace within the Hague, as well as others in its neighbourhood. Of the latter, two — at Rijswijck and at Honselaarsdijk — were built by him, and a third was the old castle of Buren, which he restored ; in addition he, and still more his wife, was much occupied during the last years of his life with the idea of laying out a country-seat in the Wood at the Hague, entirely in accordance with Amalia's taste, and destined to become her personal property.
In earlier centuries the Haagsche Bosch belonged to the Counts. The portion of it lying in the immediate vicinity of the town, and bordering on the Court of the Counts, served as a pleasure-ground for the prince's household; the part farther removed to the east was not laid out; and peat was dug from it for the use of the court. In 1 576, however, the Wood was granted by the Prince of Orange and the States General to the town of the Hague Jot al sulcken gebruyck ende service als van verder hercomen heeft gestaen" („to all such ends and purposes as have existed heretofore"). A part „of the back of the Haagsche
HEAD OF SATYR Drawing (Louvre, Paris).
i.58
THE ORANGE HALL.
Wood" was handed over to Amalia van Solms on the 17* of May, 1645, by the Audit Office and the Countship of Holland under whose management the Wood came as a domain. It was given her .for her recreation, exercise, and training, to change the same either into a park or into a building as she should find suitable for her pleasure . This gift was bestowed upon her by the intervention of Frederick Henry himself, and the plans for the garden and the building were submitted to the prince. A beginning was made immediately with the filling in of the marshy ground, and by the 20* of July, 1645, the plan for the Orange Hall was completed by the architect Pieter Pool, with the assistance of Jacob van Campen, the renowned master in the art. The prince having approved of it, the first stone was laid on the 2 nd of September following by the Queen of Bohemia, who had temporarily taken up her residence at the Hague. The building as originally planned was composed of a large central hall, round which, on each floor, were six rooms and a few small cabinets. In the eighteenth century it underwent very considerable changes. To the right and left, wings were added, and the facade and outer staircase were entirely altered. The principal part of the building also, the Orange Hall proper, was considerably modified in shape and construction. Evidently, the original idea was to make it serve as an art-room and reception hall, - for which purpose it was, when compared with the remainder of the building, much too lage. But before it was completed, Frederick Henry dUdr^farch 14, 1647.
His sorrowing widow immediately conceived the idea of turning this great hall in her pleasure-palace into a splendid monument of art dedicated to the memory of her famous consort. Accordingly she had the design altered. The hall, originally planned with a flat roof, was crowned by a high dome, and to Jacob van Campen was entrusted the disposal of the space thus acquired for her purpose. With Amalia van Solms and Con- stantine Huygens, (the faithful adviser and secretary of the deceased prince, who continued to give his services to the widow), the renowned architect decided upon a scheme for the decoration of the hall from top to bottom with pictures designed in honour of Frederick Henry. Together they chose the subjects which were to be represented on the walls, and the artists to whom the commissions were to be given.
The hall is in the shape of a Greek cross with short arms, of which the four angles are broken cross-ways; thus leaving sixteen spaces for paintings, — four large ones at the four extremities of the arms, and twelve small ones. Of the four large spaces, one is filled with a single large canvas. Directly opposite this principal panel stood originally the mantelpiece, for which has now been substituted a door, on each side of which is a picture. The large wall to the right of the entrance is pierced by three spacious windows; that on the left is broken by a door and two pictures. The entire ceiling of the dome is occupied by paintings; and on the foot of the lantern which crowns it we see a portrait of Amalia with the inscription: Fred. Hemic. Princ. Araus. ipsum sese unicum ipso dignum luctus et atnoris aeterni mon. Amalia de Solms vidua inconsolabilis marito incomparabili. P. („Amalia van Solms, his inconsolable widow, has erected this memorial of her everlasting sorrow and love for her incomparable husband, himself his only parallel, Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange").
In the hall thus erected in his honour and for the immortalisation of his heroic actions, the celebrated prince is seen surrounded by the members of his family, and representations of the chief events which lent splendour to his term of the Stadtholdership. It was not the intention of the designers to give a purely historical outline of events ; they wished to gather
THE ORANGE HALL.
159
up their meanmg and declare it by allegorical representations such as, according to the taste of the time, were thought to contribute a greater lustre and a nobler character to the decorations. The models they had in view were the world-renowned works of Rubens executed by him for Mary of Medicis' palace at Paris and Charles the First of England's Banqueting Hall at Whitehall; not to mention others of the same kind, such as the large hall of the Doge's Palace at Venice. The majestic works at Paris and London which they set before them as examples had been executed by an Antwerp painter; and Amalia van
THE TRIUMPH OF FREDERICK HENRY (Sketch, Museum, Antwerp).
Solms and her advisers also turned to the same town, or at any rate the same school. The Flemish painters of that day were not unknown to her, Huygens and van Campen, or unesteemed by them. Frederick Henry himself was an admirer of Rubens, and had purchased several of his paintings through Huygens, who had corresponded with the great master. Van Dijck had painted the son of the Stadtholder and Amalia as a child, and again on his betrothal to the Princess Mary Stuart; and Frederick Henry possessed several of his pictures also. In 1644 Thomas Willeborts had been enticed to Holland by
l6o THE ORANGE HALL.
the Stadtholder, and from then until 1647 painted many pictures for him. Amalia van Solms who had made the acquaintance of Mary of Medicis in Holland, may have heard from her of the beauty of the halls in her palace. Van Campen, at the moment busy with his plans for the Amsterdam Townhall, was soon to commission the Antwerp sculptor, Artus Quellin, to do the magnificent sculptured work that abundantly decorates that building
inside and out.
The true and greatest, representatives of Dutch art, the painters of the Corporation pieces, Rembrandt, Hals, van der Heist, Bol, and many more, were passed over; and the scenes for the Hall were commissioned, not from the talented ..history" painters of the South only, but also from others there who practised quite a different genre. Jordaens, the greatest of them, was invited, and with him van Thulden, Oaspar de Crayer, and Thomas Willeborts. But besides these well-known ..history" painters, others received commissions: for example, Gonzales Coques, the painter of small family portraits, and the Jesuit, Daniel Segers, the flower-painter, of whose work Frederick Henry had accepted a few examples offered to him by the inmates of the artist's cloister. The Dutchmen who were asked to assist in the decoration were the Haarlem artist Pieter Soutman, Geraard Honthorst (some- times called the Orange court-painter), Cesar van Everdingen, Peter De Grebber, Jan Lievens, Salomon De Bray, all of them painters in the decorative style of the Flemings; and the still-life painters, Cornelis Brize, Couwenberg, Albert de Valck, and Pieter Claess, to whom the accessories were entrusted.
Constantyn Huygens took it upon him to commission the painters; on the 16 th August, 1649, he wrote to Amalia van Solms, that, being in Antwerp a few days previously, he had seen there the sketches made by Gonzales Coques and Thomas Willeborts Bosschaert, for the memorial hall, and that these sketches were to be sent shortly to the Hague, for inspection by the Princess. (1) On the 19 th of October, 1649, Jordaens wrote a letter to him concerning the work for the Hall; though we are aware of its existence, however, we do not know its contents. (2) On April 23, 1651, he sent him a second, containing expla- nations about two sketches which he had finished; (3) and on November 8, 1651, a third concerning certain small details. (4) In 1652 Jordaens had completed his work, of which he sent a description to the Princess Amalia. (5) His large picture. „The Triumph of Frederick Henry", is signed J JORD f 1652. Van Thulden had finished his commission even earlier: his „Fauna and Flora of Brazil" bears the date 1651. Soutman must have begun before the others, and ended sooner than they, for his „Bearers of the Spoils in the Triumphal Procession" is signed „Soutman, 1649". In three years, therefore, the great work of decorating the Hall was accomplished. Constantine Huygens had chosen the episodes and devised the allegories represented in the pictures; and he also allotted the scenes to the different painters. Let us follow them in order, and see by whom they were executed.
(1) A Anvers je vis, il y a 5 ou 6 jours les 6chantillons ou modules de Willeboert et Gotifales des pieces, qui leur ont est6 ordonnSes et je fay estat de les trouver a la Haye pour les monstrer a V. A. et en scavoir Ses sentimens, sans quoy je n'ay rien vouler prendre a ma charge. Crayer, le grand peintre de Bruxelles, s'est excuse par letter de faire sa piece, sous des prgtextes controuvis. Je croy, que la veritable raison est, que le sujet est trop Huguenot et Orangeois, pour estre execute dans Bruxelles Ce serait l'exp6dition de S. A. avec le prince Maurice vers la bataille de Flanders. II faudra, que quelqu' aultre y mette la main. A Anvers les peintres estiment que pour estre matiere de chevaux, personne n'y est plus propre que Willeboert en ayant donnS de grandes espreuves. V. A. en disposera, selon sa bonne volontS. (Constantyn Huygens to Amalia van Solms, widow of prince Frederik-Hendrik. Letter dated from Middelburg 16th August 1649. P. Scheltema, Oud en Nieuw uit de Vader- landsche Geschiedenis en Letterkunde. Amsterdam, G. Portielje, 1847, 2nd volume, p. 242.)
(2) This letter appeared at the N. ]. Naylor sale (London, 1885).
(3) Cited by Schinckel, Oeschied- en Letterkundige Bydragen. p. 29.
(4) In the British Museum. Cited in Oud-Holtand, IX. 195.
(5) (VAN Sijpesteijn), De Stichting der Oranjezaal. 's Gravenhage, van Stockum, 1876. Biz. 68.
THE ORANGE HALL. 161
The series of pictured scenes begins at the present entrance opposite the principal canvas, „The Triumph of Frederick Henry." Above the door which has taken the place of the old fire-place, and therefore where the former mantel was, we have the „Birth of Frederick Henry" by Cesar van Everdingen ; surmounted by a festoon, painted by Salomon De Bray, in which children unfold a scroll whereon we read: Fr. HEND. NASSOVIUS Auriacus Nat. Delf. IV cat. febr. CID.ID.LXXXIV. To the right and left of the mantelpiece are allegorical groups personifying the gifts of the Prince, by Theodoor van Thulden, Jan Lievens, and Cesar van Everdingen. Farther on, we have „The young Prince instructed by Minerva and Mercury", the work of van Thulden; and „The Prince in his youth having the command of the sea conferred on him by Neptune". Above the present exit, formerly the only door in the hall, the States of Holland, Zeeland, and West-Friesland are represented by van Thulden offering Frederick Henry the Stadtholdership. Following that comes the Prince with his five-year-old son, afterwards William II, to whom these Provinces and Overyssel grant hereditary succession to the office, and the command on land and sea; this also is van Thulden's; as appears to be also the „Heroic Deeds of the Prince", allegorically re- presented. Amalia van Solms and her three daughters were painted by Gerard Honthorst. This brings us to Jordaens' large canvas, the „Triumph" of the Prince, which, as has been said, is directly opposite the entrance. Continuing, we meet successively: Charles I of England, father in-law of William II, who, sacrificing himself for his country's sake, is about to cast himself into a sea of fire, — by van Thulden ; Time mowing down Slander and Vice (Jordaens); William II and his young wife (Honthorst). Above the windows are the „Marriage of Frederick and Amalia", also by Honthorst; portraits of Louisa, their eldest daughter, and her husband Frederick William of Brandenburg, by the same; and „Prince Maurice", brother of Frederick Henry, as a military commander, by van Thulden.
On the ceiling De Grebber has represented „Rain and Dew", „Hercules and Apollo", „Venus and Juno", the „Plastic Arts" and Architecture". On the front of the broken angles are four kings-at-arms, and above them the coats-of-arms of the Orange-Nassau and Solms- Braunfels families.
On the sides of the broken angles begins the series of pictures of the „Triumph" proper. First, a festive march of boys and girls by Salomon de Bray; then pikemen, carrying banners, by Soutman; „Spoils of War from Brazil", by De Grebber; Animals of Brazil, by van Thulden; Fruit, Shells and Flowers of Brazil, by de Grebber; „Trophy- bearers" by Salomon de Bray; „Conquered Arms", by De Grebber; „ Prisoners of War", by van Thulden. These eight canvases are appendages to the large „Triumph of Frederick Henry", and heighten the sumptuous impression which it creates. On the ceiling above Jordaens' picture we find a „Triumph of the Christian, and his Reward Hereafter." At the foot of the lantern which crowns the dome is the portrait of Amalia, referred to before.
Jordaens was the only Flemish painter, and, indeed, the only artist residing in the Flemish provinces, who took part in the work; but all the others were related to the Flemings in their art. Van Thulden, on whom the largest part of the decorations devolved had painted for many years in Rubens' studio, and may be considered his most faithful follower; Soutman, too, had worked with Rubens, and had made engravings after his work and under his guidance; Peter-Frans De Grebber was the one among the Northern painters who had followed Rubens most closely, and his father was a trusted negotiator between the great master and the purchasers of his works in Holland.
Among the Antwerp painters to whom Huygens turned for assistance, we mentioned
21
l6z THE ORANGE HALL.
Caspar De Crayer, Daniel Seghers, Thomas Willeborts and Gonzales Coques. None of these however, produced any work for the Orange Hall. De Crayer (so Huygens informed Amalia) had refused his invitation at once, giving spurious excuses: his real reason no doubt was, as Huygens suspected, his aversion from executing in Brussels, where he did a great deal of work for the Catholic Churches, a commission in honour of the great Protestant hero and his victories over the Spanish Netherlands. It would have been still more difficult to understand had Father Seghers undertaken such work. On the other hand we are rather surprised that neither Thomas Willeborts Bosschaert nor Gonzales Coques finished the sketches which they had shown Huygens in 1649; for both were highly esteemed at the Court of Holland, and worked for it repeatedly before 1648, - Willeborts to its entire satisfaction, Coques, on the other hand, not always with the same favourable results.
Van den Branden relates in detail a comical experience of Coques in connection with one of Frederick Henry's commissions. (1)
The Prince had given him an order for ten large pictures representing the story of Psyche. Coques did not feel, or at any rate would not admit, that such a subject did not accord with his style, and was beyond his powers; instead, he sought out a fellow-artist, Abraham van Diepenbeeck, and asked him to compose the sketches for the commissioned pictures. Van Diepenbeeck agreed, and when the first sketch was ready Coques carried it to the Hague, where it was approved. After that, his assistant made the other nine, which were also sent to Holland; but when Huygens, the learned connoisseur, saw the sketches he recognised in them direct copies of Raphael's frescoes of the same subject. He produced the engravings after the Italian master, and Coques stood convicted. Notwithstanding this fraud, involuntary as it was, Coques was paid, on the 28 th of July, 1648, 200 guilders, whereas he had promised van Diepenbeeck 180 guilders only for the sketches. Of this sum he had advanced him already 160 guilders. Van Diepenbeeck, not satisfied with this, claimed the full amount as arranged, and summoned Coques before a judge. The case caused a good deal of talk, and ended in 1654 with a judgment of the Deans of St. Luke, who were of opinion that van Diepenbeeck had been sufficiently well paid for his copies.
It remains unexplained why Bosschaert's and Coques' sketches were not executed; but certainly the Hall lost nothing by their absence. Coques was not the artist for great „history" works, and the trouble over his „History of Psyche" proves that he was quite aware of his inability. Though Thomas Willeborts Bosschaert enjoyed the favour of the Stadtholder, we know that his talent was of an inferior order, and may be sure that his work would have fallen short of that of the painters who decorated the House in the Wood.
Here, however, we are principally concerned with the two pictures executed for it by Jordaens; and in the first place with the large canvas to which all the other in the Hall are subordinate.
It is certain that van Campen not only suggested the subject, but also laid down the lines of the composition. This invention of the great architect was not original; more than once Frederick Henry's praise had been proclaimed by means of representations of triump- hal cars. At the conquest of Wesel, August 19, 1629 and of Bois-le-Duc on September 17 following, several such had been engraved and published. (2).
In all these we see the Prince in a richly ornamented Roman chariot, driven and surrounded by allegorical figures, among whom now and then historical persons appear,
(1) History of the Antwerp School of Painting. P. 969.
(2) See Fred. Muller, Nederlandsche historie platen, Nos. 1647. 1648, 1649, 1650, 1651, 1652.
THE ORANGE HALL.
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while the conquered towns are seen in the background. The chariot is drawn by four or six horses; in the air hover heralds of Fame sounding trumpets; Victory brings palms and crowns. It is very probable that these prints inspired van Campen, and that it was after them that he worked out his scheme. He drew or painted a sketch for the
THE TRIUMPH OF FREDERICK HENRY (Sketch, Museum, Brussels).
large canvas, and Huygens sent it to Jordaens with a few remarks of his own.
Jordaens did not readily fall in with van Campen's proposals. On the 23 d of April, 1651 we find him writing a long letter to Huygens, in which he tells him that he does not care to be tied too tight to another's leading strings, as he should be were he to be bound strictly by van Campen's sketch. (1).
1) Letter quoted in A. D. Schinkel, Geschied- en Letterkundige bijdragen, Van Cleef Brothers, the Hague, 1850 p. 29.
^ THE ORANGE HALL.
He was willing, he said, to follow its general lines; but he must be allowed to add to, and to alter, a few of the details, as indeed he had done in some four or five sketches, which he intended to submit shortly to Her Highness and to Huygens. In his letter he enumerated these alterations. He could not agree, for example, that Death, who already appeared in the smaller picture painted by him for the Hall, should once more be introduced; he also left that figure out in several of the sketches which he submitted to the Hague. The Princess and her advisers, however, insisted upon its introduction, and Jordaens ultimately gave way, and represented Death battling with Fame. In van Campen's sketch, Frederick Henry, seated in the car, was seen to the waist only; whereas Jordaens placed him higher, so that the whole of him should be visible. The painter also wished to place beside him, on one hand, Neptune, the god of the Sea, and on the other, Mars, the god of War; but neither in any of the sketches which we know, nor in the ultimate painting, did he elaborate this idea; though, in one sketch, he shows the triumphal car being driven by Neptune. Seeing he wrote to Huygens, that in two sketches he had placed two gods beside Frederick Henry, we are led to suppose that these pieces have gone astray. In van Campen's design, Time was represented in the air, bringing forth children: Jordaens disapproved of this idea, on the grounds that he had already introduced the same personage in the smaller picture which he had painted for the series. True, we find Time introduced into three of his sketches; but in the finished picture he has been left out. Huygens, again, had recommended that all four white horses should lift one of their 'fore feet; Jordaens followed this suggestion, but proposed that the horses should be led by Hercules and Minerva, as he represents them in one of his sketches. His proposal was evidently modified, for in the picture it is Mercury and Minerva who undertake this task. He proposed further that the maidens who represented the royal connections of William II should be placed behind the prince; this also was rejected, but allegorical female figures were placed on the opposite side. He suggested, too, that the Maagd van Nederland should applaud the Triumph, while the Southern Provinces looked on indifferently, and without rejoicing; none of these figures, however, appears either in his sketches or in his painting. Other insignificant alterations of van Campen's plan which he proposed were approved of.
Of the four or five sketches which in April, 1651, Jordaens intimated his intention of submitting to the Hague, three only are known to us: one in the Antwerp Museum, a second in that of Brussels, and the third in the Museum at Warsaw. In the first, the triumphal car is shown almost wholly in side-view; in the second it is driven nearly straight at the spectator ; while in the third, as in the finished picture, it approaches at a slight incination to the left. The prince appears in the first sketch seated inside the chariot, attended by Victory hovering above him and Neptune on the car in front; the steeds are led by Health (Hygieia) and Wisdom (Minerva). In the Brussels piece, the prince is standing behind the front screen of the chariot, so that he is seen half-length only. Victory crowns him ; Mercury and Time are mounted on two of the four horses in front of the chariot, beside which walk Hercules and Minerva. The personages are the same in the third sketch, except that Hygieia has been substituted for Hercules. Here Frederick Henry sits upon a high, open chariot, as if on a throne, and is seen at full-length. It is in this way that he is represented in the completed painting; and there Mercury and Minerva lead the horses, one of which is ridden by a youth who carries a Horn of Plenty In all four versions we find, to the right, Prince William, with several soldiers, and, to the left
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allegorical female figures; in all of them, too, are lions walking in front of the horses, while the statues of William and Maurice of Orange are shown against the columns which form the background. These statues, in the first sketch, are placed to the left, against the columns, next to the passage under the triumphal arch; in the other pieces they are dis- posed in the background, one on either side. In the matter of the sky, a great difference
THE TRIUMPH OF FREDERICK HENRY (Sketch, Museum, Warsaw).
is noticeable between the sketches themselves, as well as between them and the painting. In the Antwerp sketch there appear in the sky Fame with a trumpet and a Genius bearing a palm and a Horn of Plenty; these figures are differently placed in the second and third sketches; and in the picture itself, Fame struggles with Death, and Peace approaches with palms. But enough of these comparisons. Probably no two of the dozen figures in each
1 66 THE ORANGE HALL.
representation are alike, and the same may be said of the numerous accessories; and we cannot possibly mention them all.
It is noteworthy however, that the composition of the first sketch is by far the least successful; it is too simple and insipid, and lacks pomp and movement; the triumphal arch is unhappily placed, and the prince above Neptune even more so. Their symmetry, simplicity of effect, and monumental entourage render the second and third sketches most striking. Rubens himself could not have composed the scene more tastefully. To the powers that were at the Hague, however, this sobriety and almost academic harmony did not com- mend itself, and it was even less to Jordaens' own taste. So we find them banished from the completed painting. Garlands of flowers and floating Amorini break the lines of the background buildings, glimpses of which only are visible; so that while in the lower part of the picture all the action is lively and festive, up above we have the allegorical figures, with all their accessories suggesting agitated movement as well.
The painting is much more crowded than the sketches. At least twenty more figures appear in it. The foreground strikes such a note of bustle and gaiety, the whole canvas resounds with it. The children and women, the horses and lions in front, the eager onlookers who have climbed the pedestals of the two statues, the crowd of horsemen round the car, compose a spectacle more like a national feast than the majestic display found in the Brussels and the Warsaw sketches. This difference in the action is even more marked higher up on the canvas. There, the lines are broken; conventional forms of triumphant splendour have been discarded, and fierce fight, exuberant acclamation and hearty ovations fill the air. The background, too, has lost its sober, monumental aspect: we no longer find pilasters and balustrades and arches disposed in straight rows, but full of angles, and disappearing upwards in a broken line. The principal theme — the chariot and the crowd around it — has been matured with study and judgment, and, in respect of com- position and execution, is one of the finest fragments in the world's art.
Jordaens himself interpreted this large picture in a communication, in French, which he sent to Amalia van Solms, entitled by him, „Explanation of the large triumphal picture of the very illustrious Prince Frederick Henry of Nassau, Prince of Orange, deceased, of virtuous memory, for Madame, Her Highness the Princess widow".
„First (he says) comes the Prince. His Highness sits enthroned on a triumphal-car all of gold; behind him on the car stands a bronze statue after the antique, representing Victory stretching out a hand to place a crown of laurels on the head of His Highness, while in her other is a second crown, destined for His Highness Prince William, his son, deceased, who rides a little Spanish horse, gaily prancing round the car on which his father sits enthroned.
„The four white horses, pulling the car, represent the innocence and purity of heart of the illustrious hero, who, at the sacrifice of his own interest and peace, took up the r61e of protector and father of his country.
„Mercury, the god of intrigue, stratagems and cunning, — all qualities necessary in the complete nobleman and commander, — guides one of the horses; Pallas, the goddess of Wisdom and Prudence, leads the other, on the Prince's right hand.
„Round Mercury's staff are twined two snakes, emblems of malignity and cunning.
„The charioteer is a young man crowned with roses, holding in his arms a Horn of Plenty, bunches of grapes and ears of corn ; signifying that the armies under the victorious guidance of this prince were generally held in respect by their enemies, and through the
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blessing of Heaven seldom or never wanted for food or ammunition. His cloak of blue silk indicates that this prosperity came from above, and was therefore a gift of Providence and God's mercy.
„The lions, walking in front of the car, represent the Warlike Spirit and Courage necessary in a commander.
„The nymphs, scattering flowers and nosegays, and the little Amorini or children, dancing, and bearing an escutcheon, singing, and playing on cymbals (really flute and tambourine), express the delight of the Provinces.
„His Highness, the young prince William, deceased, is accompanied by the god of Marriage, Hymen, — a youth, carrying in one hand a torch and in the other a standard with two hands intertwined — a personage having a reference to the prince's union by marriage with royalty.
„The horsemen on either side of the car, with banners and streamers and trophies, represent the military forces appropriate to such a scene.
„The populace have climbed upon the pedestals on which stand the statues of Prince William and Prince Maurice; they embrace the statues, rejoicing because the successors of these two leaders have given them Freedom and Peace.
„Peace, descended from heaven, is accompanied by troops of Amorini or children, most of them carrying the utensils and instruments of Mathematics, Music and other useful sciences and arts. The white garment of the Virgin of Peace indicates that she has to be pure and stainless, sincere in aim, and without malice or deceit. She holds in each hand a palm-branch, a symbol for the posterity of the young prince and for all times.
„The scroll carried by the children in the air proclaims the opinion that the last work of the Prince, — the establishment of Peace, — was more praiseworthy than those which preceded it, consisting as they did of wars and their accompanying sufferings.
„The children high up at the roof, twining flowers and fruit and garlands, have been employed from the earliest times as emblems of joy, manifested at the triumphant entries of commanders.
„Death and Fame are battling together; the former, according to his nature, seeks to destroy the prince and his good reputation ; the other, on the contrary, defends herself, and dedicates one of her trumpets to proclaim over all the world the glory and praise of the illustrious hero, and to immortalize his memory.
„The two figures lying in the foreground are Hatred and Discord. We recognize Discord in the two snakes which devour each other; and Hatred is he who is eating his own heart. The noble prince has conquered both of them".
From this description it is seen that the allegorical figures on the whole are rather far-fetched. Jordaens, after all, was the painter of the visible rather than of the invisible; his observation was greater than his imagination. The scroll of praise carried by the Amorini high up in the air reads: Ultimus ante omnes de parta pace triumphus. („The last victory — that which brought forth peace — , stands above all the others). The conclusion of the Peace of Munster, in 1648, to which it points is certain to have occupied all minds when the work was commissioned and executed. The princes of Orange in the seventeenth century, — Frederick Henry no less than his predecessor, Maurice, — were no partisans of peace, but the people (of whom Amalia here had made herself the mouth-piece, as without doubt she shared their feelings) looked upon Peace as the greatest benefit bestowed on them by the courage and skill of the deceased Stadtholder, and the crown of his glorious career.
168 THE ORANGE HALL.
We have described this masterpiece and rehearsed its origin, but the soul of the picture, that which makes it live and shine, is the richness of its light and colour. Its brilliance dominates the whole hall. It is not limited to any portion of the large canvas, or brought to one central, powerful point by gradual increase or decrease; it is distributed over all the surface. The most significant group, the victorious prince and his immediate surround- ings, is likewise all-commanding by the magnificence of its colour. In front are four white, warmly-tinted horses, ' lively in action; the heads of the two central ones turned inwards, those of the two others outwards, the four legs lifted in a similar movement. They step almost straight towards the spectator, and their white mass forms, as it were, a solid pedestal of fleecy light from which the young charioteer, with his tender fair flesh and pale blue scarf, ascends in firmer, fresher tints ; his young figure rising, like some poetic song, from out all this stateliness. Next comes the golden chariot and the firm, richer tone of Frederick Henry, with his white, tight hose and red cloak. The group is comparatively calm, uniform in action, and harmonious in colour; it is an apotheosis with charming and homely accom- paniments. The Prince's is a faithful portrait unheightened by fancy: his figure is at once burgher-like and noble, and good-natured rather than majestic.
The principal group is preceded by four women; one in a heavy, dark-red garment with paler reflections, and two in dim blue. On the opposite side of the scene, beside the car, rides young prince William on a small brown horse, two hunting dogs and four horsemen between him and the chariot. The groups of women and horsemen thus form on either side a firm, solid border round the foaming white detail of horses. Then, higher up, are the two gilt statues, with the group of curious onlookers who have climbed on the pedestals; two of the spectators wear the blue caps with which Jordaens is fond of adorning his peasants; two of them display powerful nude flesh. Still higher up shine the Virgin of Peace in her white garment and Fame, nude above the waist, with fair wings; and then come the bleached skeleton and the wreaths and flowers intermingled with angels, — together, a delightful colour symphony.
In conception and composition the lower part is delightful, grand, completely intelligible, full of verve, and animated by genuine human life and the playful spirit of the artist.
The upper part, on the other hand, is too diffuse and restless; the lines swing to the left and to the right, and bend and curve; Peace stands ready to fall, and Fame, even for Fame, is too noisy; while Death is an unwelcome guest, not only on account of his nature, but also by his attitude and the place he occupies. The allegorical figures over-crowd the sky, obstructing the view and the free play of air. They force themselves upon us annoyingly, competing with the principal group, and detracting from it. All this figurative stuff is too erudite and intricate; one is at a loss to understand what it is doing there, and would gladly welcome its removal. These ambiguous images, doubtless, were imposed upon Jordaens; and when he had accepted the inventions of his advisers, he did not know what to do with them. The subject, overweighted in this way, was too much .for him. His mind was not sufficiently playful or inventive to veil their superfluity, or so to dispose it that it lost itself in the whole. Yet this failure does not prevent the gigantic canvas, with its happy people, cheering women, prancing horses, streaming banners, and its per- vading tone of festivity and sunshine, from being a delightful, triumphant work, than which it is impossible to imagine one more brilliant.
The second picture painted by Jordaens for the Orange Hall represents „Time mowing down Slander and Vice", and „Death strangling Envy". The subject which he had to treat was
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set him by van Campen in a paper imperfectly preserved thus: „Time with a young child on his shoulders, stepping across . . . overthrown . . . showing how he reproduces everything anew. On the ground Death strangling Envy".
Jordaens executed his instruc- tions faithfully. In the upper part we see Time,, scythe in hand, with two little love-gods on his wings; with furious gesture he sweeps his scythe through Slander and Vice, lying at his feet. In the lower portion, Death strangles Envy. Time is a magnificent, gigantesque figure, one of the finest Jordaens ever painted. With his warmly tinted skin, undulating in heavy folds with brown sha- dows, he reminds us by his bril- liancy of Rubens' „Hercules waving his club" in Whitehall. The blue scarf wound round his loins shows sharply against the warm flesh. The monsters in the lower part of the picture are modelled with knotted muscles in a blazing glare of light. One of them holds a green wreath, another a burning torch; on the ground lies a bou- quet, and at the side the gilt capital of a column. At the top of the picture appears an arc of tinted light, like a faint rainbow. There is certainly sufficient variety and playful fantasy in this warm mass of humanity.
In contrast with the brown painting of Jordaens' small picture and the warm glow of his large one, all the other works in the hall lack colour or force; beside their strength and action the rest are impotent and empty. Van Thulden's, the best of them, is a weak Rubens in form and a
watered one in colour; dressed up and powdered, it tends towards the insipid beauty of a wax figure. Honthorst, who deserves mention after van Thulden, is in his large picture, The marriage of the Prince", fine in composition but dull in colour. In his ..Landing of " ■ - ■■■ 22
TIME MOWING DOWN SLANDER
(The House in the Wood, The Hague).
170
THE YOUNG BACCHUS.
Prince William and his Consort" he is bright, but porcelain-like in tone and far-fetched in conception. De Grebber is comparatively heavy; hard and flat in his painting. Salomon de Bray is even more flat and dull, with figures blurred in features and without movement. As pale as the others is Soutman, in whom we still recognize a relationship with the school of Rubens though inferior in strength and faded in colour. Jordaens dominates all. When we enter the hall, it seems as if the sun, rising from out his gigantic picture, evokes for our delight, as by a wondrous alchemy, beauties created in a world finer and brighter than our own. When the door is closed behind us we carry away a vision that is indelibly impressed upon our memory.
The painter used none of the elements of his masterpiece in any of his other pictures, either earlier or later. The only figure in it which we find repeated elsewhere is the goodly
VIGNETTE WITH AN OLD WOMAN — Drawing (Albertina, Vienna).
young charioteer. Though not in the same role, he reappears in the same shape in a young Bacchus, painted about the same time, which belongs to the writer. Jordaens painted this God of wine repeatedly; but nowhere else has he represented him so seductively. Bacchus is seen from the waist up, with breast and left arm bare. His right shoulder and arm are draped with red; his face is beardless; on his long, wavy locks rests a crown of vine leaves. From the youthful god against the dark background radiate light and laughter, and wine has made him merry. Jordaens was here impressed by the beneficent effect of the potent draught, which makes men and gods forget all sorrow and transports them to a dreamland of delight. On the young, healthy, rosy face, a tender emotion, — the feeling of contentment with himself and all the world, — is reproduced in the most alluring way. The creator of so many strongly characteristic faces, on which hateful or abstruse thoughts are to be read, wished for once to interpret the feeling of jovial ease and content, and
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did so in a really masterly way. The flesh is firm, with bluish reflections in the shadows; the features are firmly drawn, yet without the slightest hardness. On neck and breast are a few wrinkles, clearly visible but not exaggerated. The picture came from the Foulon sale (Antwerp, 1900). The model is evidently the youth who posed for the charioteer in the Triumph of Frederick Henry; he has the same curly head and full cheeks, and the same rich and tender flesh on arms and breast.
This was not the only Bacchus which Jordaens painted. Similar pictures appear at different sales: now it is a young Bacchus, seen in half-length, his head crowned with vine leaves, at the Richardt sale (Rotterdam, 1882); again, a Bacchus with a panther-hide and dish (Hubert Duster sale, Cologne, 1886); a corpulent Bacchus crowned with vine leaves, holding a beaker in his right hand (Schwarzschild sale, Cologne, 1882); or a Bacchus crowned with vine leaves, covered with a panther-skin, and holding a golden cup in the left hand, while with the right hand he accepts a rummer offered him by a satyr, (Joh. Jac. Claessen sale, Cologne, 1887); and many others.
Francois Lucus engraved a Bacchus with drapery over the shoulder and a vine tendril round the waist. He is drunk, and holds out a beaker to a satyr, seated beside him and drinking from it. On one side stands a table with oysters, lobsters, wine and glasses. On the farther side of the table is a venerable man, extending his hands, shocked at the sight of the drunken god. Against the satyr lies a tigress nursing three cubs. From below the chair on which Bacchus sits appears the head of a satyr.
A Bacchus with Ceres and Cupid, followed by a goat, and marching to the notes of a flute, appeared at the A. H. sale and the Houyet sale (Brussels 1864 and 1887); a Bacchus, Ceres and Venus at the J. de Nooy sale (Haarlem, 1811). *
CHAPTER VII.
Jordaens' Etchings — Engravings after his Pictures — Tapestries after his Cartoons — His Drawings — His Sketches.
Etchings. The Flight into Egypt. — In 1652 Jordaens was taken with a desire to etch. He made seven plates, all bearing this date. We shall describe them, at the same time examining the relation that exists between them and his known pictures.
The first is The Flight into Egypt. The Virgin is seated on an ass; her Child on her arm leans its little head against her breast. Round her head is wound a cloth hanging loose on one side, while her straw hat hangs down her back. St. Joseph leads the ass by a rope. He carries over his shoulder a kind of saw, shaped like a scythe bent the wrong way; and from it hangs a basket of carpenter's tools. The group approaches straight towards the spectator. On the road-side we notice to the right three palm trees and to the left other plants. The etching is gray in tone, and must have bitten badly. Jordaens has strengthened it in several places with the graver, — in the hair and feet of Mary, the head, hands and legs, and the drapery of Joseph, on the ass's back, and various other passages.
The composition differs entirely from the paintings of the same subject that are known to us, as described earlier (see p. 106).
CHRIST APPEARS AS A GARDENER
Drawing (Mr. Fairfax Murray, London).
Christ expelling the Merchants from the Temple. — A second etching treating New Testament story represents Christ expelling the merchants from the Temple. This is a subject painted by Jordaens in one of his masterpieces, now in the Louvre, and as that picture is his principal version of it, we must describe it here.
CHRIST EXPELLING THE MERCHANTS.
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The scene is the forecourt of the Temple, a majestic marble building with golden ornaments, columns, arcades, and niches. To the right we have a view of a sunny sky with silvery clouds. Jesus, offended by the sight of the traders and usurers, lifts his arm to drive them out. They are overcome with fear. In the centre of the picture is a money- changer, screaming with fright and falling backwards over his chair, bringing down his table with him; another lies sprawling on his back. A fat, fair peasant-woman, with a straw hat on her head and a child in her arm, bends laughingly forward, intent on seeing all that is going on. Not less curious are an old woman with spectacles on her nose, employed in lifting a cock out of a coop, and a third peasant-woman clasping a brass milk-
CHRIST EXPELLING THE MONEY-CHANGERS FROM THE TEMPLE - Drawing (Museum, Brunswick).
can in her arms. A peasant with a satyr-like expression, holding an ass by the head, stands open-mouthed; another, bare-backed, crouches upon the ground. At the extreme left is a negro with a donkey; on the right-hand side a woman with a basket of fruit on her head makes off laughing. Three men beside her look on curious and astonished, while a boy stoops down to close a coop. Among these figures appear oxen, sheep, dogs, and pigeons In the upper left-hand corner of the picture are two priests, spectators of the scene; and other two are standing nearer the centre, in a balcony from which hangs a red piece of tapestry; a man more to the right has climbed upon the pedestal of a column, to get a
better view.
It is a scene of unprecedented commotion: bustle without confusion; the most diver- sified gestures and contradictory sensations, - fright and fear in those who are overthrown, alarm in those who are threatened; women amused, men curious or annoyed. Christ is
174 CHRIST EXPELLING THE MERCHANTS.
especially remarkable : his face is grave and sad, without hatred or deep emotion ; he per- forms a high mission, calmly, like a judge who punishes sacrilege. But to represent a page of Biblical history in an edifying way, and to impress the spectators with the high signifi- cance of the purifying of the religious sense here accomplished by the Saviour, was not Jordaens' intention. In this episode he found a subject after his heart, — a scene from the life of the people, with men and women of all conditions, and particularly of the lower classes, giving vent to their feelings without restraint, with shouting and laughing, quarreling, and roaring, to their hearts' content; while among them, as supernumeraries, appear animals, furnishing the scene with their beautiful bright fur and feather; and behind all, grand and magnificent buildings which lend something of their monumental character to the whole scene, and raise a common brawl to the importance of an historic episode. The „t)iogenes in the market-place of Athens" had already furnished him with similar material, — the life of the people, of more importance than the Greek philosopher.
Scriptural scenes were often treated in this popular way, but the conception had never before been clad in so brilliant a form. In an extravagant fashion the painter throws a warm, soft light over everything, causing men, animals, and buildings to radiate with a rich glow, and to live in a laughing tumult. Vivid colours contribute their jubilant notes: the red drapery of Christ; the white chemise and yellow skirt of the woman with the basket of fruit on her head; the men to the right in gray, white, and yellow draperies, and the nude flesh to the left. Thin flowing shadows glide everywhere; they hover caressingly round the bodies, and bring variety into the brightness, hiding nothing, but showing up everything. The Christ in heavy cool-gray shadow and slate-blue garment, and the stumbling man in darker tones, make a line of separation between the two large luminous groups which fill the canvas on either side. It may be remarked here that Jordaens was fond of placing these cool blue-gray or dark-green figures in the centre of his large canvases, such as we find in the Negro King in the Adoration of the Wise Men at Diksmude, and in The Twelve-year-old Christ among the Scribes in the Museum at Mentz.
It seems to me, judging from the softness of the painting, that the picture must date from before 1652 and has to be ranked among the works of the Forties. There is still a certain affectation in the lighting, as seen especially in the gloomy shadow which falls on Christ, the peasant woman with the brass milk-can, and the screaming child. But besides these unnatural figures, how many more natural ones there are ! The merry peasant woman with the basket of fruit on her head, for example; the grey old man to the right in his bright yellow drapery, looking on curiously; the old woman with the fowls, the priests higher up; they are all masterpieces. It strikes one that the man in the centre falling backwards corresponds almost exactly with the Calvin in The Last Judgment which hangs close by in the same hall.
Jordaens simplified the scene greatly in his etching. The main idea and most of the groups remain the same, but there is scarcely a personage unchanged. Christ acts in a much more effectual way than in the painting: he bends forward to strike, and it is his hand which upsets the table of the money-changer. One salesman is seen anxiously catching hold of his basket of ducks; some others are busied with their sheep and goats; to the right are two priests; to the left two men belonging to the populace; in the background a peasant leans against one of his horned cattle; a man has climbed upon the pedestal of a column to get a better view; the woman with the basket of fruit moves off on the left- two does bark at Christ. ' &
PIETA. 175
The Brunswick Museum possesses a drawing in which Jordaens has hastily sketched „Jesus expelling the merchants from the temple". The action is the same, but again all the personages have been altered. Christ is armed with a whip, before which several traders take flight with uplifted arms. In the upper part men are looking on from a window and from the pedestals of the columns; down below stand a man leaning on his stick, and the woman with the basket of fruit, who here, however, carries a child as well.
We know of another drawing, through the lithograph of Villain. Again the composition is quite different. Here, also, Christ upsets the table of the moneychanger; two ducks take to flight, and farther off a peasant woman puts up her arms to catch a third as it flies away; a dog barks at Christ. In the foreground are goats, sheep, and horned cattle.
We also find mention made of a drawing in black chalk on a yellow ground, heightened with white, lithographed by Mauzaisse; this, however, we have not had the good fortune to see. (1)
Pieta. — A third subject from Biblical history treated by Jordaens in his etchings of 1652 is The Dead Christ. The picture is in the church of the Begijnhof at Antwerp, for which it was painted.
Christ lies stretched along the ground, his head and shoulders resting in his mother's lap, one arm thrown across her knee. Mary is seated, weeping,, and lifting a kerchief towards her face. Behind her, to the left, is a woman clasping her hands together with a despairing gesture. Magdalen kneels on the right and points to the wound in one of Christ's hands. Behind her is an old woman holding a copper basin and making ready to wash the dead body; and behind her, again, are three men, John, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, standing beside the cross. John, with a sad gesture, lifts his hand towards his chin; one of the two others leans with his arm on a rung of the ladder placed against the upright of the cross. The body of Christ is emaciated; a pale light falls on it, slate-blue shadows lie on the curves of the breast, and darker tints on the lower parts of the legs. The shadows on the figures of the women, also, are blue-gray, except those on the one carrying the basin, which are copper-brown. On the men, also, fall dark-gray or coppery shadows. The light-effect is ashy-pale; the whole is a scene of sorrow and mute mourning. The picture was certainly not painted before 1652. It reminds us more of the works of Jordaens' later period, and we must assume that he painted everything here in a sad, dark tone," the better to interpret the mood of the scene. The picture lias suffered by repainting, and never was a work of great value.
The only difference between the picture and the etching lies in a few small details. On the canvas appear neither the arm of the cross nor the angels, hovering mournfully in the air, as in the etching, where the man leaning against the cross is seen better. In it Magdalen points towards the foot, not the hand, of Christ; the gesture of the weeping woman to the left is different, and the arrangement of the details on the ground is altered. But as a whole the scene is the same, and it would seem that the etching was made after or at the same time as the picture.
A pen-drawing by Jordaens, washed in ink and corresponding with his etching of the Dead Christ, was sold at the Van de Zande sale (Paris, 1855).
Four of Jordaens' etchings of 1652 deal with subjects taken from Mythology. First,
(1) WlEGEL, Die Werken der Maler in ihren Handzeichnungen, No. 3927.
176
ENGRAVINGS AFTER JORDAENS.
Jupiter fed with the milk of the goat Amalthea, which we mentioned on p. 86; then Mercury preparing to cut off Argus' head, discussed on p. 143; further, Jupiter and Io, and Cacus abducting the cows of Hercules. In the last but one we see Jupiter seated in the centre of the scene amid a landscape, his eagle beside him; he pulls the drapery away from the faintly resisting Io. On a cloud, higher up, is seated Juno, with her peacock, regarding with great indignation her erring husband. The last work represents Cacus, who has caught a cow by its tail, trying to force it backwards ; the animal refuses to obey, and has thrown itself on the ground. A couple of cows and a boy are standing to the right; six figures looking on from a height, a woman with a little child on her arm, and a little dog, are standing behind Cacus. These two are the best among Jordaens' etchings, and
JUPITER AND IO (After an Etching by Jordaens).
of neither of them has any painted version come down to us. A drawing of the second subject appeared at the Wouters sale (Brussels, 1797), and Jordaens made use of the composition in a design for one of the „Proverbs" series of tapestries bearing the title Ex puteo vaccam cauda trahit ecce magister. („The master pulls the cow by its tail out of the pit"). It is very probable that Jordaens treated this subject in a picture which remains unknown to us.
Two other etchings, both undated, are attributed to Jordaens, - a Saturn devouring his children and a Sleeping Bacchus. A drawing of the first appeared at the Wouters sale.
Engravings after works by Jordaens. - Most of the great engravers of Rubens'
ENGRAVINGS AFTER JORDAENS.
177
school made plates after works by Jordaens, and among these we find more than one master- piece. Some of them throw important lights upon the painter's history.
The engraving of The Peasant and the Satyr bears the name of Lucas Vosterman and his customary monogram (see p. 18); it is not certain, however, whether it was the work of the father or of the son. The time of its origin, and Sandrart's statement that the plate was cut by Lucas Vosterman (without intentionally mentioning the son), leads us to con- clude that it was by the elder and more famous of the two; its rather coarse style reminds us, on the other hand, more of the younger, though this is scarcely a sufficiently weighty argument for attributing the work to him.
Schelte a Bolswert made several plates after Jordaens: ,4s the Old Cock crows, already mentioned on p. 75, which was engraved after the painting in Antwerp Museum ; Mercury
It XerJtn
CACUS STEALING HERCULES' OXEN (After an Etching by Jordaens).
drawing his sword to kill Argus, referred to on p. 143, engraved after the picture in the Museum of Lyons; Jupiter and the goat Amalthea, after the Louvre picture (p. 86); and Christ on the Cross, discussed by us on p. 14, which reproduces, in a greatly modified form, the painting in the Tierninck School at Antwerp. It has to be remarked, that none of the other engravings is an absolutely faithful reproduction of a painting, a fact which makes us suspect that Jordaens superintended Bolswert's work, and retouched the original
for the engraver.
Other subjects engraved by the same hand are Silenus with a horn-blower and A Nymph and Pan with goats and sheep. In the first, Silenus stands in the centre holding in front of him a basket with vine tendrils; a nymph crowned with cornflowers and ears of corn lays her arm on his shoulder; on the other side stands a man, blowing a horn. Sometimes
J 23
i 7 8
ENGRAVINGS AFTER JORDAENS.
the picture is called Pan and Ceres. Pictures with a similar subject appeared at the Pom- mersfeld sales (Wurzburg, 1857 and Paris 1867), and the Randon de Boisset sale (Paris 1797). In the exhibition of Jordaens' works in 1905 there was a picture representing the same group, belonging to Mrs. Paul Parmentier van Knocke; a somewhat hot painting, dating from about 1640, the horn-blower powerful, Silenus woolly. The Print Room at Berlin pos- sesses a drawing after it with the inscription „Flora, Silenus and Zephyrus, 1639." The first two names fit two of the figures; but to indentify the man blowing the horn Vith „Zephyrus" seems rather rash. Yet, in view of the date of the inscription, we may take it that Jordaens himself gave the group the title which it bears in the drawing. In the Stockholm exhibition, 1893, there appeared a similar work belonging to the Countess de la Gardie at Helsingborg. Besides the three personages, we see in it an old woman warming her hands over a chafing-dish which she holds in front of her, and a young boy offering fruit to Silenus. The picture came from the Crozat and Poullain collections, at Paris, and that of Count G. A. Sparre in Sweden. At the Jan Adriaan Snyers sale (Antwerp, .1818), another example
appeared; and Mr. William Grieve, Eastland, Scot- land, also possesses one. Pan with goats and sheep was engraved by Schelte a Bolswert after a picture which is at pre- sent in the Rijks Museum at Amsterdam. A young satyr is seated on the ground, playing a flute which he holds with both hands. His laughing face is turned towards the spectator; his head is crowned with vine ten- drils. In front of him stands a goat, and two sheep and a ram are lying a little distance off. A landscape forms the background. In the engraving we notice, besides the two sheep and the ram, a second goat. The painting is coarse. Heavy dark-gray shadows lie on the back and arms of the satyr. His face is jolly, but not fine in expression; the animals are feebly painted and really are not worthy of the master. There is something in the composition which reminds one of The Upbringing of Jupiter in the Louvre, but the Amsterdam picture is so inferior to the other in execution, that it is doubtful whether Bolswert really took it as the model for his engraving.
Schelte a Bolswert died in 1659, so that the works engraved by him must date from before that year.
Pontius engraved The Flight into Egypt, which we mentioned on page 106- it repro- duces the principal group of the picture in the possession of Mrs. Bosschaert-Dubois at
PAN WITH SHEEP AND A GOAT (Rijks Museum, Amsterdam).
ENGRAVINGS AFTER JORDAENS. 179
Antwerp. He also engraved the subject The King drinks, which we discussed on page 73. Pontius died in 1658.
Marinus, who died as early as 1639, engraved The Martyrdom of St. Apollonia, in the Augustine Church at Antwerp, described on page 39, which was painted in 1628; and The Adoration of the Shepherds, discussed on page 17, after a painting which is unknown to us. He also executed a Christ before Caiaphas. The Saviour is being led before the High Priest by a band of soldiers and servants. One of these (naked, save for a waist-cloth) has seized Christ's hair with one hand, and with the other grasps the cord that binds the Saviour; a soldier in armour pushes his fist threateningly into his face. He is surrounded by the populace, some of whom are shouting and throwing up their hands. Caiaphas has risen from his seat, rending his garments, and crying, „He has blasphemed God". At the High Priest's feet is a dog, and in the background a sumptuous ecclesiastical building.
There is an engraving by Jacob Neefs of Christ before Pilate which greatly resembles this Christ before Caiaphas of Marinus. In it the Saviour is being brought before the Roman Governor by the same two men as lead him before the High Priest in the other. The naked one holds him by his hair and the cord, and the soldier also grasps the cord, but does not theaten him. There are two soldiers behind Christ, and on the other side stand the Pharisees, his accusers. Pilate, in the background, has risen from his seat. The original paintings from which both engravings were made are unknown.
At the Pierre Wouters sale (Brussels, 1797) appeared a drawing which was described as „Jesus Christ before Pirate, an oval, composed of 19 figures, with black, red, and white chalk, and washed". The drawing differs from Neefs' engraving, which is an upright. A drawing at the Gildemeester sale (Amsterdam, 1800) represented Christ, handcuffed, standing between two soldiers before Caiaphas, and being mocked by the Jewish scribes. It is executed with the pen, and washed with ink, and coloured. The composition differs considerably from that of the engraving. At the Habich sale (Cassel, 1892) appeared a drawing, dated 1652, representing The Mocking of Christ. Our Lord sits naked in the midst of his perse- cutors. One soldier pulls tight the cords with which he is bound, while another looks on with a mocking expression.
Jacob Neefs also engraved a Peasant and Satyr which differs considerably from. any of the painted examples; we have described this engraving on page 22. He engraved a Vanity also. A young woman with loose-hanging locks holds a comb in her hand, and looks in a mirror held in front of her by a jester; while an old man shows her a skull which he
iVANITY. Drawing (Mr. Fairfax Murray, London).
i8o
ENGRAVINGS AFTER JORDAENS.
has in his hand. There is in existence an old print of this engraving with the inscription „Nosce te ipsum", and a Latin verse of four lines. At the James Hazard sale (Brussels, 1789) appeared a drawing which corresponds to this engraving; it belongs now to Mr. Fairfax Murray, London. Another version of the same subject, similarly treated, was seen at the Loquet sale (Amsterdam, 1783). In the Catalogue of the Chapuis sale (Brussels, 1865) mention is made of „A young woman holding a skull."
Finally, Neefs engraved a Love Scene. A shepherdess, elegantly dressed in city fashion, is seated against a rock covered with trees and calabash plants; she wears a straw hat, and carries in her hand a shepherd's crook. About her are grouped four sheep. Corydon kneels before her with his hand on his heart, declaring his love; he also carries a crook. She turns her head away from her suitor, and with a gesture of refusal rejects his love. The painting from which the engraving was made is unknown to us. The work is unlike a Jordaens; and this is true also of the drawing representing the same subject in the Albertina. Jordaens treated this theme of a shepherd and shepherdess several times. The Print- room at Berlin possesses a drawing in colours, in which a shepherd leans on a goat while a shepherdess pours out milk for him. On an elevation in the background we notice sheep and a goat. At the Miss Regaus sale (Brussels, 1775), the Horion sale (Brussels, 1788), and the Gooris sale (Mechlin, 1844), appeared paintings of the same subject.
Peter de Jode, the youn- ger, engraved an Adoration of the Shepherds. To the right the Virgin kneels before the manger in which lies the child, whom she holds with both hands. Behind her stands St. Joseph, lifting his hat; beside him is the ass. In front of Mary an old woman is kneeling, and a shepherdess, carrying a basket of eggs, is offering her a duck. Behind her is a child with an egg in its hand. There are also a dog, an old shepherd carrying a lamb; and, more in the back- ground, a shepherdess with a milk-can on her head, an ox, and four shepherds looking on at the scene. Above float three angels carrying a scroll with an inscription. The Louvre possesses the drawing from which this engraving was made. It is executed in broad lines, and washed in with ink, heightened here and there with white and bistre. The work is very similar to that in the Antwerp Museum, in which, however, three of the shepherds are wanting.
Peter de Jode, the younger, also engraved The Miracle of St. Martin discussed on page 41. There is a slight difference in the background between the painting and the engraving. He also did a Jester-couple. A man in priest's clothing holds in one hand an owl on a crutch to which he points with the other; a young woman, whose cap sits
SHEPHERD AND SHEPHERDESS. Drawing (Print-room, Berlin).
TAPESTRIES. 181
rather foolishly over her comical face, lays one arm on the shoulder of the father, and points at him with her finger. We look at them through a window. Below it we read the following rhyme:
Al syn wy maar met ons twee, Doch ons geslacht is sterck, Sy draeghen niet ons kleedt, Maar sy doen oock het zelve werck.
The meaning of these lines is that the world is full of owls and fools, who, though they look different from the personages in the group, are yet no wiser than they are.
Alexander Voet also engraved the Jester Scene which we discussed on page 82.
Nicolas Lauwers (1600—1652) engraved The History of Philemon and Baucis. Jupiter and Mercury are seated at a table, both nude except for a cloth about the waist. Philemon approaches with a basket of fruit; Baucis stands on the other side of the table, beside Mercury; in the foreground a goose runs away cackling. The work in its style reminds one greatly of Rubens. He, or rather one of his pupils, painted the same story after a different fashion in a work, now in the Imperial Museum at Vienna, which at one time was ascribed to Jordaens. There is in the Helsingfors Museum a painting byjordaens that cor- responds with Lauwer's engraving.
A work representing the same subject appeared at the Jan Agges sale (Amsterdam. 1702) ; at two anonymous sales (Amsterdam, April 27, 1713 and April 2, 1751); and in the Count Andre de Stolberg sale (Soeder-Hanover, 1859). A sketch was sold at the Conrath von Siegburg sale (Brussels, 1901). The British Museum possesses a drawing after it, faintly coloured.
Another version of the same subject was engraved by P. Gladitsch. Jupiter sits to the left, and Mercury behind the table. In the foreground we notice Baucis catching hold of the escaping goose. A lamp hangs from the ceiling. The picture after which the engraving was made is unknown to us.
Tapestries : Proverbs, Horses, Rural Scenes. — We mentioned earlier in this work that at the beginning of his career Jordaens executed designs for tapestries in watercolours (see p. 9); and throughout it he repeatedly made such cartoons, either in watercolours or in oils. On September 22, 1644, he entered into an agreement with Frans van Cophem (or van Cotthem), Jan Cordys, and Boudewijn van Beveren to deliver designs for „a chamber- tapestry, figured-work, — namely, certain figurative Proverbs, such as he might consider suitable, for 8 guilders an ell".
On July 30, 1652, Jordaens delivered to Signor Carlo Vinck a „ chamber-tapestry of large horses". The designs for these tapestries had already been sent to Hamburg on the 5 th of July, 1651 as samples, by the Antwerp tapestry merchant Frans Smit. They were described thus : „Item, two pieces of paper designs of Horses in Action, painted by Jordaens, the one of eight rolls and the other of nine rolls, at six hundred guilders each piece." On November 18, 1654, the Antwerp merchant, Jan de Backer, gave the Brussels tapestry weavers Hendrik Rydams and Everaard Leyniers a commission for „a chamber of fine tapestries, Brussels work, of seven pieces, six ells deep, of Large Horses, after the patterns painted by Jordaens, containing three hundred and sixty ells in all, of the same quality as a
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TAPESTRIES.
chamber, made after the same pattern, delivered to Signor Carlo Vinck, July 30, 1652" There was to be no gold woven into this work; and the weavers were paid at the rate of
16 guilders a square ell. (1)
Frans van Cotthem, Jan Cordijs, and Boudewijn van Bevere were three Brussels tapestry weavers. The first named did not himself weave any of the pieces in question; the second, who signed himself Cardys, wove three, and the third the five others. In 1647 the complete set was bought by the Arch-Duke Leopold-Wilhelm, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1646 to 1656, for the sum of 4610 guilders, 12* stuivers. When he returned to Vienna, he took them with him, together with his valuable collection of pictures and other works of art. They are to-day in the possession of Prince Schwarzenberg, at his
THE MASTER PULLS THE COW OUT OF THE WELL
(Tapestry from the ..Proverbs" series, Prince Schwarzenberg, Frauenberg Castle).
castle of Frauenberg in Bohemia; he lent them in 1905 to the Exhibition of the works of of Jordaens, held in Antwerp. The series bears the name „The Proverbs", although all the pieces do not, as a matter of fact, represent proverbs. For them, Jordaens made use of several compositions which he had already painted, altering them here and there. Among these were some representing proverbs; but others treated subjects of quite a different nature to which he applied popular aphorisms. The works are all 3.75 m. high, but differ in breadth. The largest measures 5.85 m. in breadth, the others 5.35 m., 4.56 m., 4.60 m., 460 m., 4.45 m., 3.75 m. and 3.55 m.
(1) F. JOS. van DEN Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool. P. 826—827. The name of the first of the three Brussels weavers is written „van Cophem" by van den Branden ; in Alf Wauters : Les tapisseries Bruxelloises he is called „van Cotthem" The third one signs his tapestries of Proverbs, Cardys, and is called by Wauters: Cordys, Cordeys, Courdys, Coredys,
TAPESTRIES. 183
The largest piece bears the title: Ingens est usura malum mala pestis in urbe („Usury is a great evil, a bad plague in the town"). For it Jordaens used the picture of St. ho, now in the Museum at Brussels, which he had painted in 1645, as we have described on p. 134. No doubt the painting was made at the time when the tapestry was to be woven.
The second of the „Proverbs" (taking them according to their size) bears the inscrip- tion: Ex puteo vaccam cauda trahit ecce magister („The master pulls the cow by its tail out of the well"). Jordaens had evidently made a painting of this subject also; but we do not know it. He reproduced it in the etching, of 1652, mentioned on p. 176, which bears the title: Hercules abducts the cows of Cacus. An old woman with a milk-can on the left and a cow to the right, which we find in the etching, are missing here.
The third, an oblong, is called : Quod cantant veteres tentat resonare juventus („As the old cock crows, the young ones learn"). The picture of 1638, at present in the Antwerp Museum, served him as a model for this piece; the figures in it are full-length; the wine- cooler with bottles in the foreground is missing.
One of the pieces (4.60 M. in breadth) bears the title: Natura paucis contenta („Nature is content with little"). Here Jordaens has made use of his picture The Peasant and the Satyr in the Museum at Brussels ; omitting, however, the satyr, for whom he has substituted two children, one eating grapes, the other placing a wreath of leaves round the neck of a goat. The figures are full-length. Mr. Fairfax Murray owns a drawing of the same subject, executed in the form of tapestry. (See page 20).
The second piece of the same breadth bears the title: Oculus Domini pascit equum („The eye of the master makes the horse fat"). Jordaens chose his picture The Negro bringing his master's horse, now in the Cassel Museum, which we discussed op p. 135, to represent this proverb.
For the subject for the next piece (4.45 m. in breadth): Male partum, male dilabitur („Badly earned, badly spent"), Jordaens took some of the figures from The Merry Meal, belonging to the Duke of Abercorn, described on page 149. The majority of the figures in this tapestry differ considerably from those of the painting, and also from those of the drawing of the same subject (see page 56) belonging to Mr. Delacre at Ghent.
The piece (3.75 m. broad) called: Qui amat periculum peribit in eo („He that loves danger shall perish by it") represents the same scene as the picture in the possession of Mr. van Steengracht at the Hague, and as the drawing, The Pitcher goes once too often to the well, now belonging to the Museum Plantin-Moretus, prepared for a tapestry, and dated 1638. (See page 93).
The last and smallest of all : Optime faces praelucent („To be good candles they must give a good light") represents a woman with an ordinaal in her hand; in front of her stands Cupid; to the right are too men, one of whom is carrying a candle; to the left a woman, also holding a candle, and a boy blowing the fire with a pair of bellows. On page 84 we mentioned a drawing belonging to Mr. Rodrigues, which treats the same subject in a different way, and bears the inscription : To be good candles they must give a good light. The meaning of this proverb, which has fallen into disuse, is not very clear, and we ourselves should be glad to have a candle that would throw a little light upon it. Very probably it means that it is no good having a candle it we hide its light.
All these subjects are set between flowered columns at the side and festoons of flowers at the top; in the lower part is introduced some object applicable to the proverb illustrated:
1 84
TAPESTRIES.
thus, in the picture of the usurer, a basket with valuables; in the picture of the master pulling out the cow, two milk cans and a milk-pail; in As the old cock crows the young ones learn, a cooler with bottles ; in the picture Nature is content with little, a caduceus with fruit; in the next, objects from the stables, — a bridle, a curry-comb, a basket with oats and grass; in the piece, Badly earned, badly spent, a cooler with bottles; in the one following that, an owl and a shell; in the last, a lantern, a quiver and a shield.
In 1666, on the occasion of his marriage with Margaretha-Theresia of Spain, Leopold I, Emperor of Austria, bought a series of eight pieces, entitled : „The Riding-School of Louis XIII of France". These were woven by Hendrik Rydams and Everaard Leyniers, both of Brussels, after designs by Jordaens. The Viennese merchant Bartholomeus Triangl supplied them for
8237 guilders. One ell cost 22£ guilders; so that the whole work must have measured about 370 square ells. No doubt this series was one of the samples of „large horses", ordered by Carlo Vinck in 1652, and by Jan de Backer in 1654, or a third sample of the same series. All the tapestries of this set are 4.10 m. in height and 3.82 to 6.65 m. in breadth. The subjects are :
I. „Neptune creating the horse with his trident". To the left are river-gods on the shore of the sea ; to the right Venus and Amor in a chariot.
II. King Henry IV of France and his wife Marie de Medicis to whom Cupids bring two horses.
III. King Louis XIII, to the right, making his horse curvet.
IV. A similar subject.
V. King Louis XIII, whose horse turns to the left; behind
him his equerry, and a little love-god.
VI. The same scene; the horse turns towards the right. Behind the king, Mercury, bringing up a horse.
VII. To the right the young prince mounts a horse; an equerry in Roman costume stands behind him.
VIII. The same subject; the horse leaps towards the left. On that side is an equerry in Roman costume.
Rydams wove Nos. II and V; Lyniers the other six. (1)
We know of another series of eight tapestries, the designs for which were supplied
c .„ (1) '™Tnu d u i " l / esitze des AllerhOchsten Kaiserhauses befindlichen Niederlander Tapeten und Gobelins von Dr Ernst Ritter von Birk (jahrbuch der Kuisthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhochsten Kaiserhauses I 245).
„THEY ARE GOOD CANDLES THAT LIGHT US OUR WAY"
(Tapestry from the Proverbs series, Prince Schwarzenberg,
Frauenberg Castle).
{aff.Jfrdmt fkxie.
TAPESTRIES. 185
by Jordaens. A sample of the fabrics is also in the Imperial palace at Vienna. (1) They are described as having been made after the designs of Jacob Jordaens and Jan Fyt; but we see no reason for adding the second name. Jordaens did not require assistance in the painting of animals. The tapestries in question bear the trade-mark of Brussels and the monograms of two weavers ; one of these monograms is composed of the letters B. V. Q. 0. N. R., the other of the letters H. N. R. The last perhaps stands for the name of Hendrik Rydams; but it is impossible to construct out of the former letters the name of any weaver known to us. It may possibly stand for: van den Brugge.
The tapestries bear the title Scenes from Rural Life. They represent:
I. A hunter, seated, surrounded by a pack of hounds; trees and water in the background.
II. A hunter on horseback, a falcon on his fist, returning from the hunt. Behind him an old forester, surrounded by dogs, and carrying the dead game over his shoulder.
III. The interior of a kitchen, with a supply of victuals. An old man brings a roe-buck to the cook. To the left a peacock looking at a dead swan.
IV. Behind a balustrade covered with tapestry sits a gentleman playing the lute. Beside him a fair lady with a fan in her hand.
V. The same gentleman and fair lady are seated in a summer-house ; behind her is an old woman. A young man-servant offers her a glass on a dish, and holds the tankard in his left hand.
VI. A maid feeding fowls, a hunting-dog at her side. A beautiful peacock sits on a stick.
VII. A poultry-yard. A girl chases away a peacock from the gate on which it is sitting. The fowls fly to the stables from two stooping falcons.
VIII. A night-piece. Over a half-door we see a maid with a light in her hand. An old man with his arm round her. In the foreground a woman carrying a basket of fruit. On a low trestle lies a peacock and other birds.
The pieces average 3.80 m. high and between 2.63 and 5.30 m. broad.
Samples of Nos. II, III, IV, V, VI, were exhibited at Brussels in 1880 by Mr. Braquenie of Paris, and were afterwards sold and taken to America.
The British Museum possesses a drawing in water-colour of No. II. The scene is framed, like tapestry work, between columns which carry an architrave from which game is
suspended.
Other drawings and paintings, without conforming entirely with the executed tapestries, evidently served as studies for them; or, at any rate, treated the same subjects.
No I. represents the same scene as the picture in the Museum at Lille of a hunter and a dog, described on page 49. This picture was painted as early as 1625.
The Louvre possesses a drawing (No. 20024) in brown on black, in which are seen a male and a female cook in a store-room. He carries a roe-buck, she a basket of fruit. To the right we notice a table, on which are lying birds of various sorts and sizes; under the table is a dog. The scene is bordered on the right and left by columns carrying festoons of fruit. It was evidently a study for a tapestry. Its similarity with No. Ill is striking.
Mr. Delacre of Ghent possesses a drawing in which five persons are represented standing under an arch, behind a balustrade; an old man plays the flute, a woman a guitar a gentleman the violin, and two women are singing. From the balustrade is suspended "a piece of tapestry; in front of it a dog and a monkey are seated. (See
(1) Idem, II. 205.
i86
TAPESTRIES.
page 113). The subject is the same as the one in No, IV of the tapestry work Rural Life, At the Geelhand de Labistrate sale (Antwerp, 1878) Mr. Rene della Faille bought a large painting, in which two sparrow-hawks are attacking fowls. The cock runs about in great terror. In the background a boy rushes forward to drive away the enemy. The boy has been painted by Jordaens, the fowls by Paul de Vos. The scene reminds us strongly of No. VII in Rural Life, There exist various versions of the subject of No. VIII. First, an excellent painting belonging to the Museum at Glasgow. There we notice to the left, through a window, a man standing within, taking a girl in his arms, and laughing fondly at her. The girl holds a lighted candle in one hand, and with the other gives a basket of fruit to a woman standing outside,
HUNTER RETURNING FROM THE CHASE (Drawing for Tapestry, „Rural Life" series, Albertina, Vienna).
who takes it and smiles towards the lookers-on; to the right, outside, sits a parrot on a stick. The female figure is among the finest pieces of work Jordaens ever executed: it realizes in a dignified way his ideal of womanhood. She is all strength and health; merriment shines on her face, and her eyes sparkle with roguishness. She has a fine head and firm limbs; with her white chemise, her blue petticoat, and especially with her bare arm, which runs like a stripe through the scene, she stands out in intense sunlight against the back- ground, which is thrown into a dull, warm glow by the candle-light. The fair skin warmed and mellowed by the air and the sun, is marvellous in its fine colouring and in rendering the life which pulsates beneath it. Her dress, with sharply broken folds and rich hues, glitters with sunmness, and is touched here and there by the ruddy light of the candle, while the
TAPESTRIES. 187
shadows play sharply through the high tones. One cannot imagine a more powerful picture of animal spirits and vitality or a more harmonious combination of soft artificial illumination and the bright light of nature. At the exhibition of 1905, the picture was placed in the immediate neighbourhood of The Adoration of the Shepherds, belonging to Prince Lichnowsky, and Mr. Madsen's Meleager and Atalanta, and showed more clearly than ever before the advance which Jordaens had made between 1618 and 1650, about which time he painted his Fruit-vendor, as well as the way in which, while retaining all his strength, he had learned to refine and dissolve it into a velvety softness. The picture was at the Proli sale (Antwerp, 1785), and in the collections of Lucien Bonaparte and MacLellan. The woman is the same as in The Serenade, formerly in the Huybrechts col- lection, now the property of Mr. Leblon, and in Rustic Courtship, belonging to Mr. Emil Goldschmidt at Frankfort.
The Print-room in the Berlin Museum possesses a coloured drawing in chalk, in which the same subject is reproduced, with the woman full-size. Mr. Rump of Copenhagen possesses a rendering of the same subject in water-colour.
At the Habich sale (Cassel, 1899) there was a water-colour in which was seen a young woman carrying a basket of flowers; beside her lie dead poultry on a bench; in an open doorway in the background are two women. This drawing also reminds us strikingly of No. VIII of Rural Life, and is clearly a study for a tapestry design.
The two pictures in the possession of Mr. Alfons Cels at Brussels were very probably designed for tapestries. In the Catalogue of the pictures left by Jordaens, one piece (No. 105) is called A Fool with a picture of an Old man and a Young woman. It represents a group of three persons, behind a balustrade. An old man in a red mantle and wearing glasses is reading something from a book; he looks love-lorn, and somewhatioolish. Before him stands a coquettish young woman, lifting a lock of her hair with one hand, and looking in front of her abstractedly. In front of her, again, stands a fool leaning on the balustrade, and holding his fool's baton in his hand. He makes fun of the old love-sick man. A cat wriggles between the bars of the balustrade, spitting angrily. In the back-ground we see a building with an open window. The composition is no doubt by Jordaens, but the figures do not belong to the models whom he generally painted. Colour and light are meant to be pleasing, but they are rather soft, and it is allowable to express a doubt whether the work is by Jordaens.
A piece of a similar description appeared at various sales: the Mr. De Coninck— de Merckem sale (Ghent, 1856), the Werte sale (Paris, 1893), and the van Nancy sale (Brussels, 1899).
The second piece, belonging to the same owner, represents (according to the Catalogue of Jordaens' estate) A Boy and Girl. It has the same dimensions as the former, and is un- doubtedly a pendant to it. A page, in a red vest, dark breeches, white stockings, and yellow shoes, leaves a house, the door of which is standing open. He holds a dog by the collar, and raises a hand to salute some one whom we do not see. To the left is a maid- servant carrying a basket with mussels lying on a cloth. The background is formed by an arch round which we discover green foliage; at the top is a piece of green curtain. The execution is similar to that of the former picture.
The two subjects represented here might be called „The old Lover" and „The young Lover": the old man ridiculous and silly, the young one, full of life and charming. No doubt they formed part of a chamber decoration as the unusual proportions in height and
1 88
TAPESTRIES.
breadth prove. The Catalogue of Jordaens' estate mentions that they measure 6 feet in height and only 2 feet 10 inches in breadth (190 cm. by 87 cm.); and we conclude, therefore, that they were placed between the windows. In this Catalogue they bear the Nos. 102 and 105; Nos. 103 and 104 are also very narrow compared with their height: they are 11 feet by 4 feet, 4 inches; the first represents „A small balcony with youthful company", the second „The same, with a Moor and the figure of a woman". The subjects, therefore, are of a character similar to those of the canvases belonging to Mr. Cels, and evidently they were intended also for tapestries. The four together form a series of love scenes.
A similar subject is treated in a drawing belonging to Mr. Eugene Rodrigues, Paris. It is done in water-colours — yellow, black, green, blue and red, and represents a group of five persons: a young man playing the violoncello, a young woman with a guitar,
a cupid holding a page of music, and another carrying a torch; and a man leaning his head on one hand and holding a wine-jug in the other, while a rummer stands before him. In the foreground are musical instruments. Up at the top is the inscription Amor, Musica. The scene is bordered to the right and left by a framework and caryatids ; at the top are two little angels fixing the canvas on which the subject has been painted. There is no doubt that this drawing was a d esign for tapes- try, it shows a relationship, not only with the two preced- ing pieces but also with Nos. Ill and VI of Rural Life. Jordaens made other series of tapestry designs. At a sale in London in 1773 two designs appeared „with merry subjects". The British Museum possesses a drawing in water-colour of a similar nature: „A merry company in a boat". In the extreme background stands Mercury; in the boat are three couples, one standing, one sitting, and one taking their seats. A boatman pushes off from the shore; near him is a lute-player; the scene is represented on a stage with the curtain drawn back. Without doubt it was meant to be woven in tapestry. (See page 73).
The Print-room at St. Petersburg possesses the drawing of a~ tapestry cartoon, bearing the inscription :
Den Meert seer lange begeert Hij steeckt met synen steert Boreas die blaest hy maeckt Flerecyn gicht en tertiaen doen vergaen.
A MUSIC PARTY (Mons. Rodrigues, Paris).
TAPESTRIES. 189
The Print-room at Berlin, again, possesses a drawing in red and black chalk, representing Abraham offering up Isaac. The group is set in a framework decorated with angels and women, and was evidently intended to serve as a design for tapestry work.
It is very doubtful whether Jordaens made other patterns for real tapestries besides the three series which we possess in fabric. The other pieces just mentioned by us were most probably sketches for canvases painted in watercolours. We saw earlier that not one of these canvases in watercolour, painted by Jordaens, now exists; and it would have been difficult for us to form an idea of what they were like had not a set of them (used as wall-coverings and painted by some unknown hand) been preserved by a happy accident. This set is in the National Museum at Hanover, and represents a series of Biblical stories loosely brushed in on coarse canvas.
In Jordaens' estate at his death were 30 patterns or designs for tapestries which were bought by Signor Michiel Wauters, a dealer in tapestries. Wauters died within a year after Jordaens' death, on August 26, 1679, and in the estate left by him the designs were described as follows:
„The designs which the deceased aforesaid bought in the house of the late Signor Jourdaens, during his lifetime painter within this town of Antwerp, consisting of the following pieces:
„Where the Prophet is attacked by lions.
..Another ditto.
..Finding of Achilles by the counsel of Ulysses.
„One of the Anointments of the Prophet.
..Achilles wounded in the heel.
„The Death of Achilles.
„The Anointment of Jeroboam.
„The Banquet of the Gods.
„The dead Prophet.
„The offering.
..Charon and Minerva.
„The battle in which Neptune appears.
„The night-battle.
„The carnival.
..Emmaiis.
„An offering with music.
„A battle in which Jeroboam appears.
..Where the wife of Jeroboam comes to the prophet.
..Green, Battus and Mercury, twice.
.Jupiter and Callisto.
..Narcissus.
.Jupiter and Io.
„The milkmaid.
..Zephalus.
„The red shepherd.
..Salmacis and Hermaphroditus.
„The shepherd and his dog.
190
TAPESTRIES.
„Pan and Syrinx.
„A piece of green, without figures." (1).
It seems that among the thirty designs there are to be found different series or parts of series: thus six pieces belong to the history of Jeroboam, three to the history of Achilles, eleven to other Mythological subjects; five deal with subjects from every day life. Of the others the subject is not indicated distinctly enough to be able to class it with any par- ticular series. There are no pieces among them which correspond with any cartoons or
pictures made by Jordaens known to us otherwise ; there seems to be little doubt, however, that all these tape- stries were painted by him. Very likely they are early efforts, on canvas in water- colour.
Among the designs which this Michiel Wauters posses- sed, other than those be- longing to the 30 pieces bought in Jordaens' house, we find one „horses, consis- ting of eight pieces". Among his tapestries there was „a chamber tapestry, horses, coarse, four ells and a half deep, consisting of the fol- lowing pieces, to wit, one piece eight ells long, item a piece seven ells long, item a piece six ells long; item a piece five ells long; and two pieces each four ells long". One might feel inclined to identify these as a copy of Jordaens' „ Riding school of Louis XIII", were it not that the number and the measure- ments do not correspond with the tapestries of the Imperial court at Vienna.
Among the tapestries of Michiel Wauters we find mention made of The works of the Apostles in six pieces by an unknown artist. The numerous subjects taken from the His- tory ot the Apostles, which we find among Jordaens' drawings, incline us to believe that they belonged to a series of tapestries. We know of a „St. Paul and Ananias", and „A
VERITAS^DEI. Drawing (British Museum, London).
(1) F. JOS. VAN DEN BRANDEN, Verzameling van schilderijen te Antwerpen. Archives XXII, 32.
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1 Bv^^HHSI^QII
K^ WW" ill Hrfl
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■
TAPESTRIES.
191
man possessed, ill treating the sons of Sepha", in the Museum at Rotterdam; an „Apostle denouncing a king", which was at the Prince de Ligne sale (1791); „St. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra" in the Museum of the Academy at Vienna.
It is probable also that Jordaens painted a series of designs for tapestries representing scenes connected with the Victories of the Christian religion, after the manner of the Figures and Triumphs of the Holy Sacrament by Rubens. At the Pauwels sale (Brussels, 1814) appeared The Triumph of Religion; in the Albertina is a drawing Veritas Dei: another Veritas Dei is in the British Museum; at the Mertens sale (Antwerp, 1849) was The Triumph of the Cross over the Seven Mortal sins. Of none of these can we say with certainty that it was used for a tapestry; it is possible that they only treated allegorical subjects. The most important piece of this kind is The Triumph of Christia- nity, or, rather, The Holy Sacrament worshipped by the Patriarchs and Saints, which belongs to the Museum at
Dublin. It appeared at the Johan van der Linden van
Slingelandt sale (Dordrecht,
1785), the Mallinus sale
(Louvain, 1824), and the
Spruyt sale (Brussels, 1841).
It represents a woman seated
on a lion and carrying the
Holy Sacrament in both
hands. Above her hovers
the Holy Ghost in the midst
of angels. In front of her
sits the infant Jesus, holding
in one hand the cross, and
in the other a. flaming heart.
To the left we see the apostles
Peter and Paul; to the right .
Saints Sebastian, Catharine, and Rosalia. In the foreground are four patnarchs, one of
them standing erect while the other three are kneeling. The picture has been painted n warm, vaporous tones, harmonious and decorative rather than strong; te grouping is
beautiful and «, are the figures. Rubens' treatment of similar subjects has not been ol ow^
exactly but it cannot be denied that jordaens' picture recalls some of his figure in his
Trtmphsof the Holy Sacrament and his Virgin with Saints, as he represented them ,n
hie nirfnrp in the Church of St. Augustine at Antwerp.
Mr FaLtaMu";; possesses I drawing o, the subject treated in the Dubiin picture.
THE HOLY SACRAMENT WORSHIPPED BY PATRIARCHS AND SAINTS
(Museum, Dublin).
i 9 2 DRAWINGS.
In it the woman is not seated on a lion; the group of angels is different; St. Peter and St. Paul are not standing beside each other; in the foreground sit two children in place of one. The patriarchs, however, are very much the same, and it is probable that the drawing is a study for the picture.
All of Jordaens' designs for tapestries seem to have disappeared. We find one mentioned in the beginning of the XIX th century, a „design for a tapestry representing Astronomy", which appeared at the Frans Pauwels sale (Brussels, 1803); it measured 3.40 m. in height and 2.52 m. in breadth and according to the Catalogue was very finely executed.
Drawings. — As a draughtsman Jordaens occupies a singular place among Flemish painters. None of them has drawn so much, if one may call all his works executed on paper drawings; none of them so little if we define as drawings only those works which are executed with the pen or with chalk. We have already written so much about his work in this department that it will be sufficient to indicate here its general characteristics.
Most of them are in watercolours, and in various colours, a fact, as we observed before, which proves that the Registers' of the Guild of St. Luke rightly gave him the name of „Waterpainter". Others are more soberly coloured, a few in heavy monochrome; some are drawn with ink or sepia and washed in with a few colours; a great many also are executed in black or red chalk.
The polychrome works in watercolour are treated with care and seem to have been executed without any other aim than to be preserved as independent works of art.
Of those more soberly coloured, some evidently were not put to further use, while others served as studies for pictures; those which have been executed in ink or in chalk seem to be loosely sketched studies or impressions for pictures.
Some of the drawings correspond to executed pictures, and may be considered studies for these. Thus a Dedication in the Temple in the Museum at Rotterdam gives the same representation of the subject as the picture at Dresden. The Adoration of the Shepherds, at Rotterdam also (see reproduction on page 17), corresponds to the engraving which Marinus made after a picture that remains unknown ; the drawing of the „Adoration of the Shepherds" in the Louvre we find reproduced in the picture in the Museum at Antwerp; the drawing of „Divine and Human Law", in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, is duplicated in the overmantel-piece in the Court of Justice at Hulst; the two portraits of a man and woman, the beautiful drawings in the Louvre, are evidently studies for the pictures, of which one, the man's portrait, was sold at the Huybrechts sale (Antwerp, 1902), and the other is in the Museum at Brussels (see pp. 110—111).
Separate figures, or groups, which served as studies for parts of pictures, we find very rarely. A Nymph, milking the goat Amalthea in the Louvre (see page 97) is a study for the Up-bringing of Jupiter; and a few other drawings of men or animals are the only known works of this kind. One of the finest is undoubtedly The Milkmaid in the Delacre collection at Ghent (see page 59).
In his more finished drawings, be they richer or more sober in colour, Jordaens preferred to treat subjects which he had already executed as pictures, altering them more or less considerably. Such are St. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra in the author's possession (see page 133), and The Miracle of St. Martin belonging to the Museum Plantin-Moretus (see page 45), both greatly altered versions of the pictures in the Museum of the Academy at Vienna and in the Museum at Brussels; In the same way, the drawings of Susanna in
DRAWINGS.
193
the Louvre, The Miracle of St. Martin in the British Museum, The Laying in the Grave at Amsterdam, Christ expelling the merchants- from the Temple, at Brunswick, and The Adoration of the Kings in the Museum Plantin-Moretus at Antwerp (see page 130), differ from the corresponding pictures in the Museums of Brussels and Antwerp, in the Louvre, and in the Cathedral at Diksmude.
Sometimes the drawings show sections of pictures. Thus we find the central group of a drawing „The Adoration of the Shepherds" in the British Museum (see page 8) in a picture of 1618 in the Museum at Stockholm; and the left-hand part of Diogenes in search of a man in the Museum at Dresden in a drawing belonging to Messrs. Le Roy at Brussels.
We know of one drawing made by Jordaens for the engraver, namely The King drinks, a real gem which served as a model for Pontius (see page 72).
His polychrome drawings strike us chiefly by their richness in tone. In their vivid
THREE WOMEN AND A CHILD (Baron Brukenthal's Collection).
colours, boldly yet harmoniously placed along side one another, they remind us of his brilliant paintings ; as, for example, a Satyr head in the Louvre ; a Boat conveying men and women (see page 73), St. Martin, and the Adoration of the Shepherds, in the British Museum; his Marriage at Cana and a Pastoral Scene in the Print-room at Berlin; the Dedication in the Temple in the Albertina.
The soberly-tinted drawings are distinguished by their soft fine tones; the colours are diluted, but their softness and tender shades give them something unusually charming and exquisite ; of this character are St. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, a Procession of horse and foot in the Louvre, the Mother, putting her children to sleep in the Albertina, The laying in the Grave in the Rijks Museum at Amsterdam.
Certain of Jordaens' drawings are important also because they acquaint us with sub- jects of which no painted renderings are to be found. Under the head of „Proverbs" and „Tapestries" we came across several such, and others are to be found under different rubrics.
25
194
SKETCHES.
Sketches. — We remarked that Jordaens drew few studies for his pictures. We must add that he painted still fewer. Rubens, van Dijck, and other historical painters painted sketches for their principal works, but we find no such sketches by Jordaens, except the three for the „Triumph of Frederick Henry" which he sent to the Hague, with one or two others, to submit to Amalia van Solms. From this astonishing fact we conclude that Jordaens found it so easy to compose his works, and to repeat those already executed in an altered version, that he did not feel the need of making preliminary sketches.
Painted studies for separate figures or groups in his large pictures are equally scarce. The Museum at Madrid and the Hermitage at St. Petersburg each possess one piece of
this kind : the first called The three Musicians, — three children, two of whom are singing and the third accompanying them on the flute; the other, three heads of children. It is doubtful, however, whether these are by Jordaens; and in any case neither repre- sents figures used by the master in his paintings.
But three heads, two of women and one of a man, belonging to the Museum at Antwerp are genuine and important studies; so are the two men's heads in the Museum at Ghent; the three women and a child in the collection of Baron Brukenthal at Hermannstadt; and the girl's head belonging to Mr. Mensing at Amsterdam. All of these are noteworthy for an extraordinary boldness and certainty of touch and in the laying on of the colours. They show more plainly than any picture how correctly Jordaens observed, how great a master of his brush he was, and how he forced it to reproduce instantaneously, without the slightest hesitation and with perfect minuteness, that which he saw before his eyes or in his imagination.
At the exhibition of Jordaens' works held in Antwerp in 1905, mentioned so frequently by us, which in the case of many works of the master was a revelation, we found a con- siderable number of the most remarkable of his drawings, and almost all his known sketches. Through so many of his works of this kind being collected there, one was introduced to a phase of Jordaens' talent to which little or no attention had been paid before.
JUSTITIA. Drawing (Print-room, •Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam).
CHAPTER VIII.
1 6 5 3—1 665.
Dated Pictures. - The Paintings in the Townhall of Amsterdam; in the Court of
Justice at Hulst; and in the Guild of St. Luke, Antwerp.
Other works of the Period.
H
"AVING completed his great masterpiece of 1652, Jordaens resumed his customary work. When he finished his commission for the House in the Wood he was fifty-nine years of age and still retained his full vigour. During the thirteen years covered by the present chapter his talent was undi- minished and he was able to produce masterpieces as often as he desired. Unfor- tunately the desire to do so was not always strong in him : the weakening of his work towards the end of the period, of which there are
occasional signs, seems to be due to neglect on the part ot the eminent master rather
than to declining powers.
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS (Museum, Frankfort).
The Adoration of the Shepherds. — Three pictures from his hand bearing the date 1653 are known to us. The first, the Adoration of the Shepherds in the Frankfort Museum, is a small canvas of slight importance. It is a far remove from the calm and homely ren- dering of the same scene which he executed in 1623. Instead of a compact group of people, alive in mind and soul, we have such a scene of commotion as one would expect to find in a public square rather than in the stable of Bethlehem. Mary, seated to the left, shows the babe on her lap to the shepherds. An old woman bends over the child, regard- ing him with astonishment and delight; an old man behind her lifts up his arms and presses forward to look; a second man, wrapped in a cloak, also bends to see the child; and four others, witnesses of the event, one of them carrying a bagpipe, and two a
i 9 6 THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.
shepherd's staff, push forward at the entrance. Kneeling on the ground, with a child next to her is a woman handing a cup of milk to Mary; a boy beside her is taking a duck out of a coop to offer it to the Virgin. Joseph alone of all the personages in it contemplates the scene unmoved. The picture is signed /. Jor. fee. 1653.
The painting has suffered terribly, and no longer conveys a clear impression of the original as it left Jordaens' hands. All that we can be certain of is that a brown tone prevailed in it. The pale-blue colour of Mary's cloak is striking. Clad in this light-coloured drapery, with her naked babe resting on a white cloth, she forms a brilliant centre, with which the blue apron of the old shepherdess and the red garment of the young one make a strong contrast. The other parts of the picture, - the nuns, the woodwork, and the ground — are light brown.
A second Adoration of the Shepherds, which was brought from the Hospital for Incurables
at Louvain to the Museum of Lyons where it now hangs, presents many points of similarity with the preceding picture. The Frankfort work is an oval,^while that at Lyons is an upright. Here the Virgin is seated in the centre and shows the shepherds the babe sitting on her lap. She wears the same pale-blue garment as in the other; and here also we find, with some slight alterations, the kneeling shepherdess with a child handing Mary a cup of milk, and the boy, who now, however, is taking a pigeon instead of a duck from the coop. Joseph looks calmly upon the scene ; an old woman stretches out her hands towards the child; one ancient shepherd with a bagpipe is on the left, while a second is seated beside him; still another, on the right, leans on his staff in an attitude reminiscent of the young man in the early Stockholm picture; behind him appear two youthful figures. On the ground are a lamb, with its fore-feet tied together, and a large dog; farther up, on the left, are the ox and the ass; and at the top there is a group of angel heads.
The work is painted in brown, soft, nebulous colours, vague and indistinct except those on the Virgin, who in bright, vivid blue stands out strongly and effectively — a sweet figure — against the woolly forms of the others. Enthroned thus in the midst of all these personages with hands and looks going forth to her, she imports into the picture the character of a Glorification of the Virgin. Judging from its style and a comparison of some of the figures common to both, we may safely conclude that the Lyons picture dates from a few years earlier than the one at Frankfort.
There is in the Antwerp Museum a third version of the subject; larger than, but painted in the same style as, the Lyons picture, and evidently contemporaneous with the one at Frankfort. Our Lady in it closely resembles the Virgin-mother in the latter.
Here, also, a shepherdess kneels before Mary; with one hand she offers her a duck,
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS (Museum, Lyons).
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. i 97
while she lays the other on the coop that stands on the ground; she has with her a child who carries a moulting-cage over his shoulder; behind her we see the young shepherd eaning on his staff, an old shepherd, and a shepherdess carrying a milk-can on her head. Joseph stands to the left, and raises his cap. Little angels hover in the air. To the right is a large dog; to the left the ass; and in the background the ox.
The scene is, with its charming rural feeling, much more peaceful than in the other two works. The painting is bright and happy in tone and surprisingly youthful; bathed in
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
vernal air and morning light. The Virgin wears a blue cloak and a red garment, and the child Jesus lies naked in her lap on a white cloth; the young shepherdess kneeling in front of her is dressed in white linen, a red skirt, and a blue apron; the child wears a yellow dress; light, warmly-tinted little clouds hang in the air. The angels in the sky, and the people on the earth, the fresh foliage in the landscape, everything, in a word, seems to rejoice at the hearing of the glad tidings. The picture came from the chapel of what used to be the Bishop's palace at Antwerp.
We have still to consider a fourth version, in the Museum at Grenoble. To the left
198 SUSANNA.
sits Mary, with the child in her arms wrapped in swaddling clothes. Behind her stand St. Joseph and a young shepherd in a crouching attitude. To the right are several shepherds; one of them blows on the coals in the fire-basket, another carries a lighted lantern. Ducks have been laid at Mary's feet. Two angels hover in the sky. The picture is signed /. Jordaens fecit. In colour as well as in composition it reflects Rubens' style, and were it not for the signature one might hesitate to attribute it to Jordaens. At one time it belonged to the Church of the regaliere canonesses of St. Augustine at Courtray; taken to Paris during the French Revolution, it was presented by Napoleon I to the Museum at Grenoble.
A fifth work, which seems to date from the same time as the picture at Frankfort, and is now in the Rijks Museum at Amsterdam, is the most excellent of all these represen- tations of The Adoration of the Shepherds. The action is extremely peaceful. On both sides of Mary, who is seated in the centre nursing her babe, are groups of shepherds and shepherdesses, gazing with curiosity and awe at mother and child. To the right are four men and a child; to the left, three men, one of whom leans on a milk-can, and a woman with a child at her right hand and a hen-coop on her head. To the right again, a man stoops down to take hold of a lamb to present it to Mary. The whole picture is suffused with a warm glow, which grows tender and soft in the background. In the figures of the shepherds the brushwork is broad and vigorous.The Virgin is a very sweet little mother; the young shepherd leaning on his milk-can is magnificent in colour, with his red sleeping-jacket, yellow breeches, and bare legs. The whole picture exhibits the richest play of glowing colours and warm and always transparent shadows.
The Catalogue of the sale of works left by Jordaens at his death mentions (No. 32) „The Stable of Bethlehem with several Figures". Other versions of the same subject appeared at other sales. Parthey mentions one, in Schloss Roland Fahne, signed /. /. F. 1649.
Susanna. — The second of the pictures dated 1653 is in the Museum at Copenhagen and represents Susanna and the two rascally elders. This was a subject that Jordaens painted repeatedly and evidently with gusto; each time he contrives to give it a different character. In all of them he exhibits the lascivious passion aroused in the two obscene old men at the sight of such voluptuous beauty; strongly contrasting the lewd expression of their horrible faces with the charming outlines and the calmness or alarm of the bather. In the picture at Copenhagen, Jordaens conceives the scene in the least dramatic way; there is, indeed, a touch of farce about it. Susanna, a woman of great stature, is represented in a stooping attitude, one foot in the bath, the other, which she has been washing, on the edge of it. The two old men are standing behind her. One with a pointed nose and chin, his toothless mouth opened wide with a sensual leer, his small eyes twinkling - the type of an elderly satyr - has stepped across a low wall which separates the bathroom from the garden, and stretched out his hand to grasp the plump back which shines before him in all its broad fairness. The other, a corpulent bon vivant from whose jowl the fat hangs in folds upon his neck, also raises a hand and points at Susanna. Both are gleeful and eager over their good fortune. The luxurious beauty, however does not appear to fear very greatly the danger that threatens her ; she scarcely turns round to see who the intruders are, and when she discovers them no trace of terror but only a smile of half-feigned disapproval, shows upon her face. She seems to regard the situation as amusing rather than scandalous. Her little dog, however, barks his disapproval. It is a vivacious scene, a Biblical story character is tically illustrated by Jordaens The details
SUSANNA.
199
add to its pleasantness: the water falls into the bath from a fountain in gold-coloured metal beautifully modelled; a large jug, even more exquisite, and a small toilet bottle stand on the other side; Susanna's jewels are lying on the floor; outside is seen the foliage of trees. The flesh of the old men is ruddy in tone, brown in the shadows, with touches of copper colour. Susanna stands in a brilliant flood of light, a delightful, alluring piece of female flesh and painting. The picture was in the royal palace at Copenhagen as early as 1600.
The Susanna in the Brussels Museum represents the scene at a later stage of the story. The old men have crossed the low wall; one has pulled off and draws towards him the sheet in which the bather had been wrapped; the other has put his arms round her, and bends his ugly head greedily over her. She is seated, with legs crossed, on a small elevation, and protects her breasts with her hands. She is no longer represented as feeling secure, but looks up with an expression of fear and anxiety at the more daring of the two intruders, and shrinks from his touch. The little dog has rushed forward and fastened his teeth in the drapery which one of the rascals has pulled aside. There is no doubt that the picture dates from the same time as that in Copenhagen. Susanna is the same model ; the old rascals also, one bareheaded, the other with a velvet skull-cap, are alike in both canvases, save that here they have beards and in the other are clean-shaven; the little dog also is the same. The details are different: to the left are a fountain with a sculptured dolphin and child, a peacock on the pedestal of a column, a costly water-jug, and a dish on the floor.
As far as the execution goes, this Brussels picture is even more magnificent than the other. It represents wich fearless actuality a coarsely wanton scene; the voluptuous Susanna arouses the gross sensuality of which the two old men are the embodiment. The one bending over her has a bald head and dirty gray beard, a gnarled and spotted skin, and keen, blazing eyes. The other, standing, looks less gross, but his thick lips and heavy over-hanging jaw betray, notwithstanding his stately, patriarchal bearing, an animal wantonness.
The picture attracts us especially by the brilliance of its colour. The massive nude Susanna with her ruddy hair and red drapery, and the dark red spots in the clothing of the old men; their glowing visages; the white cloth which one of them pulls away; the magnificence of the peacock's tail, like a rustling stream of jewels falling between the marble Amor and the golden jug, all have a delightful effect. The painting is fat, especially in the heads of the elders, which are built up of heavy folds and bubbles of light and shadow. With its solid colouring, and the opposition of full light and heavy shadows, it is an excellent example of Jordaens' style of painting at this period. The phase of softness
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SUSANNA AND THE TWO ELDERS (Museum, Copenhagen).
2oo SUSANNA.
and haziness is past; that of full strength and excessive brilliance has begun. A desire for truthfulness in the observation of character and emotion, realised in the powerful expres- sion of the heads, has informed the drawing. The picture appeared at the Mme. Gentil de
SUSANNA (Mons. Franck-Chauveau, Paris).
Chevagnie sale (Paris, 1854), the V. L. and Charles van den Berghe sale (Brussels, 1858), and the Gheldolf sale (Brussels, 1863). It was bought in 1895 by Mrs. Arthur Stevens.
In 1902 we discovered at the art dealers De Kuyper, at Brussels, a second example from Jordaens' hand, absolutely similar in composition and of no less value, which at present
THE MISSION OF THE CARMELITES.
201
belongs to Mr. Franck Chanveau of Paris. A faithful rendering of the same scene, it is not a copy, but a work of art from the brush of Jordaens.
There is a third version of the subject, evidently belonging to an earlier date, in the Museum at Verona. The elders are less coarse in their gestures, and less repulsive in appear- ance; Susanna, young and attractive, resembles the Syrinx in the Brussels Museum which was painted about the same time ; the contours of her figure are less exuberant, the painting is firmer and harder, and everything in the picture suggests a work of about 1630. Susanna sits crouching on the edge of the bath, looking with concern at the elders; in front of her lies the costly water-jug in the basin, and her little dog stands by, barking angrily at the intruders. One of them, with thick hair and beard, bends towards Susanna, and lays a hand on her shoulder with an enticing gesture; the other, pulling her bath-sheet towards him, lifts his finger in a warning or threatening manner. There is far less passion, and less life
and character in the figures,
than in those of the later versions. The details are as costly; the fountain on which a parrot perches is decorated with a group of a dolphin and a child; on the pedestal
of the column sits a peacock;
on the edge of a balustrade WE& ,m^^^^^r\^ ^LJM
stands a basket of fruit. The
picture appeared at the de
Proli sale (Antwerp, 1785),
and at the Robit sale (Paris,
1801).
The Mission of the Carmelites. — A third pic- ture of the year 1653 — at least Genard states that it was painted then, without giving the source of his information — is The Mission
of the Carmelites of Syria to Europe. It was painted for the church of the shod Carmelites at Antwerp, and according to Descamps represents the inmates of that cloister receiving Bulls from the pope authorising them to found cloisters in Europe. We have failed to learn what has become of this work.
SUSANNA (Museum, Verona)."
St. Carolus Borromeus. — In 1655 Jordaens painted an altar-piece for the chapel of St. Carolus Borromeus in the St. James' Church at Antwerp. This chapel was founded by Jacobus Antonius Carenna, at one time almoner of the city; a Milanese by birth, he chose the Archbishop of Milan, who had been canonised in 1610, as patron of the chapel which he built. It was finished in 1656, and the founder and several of his kin were interred in it in the course of the seventeenth century.
Jordaens' picture, which is signed /. Jordaens, represents St. Carolus Borromeus praying
26
202
ST. CAROLUS BORROMEUS.
for the plague-stricken. The Saint, kneeling on an elevation, a few steps above the ground, invokes the intervention of St. Mary; she appears a little higher up, offering a palm-branch to her Son, who descends in heavenly glory, and beseeching him to listen to the prayers of the prelate. We notice beside Christ, on one side, two little angels, and on the other a tall one, holding a wreath of roses in one hand and a fiery sword in the other. On the floor lies a plague-stricken woman with a child at her breast; next to her is a
woman tending her, and a dead lamb; in the centre, the corpse of a man.
The work is admirably com- posed to fill the tall canvas; from foot to top, the figures run in a zig-zag line, a grouping the arti- ficiality of which the artist makes no effort to conceal. His chief aim, evidently, was to arrest attention by the boldness of his forms. The praying saint has hjs head thrown back and both arms stretched aslant; with this violent gesture and in vividly coloured garments he occupies the centre of the pic- ture and dominates the whole. The suffering woman and the dead man at the foot of the canvas are posed in an equally violent way; the upper part of her body is thrown backwards, while he is doubled up, his head and shoulders thrown forward. This unnatural arrangement is deliberately designed; and the artist shows himself no less deter- mined to impress us by his colouring. He makes vivid tones leap forth from a dark background; the red skirt, the red stole, and the white surplice of the cardinal, the large blue cloak of the Virgin in the centre, the blazing glory above , ., . . amidst which Christ shines in a
dull shimmer, the cool pale clear tones of the sick woman and the dead man - these standing out against heavy shadows, and at the same time assimilating with them form a strongly contrasted yet intimately related whole. The dark tones, artificial but powerful colour-effects, daring gestures, and the plain, common-place face of the saint, proclaim jordaens search after the murky and still more realistic style which he adopted in the concluding stage of his career. We are to follow him as he pushes still farther in this
ST. CAROLUS BORROMEUS (St Jacob Church, Antwerp).
THE LAST JUDGMENT. 203
direction; degenerating to the coarser forms, darker tones, and simpler compositions of several works of lesser value which he alternated with the real masterpieces that down to his last years he continued to create.
The Last Judgment. — The Last Judgment, which dates from 1658, was for several years banished from the galleries of the Louvre, to which it belongs, and relegated to the store-rooms. It was re-instated in 1900, when more space had been obtained through the institution of the new Rubens Gallery, and at the same time the other works of the master were hung in a much better light; a proof of the increased appreciation of Jordaens during recent years. In this Last Judgment, Christ sits enthroned on high ; above him is seen the Holy Ghost, with the cross and a brilliant glory; to the left, the Virgin with saints, to the right Moses and Aaron and some holy Fathers. Under Christ's feet springs a small arc which carries an angel with the scrolls of the Judgment, and two with double bassoons. Lightning flashes from the midst of this rainbow. To the left ascend the Blessed; men and women, nude figures, borne by angels; among them we discover a negro. To the right the Damned are struck down by lightning and dragged below by devils, dragons, and Death, or fall headlong by their own weight. Among them are the monstrous fat man and woman from Rubens' Fall of the Damned; here seen in profile. One only of those who have been struck down is clothed, — a man in a black coat, red trousers, and white stockings, holding books in his hand as he is hurled headlong down. In his features we recognise the arch-heretic Calvin. Farther down on the right we notice a dragon with seven heads in the fires of hell; to the left and in the centre are the dead who have risen from their graves. The inscription /. Jor. fee. 1658 (1) is to be read on a tombstone.
Jordaens' picture obviously reminds one of the Fall of the Damned by his great predecessor, Rubens, but cannot compare with it as a work of art. A ruddy brown dyes the flesh and haunts the shadows : everything, indeed, is tender and transparent, but there is no co-ordination, and we only see so many patches of colour.
Moreover, the work is mediocre in execution and lacks dramatic power. The Fall of the Damned looks like the emptying of a basin of human figures. It suggests the idea that the mass of figures had been measured out and separated into two groups : one on the left with doubled-up limbs especially conspicuous, and the other on the right with heavy bodies. The heavenly glory up on high has no more brilliance or radiance than the hell-fires below have glow or terror. Jordaens, as has been said before, is not a dramatic painter: his imagination could not soar to the conception of sublime scenes.
A second version of this subject was at one time hanging in the Town-hall of Veurne, where Descamps saw it in 1763. He speaks of it as a considerable composition, displaying great ingenuity and variety, but faulty in drawing. „It is", he says, „not much more than a sketch: the figures are about a foot high". (2) This picture was carried off by the Commissaries of the French Republic, and presented by Napoleon to the Museum at Strasbourg.
It was burnt during the siege of that town in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. Evidently it was a work of large dimensions. In the list of pictures taken from Belgium to Paris the measurements are given 18 to 20 feet high and 15 to 16 feet broad (3). An
(1) The catalogue of the Louvre wrongly gives the date as 1653.
(2) Composition considerable, pleine de genie et tres variee, mais d'un dessin incorrect, ndglige pour la couleur et le fini; ce n'est guere qu'une esquisse, les figures ont a pes pres un pied de hauteur. (Descamps Voyage pUtoresque 1769, p. 311.).
(3) A. PlOT. Rapport a Mr. le Ministre de flnterieur sur les tableaux enleves a la Belgique en 1794, p. 335.
204 PICTURES AT AMSTERDAM.
inventory drawn up on the arrival of the picture at Strasbourg, describes it as only 12 feet, 3 inches high and 9 feet broad. (1).
The Pictures in the Townhall at Amsterdam. — Jordaens was commissioned in 1661 to paint several pictures for the Townhall, the present royal Palace, on The Dam, at Amsterdam, which at that date had only recently been completed. On January 13 of that year the burgomasters of the city notified the treasurers that they had come to terms with Jan Lievens and Jacques Jordaens for a painting by each of them of Claudius Civilis for the ovals in the gallery, the price to be paid for each work to be twelve hundred guilders. On June 17 following, Jordaens had finished his picture and brought it himself to the town. The treasurer paid 106 guilders, 14 stuivers to Joannes Philips, landlord of the „Lysveltschen Bybel", for the expenses incurred by Jordaens and his sister during their stay there.
It is evident that he received another commission, for on June 13, 1662, the treasurer handed to Andries de Graeff, an ex-burgomaster, a bond for 3000 guilders to be paid to Jacques. Jordaens for three pictures painted by him for the niches of the large gallery in the Townhall, two of them at the price of 1200 guilders each, and the third at that of 600. Jordaens left the money lying at interest in the hands of the city-treasurer: the interest began to run as from November 1, 1661, from which we conclude that the work was finished at that date. On April 26, 1662, the treasurers handed to the burgomasters the gold medal struck to celebrate the peace with Spain, in order that it might be forwarded and presented by Mr. Andries de Graeff to Jordaens. (2)
It would seem from the documents we have cited that Jordaens painted three pictures for the Amsterdam Townhall in 1661. Two of them formed part of the decoration of the large gallery, now the large dining-hall. One was commissioned in January, 1661, the second some time later. These pictures still occupy the positions for which they were originally furnished. They represent „The surprise of the Romans by night by Claudius Civilis" and „The Confirmation of the Peace between Civilis and Cerialis". A third picture painted by Jordaens at this time, „Samson putting the Philistines to flight", now hangs in the ante-room of the large dining-hall.
These three pictures were described in verse by Jan Vos. Upon the first he wrote the following quatrain. —
Het Roomsche krijgsvolk wordt van Neederlandt verrast.
De dappre worden niet gekeert door leegerscharen. Zoo wordt den Batavier van 't Roomsche juk ontlast.
Wie vrijheidt zoekt door 't zwaardt heeft zucht tot lauwerkransen.
[„The Roman soldiery are surprised by the Netherlanders.
Brave men cannot be restrained by the might of numbers. Thus the Batavian throws off the Roman yoke:
He who seeks freedom by the sword deserves the laurel."]
(1) CLEMENT de Ris, Les Musees de Province 1872, biz. 502.
(2) Resolutien en Rapiaraus der heeren Thesaurieren van Amsterdam. Town archives of Amsterdam.
PICTURES AT HULST. 205
On the second work he wrote:
De vree vertoont zich bij Romein en Batavier.
Zoo ziet men op de brug het moordtkrakeel beslechten. De. vreed' olijf verkrijgt men best door krijgslauwrier.
Wie oorlog voert om vreed' is loffelijk in 't vechten.
[„Peace reigns between Roman and Batavian.
See, on the bridge the murderous fight is ended. The olive — branch of peace succeeds the laurel — wreath of war:
Who fights for peace fights worthily.]
The third picture was explained by Jan Vos thus:
Hier wordt de Filestyn door Samsons kracht verslaagen. Wie kerk en haart bevrijt kan Godt en 't volk behaagen.
[„Here we see the Philistines conquered by Samson's strength: God is pleased with him who delivers his Church and his home.J
A fourth picture, Goliath slain by David, has been attributed to Jordaens; but as no mention of it is found in the record of payments made to him, and his name is not asso- ciated with it in the description of the Townhall, there seems to be no ground for believing it to be his work.
It has been said that Govert Flinck supplied the sketches for the historical paintings which decorate the Town-hall, and that the works themselves were executed by Ovens, Lievens, Jordaens, and Legrand. As a matter of fact several of them were painted by Govert Flinck himself, while the others were by Ferdinand Bol, Jan Lievens, Bronckhorst, Niklaas Helt Stokade and Breze. (1)
Those by Jordaens hang so high and are so badly lit that their subjects are scarcely distinguishable; and to judge of their artistic value — which at all events is not great — is impossible. It is difficult to understand how a great architect like van Campen, who had co-operated with Jordaens in the Orange Hall and reserved for him the place of honour there, came to banish his work in the Townhall beyond the range of vision and bestow all the good places upon other artists. The only explanation is that he seized this oppor- tunity of giving the Dutch painters their revenge in Amsterdam for the preference which Amelia van Solms had shown for the Flemish school in the decorations of the House in the Wood. It is equally a mystery why the town of Amsterdam paid such large sums for works destined to remain out of everyone's sight.
The Pictures at Hulst. — In 1663 Jordaens executed the paintings which decorate the large hall, formerly the Court of Justice, in the so-called „Landhuis" at Hulst. They cover three sides of the mantelpiece, and represent the „ Glorification of Justice". The figure of Justice is seated in the centre of the picture, towards the foreground, a lion resting at
(1) Vondel's works. Edited by Van Lennep, VI, 615; VII, 88, 89: IX, 658.
206
THE GUILD OF ST. LUKE.
her feet ; in her right hand she holds the tables of the Law, on which we read from Deut. 1, 16: Verhoort uw broederen ghey Rechters ende rechtet recht tusschen eenenygefyc ende synen broeder ende vreemdelinck. An angel with sword and scales stands in the right background, with a second allegorical figure, Veritas (Truth), — a nude female holding up a mirror. On the left are Moses, Aaron, Fortitudo (Courage) who is represented as a woman wearing a helmet and armour and carrying a column, and Justitia (Justice) with white, red, and blue drapery, accompanied by a two naked children. Aaron, grey-haired and grey-bearded, in his priestly robes, stands on a lower level than the table of the Law and points up to it. Moses, with black hair and beard, two rays of light shooting forth from his forehead, appears above the table. The work is rather coarse and soiled, yet in spite of this we can see that Veritas has been a fine figure. The painting is signed J. Jord. fe, Ao. 1663. The narrow sides of the mantelpiece are occupied by two other scenes. That to the right represents an angel carrying a sword and scales, and bears the inscription: Tweeder-
ley weechschael en tweederley zwaerdt is den heere een gruwel. To the left appear three angels, — one with a mask, another with a Medusa head, while the third is tum- bling down. The inscription on it runs: De Heere heeft een afgrijzen van den bloed- gierigen en den bedrieger de Heere straft alle ongerech- tigen. (Sap. VI).
The pictures still occupy the places for which they were furnished, and save for being much soiled and sunk are in their original condi- tion. The inscription on the right-hand side has been painted over and is only partly decipherable.
The price paid to Jordaens for them was 200 rijksdaalders. In the accounts of the Ambacht of Hulst, which used to sit in the „Landhuis", we read: „22 June, 1663 Two hundred ryxdaalders assigned for the pictures which are to be placed on the mantel- piece in the Court of Justice, and two deputies appointed to negociate about them with the painter Jordaens"; while on July 2 of the same year there is an entry „The afore- mentioned deputies report that the said offer has been accepted". (1)
Jordaens did a beautiful drawing, now in the Print-room of the Hermitage of St Peters- burg, which repeats the composition in the front of the mantelpiece exactly excepting the figure of Justitia. F &
JUSTICE. Drawing (Hermitage, St. Petersburg).
f ?7T A F °f ™ E * CHAMBER ° F THE GUILD ° F ST - Luke " - When K i«g PhiHp IV founded the Antwerp Academy in 1663, the town Council allocated to the Old Guild of
(1) Communicated by Mr. P. N. Brouns. Discovered by Mr. F. Calland, archivist of Hulst.
THE GUILD OF ST. LUKE. 207
St. Luke a first-floor storey in a wing of the Bourse. It was there that the Guild established its first theatre and, later on, classes for instruction in art. Several painters presented works with which to decorate this hall, a good example in which Jordaens led the way. In 1665 he gave the Guild his picture of Justice or Human Law founded on Spiritual Law, which is now in the Antwerp Museum. For the greater part the composition is the same as that in the front of the mantelpiece in the Court of Justice at Hulst. Unlike the Hulst picture and the St. Petersburg drawing, however, it is an upright. Justice sits in the centre with the lion at her feet; on her right hand stands the angel with sword and scales, with three little angels in attendance. To the left is Moses, holding the table of the Law, to which Aaron is pointing. The other figures, Veritas, Justitia, and Fortitudo art left out. The passage from Deuteronomy already quoted is inscribed on the tables, as well as that from Lev. XIX, 15: Gij en suit niet oneerlijk handelen ... en sul . . . voor de gerecht . . . noc geen . . . The picture is signed : Arti pictoriae Jacobus Jordaens donabat. It is typical of some coarse work which Jordaens executed at this stage of his career. Moses and Aaron are rather common figures; Justice looks sleepy. The symbolism is childishly naive. The prevailing brown shadows overwhelm the faint lights.
At the sale of Jordaens' effects there appeared „A large piece, ,The Justice Seat', or ,Moses and Aaron' by him (No. 73) 5 ft. 1\ in. high, 8 ft. wide". It fetched 30 guilders. This probably was a third version of the subject we have been discussing.
Besides this,, Justice", Jordaens presented to the Guild of St. Luke for their large hall two other works, both of them now in the Antwerp Museum. One represents ..Commerce and Industry protecting Art". Industry is seated on a marble bench, backed by a balustrade, her head richly decked with pearls. She is clad in bright white and pale blue. At her feet kneels an artist, in a majestic red cloak and a white garment, to whom she is holding a wine-goblet. Seated on the same bench, to their right, is Mercury, the god of Commerce, stretching his caduceus over his protege. Beside him are four women personifying the Arts. A woman kneeling at the left stretches out her hand towards the artist; there are present also Apollo with a violin and bow in his hand and two little Cupids, one of whom holds a tambourine.
It is a well-composed allegorical scene, the quiet tones of which stand out with considerable brilliance, though subdued by abundant, heavy shadow. But the general effect is not very decorative. Apollo in a woe-begone attitude is a boorish figure ; Mercury, sitting on the bench, is not at all god-like in appearance ; while the artist seems to be refreshing himself from the breast of Industry rather than from the cup she offers him. The canvas was originally shaped with broken angles, but these were afterwards made straight, and painted over with black.
We may mention that Mr. Fairfax Murray of London has in his collection a drawing in colours treating a rather enigmatic symbolic subject that bears a certain likeness to this picture in the Guild of St. Luke. On an elevation is seated a Maid with a shield, decorated with a Medusa head, on her arm. Time holds a crown above her head. Beside Time stands Mercury; and on the other side is an old man, with a municipal crown on his head, offering the Maid a branch with fruit; a kneeling man presents her with a dish of fruit; another holds a heart up to her. In front of her are several figures of men, women, and children.
The second of these ceiling pictures represents Pegasus causing the fountain Hippocrene to spring forth from Parnassus. We see in it a winged white horse prancing on Parnassus,
2o8 JESUS AMONG THE SCRIBES.
while from under his hoofs the fount Hippocrene springs up from the two spurs of the summit. Five little angels are hovering below and two satyrs are standing to the right. The picture is as coarse in conception as in execution, inelegant in composition, and without any artistic value.
Jordaens, as has been said, was not alone in contributing thus to the decoration of the hall of the Guild of St. Luke. Artus Quellin presented it with his marble statue of of the Marquess of Caracena, Stadtholder of the Southern Netherlands; and Theodor Boeyermans executed for it a ceiling piece that was a sequel to the two presented by Jordaens. The Guild expressed its gratitude to both painters in a lame panegyric, specially composed in honour of Jordaens, and inscribed in the registers of the chamber.
The most noteworthy point in the doggerel is that Jordaens is referred to in it as Mynheer, a title sparingly employed in those days and as a rule only in the case of persons who were very highly esteemed or belonged to a distinguished family.
It was not only in these verses, however, that the Guild conveyed its thanks to Jordaens; it expressed them in another and more striking way. The accounts of the Olivebranch for the official year 1666—67 contain an entry of 336 guilders paid by the Guild for a silver ewer and basin which the Chamber presented to him. Boeyermans at the same time received a silver-gilt cup valued at 50 pattakons (125 guilders).
Jesus among the Scribes. Mentz. — Greatly superior to these allegorical pieces is a painting of The twelve year old Jesus among the Scribes which dates from 1663 and is now in the Mentz Museum. It was designed for the High altar of the St. Walburgis Church at Veurne, from whence it was removed by the Commissaries of the French Republic in 1794, and presented to the museum at Mentz by Napoleon. The signature on it is J. Jor. fee. 1663. In the centre of the picture stands the youthful Christ, dressed in a plain, loose, grey-blue garment, lifting his right hand with outstretched fore-finger, while his left rests on the open Bible. Mary in a brilliant blue dress has entered with Joseph, and both are looking on at the astonishing scene. An old priest in a white surplice stands behind them ; beyond him is another in a gold-coloured cloak, in front of whom is a scribe stooping down to pick up a book. To the right we see one of the high officials of the Temple, dressed in a brilliant red cloak, the hood of which is pulled over his head. Below him are two scribes, one of them seated at a table, pen in hand, with a book before him, the other bending over him to point out something on the page. Higher up, beyond Jesus, sits the High Priest on his throne; he leans forward to listen to the child prodigy. A few priests are grouped about him, and one leans over a balustrade immediately above him. For back-ground we get the rich architecture of the temple.
This is a masterpiece of observation and character-study. All the personages in it appear simultaneously arrested by the wonderful sight of a child instructing the most learned scribes, men who had spent a lifetime in probing the mysteries of the holy book. Mary is struck dumb before the miracle, and watches with open mouth and outstretched hand. The artist evidently did not know what to do with Joseph, and represents him as a rather commonplace dandified fellow. But the priests form a whole gallery of strongly characterised heads. The attention of several of them is strained ; it is so, for example, with the High Priest who, forgetting his usual attitude of stately dignity, bends eagerly forward, attracted by the words of the child. Other priests are equally fascinated, and with inclined heads regard him with critical eyes and rapt attention. Some of them are trying to understand
JESUS AMONG THE SCRIBES. 209
and solve the mystery. The one in the red cloak, resting his chin on the hand that grasps his beard, casts an acute, critical, distrustful look upon Jesus. The other above him, leaning on the barrier next to the High Priest, also rests his head on his fist, possessed by a pained and anxious curiosity : he feels offended, and evil suspicions occupy his mind. Others regard the scene less seriously, laughing or smiling as at a spectacle that is unusual, but to which they attach little importance. There are two old men listening quietly with whom the words of the child preacher seem to go in at one ear and out at the other; they look gravely before them, or cast down their eyes, dozing off to the sound of his words. In the foreground, at Jesus' feet, are others of a different spirit. They are the old expounders of the Law| who have grown grey in the study of the Book and research of its subtle meaning: here is a youth challenging their wisdom, refuting all their traditional lore — to them he is a rebel, a heretic; he sins against established doctrine, twisting the clear meaning of its lore. Listen! now they have caught a word which certainly puts him in the wrong. In this way the critics hunt diligently for a flaw in the argument of the disputant, and hug themselves on finding one. And meanwhile Jesus with simple attitude and gesture proceeds with his exposition of higher laws and a nobler doctrine than they can understand.
It is probable that the people of Veurne, which is situated near Diksmude in West Flanders, were led to choose Jordaens as the painter of the altar-piece for their church because twenty years previously he had furnished one for their neighbours. And Jordaens also seems to have had that work of 1644 in his mind when he came to paint this one in 1663. The styles of the two pictures, indeed, are not the same; but though the manner is different, the composition is strikingly similar. He paints in both a central figure that by its unusual colour and form is in strong contrast with its surroundings. In this canvas it is the youthful Jesus, standing erect and isolated in the centre; he wears a purple shirt- shaped garment which entirely envelopes him; his small face is surrounded by a heavy shock of brown hair. It is not so much the beauty as the singularity of the young preacher that strikes us, just as is the case with the negro king in the picture in Diksmude; and round the rather unattractive central figure in both is grouped a richly glowing throng of Temple servants in their brilliant ecclesiastical robes, gold and scarlet chasubles, priestly garments of white and blue, and others of warm hues. Mary with her pale-blue and brilliant dress makes an ample, blithe patch of colour that balances the opposing richness of the priest in equisite red and white. The silvery brightness that prevails in the Diksmude work gives place here to a golden warmth. While the colour has increased in richness, however, it has also become heavier and more pretentious. The Temple resembles a palace. Its occupants are robed as if for the reception of a king, not a child. Yet they are not imposing. Their features are contorted with angry passions, and discover no generosity in their hearts or nobility in their persons.
Nevertheless, what splendour there is in this glorious colouring, this golden light, and the lavish profusion of high-pitched tones ! What ease in the expression of deep thoughts and in the arrangement of this throng of brilliant figures round the unassuming person of the Child!
It was in all likelihood immediately after this Mentz picture that Jordaens painted the other of the same subject now in the Pinakothek at Munich. The latter is a smaller canvas, 235 cm. high, 296 cm. broad, while that at Mentz is 425 cm. by 330 cm. The figures are grouped more openly; there is an additional one near the High Priest to the left; but the balustrade and the priest looking over it higher up in the earlier picture have been left
27
2IO
THE DEDICATION IN THE TEMPLE.
out of the later The architecture of the temple also is different. Otherwise the two works are much the same, in colour as well as composition; but the one at Munich is on the whole inferior, possessing neither the vivid, powerful tonality, nor the free brush-work of
the other.
There seems to have existed still another large work treating of the same subject, for in the catalogue of the Ferdinand, Count of Plettenberg van Witte, sale (Amsterdam, 1733), mention is made of a Christ among the Masters in the Temple, 11 feet high, 9 feet, 3 in. broad, „a capital piece from Jordaens' best period", which fetched 120 guilders.
There is a water-colour drawing by Jordaens in the collection of Mr. Fairfax Murray,
London, which is clearly a study for the Mentz picture. In it the little Jesus is seated,
leaning' with one arm on a bench. Many of the figures of the painting appear in it; but
the High Priest up above and the scribe lower down picking up the book are wanting.
Still another version of „Christ among the Scribes" is found in a drawing belonging
to Mons. Delacre, Ghent. Here Jesus is standing with uplifted arm in front of a desk addressing his audience. Mary and Joseph now appear towards the right. On each side in the foreground sits a scribe. Higher up is a group of five others; and beyond them are two groups of listeners, leaning over a balustrade. In this version also the High Priest is left out.
The works we have been discussing are those executed by Jordaens between 1653 and 1665 which bear a date, or can have one assigned to them on the authority of trustworthy documents, and others evidently connected with them. During the thirteen years in question, of course, the master produced many more than the score or two pictures which we have described ; and it remains for us now to consider which others belong to the same period. The only criterion we have to depend on in this inquiry is the style in which they are painted.
JESUS AMONG THE SCRIBES (Detail, Museum, Mentz).
The Dedication in the Temple. Dresden. — One very important work which we assign to this period on account of the striking similarity of its execution to the Christ among the Scribes in the Temple at Mentz, is the large Dedication in the Temple in the Museum at Dresden. In the background we see the dome of the temple and the supporting columns. Under this dome, which rises at the end of the aisle, stands the Ark of the Covenant, above which is suspended a baldachin of red velvet. Mary and the High Priest — the chief figures in the scene — stand in the foreground. Mary is clad in a pale-blue cloak and a white linen cloth covering the back of her head and falling over her neck; the
THE DEDICATION IN THE TEMPLE.
211
cuffs of her red sleeves peep from under the cloak. She holds out her hands as if she were terrified that the High Priest would let the child fall. Simeon is wrapped in a costly surplice, ornamented with gold on a silver ground and shot with a few red tints: he wears a white linen garment under his cloak and a red velvet hood on his head. Between him and Mary, a step higher than -they, stands St. Anna, smiling down lovingly upon the littte child. St Joseph kneels next to Mary. His chief garment is an ample, tawny- coloured robe which envelopes him com- pletely. He rests his hand on a coop con- taining two pigeons which he has brought as an offer- ing. Behind him stand two children, one of them leading a goat, the other carrying a pigeon. To the left, besides the mother with her child on her arm, there are two men, looking on and a young woman with a pigeon-coop on her head. To the right, next to the High Priest, stand two choris- ters with burning torches and candles, and two old men. The picture is remarkable for its great wealth of warm colours; the draperies of Mary,
Simeon and Joseph, the gold-embroidered garment of the nearest chorister, the reds in the robe of the mother to the left and of the baldachin up aloft, form the key-notes of the colour symphony. They rise in tender brilliance from a ground bathed in transparent evening light. Plentiful grey, dull shadows soften and fuse with the fierce glare of the vivid tones, so that while the light plays everywhere it nowhere falls harshly. There are several fine
JESUS AMONG THE SCRIBES (Detail, Museum, Mentz).
2I2 THE DEDICATION IN THE TEMPLE.
and admirably expressive heads: for example Simeon, lifting a face full of emotion to H^T^S for having been allowed to see the Messiah, _and the twofold men
behind him, have
powerful heads, characteristic of the populace and typical of the future Apostles The scene is simply and naturally composed; conceived and developed m the pfoCd sentiment which pervades and connects its several parts, without a smgle d.ssonan. note. The picture, magnificently decorative, is truly a masterp.ece. ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^
ability as great as Rubens' to paint an altar-piece with gran- deur and majesty; but with the heroic style of his prede- cessor he mingles a homelier, popular sentiment. His perso- nages are taken from every- day life, particularly the on- lookers; yet neither they, nor the young acolyte with the face of the immature Antwerp boy, nor Joseph — an ordinary working-man — , disturb the solemn impres- sion. Jordaens, it is quite true, learned and borrowed much from his predecessor. This is illustrated in the present picture. We have already noted that Rubens' Dedication in the Temple — not the painting on the right- hand shutter of the Descent from the Cross, but that which Pontius engraved — shows exactly the same composition, and also that Jordaens, in his picture in the Museum at Lyons, did not imitate Rubens' painting of The Visit of Mary to Elizabeth on the other shutter of the Descent, but one engraved by Peter de Jode. Here, too, in the Dedication in the Temple at Dresden he follows the engraving of Pontius after Rubens. In this engraving Simeon stands with the child in his arms, his eyes turned heavenwards; Mary stretches out her hands as if to save the child from falling, while Joseph kneels beside her, and St. Anna stands in the background; a chorister with burning torch attends the High Priest, and a mother and child are among the on-lookers. Jordaens has altered the characters in details, and increased the number of the spectators
JESUS AMONG THE SCRIBES IN THE TEMPLE
. Drawing (Mr. Fairfax Murray, London).
THE DEDICATION IN THE TEMPLE.
213
from three to eight. The Ark of the Covenant and the baldachin under which it stands are also additions. He has given to the whole a more emotional and lively appearance; the work gains in credibility and truth; there is less ceremony and a quicker pulse of life.
1 do not doubt for a moment that the picture dates from the same period as the Christ among the Scribes at Mentz: the firmness of .the painting would seem to point to an execution a year or two before the other. The shadows are less plentiful and heavy; but the warm, dark tone, the broad brush-work, the sincere expression of the heads, and the healthy realism, prove it to belong to the period under discussion.
We do not find in this picture, with the characteristic features common to Jordaens' models, any figures corresponding in minute details with those in other pictures of his; unless it be the child with the pigeon on its head, to the left, which is the same as the child in the Fertility, and the infant in the mother's arms which reproduces the little curly- head in the Miracle of St. Martin, both at Brussels. These, however, show that Jordaens in later years continued to use the models he had formerly employed. Though all the figures here, as was always the case in his later period, are healthily formed, we note that the mother with the child on her arm shows a growth on her right shoulder, which looks like a third breast, — a deformity that we find introduced into certain of his earlier works as well.
This picture appeared at an anonymous sale at the Hague on June 26, 1742, where it fetched 245 guilders. As early as 1754 it was mentioned in the inventory of the works of art belonging to the royal House of Saxony. A picture treating the same subject, but of smaller dimensions, appeared at the Salamanca sale (Paris, 1875). The Albertina also pos- sesses a drawing in colours of the subject, and Mr Vaerewijck of Antwerp another: in both, however, there are slight modifications.
Among other religious paintings of this period, the first to be discussed is Christ blessing the children in the Museum at Copenhagen. Christ sits on an elevation to which leads a flight of steps Round the foot of it are standing mothers carrying their children or leading them by the hand; half way up the canvas and at the top of it are grouped Apostles and other on-lookers. The picture is loosely painted, with brown-red shadows and patches of bright light. The men are strongly-marked Jewish types; the women elegant. The work leaves a vivid impression on one. It was purchased in 1759.
In 1767 another version of the same subject appeared at the Julienne sale at Pans. God the Father calls the three children of the group to him, taking one of them by the hands- the canvas contains other fifteen life-size figures, several of whom, however, are seen to the' waist only. This work appeared at another sale at Paris in 1777, and a third version was put up at two sales at Mechlin, — in 1838 and 1862.
BE YE AS LITTLE CHILDREN
Drawing (Mr. Fairfax Murray).
214
BIBLICAL PICTURES WITH TEXTS.
Biblical Pictures with texts. There are in the Museum at Ghent, to which they came from St. Peter's Abbey in that city, two pictures in the same style and doubtless of the same date as those painted for the Guild of St. Luke, - the Woman taken in Adultery and the Reconciliation before the Offering. The artist indicates on the second the passage of Scripture which it represents: Matt. V. 23 24: („Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave thy gift before the altar and go thy way: first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift") The work is as coarse as the Guild picture, into which also the artist has introduced a text of Scripture. A few spots of light are scattered over a spongy ground, without either strength or brilliancy of colour; vigour and confidence are wanting in the treatment, drawing, and expression. It is all mud and water, - a striking instance of the inferior work which sometimes Jordaens allowed himself to produce at this period. There are other examples of pictures with texts from the Bible, or references to them. On one in the Museum at Lille/ for example, there is a reference to Matt. V. 20: („For I say unto you
that unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven"). A copy of this picture is in the church of Herenthals.
A drawing belonging to Mr. Fairfax Murray, London, bears the name of the painter, and M. XVIII : 2 Het en sij dat ghij het Rijcke der Heme- len ontfa(nkt) als een kindeken soo en sulde ghij daer niet in comen. This is really a very free rendering of Math. XVIII, 3: „Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven". On another in the same collection we read, „Luk. VI, 37, Geeft en u sal gegeven worden een voile uitgeschude maet. Jordaens". („Give and it shall be given unto you in good measure", etc. Luke VI, 38).
A drawing belonging to Mons. Delacre of Ghent bears the indication, „Luk. VI, 8". (Christ healing on the Sabbath) ; and Mr. Rump of Copenhagen possesses one, representing Christ delivering the possessed, with the reference: „Luk. VIII, 28, 29".
On another drawing in the Print-room at St. Petersburg we read Overmidts de Joden Teekens begeeren en de Grieken wijsheit soecken doch wij prediken Christus den gecruysten den Joden een ergernisse en de Griecken een dwaesheijdt, maar beyde Joden en Griecken die prediken wij de wijsheydt Godts en de Crachte Godts. I Cor. II : 22, 23, 24, 21, Martii 1658 hage. (For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom ; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. I Cor. I, 22, 23, 24).
BE RECONCILED ONE WITH ANOTHER (Museum, Ghent).
BIBLICAL PICTURES WITH TEXTS.
215
In the same class of works may be included a drawing in the Museum at Grenoble bearing these moralizing lines:
De Waerheyt is voor Conninghen en Prinsen eenen seer seltsaemen vogel
Sy werdt haer meest vermaskert ende bedeckt gestelt voor oogen
Tot dat den Snellen Tijdt dezelfde naekt voorsteldt
Waer door menichmael te laet het Recht eerst wordt gekent
J. Jordaens, 8 Januari 1658. (1) (1) Which, literally translated, run:
Truth is with King and Princes a very rare bird
Which is oftenest presented to them masked and disguised
Until fast-speeding Time discovers it naked
And then, too often, Justice is recognised too late.
Of the less important pictures of this period there is an example in the Offering of Abraham and Isaac which came into the pos- session of the Museum at Milan through an exchange with the Louvre in 1813. Isaac is kneeling on the pile and Abraham is in the act of raising his axe to kill him when an angel with outspread wings arrests his arm. The figures are ugly, the light contrasts harshly with the pitch-black shadows, and for these careless, coarse elements there are none of higher value to compensate. Most probably this picture was No. 27 in the inven- tory of Jordaens' estate at his decease. The same composition, hastily and coarsely painted on a smaller scale, is now in the Museum at Stuttgart. Other examples, also of smaller dimensions, have appear- ed at various sales. There is a drawing in the Louvre in water- colours and ink representing Abra- ham in the act of blindfolding Isaac,
and another in the Print-room in Berlin (already mentioned on p. 189) shows the patriarch at the moment when an angel stops him lifting his sword.
The St. Ambrosius in the Museum at Ghent is broadly painted, but lacks real strength. The saint, wearing a red cap, a priestly garb thrown over his shoulders, holds a silver staff, casts up his eyes to Heaven from an open book lying before him.
ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Drawing (Louvre, Paris).
2l6
THE TRIUMPH OF BACCHUS.
The Triumph of Bacchus. Brussels. — This mythological picture, which also falls within the period we are discussing, is distinguished among Jordaens' works by being almost wholly brown in tone. Bacchus approaches, riding a lion and supported by two satyrs; he is followed by Silenus astride a donkey, holding a wine-flask to his mouth, and accompanied by two big satyrs, dancing and beating tambourines, and a little satyr. Behind him again totters an old toper, also supported by a satyr. Then follows a train of bacchantes carrying censers on poles; one of them with a basket of fruit also. A satyr blows a trumpet, two little ones trip behind. A woman lies on the grass; another, partly hidden by the frame, flies from a satyr who is laying a hand on her shoulder. Another scene is disclosed to the right: satyrs picking fruit from the trees hand it to bacchantes; while there is an old, tipsy fellow with a wine-jug in his hand lying on the ground. In the
THE TRIUMPH OF BACCHUS (Museum, Brussels).
foreground, besides a sick man lying full length and a bacchante asleep, are fruit, some copper dishes, and a deer grazing. A temple set on the top of a hill appears in the background.
All the figures are nude. The old ones are flabby and obese, with hanging breasts, — the effects of many a drinking bout. The young ones are vigorous and plump, with heavy, fleshy limbs, typical of luxurious living. The heavy women are examples of Jordaens' ideal of female beauty. A rich, warm light falls on all the figures, most brightly on the group of satyrs and bacchantes gathering fruit on the right. Its glow diminishes on the left, and there especially — but this in some degree is true of the whole picture — the general tone is brown, with dim lights on the curves of the bodies, which here and there are modelled with bluish shadings. The trees in the landscape stand out sharply against great warm clouds in the sky, into which the figures are painted with softer outlines.
In this carouse of creatures enjoying themselves in accordance with their animal natures
THE TRIUMPH OF BACCHUS.
217
we find a symbol of mortality. A caricature of Flemish life lurks in this glorification of warm sunshine and voluptuous flesh. The paint is laid on flowingly, and stippled, thereby adding strength to the sun's warmth. The tone is singular: we find something like it, indeed, in the Miracle of St. Martin, 1630, but while there is nothing radiant about that picture, everything in this one shines and sparkles. Here the beautiful forms of 1630—1640 are forsaken; the element of caricature enters largely; and it is on this account that we date it later than 1650. M me Bougard of Brussels possesses a replica. It is possible that one or other of these pictures was the „Triumph of Bacchus and Silenus" which appeared at the Johan Can, Ridder van Domburg sale (Amsterdam, 1710), the Willem Six sale (Amsterdam, 1734), the Locquet sale (Amsterdam, 1783), the Choiseul-Praslin sale (Paris, 1803), and the de Marneffe sale (Brussels, 1830). Waagen mentions another small example belonging to Lord Northwick (1). A Bacchanal, with little women, satyrs, bacchantes and children, appeared at the Frangois d'Orville sale (Amsterdam, 1705).
(1) Waagen. Treasures of Art in Great Britain. Ill, 206.
ESCUTCHEON.
Drawing (Rijks Museum, Amsterdam).
28
CHAPTER IX.
16 6 6 — 16 7 8.
Jordaens' Closing years — His conversion to Calvinism — His last
works — His death.
STUDY OF A HEAD
(Museum, Brunswick).
FOR nearly half a century Jordaens, the artist, had a peaceful and prosperous career. His fame grew with his years, and the only important events in them requiring to be recorded were the commissions that flowed in upon him from at home and abroad. He executed works for the most eminent of Antwerp's citizens and for churches and clois- ters in the city and beyond it. The widow of the Stadtholder and the Queens of Eng- land and Sweden were among his patrons. He had built for himself a beautiful house, and his income increased daily. After the deaths of Rubens and Van Dijck he was deservedly ranked first among the Flemish painters. Yet during this apparently peaceful existence there 'must have raged violent storms in the bosom of Jordaens, the man, preceding a decision on his part which testifies to an unusually resolute spirit.
Jordaens becomes a Calvinist. — In the latter half of his life he left the Roman Catholic Church and went over to the Calvinists. When and in what manner he took this step, his reasons for it and its consequences, are matters that have naturally occupied the attention of his few biographers in recent years and will no doubt be discussed often by those to come. It is our purpose now to recapitulate all that is known on the subject; and as our inquiry necessarily takes account of the conditions of the Protestants in the Southern Provinces, we shall in the first place glance briefly at their history.
During those troubled times Antwerp for the greater part had gone over to one or other of the sects attached to the new doctrines. From 1564 onwards, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Anabaptists were numerous in the town and were found in all classes. In the course of the subsequent twenty years the Calvinists gained the ascendency, and one of their
JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST. 219
leading men, Marnix van St. Aldegonde, was ruling the town as Burgomaster when in 1585 it was besieged by Alexander of Parma. With its surrender in August of that year this ascendency of the Calvinists ceased. By the treaty made with Parma on August 17, 1585, Protestants were permitted as a special act of grace to remain in the town for a period of four years. Article VI of the treaty read: „A11 the aforesaid citizens and inhabitants shall be allowed to continue in residence during a term of four whole years without having to undergo examination concerning the state of their religion, provided they live quietly and without disorder or scandal; in the meantime reflecting and determining whether they are content to live in the exercise of the old Catholic Apostolic Roman Religion, so that if they do not so decide they may leave the country, as they are free to do should they think it best".
Nothing was said in the treaty or elsewhere as to what they had to expect were they not minded to live in the practice of the old religion, yet could not decide to leave the country; and, indeed, that was not necessary. Such knew very well that they fell under the edicts of the Emperor Charles which decreed their death," to wit, men by the sword and women by the well, if they did not maintain and defend their errors, and if they persisted in their errors or heresies, by fire".
Philip II had confirmed his father's proclamations (1), and the Arch-dukes Albert and Isabella had instructed the governors of the provinces to put them into execution. The Inquisition was still in existence. It is true that the dreadful practice of burning at the stake had ceased, but it was still sanctioned by law. Following the victory of the Northern Provinces, and even before Spain recognised her defeat, it was realised that if the Protestants in the South were treated too harshly, life would be made unbearable for the many thousands of Roman Catholics who were under the Government of the United Provinces; and on this account alone the old barbarous edicts were treated as a dead letter, and only such steps were taken as were necessary to prevent the evil, when it appeared, from spreading and threatening danger to Church and State.
Thus it was that, shortly after 1600 and during the remainder of the 17 th century, heretics were found living in the Southern Provinces. It was notorious that there was in West Flanders a ..Beggars' "-quarter (Guezen hoek), with the village of Maria-Hoorebeke as a centre, where throughout the sixteenth century (as, indeed, down to the present day), the Evangelical doctrine was preached. Occasionally the Protestants were threatened with prose- cution and more or less severe penalties, but at the same time the authorities winked at their profession of religion. On August 31, 1608, giving effect to a suggestion made to them by the Bishops at their Provincial Synod at Mechlin, the Archdukes issued an edict touching matters of religion, by which teachers, printers, and booksellers were forbidden to practise their calling unless they professed the Roman Catholic religion; while no one was allowed to settle in any place without a certificate of their orthodoxy from the priest of the parish in which they had last resided. But no specific penalties were formulated against any who failed to observe these enactments (2).
^ On December 31 1609, the Arch-dukes again issued a proclamation anent „scandals against or exercises in contempt of our Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Religion", forbidding
(1) Anselmo Placcaeten ^^"^^s in which regulation is made for the good and diiigent maintenance 0, certi St™ra n rt^^ul e d b a y nd th ;esreVin" S e' Provincia, ^nod at MechHn, in the months of June and July , t60, Brussels, Rutgeert Velpius, 1608.
220 JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST.
the spread of heresy by means of preaching or otherwise, „ under penalty of fine or perpetual banishment". Foreigners professing strange faiths were bidden conduct themselves quietly, without discussing matters of politics or religion; behaving respectfully towards the established religion, and refraining from boasts that they themselves professed any other than the Roman Catholic faith.
There was an even greater tolerance during the Twelve Years' Truce (1609—1621). On March 22, 1617, and again on April II, 1620, all foreign ministers were ordered by proclamation of the Sheriff, Burgomasters, Aldermen and Council of the town of Antwerp to report themselves to the Magistrates, under penalty of fifty guilders and banishment from the town, and the citizens who gave them lodging had to intimate the same to the Sheriff under a penalty of a hundred guilders.
Thus at the worst those who spread heresy suffered banishment, as was the case also with those who professed heretical doctrines. Eighty families were banished the town in 1625. (1) On September 5, 1629, the municipality requested leave from the Infanta to banish those „who were notoriously heretical and turbulent", and on the 24 th . of October instructions were issued that only good Catholics were to be admitted to the Town-militia. (2) Many such steps were taken and orders issued ; occasionally persons were punished, but vigorous measures were not enforced; the authorities hesitated and compromised: they realised that the evil was no crying one, and that to resort to violence would be to incur a greater trouble.
It was quite well known to the authorities that the heretics remained in the town; they were informed of their names and of their places of abode and assembly. The Arch- duke Albert addressed a letter to the Burgomasters and Aldermen on April 1, 1620, informing them that sermons were frequently preached at a house near the Sandersgat, called „De stad van 's Gravenhage", to congregations that sometimes numbered two hundred, and instructing the Magistrates to take steps to put a stop to such heretical assemblies. (3) There is lying in the archives of the Bishopric of Antwerp a list of nineteen persons or families, „all heretics of the worst brand," residing in the town in 1629, which details their names, occupations, and places of abode. (4) And as it was in Antwerp, so it was throughout the whole country: one section of the clergy wished to clear out the whole heretical brood forthwith, but there was another which advised milder measures, and the civil authorities agreed with the latter.
We gain a very clear idea of the condition of the Protestants in the Provinces through an Inquiry into the steps to be taken to prevent the spread of heresy, instituted by the Spanish Government in 1663. At Munster, after the signing of the Peace of 1648, a Chamber, half Spanish, half Dutch, had been established to determine the frontiers of the two countries. The Spanish Commissioners, when they had completed their task, drew the attention of the King to the fact that several of the inhabitants of Limburg and the countries across the Maas were in the habit of attending Protestant services in the adjoining communities, and suggested the advisability of renewing the edicts against this practice. At the same time, however, they pointed out that there was a danger of the United Provinces making reprisals in the event of such action being taken, and that it might be more discreet to suffer and wink at the evil in case a worse should befall.
(1) DlERCKXSENS : Antverpia Christo nascens et crescens. VII 195.
(2) F. JOS. VAN DEN BRANDEN: Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche Schilderschool, p. 836.
(3) DlERCKXSENS: Op cit. VII. 118.
(4) Mertens en TORFS: Geschiedenis der stad Antwerpen. V. 604
JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST.
221
These suggestions of the representatives at Munster were reported by the Government to the B 1S hops and the different tribunals, who were asked to advise upon them All the authorities consulted were agreed as to the right of the Government to punish renegade Catholics and to prevent non-Catholics from settling on the territory of the Spanish Netherlands; but they were by no means unanimous as to the wisdom of applying severe measures. Several of the bishops were of the opinion that the evil was not sufficiently great to call for a renewal of the old edicts: those of Bruges considered it futile to issue new proclamations when the old ones to the same effect were well known already and in this the bishops of Ghent and Namur concurred. The Archbishop of Cambray thought it would be sufficient if the King of France were requested to banish heretics from those parts of Flanders that had come recently into his possession, as well as from Atrecht and Hainault. His brethren of Antwerp and Tournay preserved silence on the matter. The bishop of Roermond, on the other hand, pressed for the utmost severity, even the application of the death sentence, so nume- rous had heretics become in his diocese; and the Arch- bishop of Mechlin desired to see a revival of those enact- ments at least which were issued by the arch-dukes in 1609. All the clergy were una- nimous against the appoint- ment of heretics to public offices, and against mixed marriages. As for the higher Courts of Justice who were appealed to for advice, either they did not answer or else they postponed the inquiry. (1)
It is evident from the answers received that the majority of the clergy, like
the civil authorities, regarded the danger which the Roman Catholic Church ran from the heretics as too slight to justify their rigorous prosecution; and in this opinion they were no doubt strengthened by the reflection that severe measures against the Protestants in the Spanish Netherlands would expose the far greater body of Catholics in the United Provinces to similar treatment.
In these circumstances, as one can readily understand, Protestants found it possible to remain on in Flanders: they were not systematically prosecuted, although the law could always be put in force against them when it was considered necessary. If their conduct was too flagrant, they were removed across the frontier; if they prudently kept to them- selves, they were as a rule left in peace. A proclamation of the Sheriff, Burgomaster, and Aldermen of Antwerp on June 13, 1658 ordered „anyone meeting the Consecrated Holy Mass
JESUS HEALING THE LAME ON THE SABBATH.
Drawing (Mr. Delacre, Ghent).
(1) E. HUBERT, Une enqugte sur les affaires religieases dans les Pays-Bas espagnols au XVIIe Steele in Melanges Paul Friderieq, biz. 239.
222 JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST.
in the streets to revere and honour it by bending the knee, or else to enter a house or pass by another street", — certainly a very temperate edict for those days.
On the other hand it is difficult for us, with our ideas of the binding power of the
laws and the minutely defined regulations of the Registrar's office, to form a clear view of
the position under the law in which these heretical persons in the Southern Provinces found
themselves. Registers were not kept in registrars' offices in those days. The Council of
Trent empowered the priest of every parish to enter in a book kept for the purpose the
names of all children baptised, together with those of the parents and sponsors. It was in
this way that a child was registered as a citizen who had conformed to the laws of church
and state. The priest was obliged also to enter in a book, which he had to preserve with
the greatest care, the names of married couples, with those of the witnesses, and the place
where the marriage was celebrated. (1) Prfests of the Catholic Church, in fact, were the
only officials of the Civil Government legally entitled to record the dates of births,
marriages, and deaths. (2) Marriages which had not been blessed by the Church were not
regarded as legal, just as the legitimacy of children who had not been baptised by it was
not recognised. It is true that the consequences were not so unbearable as they would be
felt to be to-day; nevertheless, the resulting disabilities must have been great. Not to seek
the sanction of the Church for such important events in life was equivalent to an open
profession of dissent, bringing in its train possible persecution and exclusion from public
office. There is no doubt that several Protestants, often with the connivance of the
Catholic clergy, were married in the Catholic Church and had their children baptised into
it, holding themselves justified in going through these formalities because of the advantages
which were thereby left open to them in civil life. It was different, however, in the case
of a funeral. For the body of a heretic to be brought into the Church and buried in
consecrated ground was regarded as a formal act of sacrilege towards the old faith, and one
of perfidy towards the new; and since, moreover, edicts and proclamations were vain against
the dead, heretics whose means permitted it left instructions at their death that they were
to be buried in Protestant soil outside the country. Jordaens made this arrangement for the
burial of his wife, as his heirs did for that of himself and his daughter.
But although those who made open profession of the Reformed faith in the XVII th . century no longer went in danger of their lives, yet they were still exposed to -serious penalties and inconveniences of many kinds. For it must not be forgotten that throughout the century, and in the first half of it particularly, there was a continual struggle between the old faith and the new. It was the period of Catholic reaction. The time of assurance in the ancestral faith, of repose of mind disturbed by neither doubt nor strife, such as had existed before the Reformation, was indeed past; past also were the years of the rising flood of the new doctrine, inundating the country like a spring tide that washes away dykes and sluices, rendering powerless those who attempted to avert the danger. The Catholic Church had come to her senses: she had marshalled her forces and, no longer content to act in self-defence only, had forced the attack, and could boast of her victories year after year. Omnipotent in the Southern Provinces, she remained watchful of events in those of which she had been recently, robbed, or where her power was contested; she was armed, too, to fight and avert the danger, and did not allow her weapons to become rusty.
(1) Concilii Tridentini Canones et Decreta, Sessio XXIV, Caput 1, 11.
(2) De Facqz: PrtcU de I'ancien droit de Betgique p. 281 -quoted by Alvin in bis Le Paintre Jordaens est-il ne calviniste? (Bulletin de l'Academie royale de Belgique, 1855, p. 740).
JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST. 223
Thus, to cast off her powerful and vigilant authority, as Jordaens decided to do, was still a hazardous venture.
The date at which he took this decisive step is not certain. It seems that even before 1650 suspicion fell on him; called to account by the authorities on July 23, 1649, because of a journey to Brussels which he had made in the previous May, „he swore and affirmed truthfully, and established by evidence given on oath, before God and the Saints, that he visited Brussels with his son on that occasion for no other purpose than to make payment of the costs of his action against Franchois Rijssels". (1)
There was a more serious occurrence, however, a few years later. He was heavily fined for heretical writings. According to Pinchard, the fine was 240 pounds and is recorded in the accounts of the Sheriff of Antwerp for 1646—1650. This, however, is not quite correct. The note of the fine paid by Jordaens appears under the general heading „ Ordinary Account, Mr. Nicolaes van Varick, etc. etc., January 1, 1651 to June 30, 1658". The document referred to records the sums received and spent by him, as well as the sentences he Inflicted. He begins with a list of those „ executed by the sword or rope or by water", and continues with ..punishments, such as scourging, branding, banishment, etc.", concluding with the fines. Under a heading „ Other returns of various kinds recovered from the following persons, etc.", we read: „From the painter Jordaens, for having written some scandalous papers, satisfaction IICXL £". The sum is here reckoned in pounds Artois, which were equal to Brabant guilders, and at the rate of the present day would amount to about 1500 francs. The account of which this is an item runs, as we said, from January 1, 1651 to June 30, 1658, and contains twenty-four entries, that referring to Jordaens being the nineteenth. If, therefore, these items were entered in the order of their occurrence (which seems almost certain), and we strike an average over 1\ years or 90 months, we arrive at the 71 st - month, or November, 1656, as the date of Jordaens' fine. His punishment, it may be said, is the only one of the kind occurring in the account; all the other fines were imposed for infringements of police regulations, while the more severe penalties were passed upon murderers, thieves, disturbers of the peace, — not one for political or eccle- siastical offences.
There can scarcely be any doubt that the „scandalous" papers written by Jordaens were of a heretical nature: in those days heresy was always referred to as , scandalous'. For example, among the decrees of the Synod of Antwerp which met in May, 1610, was one prohibiting the reading of „any book against the Church or the Catholic religion, or that incited one to speak slightingly of the religious orders or degrees, or that was otherwise , scandalous' or suspect". (2) In the same year the Council of Flanders forbade the import- tation or receipt of any „books, tracts, chorus, or song, heretical and ,scandalous' ". (3) We have already seen that in the edict of December 31, 1609, the errors of the heretics were called „scandals".
Now, what were these papers for writing which Jordaens was fined? Unfortunately we cannot tell, but we can hazard a surmise regarding them. On May 5, 1655 the Governor issued an edict with the following instructions to the Magistrates: „Being informed that the ministers and preachers of the pretended reformed religion some time ago resolved to send forth into the country and towns within our government (and, it is said, have already
(1) F. JOS. VAN DEN BRANDEN, Op. cit. p. 837.
(2) Scandalosos vel suspectos (Decreta Synodi diocesanae Antverpiensis, Ex officina Plantiniana 1610. p. 13.)
(3) Ghent. Jan van den Steene, Anno 1610.
224
JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST.
sent) certain of their number to sow and spread their sects and heresies, we therefore order you herewith to guard against that danger with renewed diligence and rigour, by proclamation and the infliction of such penalties as are set forth in the edicts, but with the discretion which each case demands, until further orders." (1)
There is evidence that shortly after this a little book had a wide circulation in Antwerp, encouraging those of the Protestant faith and containing a „Guizen"-catechism, for on August 25 the Magistrates resolved that „as a certain little book with a ,Guizen'-catechism has been distributed throughout the town, instructions are given to pay one hundred guilders to any one who discovers the person responsible for the deed". This resolution was published in the town on the following day, mention being made of „some little books in the Duytsche (Flemish) and French languages, being a Guizen-catechism." It is quite possible that these were the „ scandalous" papers which Jordaens was charged with writing, and if so, it follows that as early as 1655 he had cast in his lot with the Reformers and was
working zealously on their behalf. Jordaens' wife died on April 17, 1659, and was buried in the church- yard of the Calvinistic parish of Putte, in the Commune of Ossen- drecht, just across the Dutch border, in the grave in which he and his daughter Elisabeth were laid to rest nineteen years later.
On December 16, 1660, he appeared as a witness in an action concerning the genuineness of cer- tain pictures attributed to Van Dijck, and the sheriff of the Court noted on his declaration." juravit tantum per Deum" („he swore by God only"), from which it would appear that in open court he denied allegiance to the State Church without experiencing any trouble in consequence.
The last and most important proof of his being a heretic is that during the closing years of his life the Protestants in Antwerp held their meetings in his house.
The power of Spain having been re-established in the Southern Netherlands, the Protestants of the Northern Provinces sought to spread their doctrines throughout them, in the same way as the Catholics in the South were eager to recover lost ground in the North. The centre from whence the proselytising influence flowed towards the South was the Synod of South Holland at the Hague. There are still preserved in the archives of that institution many documents having an important bearing on the history of the Evangelical church in Flanders and South Brabant. A congregation was formed in Flanders in 1607 with the title of „The Mount of Olives under the Cross", the clergymen of which were paid by the Synod of South Holland; and from a document dating from the early years of this institution we learn that the ..labourer" in the ..Mount of Olives", who had been
ISAAC AND JACOB. Drawing (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
(1) Placards of Brabant. Velpius, 1664, III, 34.
JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST. 225
sent from London, was expected to travel from place to place in Flanders, to have a trade, to wear workman's clothes, and to preach in secret, through never to congregations exceeding twelve persons.
A second, a Brabant, „Mount of Olives" came into existence in Antwerp, of which he registers from 1659 to 1795 are extant. Its beginnings, however, date from farther back than that. Herman Herberts, its first minister, is mentioned as early as 1607. (1) For a time there was no regular service, and it was only after the Peace of Munster that the congre- gation had an uninterrupted existence. Joannes Beccius was minister in 1652, Boerhaven in 1654 and Herman Lydius in 1659. From the last-mentioned year until 1787 the church registers were kept regularly, and in these, now lying in the office of the registrar in Antwerp townhall, there are preserved the minutes of the proceedings of the Vestry, the membership-roll, and lists of those who were baptised and married between 1659 and 1791. In 1671, when the congregation met in Jor- daens' house, it comprised ninety members; and there were still forty-two in 1791. From 1660 to 1787, 163 children were baptised, and from 1674 to 1786, 71 marriages were celebrated. The ministers were always paid by the Synod of South Holland, and were under the supervision of their Lordships, the Delegated Councils of the Provinces, who appointed them, and twice a year signed an order for their salary, as well as one for the rent of the church or room in which they held their services. The last minister, Dr. Adrianus Uyterhoeve, delivered a valedictory address on May, 1, 1791. When the Batavian Govern- ment stopped the payment of the annual stipend of the clergymen in 1795, the „Mount of Olives" ceased to exist. During its last years the service was held in the „ Eastern House", which was also the minister's residence.
According to a tradition current in the congregation, the Brabant „ Mount of Olives" owed its origin to an agreement between the Duke of Brabant (that is, the King of Spain) and the Members of the States of Holland, come to on the occasion of the signing of the Peace of Munster; even as it was believed that in the Peace of 1609 there was a secret article to the effect that neither the heretics in Belgium nor the Catholics in Holland should be prosecuted on account of their religion. There is no good authority for either statement. By articles 17, 18, and 19 of the Peace of Munster, the King of Spain and the States General undertook that their respective subjects should enjoy the same freedom in the practice of their religion as had been granted by the Kings of England and of Spain to Spaniards residing in England to Englishmen in Spain; both signatories undertook to see that due provision was made for
THE ENTOMBMENT
Drawing (Rijksrauseuin, Amsterdam).
(1) Celebration da cinqaantenaire du Synode de I' Union des Eglises protestantes de Belgique, Bruxelles, 1890, p. 137 et seq.
29
226 JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST.
decent burial-grounds for the subjects of the other, while such foreign residents, on their part, were to conduct themselves modestly and without offence in the practice of their religion. This toleration became still greater as went time on and before the end of the XVII th century the preachers and professors of the Reformed Church of foreign nationality in Antwerp were certain of personal protection so long as they kept themselves free from public scandal. That in the case of Antwerpers themselves this was true, to some extent at least even so early as 1660, we have seen in the fact that when Jordaens in the witness- box claimed to take the oath in the manner prescribed by the Reformed Church, no difficulty was raised, nor did he himself suffer inconvenience in consequence.
On the other hand such toleration had its limits, and the books of the Brabant „Mount of Olives" contain evidence that full freedom and security was not enjoyed by the Protestants. There is, for example, the declaration of one of the members of the Protestant community in Antwerp, Abraham de Gauche, in 1659, that he could not appear at the Holy table because he feared his servant would betray him. In 1665 the congregation were obliged to pay hush-money to a poor woman called „Dutch Mary", who was employed to clean their hall : when they learned that she had entered the service of the Dean of the Church of Our Lady their anxiety increased, and from 1666 to 1670 we find them without a fixed meeting- place and looking out for a hall where they would be safe.
In 1671, „Jordaens with his daughter and servants was admitted to Christ's Holy table and the Holy Sacrament." He was then seventy-eight years old. Communion was celebrated for the first time in his house on December 24, 1674; and was repeated there March 14, July 21, and December 28, 1675; April 12. and December 25, 1676; March 20, and Decem- ber 25, 1677; March 9 and June 17, 1678. On other dates in these years Communion was celebrated in other houses. (1)
In the records of the Church we find this note: „Anno 1678 Octob. died the cunning
painter Jordaens at o' clock, and at two o' clock the same night his daughter, Elisabeth
Jordaens." Both, as we have mentioned already, were buried under the soil of the States, outside Antwerp, at Putte, in the churchyard of the Reformed community there. By the treaty signed on the surrender of Antwerp, two churchyards within the town were assigned to the Protestants remaining there; but after the expiry of the four years during which heretics were allowed to reside in the town the churchyards were closed.
Except the heavy fine which was imposed on him, and the necessity his heirs were under to bury him outside his own country, Jordaens so far as we can see suffered nothing by going over to the Reformed Church. He was as highly esteemed and honoured, and commissions came to him as freely, after he took that step as had been the case before. When his brother artists spoke to him, or about him, they addressed him as „Mijnheer" Jordaens, a title which was given only to men in authority and gentlemen of distinction. We saw that, when in 1665 he presented the Gillyflower with a ceiling-piece for their hall, they presented him with a silver ewer and basin, and inscribed verses in his honour in their registers. In 1669 the members of the Olive-branch entertained him and his son-in-law
the Inlwe'rn'^L'L 6 p" " °'-f ""^ """f ^ In ""^ ArcMveS We B » d a C °P y of the Re S ister ot Baptism, and Marriages in Ise doculntf Th r h rr D h "L ™ m '^ *° ' 789; * C ° Py ° f the Register of M ""^s, I6 65-1789: and , great number, of he VestrvTrl ifiW tn nm ■£? ' "^ * ^ R( * istrar ' s 0ffi « * Antwerp, comprise three registers. - 1. Minutes of the Vestry from 1659 to 1700, with the names of those confirmed during that time. 2. A copy of the same book from 1659 to 1700
o ?; e r.ccu™ te^r OeZMl '^ ™\ C ° Py , ^ b ° Ught '» ^ for the SUm °' '«" * uilders from ^ A B " ^ ™ the davT Si cLlZT ? u ?i" S N °" Ce SUr Mdaens - and in "--sequence fell into several errors, as, for instance,
membersWD roH a *1 *" e ?° bt ** d at J ordaens ' house - 3 - Mil »^s of the Vestry from 1701 to 1791, containing also the
membership-roll, a schedule of property, the names of the ministers, and the index of those baptised during this period
JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST. 227
in their hall. Not only did he number eminent persons among his patrons and execute works for municipal and other bodies, after he had forsaken the Roman Catholic Church; but to the end of his life Catholics, both clergy and laymen, commissioned altar-pieces from him. In 1655 he painted a St. Carolus Borromeus tending sufferers from the Plague for the Church of St. James at Antwerp; in 1663 a Christ among the Scribes for the church at Veurne; later still, a Mount Calvary for the Church of St. Gommarius at Lier; and in his last years an Ascent of the Virgin in the Teirninck School at Antwerp, and several other altar-pieces. The Protestant had no scruples in painting Catholic subjects for Catholic Churches, and the Catholic priests, on the other hand, had no hesitation in applying to a heretic artist to decorate their altars.
There still remains the question, When and how did Jordaens go over to the Reformed Church? Cornelissen (1) and Alvin (2) believe that his own and his wife's parents were Protestants from 1585 onwards, but that they were among those who, though secretly loyal to their new faith, had their children baptised in the old so as to evade the edicts against the heretics. Jordaens in 1671, they surmise, was only professing openly what he had always believed in his heart. We have seen already that he did not wait until he had been inscribed in the records of the Reformed Church as taking the Communion, before declaring his opinion in public; whether he did so a little sooner or a little later, however, does not affect the question of his being born into a Calvinist household. The answer to that, we contend, is in the negative. No serious reasons are suggested for believing that he was. Jordaens and all his brothers and sisters were baptised in the Church of Our Lady, where also his marriage and theirs were consecrated; his sister Magdalena and Elisabeth became Beguines, his brother Abraham an Augustine.
It is true that non-catholics are said to have been married and to have had children baptised in the Roman Catholic Church, to avoid being suspected of heresy; but there is no proof that such was the case in Jordaens' family, while the fact that his brother entered a cloister and his sisters the Beguinage, militates against the soundness of this conjecture. Moreover, there is the absence of any proof that Jordaens belonged to the Reformed Community before 1655, or at least before 1649, or that his parents or his wife's parents were not good Catholics. It seems more probable that he ventured on this important step in the second half of his life, and that he was persuaded to take it by people whose acquaintance he made in Holland.
It is noteworthy that Jordaens, who frequently visited the Northern Provinces, was engaged on important works there during the period in which his conversion would seem to have occurred. From 1649 he was corresponding with Constantyn Huygens about the paintings in the House in the Wood, which were commissioned from him shortly there- after and finished in 1652. In 1661 he painted three large works for the town-hall at Amsterdam, and in 1663 the pictures for the mantelpiece in the large hall of the Court of Justice at Hulst. His daughter, Anna Catharina, born on October 23, 1629, married Johan Wierts, president of the Council for Brabant at the Hague, a follower of Jansenius. In view of her age, we conjecture that this must have been about 1649. Jordaens was on the best of terms with his son-in-law, who on September 27, 1660, bought a house and grounds for him at Voorbosch, on the south side of the Heerestraat at the Hague, for 6550
(1) Messager des sciences et des Arts de la Belgique. 1833. 1.
(2) Le peintre Jacques Jordaens est-il ni Calvlniste. (See ante).
228
JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST.
guilders. (1) In 1669—1670, as we saw before, they attended together a social gathering in the Chamber of the Gillyflower at Antwerp. That Jordaens was much in Holland after 1649 we know from the works which he delivered personally at the Hague, Amsterdam and'Hulst- and we have also reason to believe that he visited other places, and in all probability' worked in them. In his evidence in the action Hillewerve v. Meulewels, he stated that he was in Utrecht three days before Whitsuntide, 1661. He was not the only Flemish painter to visit and work in the Northern Netherlands at that time. Van Thulden, a Catholic of Den Bosch, was his principal assistant in the glorification of Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, the most formidable enemy of Spain, and Thomas Willeborts Bosschaert, Gonzales Coques, and even Daniel Seghers, who was a Jesuit, worked for the Prince of Orange. But while they were not influenced in their religion thereby, Jordaens,
THE WORSHIP OF ART. Drawing (Mr. Fairfax Murray, London).
we conclude, made acquaintances in Holland, and heard and saw things there which caused him to reflect and, in time, won him over to the Reformed faith.
We do not say that he was naturally inclined to doubt and scepticism. Too little is known about him as a man to justify us in forming a definite opinion about his conception of life. But from his works, so far as we can judge his feelings by them, we know that he was not by nature meek or endowed with a strong feeling for religious forms. His religious pictures are sacred stories conceived in an entirely human spirit. His first dated picture, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1618, in the Museum at Stockholm, is a little scene from the home life of a Flemish workman. Mary is a respectable housewife, concerned about her child, regarding and exhibiting it with eyes full of love. His Christ among the
1) Register of Notary C van der Beets. The Hague, Communicated by Dr. A. Bredius
JORDAENS BECOMES A CALVINIST. 229
Scribes at Mentz represents a young teacher to whose words the old priests listen with astonishment and suspicion, and his Christ expelling the merchants from the Temple in the Louvre, a quarrel in the market-square. So with all his work: it lacks reverence Th disciples laying Christ ,„ the grave, in the picture in Antwerp Museum, push the body into the cavity of the rock, head-first, - a tasteless conception. Sometimes even he seems to ridicule a sacred subject; in the Susanna and the Elders in the Museum at Copenhagen,
7 A 6Xa 7i e, K SUrPriSed bathCr SCemS rath6r t0 "** the ex P erience - I" the Museum at Asschaffenburg we find a St. Augustine with a chalice in which lies a flaming heart,
and to this a young man is applying a match with which to light a lamp Yet the
spiritual lesson this picture is intended to demonstrate is that the saintly father by his
example fires his pupils with the love of God. He treats subjects from pagan mythology
with no greater respect. In Jupiter fed
by the goat Amalthea, he shows the god
clasping his empty feeding-bottle and
crying for his food; into his represen- tation of the story of Amor and Psyche
he introduces unsightly pieces of furniture
and unseemly actions.
Refined feeling in such matters he
certainly had not. He loved the life of
the people, burgher enjoyment, profuse
repasts with all their bustle and noise,
and their less delicate accompaniments.
He is carried away by bright, jolly,
ancestral customs; he is a materialist,
attracted by the joys of eating and
drinking, and song and courtship are
what he most often delights to depict.
When he introduces himself into his
pictures it is with puffed-out cheeks, in
the role of a peasant blowing on his
porridge spoon, or as a guest at the
Epiphany feast playing the bagpipe.
His personages are healthy to the core;
his men enjoy life to the full, and his
women, brimming with vitality, and
filling their ample clothes well, are bold in their lovemaking, though without going to
excess in their dalliance.
Yet, while he is a materialist, he is also something of a thinker, a philosopher. The heads he painted best are those of people shrewdly observant or deep in thought. His evangelists and scribes, his ancient satyrs in The Peasant and the Satyr, his heads of Apostles and philosophers, tell us unmistakeably that the jovial painter was a reader of the human soul. Though his figures are always alive with light and colour, though for him the world is valuable only as a treasury of precious tones and delicate hues in which warm glow and cool shadow intermingle, yet very often also it is the soul no less than the body that attracts him, not merely an exterior tempting to the painter,
THE^HOLY SACRAMENT WORSHIPPED BY SAINTS
Drawing (Mr. Fairfax Murray, London).
230 PICTURES AT SEVILLE.
but inner feelings as well calling for the elucidation and discovery of their spiritual forces.
He stamped this dual personality on his portrait of himself which Peter de Jode engraved. In build sturdy, even to the point of coarseness, with long untidy locks, a broad visage and strong jawbones, he possesses a searching eye and a piercing look; his is the head of a man who troubles little about outward appearances, but wishes to penetrate to the reality and the substance of things. He does not seem to have much feeling for conventional forms and accepted ideas; his wish is to go his own way and to do as he likes. A lover of ancient custom when it affords him a glimpse of a curiously picturesque world, he does not in deed, speech or thought, tamely follow those who have gone before. He looks at the world through his own eyes, and boldly reports his opinion of what he sees.
Such was Jordaens in his art, and no doubt he was the same in his religion. Though the step he took must have seemed strange and dangerous to those around him, he was not deterred by their opinion, but withdrew with his kin from the world in which he had lived. He was not dismayed by the punishment inflicted on him or by the envy and hatred his conduct excited in powerful and distinguished people. He acted according to his convictions, though he found himself alone among his fellow citizens in daring to oppose himself to the current of popular opinion. His conversion had little influence on his work. To the end of his days he went on painting saints and sacred stories, as the demand for them was made upon him. He regarded such commissions as matters of business to be completed faithfully, just as his carpenter supplied him with frames of a size and shape according to his instructions. It was in this spirit that, in 1658, he painted the Last Judgment, now in the Louvre, with Calvin among the damned falling into the abyss. At the same time he shows a preference for treating subjects from the Testament, Old and New, and for explaining his pictures in a truly Protestant manner by means of scriptural texts; inscribing them on the canvas, as, for example, in his Human Law founded on Divine Law in the Museum at Antwerp, and in the Court of Justice at Hulst; or else indicating the verse, as in the Reconciliation before the Offering in the Museum at Ghent, in the Christ and the Pharisees at Lille, and in several drawings.
Pictures at Seville. — We know very little about Jordaens as an artist later than 1665: a few only of his pictures painted after that year bear a date, though that of a few more is determined from authentic documents. For the rest, we must be guided by the evidence of their style to the date of their execution. As to his life as a citizen in this period, except the part he took in the service of the Reformed Church, there are few events of importance to record. The two dated pictures referred to are in the chapel of San Jose, in the Cathedral of Seville. Both bear the date 1669. One, representing the Circumcision, shows a certain resemblance in composition to the Dedication in the Temple at Dresden' but is much smaller (about 150 cm. high and 200 cm. broad). In both a high priest stands under a baldachin of red velvet, while a second, kneeling before him, offers him the infant Jesus. A third is descending the steps. Joseph and Mary are kneeling in the foreground. On either side of the High priest stands a chorister, carrying a burning torch in a candle- stick. Lower down on the canvas are seen the mass of the people, among them a man riding a donkey. To the right are a mother with her child and several onlookers. The light falls on the group in the centre and diminishes in strength towards both sides. The ensemble recalls to mind the picture at Dresden mentioned already.
PICTURES AT OOSTERHOUT. 231
A drawing in the Museum at Rotterdam shows a much altered representation of the same scene.
An Adoration of the Magi serves as a pendant to the Circumcision. Mary, in a blue cloak, sits to the right with her child in her lap. Joseph leans with one hand on a staff, and lifts his cap with the other. One of the kings, in a white cloak richly embroidered with gold, kneels before Mary; on his knees beside her is a servant with a gold vase in his hand; the second king, a stout figure in a gold-coloured cloak, stands behind the first; higher up the negro king, wearing a turban with a high plume, is looking on with curiosity at the scene. To the left are two torch-bearers, pages, a horse, and two camels. Near the negro king are a servant with a monkey on his hand and a man on horseback, and to the right several onlookers, among them a stout man in red; on the ground lies an ox. The picture is rich and varied in its light-effects. Its resemblance to the altar-piece at Diksmude is striking.
Pictures at Oosterhout. — We have now to speak of an event in Jordaens' life which enables us to fix the date of certain of his works. In 1636 his sister, the novice Elisabeth Jordaens,. a beguine at Antwerp, entered the cloister of St. Catharinadaal at Oosterhout, near Breda, in North Brabant. When, in the following year, Breda fell into the hands of the United Provinces, she laid aside her nun's garb; but in 1645, she returned to the cloister, together with her sister Magdalena, also a beguine at Antwerp. In 1646 she died, leaving a sum of 1000 guilders to be paid to the Cloister after the death of Magdalena, an arrangement which her sister sanctioned. On Elisabeth's death Magdalena returned to Antwerp; and at her death, which occurred there, the Provost of the cloister at Oosterhout claimed the 1000 guilders from her heirs and communicated with Jacob Jordaens and Augustyn Thijssens, also a painter, on the subject. Both, however refused to transfer the money, but in 1673 were forced by legal process to do so, and paid the legacy, partly in money and partly by three pictures, — The Martyrdom of St. Quiryn, The Adoration of the Magi, and St. Norbertus receiving the cloth of his Order. It is probable that Jordaens painted one or even two of these pictures. The first of the three has disappeared, but the two others are still in the convent. (1)
I made an effort to view them, but was only partly successful. As no man is allowed inside the convent, the pictures had to be brought outside if I was to see them, and this was possible only in the case of The Adoration of the Kings; the other, St. Norbertus, being too large to be taken from the room in which it hangs. The Adoration of the Magi looks as if it had been painted in Jordaens' studio, but it is not by his hand, and so informs us little about his style in 1673. The Virgin sits with the little Jesus on her lap; the child holding a globe with a crown and a cross. Above hover two angels, carrying a garland of flowers. To the right are two kings worshipping the child: one is wrapped in a cloak of gold brocade, the other in a red garment; to the left we notice the negro king, carrying a silver incense-boat. Inscribed at the top is, Psalm 38. V. 29: Et in templo ejus omnes dicent gloriam, a verse which used to be sung at Epiphany feasts.
The picture is completely spoiled, — cracked and faded. The curious idea of giving the child a globe in his hand, and still more the inscription from the Bible, confirms the conjecture that the painting, though not executed by Jordaens, was nevertheless supplied under his direction.
(1) Eene kleine bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis van J. Jordaens, by F. W., Flemish School, XX 111, 178.
232
THE LAST SUPPER.
It may also be taken as almost certain that during the last years of his life Jordaens painted more and more darkly: first the shadows become deeper and the figures heavily outlined- gradually the vivid colours disappear, and during the closing years he seeks his effects exclusively in the contrast of light and shade, black being predominant. Among the works belonging to this period some are masterpieces, but there are others without charm, indifferently treated by the master himself or, more usually, executed by his pupils and
There are three pictures in the Museum at Antwerp which I date from the last twelve years of his life..
The Last Supper. - One, The Last Supper, ranks among his greatest achievements. In a hall of monumental dimensions, screened in the background by two barred windows and a door, the Last Supper is being celebrated. Through an open window on the right
we look out upon a field; a piece of red drapery is suspended high up on the left. Thirteen have sat down at the table, Christ in the centre facing the spectator, with Judas opposite. The Saviour puts a piece of bread into the traitor's mouth with an inelegant gesture, and even more unpleasant is that of the ruddy knave himself. Christ leans his left arm on the table, and his right on the head of a brown dog. The Apostles are conversing in groups, one of three figures to the left, another of four, and two, of two to the right. We are to imagine that Jesus has spoken the words, „Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me" and, in answer to John's questions, „Lord, who is it?" has replied, „It is he to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it." And when he had dipped the sop he gave it to Judas, Simon's son, Iscariot. (1) A moment before, the Apostles had been seated quietly at table, but at the words and action of Christ they have jumped up in great agitation. We seem to hear them say: „So he is the traitor! Who would ever have thought it." This commotion and movement have brought life and variety into the groups, and the monotony of their lines is broken. All the heads are those of workers: powerful figures without coarseness, but also without spiritual refinement; all of them gray and old; not ascetics, not patriarchs or fanatics, but faithful believers, people from among the crowd with picturesque heads. Judas alone is vulgar and ugly ; the others are healthy in body and mind. As the quiet evening hour advances, all these men are
THREE WANDERING MUSICIANS (Sketch, Museum, Madrid).
(1) John XIII, 21-26.
THE LAST SUPPER.
233
becoming restless and anxious, one inquiring inquisitively, another busy explaining; some gently and in astonishment, that one deeply moved and indignant.
The most, remarkable thing about the picture is its cross lighting. On the right the light of the setting sun, falling through an open arch, touches most strongly the group of the three Apostles; passing on to Judas, whose head is deep in shadow, and legs even more so. Competing with it is the artifical illumination from a chandelier with twelve lights hanging from the ceiling; it falls on the centre of the scene, on Christ and the group of four Apostles on his left. The light from both sun and lamp is tempered; gradually diminishing in strength from left to right, with multifarious play of dusky shadows. There are neither very high nor very low tones. A soft glow suffuses the whole, with copper-coloured gleams in the light passages and bronze tints in the dark. The back-ground is dimly lit; all the figures are shrouded in brown shadows. The painting is unusually broad and rough — smeared rather than brushed; the flesh lacks firmness, but is tender, and has the quality of paint that has been kneaded and thumbed.
The contours are blurred and softened; melting masses and gleams of brightness glow from beneath the heavy shadows in which bronze-brown shimmerings, outline everything dimly, so that little appears in relief,-only the corner of a table, appearing to shoot up through the canvas, or a head or a leg showing from beneath the table. The picture was originally in the old Au- gustine church at Antwerp, the archives of which might have thrown some light upon its origin had they not unfortunately been
lost. I have no doubt, however, that Jordaens executed it at the end of his career, when he frequently used these same coppery tints, and employed an increasingly bold method of illumination. Reynolds, who saw the picture in 1783 hanging in the Augustine Church for which it was painted, recognised in it some excellent heads in the style of Rubens.
At the Aarnout de Lange sale (Amsterdam, 1883) there was a pen-drawing Christ at table with his diciples washed in with soot.
In the right aisle of the Augustine Church, where „The Last Supper" hung, Reynolds discovered another picture by Jordaens, Christ praying m the garden of Olives. Descamps when he saw it a few years earlier (1) wrote: „Christ seems to faint at the sight of the
SILENUS, FLORA AND ZEPHYRUS (Mrs. Parmentier, Knocke).
(1) Reynolds Voyage II, 283. Descamps, Voyage pittoresque. p. 173
30
2 34 THE HOSPITAL NUNS.
instruments of passion which the angels show him. In the foreground the disciples are lying asleep." He describes it as a good picture, composed and painted well, and striking in effect. It seems to have been a pendant to „The Last Supper", and of equal importance Curiously enough, it is not mentioned among the pictures carried off by the Commissaries of the French Republic, while „The Last Supper" appears on their list. We know nothing of its history later than Reynolds' mention of it.
The Hospital Nuns. — The second of the pictures belonging to Jordaens' last period, now in Antwerp Museum, is called The Hospital Nuns, and represents a scene from the wards of the St. Elizabeth Hospital at Antwerp for which it was painted. In the excellently preserved archives of the City's Hospitals, including the documents of the old Hospital in question, there is unfortunately no reference to this important work, though it evidently is a memento of benefactors or directors of the institution.
The scene is laid in a hall, shut off at the back by red drapery, against which is a seat occupied by a nun dressed in black with a white kerchief over her head, — clearly the Mother-Superior. On a table in front of her stands a large copper basin, from which she is serving out soup. Beside her, to the left, stands a nun completely in white, holding two loaves; while to the right another, also in white, is supporting an invalid; more to the right still is a fourth, holding a glass to the lips of a sick mother who is seated on the floor, pale as death. To the left there is a fifth nun, putting a shirt over the shoulders of an invalid. A group in front of the table are waiting for the food about to be dispensed; seven patients and a dead child are grouped on the floor. In the foreground is a man, dead or dying; and two mothers, each with a child, seek the sympathy of the sisters. In an ante-room we see a nun at a sick-bed. In the background to the left are a lady and a gentleman distributing alms to three poor persons, and there is a priest to the right: no doubt two benefactors and the chaplain of the institution. Behind the priest is seen dimly a picture representing the Ascent of the Virgin.
The work is broadly and rather coarsely painted; the white patches of the nuns' garments and of the linen of the poor stand out powerfully in relief against the dark background and the heavy shadows which envelope the whole scene. The back of the naked man being dressed displays strong, knotted muscles, and the suffering of the coarse patients is roughly depicted. The composition keeps the scattered action together cleverly. The whole has been painted with more facility than care ; the varied movement and strong contrast of light and shade are attractive. The lady and gentleman in the background, doubtless, as well as the priest and perhaps also the nuns, are portraits. The rough but fluent, brush-work, the abundant shadows, and the strongly realistic representation point to an advanced period in the painter's life.
The Entombment. — This is the third of the pictures in the Museum of Antwerp referred to, and it seems to me to date from shortly after 1665. The sun has set, and low on the horizon is the bright-red after-glow. Four men are at work, pushing the dead body, head-first, into the grave. Two venerable disciples, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, are standing at the foot; Joseph, an old man with long hair and beard, and wearing a little red cap, holds the shroud. He is robed in a costly garment of red and gold, like a priest; Nicodemus, who has the features of an old swarthy Jew, holds the dead body by the legs. Both are stooping forward in a watchful attitude. Two labourers stripped to the
A VANITAS. 235
waist are at work in the grave, near the head, one lying with his breast on the ground, the other half out of it. John is stooping down between the two to help; and in the background are seen Mary, weeping, and Magdalen, who has a vessel of ointment in her hand, also wiping away tears. Two other sorrowing women stand beside her
The picture is low-toned. Christ's body and the shroud, on which the light falls most strongly, are in high relief. Heavy, dark shadows lie on the dead body and give the canvas a leaden hue. The scene is coarsely conceived; there is something almost unseemly in the way in which the dead body is being handled. The execution, too, is rough, though the painting is broad. Joseph of Arimathea and the labourer to the left are hastily painted with a swift brush. But on the whole it is an effective composition of care and sorrow, realistically conceived, and cleverly rendered. It was painted for the Pieter Pot Abbey at Antwerp. There is a drawing of it in red and black chalk in the Rijks-Museum at Amsterdam.
A Vanitas. — In the Brussels Museum also there is a picture which almost certainly belongs to the same period-a Vanitas (the Vanity of the World). On a table lie costly objects representative of wealth, such as a magnificent silver dish, and a rich vessel; as well as others symbolic of the pleasures of life, of power and authority, to which death puts an end, — musical instruments, books, flowers, fruit, a cuirass, a plumed helmet, a globe. All these are surmounted by a duck lying under a skull. Here, as in a riddle, lies the explanation of the picture, for there is a play upon of words the eend of eendvogel — (eend = duck) and end (=end) and thus we have „Death in the end". Crowning the whole is a lantern with one of the panes open, allowing Time to blow out the candle; there are also two amorini, one flying away and another blowing soap bubbles.
The still-life is executed with remarkable skil; particularly the silver dish, a marvel of broad and tender painting, reproducing the peculiar tints of the metal with surpassing truthfulness. The reflections from the copper vessel also, and the sheen of the steel cuirass and of the wood of the mandoline, are rendered with remarkable broadness and suppleness. A parrot appearing among this soft play of light and shade strikes a sharp note with its many coloured feathers; and dominant over all is the sharply-lighted, grinning skull. Time and the children are painted in wavering patches of light with muddy shadows. The bold and true play of the light, the rich, oily touch, the heavy shadows growing darker and darker, indicate Jordaens' later period when his virtuosity reached its zenith. In the Museum at Lille there is a picture (No. 775) by Peter Boel, dated 1663, representing the same subject, in which, we believe, that animal painter co-operated with the master; there is no doubt that Jordaens not only painted the figures, but also put the finishing touches upon the still-life, thus to all intents and purposes making the work his own.
Mount Calvary. Bordeaux. — This large canvas, which he painted for the St. Gom- marius Church at Lier, is one of the greatest works of Jordaens' last years. Carried away in 1794, it was presented by Napoleon to the Museum at Bordeaux, from whence it was taken to the cathedral where it still hangs.
In the centre Christ hangs on the Cross, with his eyes turned heavenwards in suppli- cation to his heavenly Father. The transverse beam of the Cross is very short, and the arms of the sufferer are stretched upward at a very acute angle. To the left hangs the repentant thief turning penitently towards Christ; he is bound with cords to a T-shaped cross. The reviling thief is bound to a similar cross on the other side, his two arms tied
236
MOUNT CALVARY.
together and slung over the cross-beam. An executioner is engaged in binding his heavily built legs Magdalen kneels at the foot of the cross, laying one hand on the shaft and with the other holding a cloth before her face. She wears a white garment, over which is thrown a piece of gold and red drapery that falls in ample folds. To the right stands John in a full red cloak, one arm across his breast, the other hidden under his robe; Mary in pale blue drapery over a white garment stands beside him; and both look up at Christ with pitying gaze. The figures to the" left are a Roman officer, draped in yellow and wearing a helmet, and mounted on a white horse, and an executioner, naked except for a blue cloth around his waist, holding a sponge on the point of his lance. In front of these is a mounted man only his head and that of his horse coming within the canvas. There is a second
THE HOSPITAL NUNS (Museum, Antwerp).
horseman behind the cross, and round the top of it float a few angel-heads in a nimbus. Out of the dark background the figures rise luminously in warm tones. Christ is pale with dark grey shadows which cover the face as if with soot, outline the muscles of the arms like cords, mark with deep furrows the upper part of the body, and give a corpse-like hue to the legs. The bodies of the thieves are brown, with violently marked muscles; this is especially so in the case of the reviling one, whose back exhibits two lumps of flesh with a deep furrow between. The flesh of the executioner and of the officer also is notched with heavy shadows, darkened and blackened. There are several dark patches on Mary Magdalen's garment, where the colour has been lost Mary and John are painted in bright colours, although the fear on their faces is indicated by means of heavy brown
MOUNT CALVARY.
237
tints. The red garment of the dearly beloved Apostle is the only vivid colour-patch in the
picture, the blue one of Mary the only high tone.
It is evident that in painting this picture Jordaens had in mind Rubens' Mount Calvary,
then in the Church of the Franciscan Friars, now in the Museum at Antwerp, and adopted
its composition; the sadness and the horror of the scene, however, are expressed in his
own way. The majesty of the principal figure has vanished; there is no longer nobility in
Christ's anguish ; the scene is changed to one .of rude torture and suffering. The figures
stand out against the dark sky in half-luminous, spectral tones. The dominant evening light
renders all the forms vague,
blunting the projecting parts and
deepening the depressions: the
malefactors on either side of
Christ are vulgarised, and the
pitiful aspect of grief is wantonly
effaced. We do not find here
those characteristic heads to
which Jordaens gave such mag- nificent vitality in the Mentz
picture. In his endeavour to display
enormous masses of flesh and
broad pieces of drapery exhibiting
in the waning light a mysterious
refulgence which we cannot ex- plain, he has produced, if not a
fine, at least a powerful work.
The first impression received from the picture is repulsive, but admiration follows a closer inspec- tion of it. I experienced this very markedly the last time I saw it. When I entered the church the morning light was weak and, with the natural darkness of the picture, gave to the figures a fantastic shapelessness. As the sunlight became stronger, however, it brought life to the lights and gold and silver into the bright
spaces; a brilliance of glory began to shine through the darkness, and gradually the struggle between the light and the browns became a dramatic song, finishing in a hymn in praise of the triumph of light. The draperies of Mary, John, and Magdalen became softer the head of the white horse and the golden drapery of the officer more supple; it was only at the top of the canvas that the light failed to dispel the gloom, where, through the shimmering shadows, one realises the sufferings of the self-sacrificing God and of the two tortured malefactors. The picture impressed me strongly. I felt that Jordaens had hazarded everything to secure the effect he aimed at, and had triumphed ; sacrificing beauty
THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS
(Church of the Beguinage, Antwerp).
238 CRIST ON THE CROSS.
of form and charm of colour and lighting, he succeeded in representing this mysterious struggle between light and darkness, and in expressing the agony of the Saviour and the grief of his relations and friends, heightened by the painful melancholy of Nature herself. It is quite certain that this picture dates from about 1670, and is one of the great works of the artist's last period.
Christ on the Cross. Tournay. -•- Another Christ on the Cross, in the church at Tournay, dates from the same time, but has much less value as a work of art. Here, also, Christ's arms are stretched sharply upwards on the cross. Mary Magdalen kneels at the foot, encircling it with her arms; the Roman soldier holds up the sponge to the sufferer. Mary, John, three Roman soldiers (one of them mounted on a white horse), a man, and a woman with her child, are gathered round the cross. The picture, dark in itself, hangs in a dark chapel. The shadows are black. The man with the lance has been painted in brown ochre. Our Lady in her blue robe and John in his red cloak are dim and vague figures; Magdalen, wearing a yellow garment, is posed in a tasteful attitude. Here and there gleams of light appear in the pool of darkness, but they fail to give life or charm to this night- scene, in the painting of which Jordaens indubitably had a small share.
The Ascent of the Virgin. — Among the last pictures Jordaens painted are two belonging to Antwerp charitable institutions : an Ascent of the Virgin in the Teirninck School, and a Dead Christ in the Maagdenhuis, the property of the Board of Charities. In the first we see Our Lady ascending to heaven, both arms uplifted. She wears a white garment over one of blue; little angels are hovering round her, and above her radiates a warm, nimbus. In the foreground is seen the vacant grave, in front of which kneel three women, two of them exhibiting to the Apostles the flowers they have taken out of it. One -of the Apostles peers into the tomb behind which he is standing, stooping so much to do so that we look down on the back of his head and his shoulders. The majority of the other eleven standing round the grave are gazing into its empty depth; one only follows Mary with his eyes.
The picture is very dark in the central passages; those higher up on the canvas, — the Virgin ascending and the little angels — are lighter; and so are the women in their white, yellow, and blue robes in the foreground. A flickering light falls also on the heads of some of the Apostles. The darker tone prevails, however, in the ruddy shadows and in a circle of light so dull that the figures only partially loom forth from it. The flesh is in baked tints, over which the shadows are cast like so many rust-coloured stripes. Here and there a forehead, a neck or an arm emerges, but the whole is a pool of darkness, with fitful bright gleams.
It obviously dates from after 1670. Jordaens had studied the effect of weak light fighting the hosts of darkness. The figures are suggested only, rather than drawn ; the, draperies are w.sted or narrowly pleated; there is no wealth of colour or light; the study of his figures has not concerned the painter, who has been attracted mainly by the mysterious shimmering of the scorching heat, the flaming and flickering of the warm light flooding the scene, and the transparency of the semi-darkness. In his change of style he is like Frans Hals who also in his last pictures showed a great preference for powerful, jet-black shadows This work, like all the others in the institution, was the gift of the founder, the venerable Mr. Teirninck, and formerly stood on the altar of.the chapel. Now it is in the.picture gallery
THE DEAD CHRIST.
239
This is the only Ascent of the Virgin by Jordaens that we know, but he certainly painted others. One appeared at the G. J. van Rymenam sale (Mechlin, 1858); another at the Simon sale (Brussels, 1852). Parthey mentions a sketch in the Bartels collection, at Berlin. There is also a drawing of the subject in the castle at Chantilly; and others appear- ed at the Jacob De Wit sale (Amsterdam, 1755), and the Daniel De Jonghe sale (Rotterdam 1810). In the early part of his career Jordaens, in collaboration with Luellincx, painted an Ascent of Our Lady and two angels, which is mentioned in the inventory of the Widow Jan van Haecht at Antwerp, July 5-7, 1627. (1)
The Dead Christ. — This picture, now in the Maagdenhuis, was in Jordaens' posses-
VANITAS (Museum, Brussels).
sion at the time of his death, and in view of this and from its style we conclude that it was one of his latest works. Christ has been taken down from the cross and lies on the ground with his head in Mary's lap. His swollen body is unsightly; the legs are covered by a white sheet which one of the disciples is lifting up. Mary's left hand is raised to her face in a gesture of woe ; John, in red, kneeling at Christ's feet, is holding the dead body as well as raising the sheet. Behind Mary are an old and a young woman; the old one holding a candle, the other a basket. Propped against the cross is a ladder, on which leans an old man dressed in a scarlet garment; behind John we see two women, one of whom carries
(1) F. JOS. VAN DEN BRANDEN, Verzamelingen van schllderijen te Antwerpen. (Antwerp Archives. XXI. 326.)
240 PORTRAITS.
a copper basin. In the foreground stand a copper jug and dish; rocks are visible in the background. The evening has fallen, and the setting sun has left an orange-coloured glow in the sky towards the left. The painting is heavy and dark, with sombre gray shadows and vivid colour-effects on the white shroud, John's red garment, and the white bodice of the young woman to the left.
The picture was bequeathed to the Maagdenhuis by Jordaens. In the archives of this house, now in the possession of the Borad of Charities which at present occupies the building, we read: „27 September, 1679, from Mr. Weerts, Counsellor in the Hague £25 (Flemish) as a gift from his father-in-law Sr. Jacq Jordaens, deceased, besides the donation of the following picture Gd. 150. —
„d° from the a forementioned Counsellor Weerts another picture painted by the said Jacques Jordaens, a Descent from the cross of the same size as the large overmantelpiece which he presents to the Poor besides the above mentioned £ 25 (Flemish) in money, in token of the charitable affection which Jacq. Jordaens, deceased, bore towards the Poor. Which picture has been placed in our Maghdenhuys as a memorial.
„d°- 6 October (1679) to the men for carrying the picture to the Maghdenhuys received on 27 th ult. from the heirs of the painter Jacq. Jordaens G d -6.— "
Mr. Rump of Copenhagen possesses a drawing which is evidently a study for the picture in the Maagdenhuis. (1).
Mensaert mentions a Dead Christ in the St. Brice church at Tournay, a picture that suddenly disappeared without leaving a trace behind. At the Frans Mols sale (Antwerp, 1769) and at the Schoreel sale (Antwerp, 1774) appeared a third copy. The dead Christ lies at the foot of the cross, surrounded by St. John and Joseph of Arimathea and a group of holy women. A smaller picture appeared at the Beschey sale (Antwerp, 1776); the inventory of Alexander Voet (Antwerp, 6-10 October 1689) mentions a Dead Christ by Jordaens. (2) The Albertina at Vienna possesses a drawing of the subject. (3).
Portraits. — There are very few portraits extant painted by Jordaens in his last period. Of those which I know, one is the portrait of a man in the Louvre, formerly called the portrait of De Ruyter. It represents a corpulent personage, wearing black clothes, a white collar, and cuffs; a black sword-belt embroidered with gold runs slantwise across his breast. His long hair falls in curls over his shoulder. He is tremendously stout, and his eyes are almost closed with fat. The face has a coppery hue, and a grayish light falls on the hands. To represent such a figure realistically was to run a danger of falling into caricature, but the painter has avoided it by the elegance with which he invests the pose of the sitter, corpulent though he is, and the pride which he exhibits on his pear-shaped face, as he looks forth with a haughty challenge to anyone who would treat him with disrespect, and arrests the appearance of mockery on the lips of any who might feel inclined to smile.
The second portrait with which I am acquainted belongs to his last period, and pro- bably to the very end of it, and is undoubtedly one of Jordaens' greatest achievements in this genre. It hangs in the Museum of Buda-Pest. The painting portrays an old gentleman
^Lfv^U!-, th p:^ aagdenht,iS ^ A " tWerP - Handb °° k 1678 '* VO '- 53 " *«««"< '» EDM. QEUDENS, *«*.««,«*.
(2) Antwerp Archives, XXII, 70.
(3) Handzeichnungen alter Meister, I, 39.
LAST DAYS.
241
sitting in a red chair, one hand resting on the arm. He is dresed completely in black, save for the white collar and cuffs which stand out in sharp relief against his dark coat. His long hair is curly at the tips, the top of his head bald; he wears a moustache and there is a suspicion of a beard on the underlip. He looks decrepit, and has a melancholy and furtive expression. The painting is beautiful, firm without being hard; the light is soft but not hazy, the shadows are transparent, and the tone of the whole is unusually fine.
Last Days. — Jordaens continued painting to the end of his life, though we know
THE DEAD CHRIST (Board of Charities, Antwerp).
but few works that date from his closing years. It seems probable that during these years he produced canvases which were either failures, or at any rate considered of such small value after his death, that they have disappeared. Of his life at this time, however, we possess a little information. Mathias Schuyts, a painter from Hamburg who visited him in 1669, noted on the fly-leaf of Karel van Mander: Jacob Jordaens was the disciple of Adam van Noort. When I visited him in 1669, during my stay in Antwerp, I found him still painting industriously. He is kind, and polite, and took me over his house, showing me the
31
242
LAST DAYS.
many works of art in his possession, — his own and those of others" (1). Two years later Sandrart, who knew him personally, wrote that in his 78 th year (in 1671, therefore) he was living very quietly and comfortably at Antwerp, possessed of great wealth and held in high esteem (2).
During his last years, however, his health failed, Constantyn Huygens notes in his ^Journal", Saturday, 7 June, 1677: „The Prince of Orange sent for me immediately after the midday meal to go with him to Jordaens. The latter spoke with the prince, seated in a chair in which he was carried. He said that he was 86 years old, and talked much nonsense, getting mixed every now and then." (3)
He died during the night of October 18 th -, 1678; and the same night, at two o'clock,
THE DEAD CHRIST. Drawing (Mr. Rump, Copenhagen).
died his daughter, Elisabeth, who had continued to live with him. No doubt both fell victims to the epidemic, which that year, and indeed most years, raged in Antwerp. „A flooding of the meadows on the other side of the Scheldt", says Papebrochius," was followed by a tainted air which brought to the town an illness unknown to the physicians,
(I) „Jacob jordaens iss den dissipel geweest van Adam van Ohrt. A» 1669 vont ick hem nog narstich schilderen, doen:ick t Antwerpen wezende hem bezocht, ,ck bevont hem seer frindelick ende beleeft, want hei my in sein huys over al voerde ende al
'r(Ku U n n stkron«k £jT" £) *° "" eige " "" "*"' hadde> t0 ° nde " C V ° SMAER ' 0wU «""«*«•"*«• <"*' ™°™- /«*««
ReicZ £\£. ^zvi^::^TT^: i0tfi im 78 Jahr seines Alters - ganz ruhig - und samiet benebens gr °- n
(3) II (le Prince d'Orange) m- envoya querir incontinent apres disne et me fit venir avecq luy chez Jordaens qui parla a uy ass.s dans une cha.se dans laquelle on le portoit. II disoit avoir 86 ans et radottoit parlant mal Apropos de temis en temos (Journaal van Constantyn Huygens, Works of the Historical Society. Utrecht. New Series No 32 P m
FUNERAL. 243
to which nearly one third of the population succumbed". (1) This illness, popularly known as the „Antwerp plague", raged for three months, and did not leave a single house unscathed and scarce one without a death. (2)
In the accounts of the parish of Our Lady, the death of Jordaens is wrongly recorded as occurring on October 18, 1679. (3)
Funeral. — As we have mentioned already, Jordaens was buried at Putte, a village to the North of Antwerp, lying partly in Holland and partly in Belgium, where there was a Protestant chapel. On his tombstone the following was inscribed:
HlER LEYT BEGRAVEN
JAVQUES JORDAENS GEBOREN
BINNEN ANTWERPEN STERF DEN
18 October A MVCLXXVIII
ENDE
Deerbare Catharina VAN Oort
SYNE HUYSVROUWE STERF DEN
17 April A MVILIX.
ENDE
Jofv. Elisabeth Jordaens haere dochter sterf den
18 October A 1678
christus is de hope Onser heerlyckheit. (4)
Under the French Republic, in 1794, the little church was demolished and the tomb- stones were left among the ruins. Jordaens', broken in three pieces, was discovered by an Antwerp merchant, Frans Pauweleart, in 1829. In 1833 Mr. Norbert Cornelissen, in a communication to the Messager des sciences historiques, Ghent, appealed for a worthy site for the tombstone, and in 1845, as the result of a request of the Belgian Government to the Government of the Netherlands in the previous year, for permission to erect a monument at Putte in memory of Jordaens, King William II of the Netherlands had all the tombstones which had been left lying there removed to a plot of ground enclosed by an iron railing. In 1877, during the Rubens festivities, a small monument was erected on the same spot, to the pedestal of which was attached the tombstone of Jordaens as well as those of the painter Adriaan van Stalbemt (died September 21, 1662) and his wife Barbara Verdelft (died December 15, 1663) and of Guilliam de Pape (died 1674). The monument is surmounted by a bronze bust of Jordaens by Jef Lambeaux ; the front bears a bronze palette surrounded by a wreath of laurels, and a bronze medallion of Adriaan van Stalbemt has been attached to the left side. On the back is the inscription: „This monument, erected by a committee
(1) Synopsis Annalium Antverpiensum. Edidit. I. V. S., 0. P., p. 44.
(2) DlERCKXSENS : Antverpia Christo nascens et crescens VII, 412.
(3) Jacques Jordaens f 18 8 1 "" 1679, Elisabeth Jordaens filia t 18 8" 1679 (Notes of Ridder Leo de Burbure, preserved in the town Archives of Antwerp, Vol. VIII, p. 79. Uittreksels uit de archleven der Hoofdkerk van 1100 tot 1796.)
(4) Here lies Jacques Jordaens, born in Antwerp, died 18 October in the year MVCLXXVIII, and the respected Catharina van Oort, his housewife, died 17 April in the year MVILIX and Juffrouw Elisabeth Jordaens, her daughter, died 18 October in the year 1678. — In Christ lies the hope of our glory.
244
JORDAENS' PLACE AS AN ARTIST.
of Belgians and Dutch in memory of. J. Jordaens, A, van Stalbemt and G. de Pape, on the site of their graves, with the aid of the municipality of Antwerp and of numerous lovers of art, was unveiled August 22, 1877, during the festivities celebrated at Antwerp on the occasion of the Rubens Tercentenary."
As we have had frequent occasion to mention already, the pictures by Jordaens left behind him at his death were publicly sold at the Hague on March 22, 1734. The Catalogue enumerates 109 works, of which 42 are specially mentioned as painted by him. We append it in full.
On August 8, 1886, a statue of Jordaens by Jules Pecher was unveiled in the park at Antwerp. It was erected by his native town from funds bequeathed for the purpose by
Mr. August Nottebohm. In 1902 this statue was taken to the Gemeenteplaats and there placed opposite that of Anton van Dyck. Once again, in 1905, Antwerp did honour to the master. An exhibition of his works was held in the hall of the Fine-Arts Museum, when 91 of his paintings, 57 drawings, 8 tapestries and all his etchings and the engravings after his works were gathered together from museums and private collections in Belgium, England, Holland, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Den- mark, Sweden and Russia.
Jordaens' place as an artist. — We have followed Jordaens through his long career, studying him as a man and as an artist. Except for his conversion to the Reformed faith there is little of general interest in the story of his life. He worked and lived for his art. He was happy in his lot. The son of a well-to-do burgher family, his life was tranquil and undisturbed; he acquired wealth and was highly esteemed in his native town and beyond it. For many years Antwerp ranked him as her leading painter and he received several commissions from crowned heads abroad. He was the last great master in the golden period of the school to which he belonged. To the principles which had made that school great, he remained faithful : a love of full, vigorous life, of cheery realism, brilliant colour, warm light, of everything, in a word, which makes this earth pleasant and worth living in. His was a strongly marked personality. From the very first he was attracted by the peculiarities of Flemish life. Greek and Roman beauty and Italian charm could not tempt him ; he was a man of the North, faithful to the actualities of his own soil and its history. He began by expressing, boldly and crudely, his preference for unpolished nature, for the masses, for the peasants with their rough corners and edges, their powerful colours and gestures. In this way he carried on the tradition of the old Flemings who looked for beauty in strength, and ranged himself with
PORTRAIT OF A MAN (Louvre Paris).
\
HIS FOLLOWERS.
245
the younger generation of his country's artists who, as a protest against Southern sweetness, glorified more than ever Northern boorishness.
We saw, how, after having boldly and even daringly introduced into his earliest works, some of them of large dimensions, a naturalism which no one had previously ventured to exhibit in great art, he suffered himself to be beguiled by the irresistible, alluring voice of Rubens, and yielded to his influence. Thus there were introduced into his pictures beautiful figures, elegant gestures, and a magic play of tints and tones. Yet he always remained the Flemish burgher, and a strong sense of truth ever made itself felt in his work. If he gave his models silk and velvet clothes, the silk was no less vivid in tone than the baize sleeping-jacket of his peasants; his light, flowing with richer tints and more tender shadows, remained no less vivid and bright in its radiance : his guests did not joke and carouse any the less freely and openly because now seated or standing round the richly spread board of the well-to-do bur- gher. The knotted muscles of his earlier figures give place to smooth, dimpled flesh, and velvet skin covers the bones, but the bony frame-work is not weakened thereby. The originality of the later Jordaens Was derived from the earlier, the excellences of whose work are not missing in that of
succeeding years. Throughout all the
changes in his style he was the painter of
Flemish customs and popular amusements;
the minstrel who sang the praises of what
was sincere and healthful, of roguish and
mocking laughter. As an observer of the
joy and fun of the people he stands alone ;
no one has ever expressed them with such
daring and taste at once. He was the
painter of the realities of all times ; he could
see beyond the appearances of the crowd around him; he could read the soul and paint
the thoughts and emotions of men, - the wrinkles in their minds as well as in their faces.
His Followers. — Jordaens founded no school. His art was buried with him at Putte. This was not because he did not challenge or excite competition, but because there was no one who felt himself able to follow in the footsteps of this giant, with his great and brilliant art without becoming dwarfed in comparison. After his death, therefore, the painters continued in their allegiance to Rubens, and left Jordaens alone in brilliant isolation.
We have seen that of the many painters who were apprenticed to him, no one made a name for himself. They assisted and copied him, but won no fame for themselves, while often their imitations were merely caricatures of their master's creations, emphasizing their coarser elements and robbing them of those which, with his bold grasp of nature, he fashioned into masterpieces. It was not only throughout his own country that his fame spread and won him pupils; from abroad also they flocked to him, attracted by his great renown.
MONUMENT ERECTED TO JORDAENS.
246
HISVFOLLOWERS.
Queen Christina, we saw, sent him from Sweden the son of her chef Waldow, as an apprentice; and there was another foreign painter who took lessons from him. Jan Tricius, who was born at Cracow about 1620, and became the painter of the Kings of Poland, Jan Casimir Wasa, Michael Wisniowiecki and Jan Sobieski, learned the first rudiments of his art in Cracow. Leaving Poland about 1640, he resided for some years in France and the Netherlands, studying in Paris under Nicolas Poussin (1640—1642) and in Antwerp under Jordaens, and finally at Dantzic under Weiner. In 1651 he returned to Poland, and settled in Cracow, where he lived until after 1692. He died before 1696. It was as a portrait painter
AS THE OLD COCK CROWS (Museum, Dresden).
that he chiefly excelled. His principal canvas, a full-length of King Jan Sobieski (signed; Jan Tricius pinxit Cracoviae A 1677) is in Cracow University. He also painted altarpieces : a St. Floriaan is in the church dedicated to that Saint in Cracow; a „Christ on the Cross", painted in 1680, which decorates the high altar of the Parish Church of Bolechowice, a village in the neighbourhood of Cracow, betrays markedly the influence of the Antwerp School. (1)
(1) From information communicated by Prof. Georges Mycielski. The document in which Tricius' stay with Jordaens is mentioned, and of which the contents are given by himself, is preserved in the archives of Cracow, and was published by Edouard Rostewiecki in his ..Dictionary of Polish painters" (Warsaw, 1851, 11. 269—270). It is a warrant of King Jan Sobieski appointing Tricius keeper of the royal castle at Cracow, and refers to the painter thus: „Jan Tricius our painter, who has attained great ability in his profession and art, in consequence of a long practice with the most renowned masters in painting and especially with Poussin at Paris, Jordaens at Antwerp, and Weiner at Dantzic."
JORDAENS AND JAN STEEN. 247
Jordaens and Jan Steen. — Jordaens exercised little influence over painters who did not come into personal relation with him. It is only in his contemporary Jan Cossiers {1600— 1671), a pupil of Cornelis De Vos, that we find traces of it. Cossiers took a delight in rendering actuality which caused him to degenerate into coarseness and vulgarity. In his religious scenes he displays a boldness that reminds us of Jordaens' want of respect in treating Biblical subjects; as, for example, in the pictures with which he decorated a great part of the walls of the church in the Begijnhof at Mechlin. He, however, cannot compare, in his colour or light-effects, with his predecessor, whose gift of shrewd obser- vation he also lacked. The only painter who really shows kinship with Jordaens, and, indeed, inherited his influence, is Jan Steen (1626—1679). The great Dutchman, the painter of merry-scenes and low-life, displays several points of resemblance with the Fleming who so indefatigably applied himself to the theme of „Long live happiness!" It is surely no mere coincidence that Jan Steen repeatedly chose Jordaen's favourite subjects, — „The Epiphany", „As the old cook crows", and the „Peasant and the Satyr". In them, without doubt, he takes a leaf or two out of the Fleming's book, Consider, too, for example, his frequent choice of bagpipe-players, flute-players, and travelling musicians. May we not attribute to the influence of Jordaens also his painting certain other subjects, which it surprises us not a little to find him treating at all, — works like „Moses striking water from the rock" and „Diogenes in search of a man". Nor is it only in the choice of subjects that we discover this resemblance ; it is found also in the spirit of his characters. Jan Steen shares with Jordaens the rare gift of being able to laugh with all his heart and soul. To the models of both, happiness comes by nature: now quietly modest or roguish, now wanton and noisy, their mirth is always natural, infectious, irresistible. Both artists show an honest enjoyment in the good things, the fat of the land; they take life easily, and contemplate what is beautiful and good from a material standpoint. We can almost imagine that the models of the two painters belong to the same family. Jordaens' women may wear clothes of stuff or silk or no clothes at all; Jan Steen's the Dutch bodice and skirt and cap of the landlady, or the more gaudy attire of the lady of pleasure ; but they are all alike voluptuous, plump, sparkling figures, however differently garbed. The jesters of both, again, with their half-shut eyes, drawn mouths, and sharp noses seem sometimes to have been painted after the same model. The colour is different; that of the Fleming powerful and broad, the Dutchman's subdued and of finer quality. The composition and the style, too, are different, Jordaens' absolutely simple, Steen's more brilliant and elaborate. Never- theless the relation between the two painters is undeniable, and it is fitting that Jordaens, who was himself so greatly attracted by North-Netherland, should find an echo of himself in one of its great masters in his art.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.
In the measurements of the pictures the height precedes the breadth.
Throughout the text voet and duim have been freely rendered „foot" and „inch". It is difficult, if not impossible, to arrive in all cases at their exact equivalents; for in Holland, before the introduction of the Metric System, the voet had a score or more significations. Moreover, it contained, sometimes 10, sometimes 11 or 12, duimen ; the duim again being subdivided, sometimes into 8 (achtsten), sometimes into 10 (lijnen). A further complication arises through the retention in Holland, after the introduction of the Metric System in 1869, of an older nomenclature for the metric measures. The meter was called an el; the decimeter, palm; the centimeter, duim; and the millimeter, streep. Thus, for example, 1 el, 3 palm, 7 duim, 5 streep, might equal 1.375 M. ; but it might also mean something quite different.
In these circumstances the translator, following the author, has made no attempt to reduce the measurements in the List to a common standard.
APPENDIX
CATALOGUE OF PICTURES
in the possession of JACQUES JORDAENS, at his death. Sold March 22, 1734, at The Hague.
1 An Italian Landscape, by Vander Ulft, 2 v., 6 d. by
3 v., 7J d.l) 3 6-o2)
2 The Prodigal Son, by Jor- daens, 2 v., lo£ d. by 3 v.,
10 d 10-15
3 A little Kitchen, by Van \ Beest, 1 v., 34 d. by iv., 6 d. I fi
4 A little Garden by the same, | ~
1 v., 34 d. by I v., 7 d. .J
5 Three Naked Women and an Angel, by Jordaens, 3 v.,
74 d. by 3 v., 5 d.. 10-10
6 A little Kitchen, 1 v., 5 d.
by I v., 1 d 1-10
7 A Seaport, I v., 3 d. by 9 d. 3-0
8 A David, by Van Staveren,
84 d. by 6J d 6-5
9 Boys at Play, in the style of Brouwer, 114 d. by 9 d. 3-8
10 A Merry Company, by Vinkeboons, 1 v., 24 d. by
2 v 8-5
11 A Soldier's Tent by Wou-
werman, 2 v., 2 d. by 2 v.,
54 d 82-0
12 A Diogenes by Jordaens,
3 v., 8 d. by 5 v., 1 d. . 76-0
13 A little Building by Bloemert,
1 v., 2 d. by 10 d.. . . 1-2
14 A little Kitchen, 1 v., 5 d.
by I v., 24 d. ... 2-12
15 A Seaport, I v., 3 d. by 9 d. 1-6
16 A Face by Jordaens, 84 d.
by 7 d 0-14
17 A little Kitehen, 114 d. by
9 d 1-0
18 A few Children, symbolic of Harvest by Rubbens, 1 v.
2 d., by 2 v., 34 d. . . 19-10
19 A Flower-piece by Father Zegers, 1 v., 7 d. by I v.,
2d 6-0
20 A Leda with the Swan by Jordaens, 1 v., 9 d. by I v.,
3d 4-5
2 1 A Fruit-piece by Van Beyere,
I v., 7 d. by I v., 2 d. . 1-12
23 24
25
27
28
22 The History of Acteon, by Jordaens, 3 v., 10 d. by 4 v.,
6 d
A little Landscape, 1 v., 24 d. by I v., 2 d. A Little Garden by Pala- medes or Codde, 1 v., 2 d.
by 1 v., 6 d
A Little Landscape, 1 v.,
2 d. by 1 v., 2 d. .
26 Pan and Syrinx, by Jordaens,
3 v., 8 d. by 3 v., 34 d. . The Conversion of St. Paul, by uts. 3), 2 v., 34 d. by 2 v.,
11 d
A little Farm-shed, by uts., 1 v., 10 d. by 2 v., 44 d.
29 The Unfaithful Shepherd,
1 v., 10 d. by 2 v., 44 d.
30 Socrates and Xanlippe by Jordaens, 2 v., 34 d. by
2 v., 11 d. .
Five little Children by A. B. Willaarts, 2 v., 54 d. by
3 v., 3 d. . . . . The Stable at Bethlehem with several figures by Jordaens,
4 v. by 5 v., 34 d.. . .
33 Two little children with a dog by Jordaens, 2 v., 54 d. by 3 v., 3 d. .
34 The Unknown God at Athens by Breenberg, 2 v„ 3 d. by 2 v., 11 d.
Arethusa by Moses Uyten- broek, 1 v., 3 d. by 1 v., 74 d. A Visit or a call of Mary to Elisabeth, 1 v., 3 d. by
1 v„ I d
A Peasant dance by Isaac Ostade, 1 v., 3 d. by I v., 74_d.
38 An Italian Landscape with a few figures by Breenberg,
2 v., 3 d. by 1 v., II d. A Wreath of Flowers by Velvet Breugel, with a figure by Jordaens, 2 v., 3 d. by I v., II d
3i
32
35 36
37
39
23-0 1-10
6-0
i-4 20-10
51-10
18-0
2-2
49-0 1-16
67-0
S-10
165-0 13-0
2-0 8-0
82-0
1) 2 voct, 6 duim, by 3 voet, 7V2 duim. (See Translator's Note).
2) Price in guilders and stuivers.
3) Uts — ut supra, and here and throughout the Catalogue has to be read Jordaens.
40 A Landscape, 1 v., \\ d.
by 10 d. . . . 0-12
41 A Portrait, II d. by 10 d. 7-10
42 A little Landscape, 74 d.
by 10 d 0-14
43 A Field-labourer byjordaens,
I v., 1 d. by I v., 6J d. 2-0
44 Two Children and a Satyr by Jordaens, 2 v., 3d. by 2 v., 3d. 8-5
45 The Story of Midas by C. L. M., 3 v., 6 d. by 4 v., 44 d
46 A Waterfall, by Knipbergen, 1 v., 1 d. by 1 v., 9 d. .
47 A Fruit-piece by Father Zegers, with figures by Jor- daens, 2 v., 3 d. by I v., lid.
48 A little Landscape, I v., 4 d. by 10 d. .
49 A little Party by Hals the younger, II d. by 10 d. .
50 A little Landscape, 7 d. by 10 d. , . .
51 A little Landscape with figures after the style of Berghem, I v., I d. by I v., 9 d
52 Cupid and Psyche, by Jor- daens, 2 v., 64 d. by 3 v., I d.
53 A Farm-shed, 1 v., 54 d. by I v., 10 d. . .
54 A Battle by van Tol, I v., 54 d. by 2 v. . .
55 Christ in the Temple, 4 v., 14 d. by 3 v., 4 d. . .
56 An ass and a figure, 10J d. by I v., 14 d
57 Noah's Ark, by Celyns, 104 d. by 1 v., 74 d. .
58 Cows and Sheep, by G. Cop, 104 d. by 1 v., 2 d. .
59 A Fruit-piece, 1 1 d., by 1 v., 44 d
60 A little Party by Codde or Palamedes, 5 d. by 7 d. .
61 The Judgment of Paris in miniature, by Joachem Uite-
waal, 6 d. by 8 d. . . . 14-10
32
21-
10
3-
5
19-
5
1-
10
3-
6
2-
2
1-
-5
20-
-10
5-
-10
5
-0
10
-0
2
-10
2
-15
1
-0
2
-10
4
-0
250
CATALOGUE OF PICTURES.
62 A little Landscape, 4 d. by 6i d
63 A little Seapiece, 3J d. by 6J d
64 The History of Rynoud and Armide by B. Tysse, 3 v. by 3 v., 10J d
65 A little Flower-piece, I v., 1 d. by 8£ d
66 Venus and Cupid with a Satyr by Jordaens, 3 v.,
5 d. by 2 v., 5J d..
67 A Flower-piece, 1 v., 10 d. by 1 v., 5 d
68 A Seascape, 3^ d. by 6£ d.
69 A ruined Building by J. v. CIoos, 6 d. by 9 d. .
70 A small picture with figures representing Christ blessing the Children, after the man- ner of Rubbens, 7 J d. by I v.
71 A very large picture, being a Sea Triumph, by Jordaens,
8 v. by 12 v., 5 d..
72 Also a very large picture with the Weapons of Achil- les, by uts., 8 v. by II v.
73 Also a large Justice or Moses and Aaron, by uts., 5 v., 7£d. by 8 v. . . . .
74 The three Kings, a Copy after Jordaens, 3 v., 10J d.
b y s v
75 A Hunter and two Ladies, 1 v., 2J d. by 1 v., 6 d.
76 An „As the old Cock crows the young "one learns" by Jordaens, 5 v., 6 d. by 7 v.,
9 d, ...
77 A Venus "and Satyrs by Jordaens, 3 v., 9 d. by 6 v.,
6 d
78 A large square Piece, with four large oblique pieces, .serving as a ceiling of a large Chamber, representing the Story of Psyche, painted
s-s
7-5
1-15 0-14
3-i4
7-0
195-0
160-0
30-0
26-0
by Jordaens for Queen Chris- tina of Sweden, in all 24 v. by 22 v 150-0
79 A Fruit-piece, 3 v r ., 3 d. by
4 v., 2 d 7-10
80 A little Seascape, 1 v., 6 d.
in the round 0-11
81 Christ feeding the Multitude, rich in detail, 2 v., 5 d. by
3 v., 6 d 1 1-5
82 Christ and the Woman of Cana, by Jordaens, 4 v.,
10 d. by 4 v., 10J d. . . 40-0
83 Argus by uts., 3 v., 6J d.
by 7 v., 4 d. . . 17-0
84 A Story by Jordaens, 3 v.,
b\ d, by 7 v., 4 d.. . 33-0
85 A Holy Family, 1 v., 7 d.
by I v., 2 d 7-5
86 A large Sea-fight at Gibraltar under Command of Admiral Heemskerk very elaborate,
4 v., 4 d, by 6 v., 6 d. . 90-0
87 A Woman and Child in a wreath of flowers by Jor- daens, 4 v., 5 J d. by 3 v., 10 d. 45-0
88 A Midas, by Jordaens, 2 v.,
4 d. by 3 v., 9! d. . 16-10
89 An Eleager by Jordaens,
2 v., 3i d. by 3 v., l£ d. 39-10
90 Cadmus by uts., 2 v., 4 d.
by 3 v., 4 d. . . . 4-12
91 A Night-light by uts., I v.,
4J d. by i v 15-0
92 A little Farm-shed, I v.,
4J d. by 2 v., l£ d. . . 11-9
93 A House for Harlots by Jordaens, I -v., 4J d. by
1 v., 1 d 23-0
94 A small Flower-piece, 6 v.,
2 d. by 4 v., 2d.. . 25-0
95 A Small Flower-piece, 1 v.,
2,\ d. by 2 v., id.. . 0-15
96 The Women at Christ's grave, by Jordaens, very beautifully and minutely painted, 7 v.,
4$ d. by 5 v., I d.. . . 155-0
97 Abraham's Offering, by uts.,
,. 7 v., 7 d. by 7 v. . . 190-0
98 The Bearing of the Cross, by uts., 7 v., 2 d. by 5 v.
9 d. . . .... 100-0
99 The Adoration of the three Kings, by uts., 9 v., 4 d.
by 6 v., 7 d 150-0
100 A delightful picture repre- senting a Young Man and a Young Woman, and a Cupid, by uts., 5 v., 6 d.
by 4 v., 10 d 78-0
101 A Vanitas, by uts., 5 v.,
8 d. by 3 v., 9 d. . . . 41-0
102 A Boy and a Girl, by uts.,
6 v. by 2 v., 10 d. . 361-0
103 A Balcony with a party of young people, II v. by
4 v., 6 d 61-0
104 A Balcony with a Moor and a Woman, by uts., II v., by 4 v., 4 d. . . 21-0 A Fool with an Old Man and a Young Woman, by uts., 6 v. by 2 v., 10 d. 16-10 A Fruit and Flower-piece, \ by uts., 3 v., I d. by
5 v., 9 d
A ditto, 3 v. Tjy 6 v., 2 d.
107 Four Inscriptions with Orna- ments: the letter A., 5 v.,
I d. by 6 v., 9 d. ; the letter B , 4 v., 6 d. by 8 v.,
II d. ; C, 4 v., <j\ d. by 8 v., 3I d. ; D., 2 v., 5 d. by 7 v., 4 d. .
108 Six Busts on Pedestals, with Ornaments : each 13 v. by I v., 10 d. ; and another with ornaments, 5 v., 4 d. by 4 v. . . ' .
109 A whole ceiling of five Pieces, representing the Story of Psyche and two smaller Flower-pieces, in all 23 v. by 17 v
105
106
7-10
(Catalogue, or a list of pictures, with the prices of the same, sold at public auction in Holland and elsewhere during a long period: together with a collection of lists of several cabinets still existing, published by Gerard Hoet. The Hague, Pieter Gerard van Baalen M.DCC.II. Vol I, pp. 400—406).
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
The figures after the title of the work indicate the pages on which it is mentioned; those in italics, the pages on which it is described or is discussed at greatest length. The figures preceded by (pi) indicate the pages on which the works referred to are reproduced.
I. SACRED SUBJECTS.
A.
The Last "Judgment . . 203, 230.
Louvre, Paris. Canvas, 391 cm. by 300 cm.
Signed; J. JOR, fee. 1653.
The Last Judgment .... 203.
Formerly in the audience-chamber of the Town-hall of Veurne, where Des- camps saw it in 1768. Carried off by the Commissaries of the French Republic, and presented by Napoleon to the Museum at Strasburg. It was burned along with the Museum during the Franco-Prussian War.
B. Old Testament.
Adam and Eve in Paradise.
Sale. — Chevalier de Burtin, Brussels, 1819.
Canvas, 155 cm. by 183 cm.
Later, in the possession of Mr. E. De Coninck, art-dealer, Brussels. On De- cember 9, 1902, sold by Frederik Muller at Amsterdam among the pictures from the Academy of Arts at Middelburg. The sale-catalogue contained a phototype.
In March, 1903, an Adam and Eve in Paradise (in all probability the same work) was sold in Berlin by Rudolf Lepke for 2,330 marks.
Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise. (With a festoon of flowers by D. Segers).
Sale.- — Nourri, Paris, 1785.
The Deluge.
Sale. — May 16, 1696, Amsterdam.
Noah bringing the Animals into the Ark.
Sale. — Jules de Senezcourt, Brussels, 1866.
Canvas, 138 cm. by 194 cm.
The Sacrifice of Abraham . . 215
Museum, Milan, No. 443 ; 243 cm. by 154 cm.
Received in exchange from the Museum, Paris, January 9, 18 13.
The Sacrifice of Abraham.
Museum Stuttgart, No. 441.
Canvas, 76 cm. by 60 cm.
The Sacrifice of Abraham. . 29
Museum, Hamburg, No. 82.
Panel, 68.5 cm. by 53 cm.
The Sacrifice of Abraham.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, March, 22, 1734, 7 feet, 2 duim by 5 feet, 9 duim, 190 guilders.
The Sacrifice of Abraham.
Sale. — Cuyper de Rymenam, Brussels, 1803, 2 feet, 3 duim by 1 foot, 2 duim.
The Sacrifice of Abraham.
Sale. — L. J. Faydherberbe, Mechlin, 1840.
Canvas, 72 cm. by 58 cm.
The Sacrifice of Abraham.
Sale. — Van Rooy, Antwerp, 1870.
Canvas, 105 cm. by 78 cm.
The Sacrifice of Abraham . 215, pi. 215.
Drawing, Pen and Water-colour, Louvre, Paris.
Signed : Jordaens.
Abraham and Isaac.
Drawing for tapestry : black-and red- chalk. Print-room, Berlin.
Lot and his two daughters.
3 feet, 6 duim by 4 feet, 6 duim.
Sale in the "Koningen van Zweden", Bisscliopstraat, Brussels, in 1777.
Lot and his two daughters.
A charcoal drawing of this subject, with a portrait of Jordaens and a study of a man's figure on the back, appear- ed at the Artaria, Dr. F. Sterne and Prof. Dr. L. M. P. Sale at Vienna, in 1886.
Isaac blessing Jacob.
Canvas, 134 cm. by 171 cm.
Bruges, The English Convent.
Ditto. Sale.- Van Velsen, Mechlin, 1808.
Ditto. Doudon, Brussels, 1818.
43J duim by 72J duim.
Signed, Jacobus Jordaens.
Ditto. Sale.— Brussels. "Marche de la Chapelle," 1823. 49 d. by 63 d.
Ditto Sale. — Van Meldert, Mechlin,
I837.
Ditto. Sale. — Eg. van Laerbeke, Ghent, 1847.
Canvas, 1 el, 3 palm, 7 duim by I el, 7 palm, 4 duim.
Ditto. Sale.-Mensart, Amsterdam, 1824.
Canvas, 134 cm. by 173 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Soenens, Brussels, 1877.
Isaac blessing Jacob
Drawing, J. Masson, Amiens.
Eliezer and Rebecca (with landscape by van Uden.) 49
Museum, Brussels, No. 315.
Canvas, 182 cm. by 307 cm.
Sale. — Geelhand de Labistraete, Ant- werp, 1878.
The picture appeared at an exhibition at Antwerp in 1849 in aid of the fund for the erection of a statue to Math, van Bree.
Rebecca at the Well .... 50
Canvas, 153 cm. by 183 cm.
Sale. — Huybrechts, Antwerp, 1902.
Ditto. Sale. — A. de Pester, Antwerp, 1800.
Canvas, 57 duim by 69 duim.
Ditto. Sale. — De Mameffe, Brussels, 1809.
Ditto. Sale. — J. A. Snyders, Antwerp, 1842.
Canvas, 145 cm. by 165 cm.
Joseph and Potifhar's Wife.
Sale. — Sr. Jacomo de Wit, May, 15, 1741, Antwerp, 5 feet, 2 duim by 7 feet, 3 duim.
Moses taken Jrom the River.
Canvas, 168 cm. by 279 cm.
Sale. — De Robiano, Brussels, 1837.
Pharoah's daughter finding the child Moses.
Sale.— Robert Chantrell, Bruges, 1840.
Panel, 15 d. by 23 d.
Zipporah returns to Moses.
Schloss Roland Fahne (Parthey I, 641).
Canvas, 5 v., 5 d. by 4 v., 11 d.
Moses striking the Water from the Rock j/, pi. 32
252
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
Museum, Karlsruhe, No. 186, 205 cm. by 180 cm.
Ditto. Cassel. In the residence of the General Commandant. School-piece . 32. Ditto. Sale. — Lieven Leyens, Ghent, 1823. Canvas, n^duim by i8£ duim. Ditto. Sale. — Frans de Vos, Ghent, 1832
Ditto. Sale.— J. D. David, Brussels, May, 16, 1898.
Samson slaying the Philistines. Palace, Amsterdam. Painted in 1 66 1.
204. Samson hound by the Philistines. Drawing, black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on blue paper.
Sale. — J. G. A. Frenzel, Dresden, 1837. 10 duim, 4 lijn by 12 duim, 6 Hjn. David slaying Goliath. Royal Palace, Amsterdam. Painted
in 1661 205.
David with the head of Goliath. Sale. — Pixell, London, 1899. King David (Copy after Jordaens). Inventory of the Juffr. Susanna Willems- sens, widow of Signorjan van Bonn, 1657. Abimalech giving David bread and wine. Sale. — Soenens, Brussels, 1877. Canvas, 383 cm. by 296 cm. David and Bathsheba. Sale. — Chapuis, Brussels, 1865. Canvas, 65 cm. by 120 cm. David and Abigail. Sale. — C. L. De Corte and others, Antwerp, 1853.
The Judgment of Soloman. Museum, Darmstadt, No. 308. Panel, 33 cm. by 104 cm. Ditto. Sale. — Van Ourshagen, Mechlin, 1892. Canvas, 35 cm. by 116 cm. Solomon consulting the Wise Men. Drawing.
Sale. — Cuypers de Rymenam, Brussels, 1803.
Ruth showing her mother-in-law the barley she has gleaned.
Sales. — Stier d'Aertselaer, Antwerp, 1817 and 1822.
Canvas, 17 duim, 6 lijn by 28 duim, 5 Hjn.
Ruth and Boaz.
Sale. — Stier d'Aertselaer, Antwerp, 1 8 1 7 and 1822.
Canvas, 71 duim, 6 lijn by 28 duim, 5 lijn. Amnon and Tamar. Academy, St. Petersburg. (Waagen, Gemalde Sammlungen zu St. Peters- burg p. 396).
Esther and Ahasuerus. Sale. — P.J. de Marneffe, Brussels, 1830. Canvas, I el, 80 duim by 2 el, 60 duim. Job ........ pi. 37.
Paul Mersch, Paris. Ditto. Sale. — Haro, Paris, 1892. Panel, 66 cm. by 53 cm. Susanna and the Two Elders. . 193,799. Museum, Brussels, No. 241. Canvas, 237 cm. by 174 cm. Ditto. Sale.— Mme. Genti'l de Cha- vagnac, Paris, 1854.
Ditto. Sale. — V. L. and Charles van den Bergh, Brussels, 1858. Ditto. Sale. Gheldolf, Brussels, 1863. Ditto. Franck— Chauveau, Paris.
201, pi. 200.
The Same Composition.
Canvas, 205 cm. by 179 cm.
Ditto. Museum, Copenhagen, No. 169. 198, 199, pi. 199.
Canvas, 58^ duim by 77J duim.
Signed: Jac Jordaens, fecit, 1653.
Ditto. Museum, Verona. . 201, pi. 201.
Canvas, 176 cm. by 215 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— De Proli, Antwerp, 1785.
Ditto. Sale.— Robit, Paris, 1801.
Ditto. Sale. — The Hague, September, 18, 1837, through A. Lamme.
Canvas, 2 el, 10 duim by 1 el, 8 duim.
Susanna in her Bath.
Sale. — Triponetty, Brussels, 1810.
Canvas, 143 cm. by 168 cm.
Susanna and the Two Elders, a dog and a parrot.
Sale.— Bruges, May, 31, 1774.
Canvas, 5 v. by 6 v., 2 duim.
Susanna and the Elders. Drawing, red chalk, washed in ink . . . . 193.
Louvre, Paris, No. 20013.
Signed : J. Jordaens.
Symbolic Piece.
Masson, Amiens. Inscription: "Jesa, 44, v. 15. 16, 17. Hage, 20, Mars. 1650".
C. New Testament.
The Head of the Virgin (study).
Sir Charles Eastlake (Waagen, Art Treasures II, 264).
The Marriage of Mary. Drawing.
Sales, t- Boucher, Paris, 1771 ; Amster- dam, September 16, 1760.
Mary's visit to Elisabeth.
Museum.Lyons. No. 108. . 128.pl. 128.
Canvas, 263 cm. by 185 cm.
Painted in 1642 for the church of Rupelmonde ; carried off by the French in 1794. Presented to the Museum at Lyons by Napoleon I, in 1805. A copy is still in the church of Rupelmonde.
Ditto. Sale.— Hulstaert, Antwerp, 1887.
Canvas, 82 cm. hy 64 cm.
The Adoration of the Shepherds.
15, 17, 19, 28, 196, 228, pi. 15.
Museum, Stockholm, No. 488.
Canvas, 124 cm. by 93 cm.
Signed, on the handle of the milk can, I IoRdAnS FeCit 1618.
Ditto. (Same Composition). . 16, 187.
Prince Lichnowsky, Kuchelna (Silesia).
Panel, 150 cm. by 125 cm.
TheAdoration of the Shepherds. Museum, Brunswick, No. 465.
Panel, 125 cm. by 97 cm.
Ditto. Museum, Antwerp, No. 221. 192, 196, pi. 201.
Panel, 244 cm. by 220 cm.
From the Episcopal Palace at Ant- werp.
Ditto. Museum, Frankfort, No. 139.
195, pi. 195. Canvas, 72.5 cm. by 93 cm. Signed : J. Jor. fee 1633.
Ditto. Museum, Lyons, No. 109.
196, pi. 196. Canvas, 245 cm. by 205 cm. Formerly in the Hospital for Incurables
at Liege. Carried off by the French Republicans, and presented by Napoleon I to the Museum at Lyons in 181 1.
Z>z'#0.Museum,Grenoble,No.387 . 197.
Probably the picture from the church of the Reguliere Canonesses at Courtray.
Ditto. Sale of the suppressed Convents, Brussels, 1785.
The picture came from the Terzieken Foundation, Mechlin.
Ditto. Jhr. W. Six, Amsterdam.
198, pi. 197.
Canvas, 180 cm. by 179 cm.
Signed J. .Jor. fe.
Ditto. („The Birth of Christ on Canvas") 18, 119.
Estate of P. P. Rubens. No. 266.
Ditto. Mrs. Bruzaud, Holland-Park. London, (Engraving, Marinus).
if, 179, 192.
Ditto. Drawing for the engraving by Marinus . . . . 192, pi. 17.
Boymans Museum, Rotterdam.
Ditto. Sale. — James Hazard, Brussels, 1789.
Ditto. Engraving by Petrus De Jode 180, 192.
The Louvre possesses the drawing from which the engraving was made.
Ditto, Schloss Rohland Fahne . 198.
Panel. 1 v. 3 d. by 1. v. 11 d.
Signed: J. J. F., 1649.
Ditto. („ The Birth of Christ'). Sale. — Horion, Brussels.
Reynolds — Voyages, p. 249.
Ditto. Sale. — Jordaens, No. 32, 4 v.
by 5 v, l\ d 198.
Ditto. Sale. — Floris Drabbe, Leiden, 1743. 4 v. by 5 v. 3 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Floris Drabbe, Leiden,
1743-
In watercolour, 1 v. 4 d, by I v. i{ d.
Ditto. Sale.. — Martin Robyns, Brussels, 1758, 2 v., 6 d. by 3 v., 6 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Martin Robyns, No. 96, 3 v., 4 d. by 4 v., 4 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Jhr. Alexander van Sus- teren, Antwerp, 1764, 9 v. by 7 v., 2 cL
Ditto. Sale of pictures from Saxony, Amsterdam, 1765, 24I d. by 19J d.
Ditto. Sketch. Sale. — Van der Motten, Brussels, 1775, 2 v. by 1 v., 10 d.
Ditto. Grissaille. Sale. — Bartels, Brus- sels, 1779.
Ditto. Sale. — Johan van der Linden van Slingeland, Dordrecht, 1785.
Panel, 474 d. by 36 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Private Collection, Am- sterdam, 25 July 1804.
Canvas, 48 d. by 37 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Marie-Therese Wittebol and Mr. de Labistrate, Antwerp, 1804.
Canvas, 54 d. by 44 d.
Ditto. Sale. — The Baroness de Leyden de Warnand, Leiden, 1816.
Canvas, 4 v., 8 d. by 4 v., 6 d.
Ditto. Sale. — H. A. van den Heuvel, Utrecht, 1825.
Canvas, 126 cm. by 108 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Jean — Jacques de Faesch, Amsterdam, 1833.
Panel, 1 el, 2 palm, 4 duim by 1 el, 6 palm, 4 duim.
Ditto. Sale.— J. J. de Raedt, Mechlin, 1839.
Canvas, 152 cm. by 121 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Van Doom, Amsterdam, 1851.
Ditto. Sketch. Sale. — George Stange Cologne, 1879.
Panel, 36 cm. by 25 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Ludwig Bruckmann and J. B. Meyer, Cologne, 1890.
Canvas, 65 cm. by 54 cm.
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
253
Ditto. British Museum. Drawing red
and black chalk
17. 193. pl- 8
Ditto. Drawing, Albertina, Vienm No. 616.
Ditto. Drawing, Delacre,. Ghent. 18
pl. 49.
Ditto. Drawing. In black, white and red chalk.
Sale.— Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1747
Ditto. Drawing. Sale.— Pierre Wouters Brussels, 1747.
Hastily drawn with pen and bistre.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale.— Jacob de Wit Amsterdam, 1755.
Ditto. Drawing. With the pen and washed in bistre. Sale.— Boucher, Paris 1771.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Ploos van Am stel, Amsterdam, 1800.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Jos. Dan, Bohm Vienna, 1865.
The Adoration of the Kings 130, 174 193. 209, pl. 133
Dixmude, Church of St. Nicolas.
Canvas, 358.5 cm. by 265 cm.
Signed Jac. yord. 1644.
Carried off in 1794; returned in 1815.
Copy in the Duinkerk Museum.
Ditto. Museum, Rotterdam No. 141.
13'-
Canvas, 262 cm. by 217 cm.
Sales.— Jac. Jordaens, The Hague,i734 ;
William II, The Hague, 1850 ;
Viruly van Veeren en Dalem, 1880.
Ditto. Cathedral of Seville . . 231.
Dated: 1669.
Ditto. Cloister, Oosterhout . . 231.
Ditto. Sales. — Peeter Leendert de Neuf- ville, 1765, Amsterdam; Nicolas Neuf- hof, Amsterdam, 1777 . . . I31.
Canvas, 6l£ d. by 41J d.
Ditto. Sale. — Suppressed Cloisters, Brussels, 1785. Originating from the con- vent of the Poor Clares at Antwerp, 5 v., 3 d. by 4 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Horion Brussels, 1788, 2 v., 2 d. by 2 v., lid.
Ditto. Sale. — Marenzi de Morensfeld, Bruges 1850.
Canvas, 175 cm. by 135 cm.
Ditto. Drawing, Plan tin— Moretus Mu- seum, Antwerp. Signed ,,1653 4 Aprilis J. Jds." .... 132, 193, pl. 130.
Ditto. Drawing, Hermitage, St. Peters- burg, No. 4206.
Ditto. Drawing with pen and colours. British Museum.
Ditto. Drawing. Abel Cournault, Nancy.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Artaria, Dr. F. Storm, etc. Vienna, 1886. Chalk, Sepia and White.
The Circumcision
Seville Cathedral. Dated, 1669 . 230.
Ditto. Drawing. Museum Rotterdam.
pl. 7°-
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797.
The Dedication in the Temple. 192, 210, 230, 217.
Museum, Dresden, No. 1012.
Canvas, 395 cm. by 305 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— The Hague, 26th of June, 1742, 13 v. by 10J v.
Ditto. Sale. — Salamanca, Paris, 1875.
Canvas, 127 cm. by no cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Keller and Renier, 1905.
Ditto. Drawing. Museum, Rotterdam, 192, 230.
Ditto. Drawing. Albertina, No. 614. 193, 213.
Ditto. Drawing. Antwerp, Vaerewyck.
213. Watercolcur, iu many colours.
The Flight into Egypt. . 106, 178.
Antwerp, Mrs. Bosschaert— Dubois.
Canvas, 100 cm. by 188 cm.
Signed : Ja. Jor. fe. 1641.
Ditto. Copy, in the Church of St. Anthony at Antwerp . . . 107.
Ditto. Sale. — C. L. Reynders, Brussels, 1821.
Canvas, 50 d. by 61 d.
Ditto. St. Petersburg, Count Peter Schuwaloff
Ditto. Sale. — Alois Spitzer, Vienna, 1906.
Bought by Lieutenant Matsvanszky.
Ditto. Etching, dated 1652 . . 172.
Ditto. Engraving by P. Pontius . 107.
Ditto. Drawing: Black chalk and a little colour. Sale.— Amsterdam, October, 1780 107.
Ditto. Drawing: Black, red and white, chalk and a few watercolours. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797 . 107.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Walschot, Ant- werp,- I817, 23J d. by 4if d. . 107.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Jhr. Jos van Dooren, Tilburg, 1837. 3 v., 9 d. by 5 v., 4 d.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — J. B. Boller- mann, Mainz, 1853. 3 v., I d. by 4 v.
The Rest during the Fight into Egypt or The Holy Family 27.
Museum, Brunswick. No. 466.
Canvas, 286 cm. by 196 cm.
Sale. — Lebrun, Paris, 1 79 1. 12 v., by 7i v.
Ditto. Ghent, Scribe . . . 27.
Canvas, 206.5 cm - by I0 8 crn -
On loan in the Museum, Ghent.
Ditto. Formerly in Dusseldorf Museum.
Canvas, 2 v., 2 d. by 1 v., n d.
Ditto. Drawing, Louvre. No. 20015.
pl. 16.
Same composition as Mr. Scribe's picture.
The Return out of Egypt.
Cologne, Weyer (Parthey I, 642).
Canvas, I v., 4 d. by I v., 9 d.
The Virgin (panel).
Estate of Rubens, No. 267.
A Madonna in a -wreath of flowers.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734.
Ditto. Sale. — Joan de Vries, October 1 3, 1738, The Hague.
Madonna (on copper).
Sale of pictures from the suppressed cloisters of the Jesuits. Brussels, 1777.
The Virgin.
Sale.— Jacob de Wit, 1758, Amsterdam.
The Holy Family in a Landscape with God the Father.
Sale. — The suppressed Cloisters, Brus- sels, 1785, from the church of St. Catharine at Mechlin, 9 v. by 7 v., 6 d.
The Holy Family in a wreath of fruit 97-
Mrs. Errara, Brussels.
Canvas, 164 cm. by 117 cm.
The Holy Family. . ■ 26, pl. 25.
Museum, New York. Canvas, 66 d. by 58-I d.
Ditto. Sale.— Mrs. de Baudeville, Pans, 1787.
Panel, 5 v., d. by 4 v., 6 d.
Ditto. Museum, Schleissheim, No. 374.
26.
Ditto. Museum, Lille, No. 969. 27.
Ditto. Museum, Dublin, No. 69. 26.
Panel, 4 v. by 3 v.
Ditto. Earl of Wemyss, London .
Ditto. Paris, Mr. Souillie . 27.
Sale. — Anguiot, Paris, 1875. 27.
Canvas, 125 em. by 100 cm.
Ditto. Tournay. Over the door of the sacristy in the Abbey of St. Martin.
(Mensaert, II, 78).
Ditto. Church of the Carmelites, Mechlin, (Mensaert I, 179).
Ditto. Sale of pictures from the Cloisters of the Jesuits, Antwerp, 1777, No. 153. 4 v., 6 d. by 3 v., 7 d.
Ditto. Sale. — June 20, 1714, Amster- dam.
Ditto. Sale. — Johan van Schuylenburg, September 20, 1735, the Hague, 2 v., \ d, by I v. 6£ d.
Ditto. Sale. — The Hague. April 24,
1737-
Ditto. Sale. — Jacob van der Dussen, Amsterdam, 1752, 4 v., 4 d. by 3 v., 3d.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, April 2, 1754, 5 v., I d. by 5 v., \\ d.
Ditto. Sale. — Thomas Schwencke, The Hague, 1767, 58 d. by 76. d.
Ditto. Sale.. — Amsterdam, January 20, 1772.
Canvas, 44 d. by 59 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, November 30, 1772.
Canvas, 45J d. by 67J d.
The Holy Family with St. John and St. Elisabeth.
Sale. — Osley, London, 1787.
The Holy Family.
Sale. — Rob. J. B. van den Bergh, Ghent, 1829.
Canvas, I el, 3^ d. by 9 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Paltsgraaf, Bruges, 1767, 4 v., 9 d. by 5 v.
The I oly Family and Saints.
Sale. — J. J. van Hal, Antwerp, 1836.
Panel, I v., 8 d. by 2 v., 21 d. (sic).
Ditto. Sale. — Mrs W. dejonghe, widow of P. J. Oosthuysen van Rijsenburg, The Hague, 1847.
Canvas, I el, 16 d., by I el, 4 d.
Ditto. Cologne, Weyer (Parthey I, 641).
Panel, 7 v. by 3 v., 6 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Fanton, Antwerp, 1859.
Canvas, 114 cm. by 95 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— M. M. D. R. and Wil- motte, Antwerp, 1863,
Canvas, 100 cm. by 88 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Aug. Geelhand de Mer- xem, Antwerp, 1804.
Canvas, 90 cm. by 105 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Verellen, Antwerp, 1875.
27.
Canvas, 103 cm. by 90 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— P. A. Verlinden, Ant- werp, June 26, 1877.
Panel, 108 cm. by 80 cm.
Ditto. Drawing. Museum, Lille.
Ditto. Drawing. Ghent.
Delacre Collection. pl. 29.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Boucher, Paris 1771.
The Infant Jesus with John. Museum, Madrid, No. 1406.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 74 cm.
Jesus, St. John and a lamb . . 43, pl. 48.
Paul Wittouck, Brussels.
254
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
Canvas, 91 cm. by 79 cm,
Sales.— Tolozan, Paris, 1801 ; Valentin Roussel, Brussels, 1889.
Jesus and St. John.
Sale. — Regnier van de Wolf, Rotter- dam, 1676.
Jesus playing with John.
Sale.— Winckler, Cologne, 1888.
Canvas, 39 cm. by 33 cm.
Jesus on a sheep, with John, St Anna, St Elisabeth, Joseph, Martha and Joachim.
Sale.— M. du Blaisel, Paris, 1870.
Canvas, 155 cm. by 130 cm.
The Infant Jesus standing on u. globe.
Sale. — Stevens, Antwerp, 1837.
Canvas, 80 cm. by 64 cm.
Joseph and Mary finding Jesus in the
Temple . 174, 208, 210, 213, 227, pi. 210,
pi. 211, pi. 213.
Museum, Mentz, No. 286.
Canvas, 429 cm. by 330 cm.
Painted for the High Altar in the church of St Walburg is at Veurne.
Signed: Jo.Jor.fec. 1663.
Ditto. Pinakothek, Munich, No. 815.
209.
Canvas, 235 cm. by 296 cm.
Christ in the Temple among the Scribes. 210, pi. 212.
Drawing. Mr. Fairfax Murray, London.
Ditto. Drawing. Delacre, Ghent. 210.
Christ among the Scribes in the Temple.
Sale. — Ferdinand, Count of Plettenberg, and Wittem, Amsterdam, April 2, 1738. II v. by 9 v. 3 d.
St John in the Desert.
Sale —Robert Chantrell, Bruges, 1840.
Canvas, 45 d. by 41 d.
John the Baptist (on copper).
Sale. — Herman van Swoll, Amsterdam, 1699.
The Baptism of Christ.
Sale.— Mechlin, October 26, 1756.
Christ with Martha, Mary Magdalen, St Peter and St John.
Sales. — Mols, Antwerp, 1764; van Schorel, Antwerp, 1774-
Canvas, 66 d. by 91 d.
Christ with Martha and Mary,
Multi-coloured watercolour, Museum, Munich.
Ditto. Sale. — Antwerp, November 9, 1846.
Christ blessing the Children. . 213.
Museum, Copenhagen, No. 186.
Canvas, 254 cm. by 277.5 cm -
Ditto. Sale.— de Julienne, Paris, 1767.
213.
Ditto. Sale. — Paris, December 15, 1777.
Panel, 14 d. by 23 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Henri van Assche, Brus- sels, 1 8 10.
Canvas, 6 v. by 7 v. (with the frame)
Ditto. Sales. — Paets de Croonenburgh, Mechlin, 1838; Baron Ch. de Vriere de Terdonck, Mechlin, 1862 . . 213.
Canvas, 145 cm. by 192 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Despinoy, Versailles,
Panel, 57 cm, by 73 cm.
The Kingdom of Heaven and the Children . . . . 214, pi. 213.
Drawing, London, Fairfax Murray.
Signed : Jordaens.
Give and thou shalt receive . pi. 77.
Drawing, London, Fairfax Murray.
Signed: J. Jordaens
The Prodigal Son . 92, g8, pi. 102.
Museum, Dresden, No, ion.
Canvas, 236 cm. by 369 cm.
Sale. — The Hague, June 20. 1742.
Ditto. Museum, Lille, No. 293 . . 100.
Canvas, 167 cm. by 225 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Jacob Jordaens, March 22, 1734, The Hague .... 101.
2 v., 10J d. by 3 v., 1 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Suppressed cloisters, 1 777.
From the Professed House of the Jesuits, Antwerp 99-
Canvas, 1 v. by 9J d,
Ditto. Ghent. Wouters . . . 100.
The Prodigal Son. Brussels. Toussaint. 100, pi. 103.
Ditto. Drawing, National Museum, Stockholm.
Christ healing on the Sabbath.
214, pi. 221.
Drawing in colours. Delacre Col- lection, Ghent.
Christ healing the lame on the Sabbath.
Watercolour. Masson, Amiens.
Christ healing the Sick.
Drawing in watercolours — red, blue, and bistre.
Museum, Berlin, No. 2827.
Ditto.. Drawing. Prince de Ligne, 1794.
The Healing of the Blind and the Lame.
Drawing. Sale. — Jos, Dan. Bohm, Vienna, 1865.
Tolle Grabatum.
Drawing, Museum, Brunswick.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797.
Christ delivering one possessed 214.
Drawing in watercolours.
Printroom, The Hermitage, No. 361.
Ditto. Drawing. J. Rump, Copenhagen.
214.
The woman taken in adultery. 214.
Museum, Ghent, No. 6,
Canvas, 165 cm. by 240 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — The Spanish Consul, London, 1772.
The Reconcilation before the Offering. 214, 230.
Museum, Ghent, No. 5.
Canvas, 167 cm, by 242 cm.
Originally in the Abbey of St. Peter.
Christ on the Sea.
New Palace, Potsdam.
Peter wakes Christ in the little boat.
Sale, — J. Smits and J. Knoop, Amsterdam, 1834.
Magdalen at Christ's feet.
Drawing. Sale. — Hazard,Brussels,i789.
The Marriage in Cana . . . 193.
Watercolour in white, black and red.
Museum, Berlin, No. 380.
Ditto. Drawing, red and black chalk, and sepia 193.
Museum, Berlin, No. 2820.
Sale. — Jos. Dan. Bohm. Vienna, 1865.
Christ and the Pharasees. 214, 230.
Museum, Lille, No. 292.
Canvas, 158 cm. by 239 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Josua van Belle, Rotter- dam, 1730.
5 v., I d. by 7 v. 3 d.
A copy, is in the Church .at Herenthals.
Christ, seated at table, blesses the bread.
Sale. — Miss Regaus, Brussels, 1775.
2 v., 9 d. by 3 v., 5 d.
Christ and the Woman of Samaria at the well.
Drawing, red and black ^chalk.
Sale. — Louis Metayer, Amsterdam, 1779-
Ditto. Drawing. Printroom, Berlin
Black and red chalk and watercolour.
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes.
Museum, Marseilles. No. 383.
118 cm. by 185 cm,
Ditto. Sale. — van Rotterdam, Ghent,
<835.
Canvas, 158 cm. by 190 cm.
St. Peter fishing.
Inventory, Michiel Wouters, Antwerp, 1679.
Ditto. Sale.— van Berthold. Cologne, 1898.
Canvas, no cm. by. 85 cm.
The small draught of fishes.
Sale. — Fr. Mols, Antwerp, 1769.
The Tribute-Money
Sweden, Castle Finsprong. (Mr. Ring- borg, Norkoping), . . ioj, pi. 105.
Ditto. Museum, Amsterdam. No. 742. 104, pi. 106.
Canvas, 1 14 5 cm by 195 cm.
Signed : .?. Jord. fe.
The beheading of John the 'Baptist.
Sale.— Abbe de Wilde, Brussels, 1866.
Canvas, 59 cm. by 62 cm.
Christ expelling the merchants prom the Temple. . 172, 193, 229 pi. 177.
Louvre, Paris. No. 201 1.
Canvas, 288 cm. by 436 cm.
Ditto. Etching by jordaens, dated 1652 172.
Ditto. Drawing. Museum, Brunswick
175. pl- '73-
Ditto. Sale. — Dr. van Herle van der Buecken etc., Ghent, 1856.
Canyas, 190 cm. by 250 cm. .
Christ expelling the merchants from the Temple.
Lithograph, de Villain . . . 175.
Ditto. Lithograph, Mauzaisse. . 175-
Ditto. Drawing. In chalk on yellow ground and heightened with white.
8 d., n linien by 14 d., 10 linien.
Ditto. Sale. — Boucher, Paris, 1771.
Ditto. Sketch. Sale. — Baron v. Denon, Paris, 1826.
Ditto, Sale. — The Earl of Warwick, London, 1896.
The Passion.
Twelve pictures executed for the King of Sweden, Carl-Gustavus (Sandrart Teutsche Academie 336, — Houbraken I, 158. — M. Abrege de la vie des peintres, II, 164).
The entry into Jerusalem.
Sale. — Dusart, Amsterdam, 1865.
The Last Supper . . 115, 232, pl. 238.
Museum, Antwerp, 215, • Canvas, 293 cm. by 65 cm.
Ditto. Catalogue of the pictures of the painter Joannes van de Capelle, 1680, Pud Holland X 34.
Ditto. A supper by Jordaens, do. Oud Holland X 34.
Ditto. A Meal after Jordaens, do Oud Holland X 37.
Christ and his Disciples at table . . 233.
Drawing. Sale. — Aarnout de Lange, Amsterdam, 1803, Kunstboek C No. 2.
Christ in the Garden of Olives . . 233.
Church of the Augustines, Antwerp.
(Reynolds, Voyages II, 283 ; Descamps Voyage p. 173),
At present in the Church of St. Catha- rine at Honfieur,
To the left, near the apostles who have fallen asleep, we read J. Jord.
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
255
F 1654. Bought by Mr. Lechanteur, Com- missary of Marine at Antwerp during the French Empire, and presented by him to the church, together with a ..Bearing of the Cross" by Erasmus yuelhx, originally in the same church.
Judas betraying Christ. . . 2 6
Sale in the St. Jorishof, Brussels 1770
4 v., 8 d. by 3 v., 9 d.
Ditto. (Sandrart, Teutsche Academic, 336).
Ditto. Sketch. Library of the royal Gallery, Copenhagen.
The sorrowing Peter . . . .127
Francois Hannet, Brussels.
Ditto. Sale. — Lebrun, Paris, 1791.
Canvas, 25 d. by 20 d.
Ditto. Sale.— de Marneffe, Brussels, 1809.
Canvas, 71 cm. by 58 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— P. Schut, Amsterdam, 1 888, No. 30.
St. Peter repentant . . . . 127.
Mr. Gevers-Fuchs, Antwerp . 127.
Head of an Apostle .
Amand Harcq, Brussels-.
St. Peter
179.
Sale. — Van der Straelen-Moons van Lerius, Antwerp, 1885.
Canvas, 45 by 35J (sic).
Christ before Caiphas.
Drawing. Sale.— Gildemeester, Amster- dam, 1800.
Ditto. Engraving by Marinus . 179.
Ditto. Engraving by Hunnin.
Ditto. Engraving (anonymous). Mar- tinus van den Enden, Exc.
Ditto. Engraving (anonymous). An oblong with a. few alterations, Dan- ckertsz, Exc.
Christ before Pilate ■. ... . 179.
Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brus- sels, 1797, No. 187.
Ditto. Engraving by Jacob Neefs. 1 79.
Christ mocked 179.
Drawing. Sale. — Habich, Cassel, 28.5 cm. by 28.5 cm.
Dated 1632.
Christ ill-used by four malefactors.
Drawing. (Wiegel, Handzeichnungen
39 2 9)-
Ditto. Engraving, J. J. Prestel sc.
The Bearing of the Cross . . .131.
Museum, Rotterdam, No. 136.
Canvas, 259 cm. by 210 cm.
Sale, — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, March 22, 1734^
Ditto. William II, The Hague, 1853.
Ditto. Viruly van Veeren en Dalem, 1880.
Ditto. Originally in the Church of St. Francis Xaverius, de Krijtberg, Am- sterdam. 240 cm. by 175 cm.
Christ stumbles beneath the Cross.
Sale.— Georg Plach, Vienna. 1885.
The Bearing of the Cross.
Drawing. Rene della Faille Collec- tion, Antwerp.
Christ on the Cross . 10, 20, pi. 10.
Antwerp, Church of St. Paul.
Panel, 242 cm. by 185 cm.
Mount Calvary.
Museum, Rennes, No. 103 . . 13. . Panel, 237 cm. by 171 cm. Originally in the church in the Beguinage, Antwerp.
Christ on the Cross, with Mary.andJohn.
h- in-
Antwerp, Teirninck School.
Christ on the Cross . . .15. 238.
Cathedral, Tournay. Christ on the Cross between the two. Thieves. ... 15, 227, 235.
Cathedral, Bordeaux, Originally in the Church of St. Gommarius at Lier. Christ on the Cross. Formerly in the Minimi Cloister, Antwerp (Reynolds, II, 279). . 15. Mount Calvary.
Formerly in the Church of the Oratory, Bergen. (Mensaert, II, 86, Des- camps, 29).
Christ between the two Thieves . 15. Originally in the Church of the Carthusian Monastery at Brussels, and sold from there, in 1785, with the pic- tures from the surpressed cloisters. 5 v. 7 d. by 4 v.
Christ on the Cross, with Mary, Elisabeth, and John.
Brunswick, Hollandt (Parthey I, 642). Panel, 1 v., 3 d by 2 v., \ d. Christ on the Cross, with Mary, John, Mary Magdalen and others.
Sale. — Mrs van Pafferode and Mrs Blommaert, Ghent, 1802. Christ on the Cross. Drawing. Print-room, Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 362.
Dated: 27 Martii 1638 ffage. The Descent from the Cross. Sale. — Frix, Brussels, 1775. 3 v.. 9 d. by 2 v., 10 d. Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Van de Zande, Paris, 1855,
Pieta 175, pi. 237.
Antwerp, Church of the: Begrtinage, 210 cm. by 165 cm.
Jordaens made an etching of this com- position, and signed the plate „Jac, Jordaens, inventor 1652."
There is a slight difference between the picture and the etching. Ditto .... 239, pi. 241.
Antwerp. The Board of Charities. Canvas, 212 cm. by 257 cm. Bequeathed by Jordaens to the Poor of Antwerp.
Ditto. Drawing. Mr. J. Rump, Copen- hagen 240, pi. 242.
Ditto. Hamburg, Consul Weber's Col- lection 136, pi. 139.
Canvas, 212 cm. by 257 cm. In the Duke of Marlborough sale, Blenheim, 1886. .D/tfcTournay.Church of St.Brice . 240. D/to. Inventory, AlexVoet, 1689. . 240. Ditto. Sale. — Frans Mols, Antwerp,
1769, No. 32 240.
Ditto. Sale.' — Van Schoreel, Antwerp,
1774, No. 45 240.
Ditto. Sale. — Balthasar Beschey, Ant- werp, 1776, No. 187 .... 240. Panel, 2 v., 5 d. by 2 v., 2 d. Ditto. Drawing. Albertina, 619^. 240. Reproduced in Handzeichnungen alter Meister, I, 39.
The Entombment . . 193, 229, 234. Musesum, Antwerp, No. 217. Canvas, 267.5 cm. by 166.5 cm. From the Abbey of Pieter Pot, Ant- werp.
Ditto. Drawing. Ryks-museum, Amster- dam 193.
Christ in the Grave. Sale. — Jean Leop.- Jos. de Man d'Hobrige, Brussels, 1820. Red and black, green and blue chalk. Mater Dolorosa.
Drawing. Sale. — Earl of Warwick, London, 1896, No. 192.
A study in white and black chalk.
The Resurrection.
Sale. — Charles Spruyt, Ghent, 1815.
Panel, 45 d. by 28 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Cornelis Piera, Amster- dam, 1829.
The Disciples at Christ's Grave 32, pi. 33.
Museum, Dresden, No. 1013.
Canvas, 215 cm. by 146.5 cm.
From Jordaens' sale, The Hague, 1734.
Ditto. Drawing. Print-room, Berlin, From the Adolf von Beckerath sale, Berlin, 1901 .... . 33.
Christ appears to Mary Magdalen as a gardener.
Sale. — Canon Knijff, Antwerp, 1785.
66 d. by 49J d.
Ditto. Drawing. London, Fairfax Murray pi. 172.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — James Hazard, Brussels, 1789.
Ditto. Drawing. Earl of Warwick, London, 1896.
The Doubting Thomas.
Sale. — Schmitz, Brussels, 1901.
Canvas, 152 cm. by 125 cm.
The Disciples at Emmaiis . . 115.
Museum, Brunswick, No. 467.
Canvas, 198 cm. by 212 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Charles Spruyt, Ghent, 1815.
Ditto. Sale.— Montriblond, Paris, 1784.
Canvas, 72 d. by 73 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Canon Knyff, Antwerp, 1785.
72 d. by 78 d.
Ditto. Museum, Dublin, No. 57.
Ditto. Lord Northwick, Thirlestane House.
Christ with the disciples at Emmaiis.
Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Fouquet, Am- sterdam, 1801.
The Descent of the Holy Spit it.
Sale. — C. Walwein, Ypres, 1839.
Panel, 170 cm. by 140 cm.
Ditto. Drawing. Hermitage, St. Peters- burg. No. 4216.
Ascent of the Virgin . . . 227.
Antwerp, Teirninck School.
Canvas, 289 cm. by 180 cm.
Ditto. Inventory, Widow of Jan van Haecht, July 5, 1627: "Ascent of the Virgin with two angels, by Geert Snellinx and Jordaens".
Ditto. Sale. — R. J. van Rymenam, Mechlin, 1838.
Canvas,. 80 cm. by 58 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Chevalier Simon, Brussels, 1852.
98 cm. by 148 cm.
Ditto. Drawing. Chantilly. Ditto. Sale. — Jacob de Wit, Amsterdam, 1755-
Ditto. Sale. Daniel De Jongh, Rotter- dam, 1810, by Jordaens and De Wit, in colours.
The . Virgin, crowned by an angel.
Sale in Lloyd's Rooms,. Brussels, 1837.
The Burial of. Joseph.
Inventory, Miss Catharina Dey, 1663.
The Twelve Apostles. . . . 127.
Museum, Lille. No. 294 (four pieces).
Canvas, 155 cm. by 115 cm.
St. Peter and St. Paul (2 pieces). 127.
Sale. — Brussels, Suppressed cloisters, 1785.
256
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
From the Cloister van Leliendaal, Mechlin.
Ditto. Sale.— Van Ourshagen, Mechlin, 1892. Canvas, 75 cm. by 100 cm. Ditto. Sale — Ravaisson, Paris, 1903. Panel, 64 cm. by 50 cm. The Mourning Peter. . . 127.
Antwerp, Gevers Fuchs. Ditto. Brussels, Hannet . . 127. St. Peter delivered from prison. Sketch in oils. Sale.— Jos. Dan. Bbhm, Vienna, 1865.
Octagonal, 7 d. high and broad. St. Paul.
Sale.— Ravaisson, Paris, 1903. (half- length). Ditto. Berlin, Schloss. (Parthey I, 641)
127.
The Conversion of St. Paul
Jordaens painted the "Conversion of
St. Paul" for the altar of St. Paul in
the Abbey-church at Tongerloo. He
received 400 rynguilders for the work,
in October, 1647.
Ditto. Sale.— J ac. Jordaens, The Hague.
HS- March 22, 1734. No. 27 . 2 v., 3J d. by 2 v., 11 d. Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Van der Heyden, Amsterdam, 1827.
Paul before Ananias . . .190.
Drawing, Museum. Rotterdam. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra 132, . pl- 1 3 2 - Acadamy, Vienna. No. 663. Canvas, 170 cm. by 239 cm. Signed : J. Jor. fecit 164s. Ditto. Sale.— Amsterdam, August 31, 1740. No. 18.
Ditto. Sale.— Catharina Backx, widow of Mr. Allard de la Court, Leiden, 1766.
134- Canvas, 5 v., 5 d. by 7 v., 8 d. Ditto. Sale. — Peeter Leenders de Neufville, Amsterdam, 1765 . . 134. Canvas, 6i£ d. by 45| d. Ditto. Sale.— Nicolas Nieuhof, Am- sterdam, 1777, No. 99. Canvas, 62 d. by 45 d. Ditto. Drawing, Antwerp, Max Rooses 192, 193, pl. 133. Red and black chalk, toned with blue, green and white, in watercolours. An Apostle (bust) . . 127, pl. 40. Museum, Brussels, No. 314 (245). Canvas, 50 cm. by 48 cm. Ditto. Museum of the Academy, Vienna.
No. 747 127.
Panel, 64 cm. by 48 cm, An Apostle deep in thought. Sale. — Van Overloop, Antwerp, 1856. Canvas, 61 cm. by 46 cm. St. James, St. Matthew, St. Peter (3 pieces) ....... 127.
Sale. — Ridder Gaspard de Wargny a'Audenhove, Brussels, 1897.
Oval canvas, 1 12 cm. by 96 cm.
St. Matthew 127.
Berlin, Schloss. (Parthey I, 641).
An Apostle 127.
Sale. — Baron de Beurnonville, Paris, 1844.
Canvas, 60 cm. by 50 cm. An Apostle denouncing a King. 191. Drawing. Black and red chalk washed with ink, in folio. Catalogue, Prince de Ligne, 1794.
The sons of Sepha ill-treated by one possessed . . ... 191-
Drawing. Boymans Museum, Rot- terdam.
The Four Evangelists 27, 127, pl. 28.
Paris, Louvre, No. 2012.
Canvas, 134 cm, by 118 cm.
The picture was in 1632 at Zeeger Pietersz' (Oud-Holland IV. 15), After- wards it belonged to Louis XVI. A copy of it was also at Zeeger Pietersz' in 1632. Engraved by Gutenberg in Le Musee de France, in mezzotint, by John Dean in 1776.
Ditto. Sale.— Philip van Dyck, The Hague, 1753 2 9-
4 v., 2 d. by 3 v., 8 d.
Ditto. Sale.— Van den Heuvel, Utrecht, 1825.
Canvas, 126 cm. by 108 cm.
A copy in Jordaens' later style is in the cloister of the Jesuits at Tournay. An old copy is in the possession of Mr. Clemens, Hamburg. ... 29.
Another belongs to the Earl of Hard- wick, at Wimpole. A fourth is in the church of St. John at Mechlin . . 29.
Ditto. Leipsic, Von Speck Collection 1827 29-
Panel, 53 d. by 59 d.
Behind Matthew stands an angel.
Praying Saint (Evangelist).
Museum, Caen, No. 96.
Panel, 65 cm. by 50 cm.
Head of an Apostle or an Evangelist
127.
Brussels, M. Harcq.
Panel, 62 cm. by 48 cm.
The four Ecclesiastics and St. Bona- ventura.
Drawing. Red chalk. Catalogue of the Collection of the Prince de Ligne,
1794-
Scene from Sacred History. Museum, New York, No. 132. Sketch. Canvas, \\\ d, by 9J d.
D. Sacred and Ecclesiastical History.
St. Ambrose 215.
Museum, Ghent, No. 4.
Canvas, 77 cm. by 56 cm.
The picture was in one of the sup- pressed convents at Ghent, at the end of the XVIIIth century.
The Martyrdom of St Andrew.
Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brus- sels, 1797.— Laige upright drawing, washed in sepia, and heightened with white and other colours.
The Martyrdom of St Apollonia 38, 197, pl. 40.
Antwerp, Church of St Augustine.
Canvas. 409 cm. by 213 cm.
The Martyrdom of St Apollonia.
A sketch in colour by Jordaens.
Inventory, Alexander Voet, 1685.
Ditto. A finished sketch representing the Martyrdom of St Apollonia.
Sale. — Doncker, Brussels, 1798.
Paper pasted on wood, 23 d. by 14 d.
St Augustine teaching his disciples.
Museum, AscharTenburg.No. 233 . . 229
St Carolus Borroviaeus . 227 pl. 202.
Antwerp, Church of St James.
Canvas, 288 cm. by 190 cm.
The Miracles of St. Dominic ictf, pl. 109. Museum, Oldenburg, No. 126. Canvas, 315 cm. by 218.5 cm. St Jerome.
Sale.— Van Goethem. Brussels, 1889, Canvas, 157 cm. by m cm. Ditto. Sale. — Brussels, August 24, 1859. Canvas, 130 cm. by 100 cm. Ditto. Sale.— Sauvage. St Jerome in contemplation. Sale. — Bruyninx, Antwerp, 1791. Canvas, 29 d. by 2i£ d.
St Ivo 134-
Museum, Antwerp, No. 808. Canvas, 236 cm. by 208 cm. Ditto. Museum, Brussels, No. 243. 134, l g 3. P 1 - J 3 6 - Canvas, 105 cm. by 130 cm. Signed: J. Jor. ft. 1645. Ditto. Sale.— Bruyninx, Antwerp, 1791. Ditto. Sale. — Van Lancker, Antwerp,
i835-
Assigned to Gerard Legrelle.
Ditto. Sketch. Breslau, Standhaus 135
Panel, 2 v., 2 d. by I v., 7 d.
Ditto. Sketch. Sale.— Cuypers de Ry menam, Brussels, 1803 . . . 135
Panel, II d. by I v.
Ditto. Sale.— J. J. de Raedt, Mechlin
1839 '35
Canvas, 152 cm. by 206 cm. Ditto. Drawing. Prince de Ligne, 1794
135 Watercolour washed with bistre. St George and the Dragon. Sale. — William MacBrath, London,
189S.
The Martyrdom of St Laurence.
Sketch. Sale. — Del Marmol, Brussels,. 1791.
Ditto. Guillaume Verbelen, Brussels,
i833-
St Magdalen.
Sale. — Mrs. M. de Jonghe, widow of P. J. Oosthuyse van Rijsenberg, The Hague, 1847.
Canvas, i el, 15 d. by I el, 31 d.
Ditto. A Magdalen by Jordaens on panel. Inventory, JufTr. Susanna Willem- sens, widow of Signor van Born, Antwerp,
«°57-
St Martin delivering a demoniac 40, 59, 105, 109, 180, 192, 213, 217, pl. 44.
Museum, Brussels, No. 309.
Canvas, 432 cm. by 263 cm. Signed: I Iordaens Fecit A°. 1630.
St. Martin.
A sketch in black and white.
Inventory, Alexander Voet, 1685..
Ditto. Drawing. British Museum 193.
A drawing for the painting of St. Martin in the Museum at Brussels. With considerable alterations.
Ditto. Drawing. Plantin-Moretus Mu- seum, Antwerp. . . . 192, pl. 45.
Watercolour. 41 cm. by 31.5 cm.
Sale.— Habich, Stuttgart, 1899.
The Virgin handing the Infant Jesus to St. Norbertus 231.
Oosterhout, St. Catharinadaal Cloister.
The Martyrdem of St. Quirinus . . 231.
Delivered by Jordaens to the St. Catharinadaal Cloister, but since dis appeared.
St. Sebastian.
Museum, Angers, No, 366.
Panel, 83 cm. by 61 cm.
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
257
St. Ursula.
Sale. — Count van Arundel, Amster- dam, 1684, No. 17.
Martyr carrying a cross (St. Adrian).
Printroom, Amsterdam.
Ditto. Drawing, Sale.— Anonymous, Berlin, May 18, 1897.
The Beheading of a Martyr.
Drawing. Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp.
Sale. — Habich, Stuttgart, 1899.
Martyrdom of a Saintly Woman, about to be beheaded.
Drawing. Twenty figures.
Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797.
Mortyrdom of a Saint.
Drawing. Museum, Munich, No. 2721.
A Saint about to suffer martydom.
Drawing. — Sale de Silvestre, Paris, 1810.
The flagellation of two Saints.
Drawing. Sale.— Dr. Max Strauss, Vienna, May 2, 1906.
Bought by Mr. Gaston von Wallmann at Blaschkow.
An Exorcism.
Drawing. Sale. — Boucher, Paris, 1771.
The Mission of the Carmelites . 201.
Antwerp. Church of the Shod Carmel- ites (Descamps, Voyage, p. 178). Dis- appeared.
Triumph of Religion. . . . 191.
Sale. — Pauwels, Brussels, 1814, 118 cm. by 80 cm.
Veritas Dei (Allegory) . . . 191.
Drawing. Albertina, No. 620.
Colours and pen on paper.
Veritas Dei.
Drawing. British Museum . . 191.
Inscription: Gal. 6 cap. Jordaens.
TheTriumph ofChristianity 191.pl. 191.
Museum, Dublin.
Canvas, 280 cm. by 230 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Johann van der Linden van Slingelandt, Dordrecht, 1785 191.
Ditto. Sale. — Spruyt. Brussels 1841.
Ditto. Sale. — Mallinus, Louvain, 1824.
The Holy Sacrament worshipped by Saints and Patriarchs . . . . 191.
Drawing. London, Fairfax Murray.
The Triumph of the Cross over the Seven Mortal Sins 191.
Sale. — Mertens van den Bosch, Ant- werp, 1849.
The Arms of Achilles . . . 145.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, 8 v. by 11 v.
Thetis receiving the arms of Achilles 145.
Sale. — Nourri, Paris, 1785.
Canvas, 17 d. by 22 d.
Achilles mourns the death of Patroclus and receives Briseis.
Sale. — Nourri, Paris, 1785.
Canvas, 25 d, by 18 d.
Achilles discovered by Ulysses at the court of Lycomedes.
Sale. — Amsterdam, May 8, 17 1 5.
Ditto. Sale.— P. J. Aerts d'Opdorp, Brussels, 1819.
History of Act eon . . . 152.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, 3 v., 10 d.- by 4 v., 6 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Abb£ Guillaume de Gevigny, Paris, 1779.
An Action, after Jordaens . 152.
Sale. — Jeremias Wildens, 1653.
Adonis embraces Venus.
Sale. — Peilhon, Paris, 1763.
6 v. by 4 v., 9 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Prince de Conti, Paris, 1777.
The Death of Adonis.
Sale.— The Duke of Marlborough, 1886.
52J d, by 60J d.
The Death of Adonis.
Sale.— At Rudolf Lepke's, Berlin, March 1903.
The Battle of the Amazons.
Sale. — David Ietswaart, Amsterdam,
1749-
The Elopement of Amphitritc.
Antwerp, Van der Veken.
Exhibition of Old Masters, 1877.
The sleeping Antiope. . . . 145.
Museum, 'Grenoble, No. 388.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 93 cm.
Signed: J. Jordaens fecit j6jo.
Ditto. Sale. — Mensaert, Amsterdam 1824.
Ditto. Sale. — Baron van Leyden van Heurmen, 1719.
History of Argus and Io.
Mercury among the shepherds . 144. Berlin, Paul Meyerheim. Canvas, 190 cm. by 210 cm. Argus watching over Io . . . 144- Brussels, Emile Maryssen, art-dealer.
II. MYTHOLOGY.
Canvas, 56 cm. by 78 cm.
Mercury discovers Argus watching
over Io . 144.
Antwerp. Aug. Delbeke.
Canvas, 57 cm. by 76 cm.
Argus waiching over Io . . 145.
Sale. — Johan v. d. Marck, Amsterdam,
1773-
Canvas, 44 d, by 61 d.
Mercury sending Argus to sleep. 144.
Sale. — Menke, Antwerp, 1904.
Signed : J. Jor. fecit 1647.
Ditto. Brussels, Marijnen .
Dated: 1640.
Argus and Mercury.
Sale. — Antwerp, May 25, 1768.
Canvas, 40 d. by 54 d.
Ditto. Sale.— De Raedt, Mechlin.
Canvas, 67 cm. by 84 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Walschot, Antwerp, 1817.
Canvas, 3 if d. by 50J d.
Ditto. Sale. — Count Stranaldo, Villa- nova, Cologne, 1880.
Canvas, 70 cm. by 115 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Louis von Lilienthal, Cologne, 1893.
Canvas, 119 cm. by 137 cm.
Mercury sharpening his sword to kill.
Argus 144. pl- !43-
Antwerp, Mrs. Chs. Wauters.
Canvas, 152 cm. by 188 cm.
Mercury drawing his sword to kill. 144, 176, pl. 41.
Argus.
Museum, Lyons, No. no.
Canvas, 196 cm. by 235 cm.
Ditto. Ghent, G. Hulin. 144, pl. 146.
Canvas, 1 1 7.5 cm. by 201 cm.
From the collection of the Earl of Shrewsbury, Alton Towers.
Meracry raising his sword to kill
Argus 144, 177.
Etching by Jordaens.
Mercury ready to kill Argus. . 144.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 648.
Canvas, 133 cm. by 187 cm.
Ditto. Sir Archibald Campbell, Gars- cube • 144-
Ditto. Sale. — David Ietswaart, Am- sterdam, 1749.
4 v., by 6 v., 6 d.
Ditto. Sale. — J oh. Lod. Strantwijk, Amsterdam, 1780.
Canvas, 23 d. by 31 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Lavillarmois, Lille, 1795.
Canvas, 31 d. by 29 d.
Mercury ready to kill Argus.
Sale. — Aug. De Keersmaecker and Father Beeckman, Antwerp, 1853.
Canvas, 108 cm. by 158 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Capello, Amsterdam, 1767.
Canvas, 52 d. by 71 d.
Ditto. Sale.-Prince de Conti, Paris, 1777.
Panel, 18 d. by 23 d.
Argus and Mercury. Sale. — Francois Mols. Kolveniershall, Antwerp, 1769.
Ditto. Sale. — Bruyninx, Antwerp, 179 1.
Argus killed by Mercury. . . 144.
Offered for sale to the Museum at Antwerp in 1902.
Signed: J. JOR 16.
Ditto. Sale. —Rudolf Lepke, 1905.
Argus killed.
Sale. — Ravaisson, Paris, 1903.
Argus and various animals.
Sale. — Horion, Brussels, 1788, 3 v., 6d., by 4 v., 6 d.
Argus 145.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens. The Hague, 1734, 3 v., 6J d. by 7 v., 4 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Horion, Brussels, 1788, 2 ■>., 4 d. by 3 v.
Argus and Mercury.
Sale. — Daniel de Jongh, Rotterdam, 1810.
Argus and Io.
Sale. — Mile. Helene Herry, Antwerp, 1884, 57 cm. by 78 cm.
Ariadne in the train of Bacchus.
g2, pl. 98.
Museum, Dresden, No. 1009.
Canvas, 240 cm. by 315.5 cm.
Bought at Antwerp in 1 7 10.
Atalanta and Hippoments . . 153.
Sale. — Latinie, Antwerp, 1905.
Dated : 1646.
Sale. — Sels. Antwerp, 1882.
Ditto. Antwerp, Max Roose. . 153.
Canvas, 84 cm. by no cm.
Sale. — Bysterbos, Amsterdam. March, 1899,
Ditto. Sale. — Van Gemert, Antwerp, 1778.
The child Bacchus, asleep . . 176.
Etching by Jordaen.
The Child Bacchus.
Warsau, Count Branicki.
Canvas, 116 cm. by 104 cm.
The youthful Bacchus. 170, pl. 173.
Antwerp, Max Rooses.
Canvas, 75 cm. by 60 cm.
Sale.— Foulon, Antwerp, 1900.
33
2 5 8
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
Ditto ■ 171-
Sale.— Richardt, Rotterdam, 1882. Canvas, 58.5 cm. by 52 cm. Bacchus with panther's skin and rummer.
Museum, Ypres, No. 30.
Panel, 123 cm. by 94 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Hubert Duster, Cologne,
1886 171-
Canvas, 79 cm. by 65 cm. From the Croquillon collection, Cour- tray.
Ditto. Sale. —Michael von Kogelnic- eano, Cologne, 1887.
Canvas, 90 cm. by 72 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Joh. jac. Claessen etc.
Cologne, 1887 I7 1 -
Canvas, 125 cm. by 85 cm. Ditto. Sale.— Niellon Torris, Brussels, 1890. Canvas, 119 cm. by 95 cm. Ditto. Sale.— Lanfranchi, Pressburg, 1895, No. 84.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 100 cm. Bacchus crowned with vineleaves, rum- mer in hand.
Sale. — Haendeke, Cologne, 1896.
Copper, 41 cm. by 33 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Schwarzschild, Cologne,
1882 171.
Canvas, 54 cm. by 47 cm.
Bacchus, tipsy, offering a goblet to a
satyr 171.
Engraving, Frangois Lucas. Bacchus.
Inventory, Herman De Veyt, Antwerp, 1642,
Ditto. Sale. — De Lannoy and van Hal, Antwerp, 1850. Head of Bacchus. Sale. — Amsterdam, July 26, 1810. Panel, 12 d. by 10 d. Bacchus and Ariadne. Sale.— The Hague, July 18, 1753. Ditto, Sale. — Johan van Nispen, The
Hague, 1768 93.
Canvas, 48 d. by 51 d. Bacchus meeting Ariadne . . . 9 2 - Sale. — Gustave Couteaux, Brussels, 1874.
Canvas, 69 cm. by 48 cm. Bacchus and Ariadne .... 93- Drawing. Sale von Klinkosch, Vienna, 1889. Red chalk, pen, and sepia. Bacchus and Ceres . . . 171-
Sale.— Mr. A. H. Brussel, 1864. Canvas, 96 cm. by 73 cm. Bacchus, Ceres and Venus Sale. — J. de Nooy , Haarlem , 1 8 1 ! . 171. Bacchus, Ceres and Cupid followed by
a goat , 171.
Sale. — Houyet, Brussels, 1867. Canvas, 19 cm. by 73 cm. Bacchus, and seven other figures . 90. Sale. — Marten Robyns, Brussels, 1758, 7 v. by 7 v., S d. The Triumph of Bacchus 88, pi. 90. Museum, Cassel, No. 109. Canvas, 204 cm. by 163 cm. A study (drawing) for this picture was sold at the D. Max Strauss Sale, Vienna, May 2, 1906, and bought by Mr. Gaston von Mallmann of Blaschkow.
Ditto. Museum, Arras. ... 90. A copy of the preceding picture ; a second is possessed by Count Bronicki, Warsaw.
Procession of Bacchus and Silenus. 153, 21b, pi. 216.
Museum, Brussels.
Ditto. Sale.— Jan Frangois d'Orveille, Amsterdam, 1705.
Ditto. Sale.— Willem Six, Amsterdam, 1734.
Ditto. Sale. — Loquet, Amsterdam, 1783.
Canvas, 49 d. by 80 d.
Ditto. Sale.— Choiseul Praslin, 1808, Paris.
Canvas, 56 d. by 42 d.
Ditto. Sale. — P.J. de Marneffe, Brussels, 1830.
Ditto. Replica, Mrs Bougard, Brussels,
217.
Bacchus and Bacchantes ; See Silenus.
Triumph of Bacchus and Silenus. 2 1 7.
Lord Northwick (Waagen, Art Treas- ures, III 206).
Bacchus seated on a goat accompanied, by Satyrs.
Sketch. Sale. — Cuypers de Rymenam, Brussels, 1803.
Cunvas, II d. by 15 d.
Bacchus with nymphs and a forest-god.
Sale. — von Robert, Cologne, 1893.
Canvas, 168 cm. by 112 cm.
A Bacchanal.
Sale. — Johan Can, Ridder heer van Domburg. Amsterdam, 1710.
Ditto. Sale.— Rotterdam, June, 28, 1756,
2 v., 6 d. by 3 v., 6 d.
Ditto. Sale.— Von Kretschner, Amster- dam, 1757, 2.\ d. by 16 d. Ditto. Sale. — Horion, Brussels, 1788,
3 v., 6 d. by 4 v., 6 d. A Bacchanal.
Sale. — Walschot, Antwerp, 181 7.
Canvas, 61 \ d. by 98 J d.
Ditto. Sale.— Haarlem, April 8, 1800.
Ditto. Sale. — Brentano, Amsterdam, 1822.
Canvas, I el, 7 palm, 5 d. by I el, 7 palm, 3 d.
Ditto.Sa.le. — Mensart, Amsterdam, 1824.
Canvas, 53 d. by 45 d.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale.— Jos. Dan.Bbhm, Vienna, 1865.
Pen and colour.
A tipsy follower of Bacchus, resting his head on a wine barrel.
Sale. — de Scherpenseel Heusch, Brus- sels, 1881.
Canvas, 138 cm. by 150 cm.
Cacus stealing the cows of Hercules. 176, 183, pi. 177.
Etching by Jordaens.
Signed: jac. jordaens inventor 1632.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797. . . . 176, 183.
White, red and black and pen.
Cadmus.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, Ns. 90, 2 v., 4 d. by 3 v., 4 d.
Ceres in search of Proserpine.
Sale. — Peytier de Merckthem, Antwerp, 1806.
Canvas, 68 cm. by 82 cm.
Circe and Ulysses . . 105, pi. 107.
Canvas, 133 cm. by 204 cm.
Crefeld, Heinrich Tack (in 1905).
Ditto. Sale.— Joan Tack, Amsterdam, 1781.
Ditto. Sale. — Haarlem. April 8, 1800.
Danae and Jupiter.
Sale. — J. Siebrecht, Antwerp, 1754.
Dedalus and Icarus.
Museum, Stuttgart, No. 324.
Canvas, 135 cm. by 126 cm.
Diana.
Drawing, Sepia. Sale.— Jos. Dan. Bohm, Vienna, 1865.
Diana and her Nymphs
Drawing, Sale.— Pierre Wouters. Brus- sels, 1797.
With pen, washed with colours.
Diana and bathing nymphs.
Drawing. Albertina, 622.
Diana and nymphs bathing.
Drawing. Boymans Museum, Rot- terdam.
Diana's Bath Jo.
Museum, Madrid, No. 1409.
Canvas, 131 cm. by 127 cm.
Diana and Callisto. . IJ2, pi. 154-
Museum, Oldenburg, No. 105.
Canvas, 81 cm. by 120 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Jacob van der Dussen, Amsterdam,' 1752.
4 v., 9 d. by 6 v.. 7 d.
Ditto, inventory, Jeremias Wildens,
1653 '52-
Ditto. Inventory, Jan van Born, Ant- werp, 1657.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, June 21, 1797.
Panel, 31 d. by 46 d.
Diana resting <?J.
Sale.— Kums, Antwerp, 1898.
Canvas, 205 cm. by 255 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Van Schorel, Antwerp,
1774-
Ditto. Sale.— Robiano (Comtesse dou- ariere de), Brussels, 1838.
Ditto. Sale. — Le Candele. Antwerp, 1 881.
Diana and her nymphs . . 93, 152.
Paris, 1777, Lebrun Collection, 3 v., 9 d. by 4 v., 10 d.
Sale. — Abb£ Guillaume de Gevigny, Paris, 1779-
Sale. — Fesch, Rome, 1845.
Diana Resting 93
Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No, 649
Canvas, 224 cm, by 285 cm.
Diana and her nymphs.
Sale. — Henri Craen, Amsterdam, 1 1 1 1
Canvas, 35 d. by 53 d.
Diana and Acteon ..... 94
Drawing. Museum, Brunswick.
Pen and chalk, washed with colours,
Cecrops' daughters discovering young Erichtonius.
Sale. — Amsterdam, April 6, 189S-
Ditto. Sale. — Lyonnet, Amsterdam, 1791.
Canvas, 34 d. by 50 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Philips Neven, Amster- dam, 1892.
Canvas, 65 cm. by 80 cm.
The Rape of Europa.
Sale. — Ourshagen, Mechlin, 1892.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Metayer, Am- sterdam, 1799.
Red and black chalk.
Ditto. Drawing. St. Petersburg, Her- mitage 4210.
In yellow, red and. blue chalk.
Flora and Pomona.
Sale. — Daniel Moore, London, 1899.
Panel, 47 d. by 36 d.. .
Flora, Silenus, and Zephyrus. 178,
pl. 233 Knocke, Mrs. Parmentier. Canvas, 128 cm. by 114 cm.
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
259
Ditto Mr. William Grieve, Eastland, bcotland „o
Ditto. Sale.— de Peters," Paris,' 1779' 4 v. by 3 v., 9 d. Ditto. Drawing. Museum, Berlin, 2282.
White, sepia and red.
Inscription: Flora, Silenus et Zeihy- rus, i6jg.
Hercules slaying the sons 0/ Earth. 119.
By Rubens, finished by Jordaens.
Nymphs filling the horn of plenty, 14J,
pi. 147.
Museum, Copenhagen, No. 167.
Canvas, 246 cm. by 311. 75 cm.
Signed : J. Jor je 1649.
Hero and Leander.
Sale.— Johan van Nispen, The Hague 1768. S '
Canvas, 37 d. by 48 d.
Jupiter fed by the goat Amalthea. 84, 176, 178, 192, pi. 96.
Louvre, Paris, No. 2013.
Canvas, 150 cm. by 203 cm.
Bought by King Louis XVIII.
Ditto. Museum, Cassel, No. 103. 86
pi. 87.
Canvas, 219 cm. by 247 cm.
Mentioned in the Inventory of the Museum at Cassel in 1749.
Ditto. Museum, Cassel, No. 104. 87,
pi. 89.
Signed: Jac. Jordaens.
Jupiter being fed by the goat Amalthe.
Sale. — Stevens, Antwerp, 1837.
Canvas, 115 cm- by 163 cm.
Ditto. Etching by Jordaens, 1652. 176.
Ditto. Sale.— De Vinck de Wesel, Antwerp, 1814 87.
Canvas, 32 d. by 46 d.
At the sale Stier d'Aertselaer, Ant- werp, 1822, bought by Mrs. Wellens of Brussels.
Ditto. Sale.— Delia Faille,
The Hague, 1730.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, March 9,
i734- Ditto. Sale. — Locquet, Amsterdam,
1783 87-
Canvas, 72 d. by 78 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, October 19, 1S18.
Ditto. Berlin, Naumann, (Parthey, I, 641).
Jupiter and Amalthea, with several figures.
Sale.— Van der Stel, Amsterdam, 1781.
Canvas, 33 d. by 46J d.
Jupiter and Amalthea, with several nymphs and Satyrs.
Sale. — Amsterdam, September 10, 1798.
Canvas, 38 d. by 48 d.
Jupiter and Amalthea.
Brussels, Debuck.
Canvas, 74 cm. by 104 cm.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Metayer, Am- sterdam, 1799.
Nymph milking the goat Amalthea. 86.
Drawing. Museum, Brunswick.
Red chalk. Dated. A° 1671 '/•
The Goat Amalthea. 86, 192, pi, 97.
Drawing. Louvre, 20022.
Red, black and blue chalk, back- ground washed in.
Childhood of Jupiter.
Blaschckow, Bohemia. Gaston von Mallmann.
Canvas, 77 cm. by no cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Vrancken, Lokeren, 1838.
88.
Canvas, 33 d. by 48 "d.
Jupiter and lo . 176, pi. 176.
Etching by Jordaens, 1652.
An offering to Jupiter . . pi. 65.
Drawing. Museum, Rotterdam, 247.
An offeting in a pagan Temple.
Drawing. Sale.— Prince de Ligne, 1794.
Black, red and white chalk on gray paper.
Leda.
Sale.— Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734,
I v , 9 d. by 1 v., 3 d.
Mars.
Ceiling-piece. Drawing. Sale.— Me- tayer, Amsterdam, 1799.
Red and black chalk.
Mars and Bellona.
Sale. — Verellen, Antwerp, 1856.
Canvas, 46 cm. by 63 cm.
Mealager and Atalanta. 34, 187, pi. 34.
Museum, Antwerp, Formerly Copen- hagen, Karel Madsen.
Canvas, 154 cm. by 123 cm.
Ditto. Museum, Madrid, No. 1407.
„ _ 34. pl- 36-
Canvas, 151 cm. by 241 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague,
35. 1734, No. 89, 2 v., 3£ d. by 3 v., \\ d.
Ditto. Drawing. Amiens, Masson. 35.
Ditto. Sale. — Pierre Fouquet, Amster- dam, 1 80 1.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Lauwers, Am- sterdam, 1802.
Red and black chalk and washed.
Ditto. Sale. — Douariere d'Hoop van Abstein, Ghent 1849.
Panel, 62 d. by 104 d.
Bust of Mercury.
Sale. — Von Conrath von Siegburg, Brussels, 1901.
Panel, 64 cm. by 95 cm.
Mercury and the daughters of Dryops.
Copenhagen, Gustav Falck.
Paper pasted on canvas, 50 cm. by 75 cm.
Mercury and Battus.
Drawing. Prince de Ligne, 1794.
Lightly sketched in black chalk, heightened with white on gray paper.
The Judgment of Midas . 114, 153.
Museum, Madrid, No. 1637.
Canvas, 181 cm. by 267 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Jacques Jordaens, The Hague, 1 734, No. 88. 2 v., 4 d. by 3 v , 9J d.
Ditto. Sale.— Ridder Robert de Neuf- ville, Leiden, 1736, 2 v., 6£ d. by 3 v., 10 d.
The Judgment of Midas.
Sale. — Hendrik van Limburgh, The Hague, 1759, 28 d. by 45 d.
The binding of Mdrsyas.
Sale. — Willem Six, Amsterdam, 1734.
Apollo and Marsyas.
Sale.— Mechlin, Nov. 29, 1838.
Canvas, 1 v., 8 d. by 1 v., 7 d.
The Punishment of Marsyas . 153.
Amsterdam, Rijks-Museum, No. 1317, 2 v., 6 d. by 3 v., 10 d. Ditto. Sale. — Van Swieten, The Hague,
173'- King Midas. . . . 1 53, pl. 155. Museum, Ghent, 98. Sale. — Huybrechts, Antwerp, 1902.
Canvas, 116 cm. by 1 54 cm.
The Judgment of Midas. . 152.
Inventory, Jeremias Wildens, 1653, Antwerp.
Ditto. Sale. — Brentano, Amsterdam, 1822, 8 palm, 9 d. by I el, 2 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Cuypers de Rymenam, Brussels, 1802.
Ditto. Sale.— de Beunie, Antwerp, 1827.
Ditto. Sale. — Guillaume Verbelen, Brus- sels, 1833.
Ditto. Sale. — Stevens, Antwerp, 1837,
Ditto, Sale. — van Rymenam, Mechlin. 1838.
Canvas, 74 cm. by 75 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Henri Beissel van Aken, Brussels, 1875.
A Sea-triumph (Neptune abducts Am- phitrite) 48, pl. 58.
Brussels, Arenberg Gallery.
Canvas, 231 cm. by 349 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague. March 22, 1734, No. 71, 8 v., by 12 v., 5 d.
Ditto. Sales. — King of the Netherlands, The Hague, 1842, Amsterdam, 1850.
Canvas, 251 cm. by 375 cm.
The picture is mentioned in a Cata- logue of the Rijks-Museum, Amsterdam, in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Ditto. Sale. — Neville de Goldsmid van den Haag, Paris, 1876.
Ditto. Sale. — J. Siebrecht, Antwerp,
1754;
Ditto. Sale. — Pictures from Saxony, Amsterdam, May 22, 1765, 91 d. by 138 d 49.
A Sea-triumph.
Sale.— H. Hissette, etc., Ghent, 1808.
Canvas, 34 d. by 55 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Jean Jacques de Faesch, Amsterdam, 1833,
Canvas, I el, 3 d. by I el, 4 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Antwerp, May 21, 1838.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, August I, 1828, 2 el, 2 palm, 7 d. by 3 el, I p. I d.
Ditto. Sale. — Douariere Robert Geel- hand, Antwerp, 1888 . . . 49.
Ditto. Sale.— Amsterdam, June 5, 1765.
Canvas, 33 d. by 50 d.
Neptune and Amphitrite (Gifts of the Sea) Vienna, Schonborn Collection. 96.
Canvas, 300 cm. by 370 cm.
Neptune and Venus, surrounded by Seagods.
Sale in Lloyd's rooms, Brussels, 1837.
Triumph of Neptune, Drawing.
Sale.— Geeraard Hoet, Amsterdam, 1760.
Btack and red chalk and a little colour.
Neptune strikes the Earth,
Uffizi, Florence, No. 914.
Neptune and Nymphs.
Drawing. Albertina, 634a.
Red and black chalk.
Nereus.
Berlin, Palace (Parthey, 165).
Nessus and Dejanira.
Sale.— St. Remy, Cologne, 1892.
Canvas, 120 cm. by 100 cm.
Sleeping nymphs with Cupid, qi, 92.
Brussels, Mrs. Bougard.
Canvas, 1 60 cm. by 260 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, June 7, 1751.
Ditto. Sale. — Joh. Lod. Strantwyck, Amsterdam. 1780 91.
Three nude women and an angel. 91.
Sale. — Jacob Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, No. 5, 3 v., 7J d. by 3 v., .5 d.
260
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
Sleeping nymphs .... 91.
Drawing. Sale. — Neyraan (Amsterdam). Paris, 1776.
Three nymp/ts with Amorini. Canvas, 1 el 3 p., 6 d. by 1 el, 8 p., 4 d. Sale.— Amsterdam, May 14, 1832. A Nymph with Cupid. . . 91.
Sale. — Pieter Lydnnet, Amsterdam, 1791. Canvas, 29 d. by 44 d. A Landscape with steeping nymphs. Sale. — Jan Lucas van der Dussen, Amsterdam, 1774. Pan with goats and sheep. 178, pi. 178. Museum, Amsterdam, No. 741. Canvas, 136 d. by 173 d. From the sale Stinstra, 1822. Ditto. Hampton Court Palace. Pan and Syrinx. . 47, 201, pi. 53- Museum, Brussels, No. 240. Canvas, 172 cm. by 133 cm. Ditto. Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, The Hague, 1734, 3 v., 8 d. by 3 v.,
3i d 47.
Ditto. Sale. — Maria Beuckelaer, Doua- riere. Holungius, The Hague, 1752.
Ditto. Sale. — Edmond Ruelens, Brus- sels, 1883. Ditto. Sale. — Brussels, May 21, 1851. Ditto. Sale. — Huygens de Lowendal, Antwerp, 1858.
Canvas, 74 cm. by 92 cm. Pan and two nymphs. Marquess of Bute (Waagen, Art Trea- sures, III, 475).
Pan with nymph and children. Sale. — De Boer, Amsterdam, 1840. Canvas, 1 el, 74 d. by 1 el, 74 d. The judgment of Paris. Sale. — J. Siebrecht, Antwerp, 1754. Ditto. Sale. — Spanish Consul (Anonym- ous), London, 1772.
Ditto. Sale. — Nieuhof, Amsterdam, 1777.
Sale. — Christiana Susanna De Vries, Amsterdam, 1840. Canvas, 1 el, 34 d. by 1 el, 66 d. Ditto. Sale. — Ourshagen, Mechlin, 1892. Canves, 75 cm. by 98 cm. An episode from the life of Paris. Academy, St. Petersburg. Paris and Enone.
Sale. — Amsterdam, August 10, 1785. Panel, 30 d. by 44 d. Penelope and her lovers. Sale. — Charles Spruyt, Ghent, 1815. Canvas, 45 d. by 86 d. Perseus and Andromeda . . . 119 Picture by Rubens, finished by Jordaens. Philemon and Baucis . . . 181. Museum, Helsingfors. Ditto. Sale.— Jan Aggers, Amsterdam,
1702 181.
Ditto. Sale. — Rotterdam, April 27, 1713 Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, April 2, 1751. Ditto. Sale. — Court Andre de Stolberg, Soedar, Hanover, 1859. . . 181.
Canvas, 3 v., 5 d. by 2 v., 6 d. Ditto. Sketch. Berlin, Naumann(Parthey, No. 34).
Ditto. Sale. — Conrath von Siegburg,
Brussels, 1901 jgj'
Canvas, 65 by 78 (sic). Ditto. Drawing. British Museum. 181. Ditto. Engraving by P. Gladitsch. 181. Polymnia and the poet. Sale.— De Vinck de Wesel, Antwerp, 1814. r
Canvas, 41 d. by 30 d. Offering to Pomona . . 33, pi. 35. Museum, Madrid, No. 1408. Panel, 165 cm. by 112 cm. Prometheus .... 94, pi. ico. Museum, Cologne, No. 164. Canvas, 243 cm. by 196 cm. From the Schenk sale, i860. Ditto. Sale. — Van Heemskerlc, The Hague, 1770.
Canvas, 96 d. by 70 d. The Rape of Proserpine Sale. — Busso, Ghent, 1832. The Story of Psyche .... 126. Ceiling from Jordaen's house: Chs. van der Linden, Antwerp. Dated : 1652.
Ditto (Ceiling). Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, No. 109 . . 118. A complete ceiling in five pieces re- presenting the story of Psyche, and two smaller flowerpieces ; together 23 v. by 1 7 v. Jordaens evidently treated the same subject for the Greenwich decorations. 115— 118. Ditto. (A ceiliing). Sale. — Jac. Jordaens The Hague, 1734, No. 78. . . 118. A large square piece, with four large oblique pieces, intended for the ceiling of a large room; representing the story of Psyche, painted by Jordaens for Queen Christina of Sweden ; together 24 v. by 22 v. Cupid and Psyche . . 118.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, No. 52, 2 v., 6J d. by 3 v., 1 d. A satyr (bust).
Sale. — Jacob De Wit, Amsterdam, 1755, 2 v., 1 d. by I v., 8 d. A laughing Satyr.
Sale. — Balthasar Beschey, Antwerp, 1776, 1 v., 8 d. by 1 v., 5 d. A Satyr's head.
Sale. — Countess Reigersberg, Munich, 1890. Canvas, 59 cm. by 52 cm. Ditto. Drawing in many colours. Louvre, 20033. ■ • • 190, pi. 157. A Satyr.
Drawing. Red chalk. Louvre. Satyr carrying a string of fruit. Drawing. Sale. — FransBacker.Cologne, 1882. Red chalk heightened with white. From the Boerner collection.
Satyr carrying a Horn of plenty. Drawing. Sale.— Jacob De Vos, Amster- dam, 1883. Red chalk. A young Satyr.
Drawing. Sale.— Artaria, Sterne, etc. Vienna, 1886.
In pencil. Signed : Jac. Jordaens fee. i6j2. From the Bbhm collection, Vienna 1865. A Satyr.
Drawing. Black and red chalk. Sale.— Earl of Warwick, London, 1896. From the Benjamin West collection. Satyr playing the flute. Sale.— de Vinck de Wesel, Antwerp 1814. Canvas, 22 d. by 14 d. Satyr carrying fruit. Same sale, same dimensions. Sleeping Satyr.
Sale.— Baron de S., Brussels. May 2 1869. '
Canvas, 120 cm. by 94 cm Satyr and Nymph. Berlin, Castle (Parthey 60).
Young drunkard with woman and satyr. Sale. — Gottlieb Thiermann, Cologne, 1867. Canvas, 124 cm. by 100 cm. Satyr pouring out wine for a woman. Sale. — Amsterdam, May 1, 1849. Canvas, 1 el, 15 d. by 87 d. Satyr and Child. Museum, Aix-la-Chapelle, 76. Canvas, 170 cm. by 105 cm. Satyr and Cupid.
Sale. — Ridder de Marssen, Maastricht, 1821. Canvas, 125 cm. by 174 cm. Satyr pressing grapes for his children. Sale.— Mr. A. H., Brussels, 1864. Canvas, 40 cm. by 35 cm. A Satyr and two children. Sale.— Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734. No. 44. 2 v., 3 d. by 2 v., 3 d. Satyr with woman and Cupid. Sale.— J. Siebrecht, Antwerp, 1751. Satyr put suing a forest god. Sale. — De Robiano, Brussels, 1837. Canvas, 132 cm. by 172 cm. Satyrs in a landscape. Sale. — Sir. P. Stevens, London 1804. Satyrs and monster. In the collection of Marten Kretzer, Amsterdam, 1650.
Lambert van den Bos wrote a poem upon this picture, 1650: Oud-Holland, II, 114.
Two young Satyrs carrying a wild- boar's head.
Drawing. Sale. — Artaria, Vienna, 1896. Drawing in watercolour from the W. Koller collection.
Bacchanalian Scene .... 48. Museum, Ghent. Canvas 117 cm. by 180 cm. Sale. — Fred Muller, Amsterdam, July 3, 1904.
Satyrs and nymphs. Sale. — Baron M(ertens), Brussels, 1861. Canvas, 50 cm. by 55 cm. Ditto. New Palace, Potsdam(Parthey 61). Satyrs and women.
Sale. — Gillis van Hoven, 1755. 4 v., 2 d. by 4 v., I d. Satyrs and nymphs. Sale. — David Ietswaart, art dealer, Amsterdam, 1749.
Sleeping nymphs surprised by Satyrs. Sale. — Brussels, July 17, 1776. 39 d. by 45 d.
Satvrs and nymphs
Sale. — Amsterdam, April 15, 1739. Satyrs and nymphs. Sale.— J. H. Onder de Wyngaert Can- zius, Delft, 1804. 60 d. by 70 d. Ditto. Sale — Amsterdam. Aug. 4, 1 828. Panel, 3 v., 7 d. by 1 el, 2 palm. Ditto. Sale. — Frederik Muller, Amster- dam, July 7, 1603.
Canvas, 119.5 cm - by 184 cm. Satyrs and nymphs in a landscape Drawing. Sale.— Gildenleester, Am- sterdam, 1800. Satyrs and nymphs with Mercury. Drawing. Plantin-Moretus Museum. Antwerp.
Red and black chalk, touched with the pen.
Satyrs and three Graces, with a Cornu- copia.
(Sandrart, Teutsche Academie, p. 336). Satyr and three Graces.
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
261
Sale.— Mad. de la Rocheb, Paris 1873
Canvas, 66 cm. by 82 cm.
Satyrs, nymphs and children warming themselves at a fire.
Sale. — Antwerp, May 29, 1865.
Canvas, 68 cm. by 80 cm.
Saturn, devouring one of his sons.
Sale.— Dusart, Antwerp, 1865.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale.— Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797 lg6
Black chalk, upright.
Head of Silenus.
Sale.— Jacques Clemens, Ghent, 1770
Panel, 18 d. by 12 d.
Silenus.
Sale.— Willem van Haansbergen, The Hague, 1755.
With accesories of fruit, etc., by Shyders.
Amor handing an apple to Silenus.
Poullain collection; engravine bv C Maret. S y '
Sale.— Randon de Boisset, Paris, 1777
Canvas, 3 v., 8 d. by 3 v., 6 d., 6 linien
Silenus drunk.
Potsdam, New Palace, (Parthey 48)
Ditto. Sale. — Jean George Riedinger Cologne, 1841, 47 d. by 68 d.
Silenus and the four Seasons 178.
Same subject as Flora, Silenus and Zephyrus (See Flora). Helsingborg, Countess de la Gardie.
Canvas, 3 v., 8 d. by 3 v., 6 d.
From the Boisset collection; Crozat (Paris); Poullain (Paris); Count G. A. Sparre (Sweden).
Silenus and the four Seasons.
Sale. — Jan, Adriaan Snyers, Antwerp, 1818 I7 8.
Ditto. Sale. — Pommersfeld . . 178.
Canvas, 4 v., 5 d. by 3 v., 9 d.
Silenus and Bacchante.
Sale. — Sils, Antwerp, 1882.
Ditto. Sale. — Sassenus, Brussels, 1776. 3 v., 7 d. by 3 v., 6 d.
Toper supported by a woman. (Silenus ?)
Bamberg, Himmerlein (Parthey, 93).
Canvas 3 v., 8 d., 5 strepen by 2 v., 8 d., 5 s.
Silenus, Forestgod and Bacchante.
Sale. — de Meulder, etc., Antwerp, 1854. 145 cm. by no cm.
Silenus drunk, with satyrs and bac- chantes.
Sale.— Christian Everhard Vaillant, Amsterdam, 1830.
Silenus on n donkey with two satyrs and children.
Sale.— Engelbert and Tersteeg. Amster- dam, 1 808.
Panel, 13 d. by 18 d.
Ditto. Drawing. Museum, Rotterdam, 247.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale.— Van der Heyden, Amsterdam, 1827.
Silenus tipsy, put to bed by Satyrs.
Sale.— DeRenesse-Breidbach.Coblentz, 1828.
Ditto. Sale. ^-Bianco, Milan, 1889.
Panel, 48 cm. by 65 cm.
March of Silenus.
Sketch. Sale. — Baron de Beurnonville, Paris, 1884.
In grisaille, heightened by a few touches.
Silenus and Satyr.
Drawing. Albertina, 624.
Red and black chalk.
Telemachus bringing Theoclymcuus to his mother.
Drawing in colours. Museum, Stock- holm.
Ulysses (on metal) . . . . 119.
Sale.— Jeremias Wildens, Antwerp, 1653-
Ulysses and Dido.
Sale. — Joh. Lod. Strantwijk, Amster- dam, 1780.
Canvas, 45 d. by 12 d.
Ulysses with Nausicaa . . . 119.
Antwerp, Van der Ouderaa.
Sale. — Nicolaus Cornells Hasselaar, Amsterdam, 1742. 4^ v. by 6 v., 7 d.
Ulysses at the feet of Alcinous' daughter.
Sale. — Amsterdam, April 29, 18 17.
The History of Ulysses and Polyphemus.
119.
Estate of Rubens, 265.
Venus and mirror surrounded by the three Graces.
Uffizi, Florence, No. 775.
Venus and Adonis.
Sale. — May 16, 1696, Amsterdam.
Venus and Mars.
Sale. — Edmojid Ruelens, Brussels, 1883.
Canvas, 144 cm. by 135 cm.
Venus, Mars, and Vulcan.
Sale. — Philip van Dyck, The Hague, 1753. 7 v., 8 d. by 10 v., 9 d.
Venus and Satyrs.
Sale. — Jac. J. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, No. 77. 3 v., 9 d. by 6 v., 6 d.
Venus and Cupid with a Satyr.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734. No. 66. 3 v., 5 d. by 2 v., \ d. Venus with Cupid and Satyrs. Sale. — Philip van Dyck, The Hague,
1753-
The Sacrifice to Venus . . 94.
Museum, Brunswick, No. 1015.
Panel, 75 cm. by 142J cm.
Ditto. Museum, Dresden. 94, pi. 99.
Canvas, 83 cm. by 142 cm.
Satyrs and Nymphs at a Sacrifice.
Sale. — C. Vermeulen, Dordrecht, 1813.
A Sacrifice to Venus and Mars . 94.
Sale. — Von Schorel, Antwerp, 1774.
Canvas on wood, \%\ d. by 23 d.
Vcrtumnus and Pomona.
Museum. Stuttgart, No. 336.
Canvas, 135 cm. by 127 cm.
Vulcan . 145.
Sold by Jordaens to Martinus van Langenhoven in 1646.
Zetes and Calais.
Sketch. Sale. — Nourri, Paris, 178$.
Canvas, io d. by 29 d.
Mythological Banquet.
Louvre, Paris, No. 2017. Lacaze Collection.
Panel, 74 cm. by 105 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — J. Siebrecht, Antwerp, 1754-
Ditto. Sale. — Horion, Brussels, 1788, 2 v., 7 d. by 3 v., 7 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Coquereau, Brussels, 1806,
Canvas, 117 cm. by 154 cm.
Feast of the Gods.
Sketch. Sale. — Ravaisson, Paris, 1903.
Canvas, 47 by 74. (sic).
Ditto. Drawing, red chalk. Sale.— de Silvestre, Paris, 1810.
River-gods.
Museum, Toulouse, No. 97.
Canvas, 73 cm. by 91 cm.
A Rivergod.
Drawing, black and red chalk.
Sale. — Jos. Dan. Bohm, Vienna, 1865. 13J d. by 9 d.
Amorini.
Sale. — Marsenick, Cologne, 1891.
Canvas, 125 cm. by 97 cm.
An Episode from Ovid.
Sale Leydenjunel,! 765. 46 d. by 48 d.
Ditto. (A Mythological subject with 12 figures).
Sale in Lloyd's rooms Brussels, 1837.
Ditto. (A Mythological subject).
Sale. — Ant, Sils, Antwerp, 1882.
Queen Thomyris.
Sale. — Coenraad Baron Droste, The Hague, 1734, 23 d. by 19 d.
King Candaules 140.
Museum, Stockholm, No. 1 1 59.
Canvas, 193 d. by 157 d.
Ditto. From the Bizet Collection, Munich, No. 934 142.
Diogenes searching for a man. 92, 100, 193, pi. 102.
Museum, Dresden, No. 1010.
Canvas, 233 cm. by 349J cm.
Bought in Paris in 1742.
Sale. — Amsterdam, April 20, 1695 („Diogenes a capital piece").
Inventory, Sebastiaan Leerse, Antwerp, 1691 : „A large piece Diosines painted by Jordaens."
IV. HISTORY.
Ditto. Detail. Drawing Messr. J. and A. le Roy, Brussels. Signed : J. Jordaens, 1642 103, 193, pi. 104.
Diogenes.
Sale. — Jacob Jordaens, 1734, The Hague, No. 12. 3 v., 8 d. by 5 v., 1 d.
Diogenes searching for a man . 103.
Sale. — F. Bernard, Standstead, London,
I783-
Diogenes searching for a man. . 103.
Sale. — Van Geetruyen and Beeckmans, Antwerp, 1850.
Ditto. Sale.— Rotterdam, April 28, 1830.
Canvas, ij el by 1$ el.
Ditto. Drawing, Sale. — Amsterdam, April 29, 181 7.
Socrates and Xantippe.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1 734, No. 30. 2 v., 34 d. by 2 v , 11 d.
Ditto. (The Domestic Quarrel).
Sale. — Van Saceghem, Brussels 1851, No. 32.
Canvas, 163 cm. by 234^ cm.
Paris, Poullain Collection, 178 1.
Sale. — Arnoldus Dankmayer, Amster- dam, 1785.
Ditto. Sale. — Du Bus de Gisignies, Brussels, 1878. Ditto. Sale. — Van Saceghen, Ghent, N0.43.
Cauvas, 220 cm. by 180 cm.
Democritus and Heraclitus . . 30.
Museum, Brunswick, No. 120.
Canvas 114 cm. by 107 cm.
Ditto. Museum, New York, No. 102. SO, pi. 28.
262
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
Canvas, 38 d. by 5° d.
Ditto. Sale.— The Hague, May 3, 1729.
3°-
Ditto. Sale. — P. A. Verlinden, Antwerp, 1855.
Ditto. Sale. — At Terbruggen's, Ant- werp, 1868.
Canvas, 112 cm. by 104 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Brussels, March, 25, 1849. 162 cm. by 190 cm.
Archimedes with a sphere in his hand.
Museum, Wurzburg.
Canvas I v., 3 d. by 2 v. I d.
Lucretia.
Sale. — van Ourshagen, Mechlin, 1892.
Canvas, 72 cm. by 90 cm.
The Continence of Scipio.
(The Family of Darius before Alex- ander?) Museum Narbonne, 297.
Ditto. Museum Louvain, No. 60. Ditto. Drawing. Museum Rotterdam.
pi. 124.
The Banquet of Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius.
Drawing. Sale. — de Silvestre, Paris, 1810.
Death of Cleopatra.
Berlin, von Peucker, (Barthey 78).
The keys of the town presented to a Roman General.
Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brus- sels, 1797.
Black, red and white chalk, with a little yellow, and washed; rounded off at the top.
The Romans surprised by night by Claudius Civilis.
Amsterdam, Palace .... 204.
The Confirmation oj Peace between Civilis and Cerialis 204.
Amsterdam, Palace
The women of Weinsberg.
Sale. — Mrs. Vosmaer, Amsterdam, 1901,
Panel, 72 cm. by 105 cm.
Holland freed from the Spanish Yoke.
Sale. — Monteleau. Paris, 1802, 287 cm. by 140 cm.
The Triumph of Frederick Henry 159—169, pi. 159, pi. 163.
The Hague, House in the Wood.
Ditto.Sketch. Museum, Antwerp, pi. 165.
Canvas, 118 cm. by 128 cm.
Ditto. Sketch. Museum,Brussels,No.3i2.
Canvas, 112 cm. by 116 cm.
Ditto. Sketch. Museum, Warsaw.
Ditto. Sale. — H. F. Broadwood and Lord Leigh, London. — (Christie's) 1899.
Ditto. Sale.— M. H. W. Paris, 1900.
Ditto. Inventory, Alexander Voet.
Ditto. Sale. — Canon Knyff, Antwerp, 1785.
Canvas, 44 d. by 42 d.
Ditto. Sale. — de Montriblond, Paris, 1784.
The Arch of Philip. (The two principal canvases) Paris, Simon . . . 113.
The two Ferdinands by Rubens (retouch- ed), Windsor Castle . . . . 113.
Paintings for the Arch of Philip, by Jordaens and Cornells DeVos 113.
Cimon and Pero.
Sale. — Lavillarmois, Lille, 1795, 3° d. by 42 d.
The Hospital nuns .... 234.
Museum, Antwerp, No. 216.
Canvas, 267 d. by 369 d.
The Marriage of a Princess.
Sale. — Charles Spruyt, Ghent, 181 5.
Canvas, 36 d. by 43 d.
The Beheading of a woman.
Drawing. Museum, Rotterdam.
The twelve Months (Ceilings) 124.
Palais du Luxembourg, Paris.
Twelve pieces, about 150 cm. by 200 cm., from Jordaens' house.
The Four Seasons.
Sale. — Jos. Ant. Squinto, Munich, 1903.
Canvas, no cm. by 170 cm.
The Four Seasons represented by four women (half-length).
Sale — Jos. Ant. Squinto, Munich, 1903.
Canvas, no cm. by 170 cm.
Summer (?) (Four figures).
Sketch. Hermannstadt, No. 579.
Paper on panel, 32 by 62 (sic).
Summer and Autumn.
Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brus- sels, 1707.
Black, red and white chalk, mixed with a few other colours.
March (see Tapestries).
The fertility of the Earth ; or Abundance. 43. 59. 213, pi. 45.
Museum, Brussels, No. 310.
Canvas, 178 cm. by 240 cm.
Signed : Jordae fecit.
Ditto. Sale.— Delia Faille, The Hague, 1730.
Ditto. Sale. — Hendrik van Limburg, The Hague, 1759.
Tn 1764, it belonged to the Confrerie of Painters in the Hague.
Ditto. Sale. — Willem van Wouw, The. Hague, May 22, 1764.
Ditto. Sale.— J. F. de Vinck de Wesel, Antwerp, 1814.
Ditto. Drawing. London, Heseltine, Study for the picture at Brussels, pi. 52.
The Fertility of the Earth; or Autumn.
Wallace Collection, London, No. 120. 46, pi. 47.
Panel, 4 v., 5^ d. by 7 v., 4! d.
Ditto. Salei— Pommersfeld Collection, Wurzburg, 1857 and Paris 1867.
Abundance.
Sketch. Sale.— de Beurnonville Paris, 1884. 28 cm. by 36 cm.
The Eank offers fruit to a Watergod.
V. SYMBOLIC SUBJECT.
Sale. - Mrs van Pafferode and Mrs
Blommen, Antwerp, 1802. 28 d. by 42J d.
Commerce and Industry protecting Fine
Art . . 207.
Museum, Antwerp, No. 219.
Canvas, 184 cm. by 495 cm.
Painted in 1665 for the hall of the Guild of St Luke.
Human Law founded on Divine Law. 207, 230.
Museum, Antwerp, No. 220.
Signed : Arti Pictoriae Jacobus Jordaeity donobat.
Painted in 1665 for the hall of the Guild of St Luke.
Pegasus 207.
Museum, Antwerp, No. 218.
Canvas 261 cm. by 273 cm.
Painted in 1665 for the ceiling of the Painter's room.
Moses and Aaron (A court of justice)
206.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, 1734. 5 v., 7j d. by 8 v.
Justice. ... ... 206.
Overmantel. Hulst, Court of Justice.
205.
Signed: J. Jord. fe. A°. i66j.
Ditto. Drawing. Hermitage, St. Peters- burg 206, pi 206.
Art, honoured by Time, the Gods and Men. ... 207.
Drawing. London, Fairfax Murray.
Ship-building.
Drawing. Amiens, J. Masson.
Signed : Jordaens.
Astronomy (see Tapestries)
Homage to Love.
Drawing. Antwerp, Bouquillon.
The Fight between Virtue and Vice.
Sale.— Jos. De Bom, Antwerp, 1878.
Canvas, 116 cm. by 157 cm.
Falsehood and Sincerity (2 pieces).
Sale.— Van der Hulst, Mechlin, 1890.
Canvas, 187 cm. by 87 cm.
The Vices (The Seven Deadly Sins).
Museum. Salzthalen, No. 203.
Canvas, 12 v., 10 d. by 17 v., 8 d. Truth.
Drawing. Museum, Grenoble. Signed : J. Jordaens 9 January, i6jS. Justitia, Fides, Charitas Drawing. Museum, Amsterdam. Red chalk, lightly washed with blue and red.
The Vanity of the World. („Death in the End").
Museum, Brussels, No. 313. Panel, 138 cm. by 196 cm. Bought from Mr. Lucq in 1844. Vanity (Vanitas).
Sale. — Locquet, Amsterdam, 1 783, No. 172.
Canvas, 42 d. by 54 d. Ditto. Sale. — Potier, Paris 1757. Canvas, 42 (sic) by 4 v., 4 d. Ditto. Engraved by Jacob Neefs(r), 1610, 1665.
A drawing corresponding with this engraving appeared at the James Hazard sale, Brussels, 1789, No. 497
Ditto. Drawing. London, Fairfax Murray.
Ditto. Sale.— Jac Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, No. 101, 5 v., 8 d. by 3 v., 9 d.
Young woman holding a skull . 180. Sale. — Chapuis, Brussels, 1865. Panel, 72 cm. by 59 cm. Jesters (woman and man) playing
with a cat 82, pi. 88.
Paris, Porges, Collection. Canvas, in cm. by 116 cm. Sale.— Martin Robyns, Brussels, 1758.
Jester with a cat 82.
Wilson Collection ; exhibited in Paris, 1873 and 1881. Canvas, 83 cm. by 70 cm. Ditto. Sale. — Nuntio Molinari, Brus- sels, 1763 -. . . 82
Canvas, 33J d. by 26J d. Ditto. Engraving, Alex Voet. 82, 181. Sale. — Thomas Schwencke. The Hague, 1767. 38J d. by 30 d.
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
263
Ditto.Sa.le.— Bbgaerts.Brussels, 1777. 82.
Ditto. Sale.— Mrs. van Griensven Berntz The Hague, 1862.
Ditto. Sale.— Nic. Nieuhof, Amster- dam, 1877.
Canvas, 79 cm. by 56 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Beurnonville, Paris, 1881.
82.
Ditto. Sale.— De Meulder, etc. Ant- werp, 1854, 85 cm. by 70 cm.
Ditto, Sale. — Bruynincx, Antwerp, 1 79 1 .
Canvas pasted on panel, 24 d. by 18 d.
Man-Jester and Woman-Jester with an- owl jge
Engraving, Peter De Jode.
Ditto. Le Carnaval. Engraving, Surugue fils.
The Jester of Francis I.
Sale.— De Busscher, Ghent, 1887.
Folly.
Sale. — Kuinders, The Hague, 1899.
Canvas, 133 cm. by 105 cm.
Two Fools
Sale. — J. Siebrecht, Antwerp, 1754.
The Five Senses.
Sale.— Count Andreas de Stolberg, Soedar (Hanover), 1859.
Canvas pasted on wood, 2 v., 4 d. by 2 v.
Fortune's Way.
Sale. — Verellen, Antwerp, 1856.
Canvas, 118 cm. by 120 cm.
Three Allegorical Figures (War and Peace, Wealth and Poverty, Victory).
Prague, Muller von Nordegg (Parthey
72-74)-
Canvas, 2 v., 4 d. by 2 v., 11 d.
Allegorical Figure (The End of the World).
Sale. — Van Hal, Antwerp, 1836.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 117 cm.
Allegorical piece. (Prisoner before the Judge, etc.).
Drawing. Sale. — Basan, Paris, 1797.
Symbolic Subject.
Drawing. Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 421 1 (with the inscription : Deligei).
A Symbolic Title. Drawing. Sale. — Ploos van Amstel, Amsterdam, 1800.
Allegory (Grief and Charity).
Drawing. Albertina, 621.
VI. PROVERBS, FABLES AND SCENES WITH A MORAL.
As the. Old Cock crows, the youug one learns .... 71, 74—81, pi. 75. Museum, Antwerp, No. 677. Canvas, 128 cm. by 192 cm. Inscription: Soo D'ovde songen so
PEPEN DE IONOE.
Signed : J. Jord. fecit 1638.
Ditto. Sale. — de Julienne, Paris, 1767.
76. 177-
Canvas, 6 v., 5 d. by 5 v., 10 d.
Ditto. Brussels, Arenberg Collection
80.
Sale.— P. J. F. Vrancken, Lokeren, 1838.
Ditto. Wurzburg, Palace. . 79, 80.
Ditto. Louvre, Paris, No. 2015. 76,78,
pi. 80.
Canvas, 154 cm. by 208 cm.
The inscription on a cartouche at the top reads : „Ut Genus est Genius concors consentus ab ortu."
From the Lebrun sale, 1 79 1; bought by Louis XVI.
Ditto. Museum, Dresden, No. 1014. 78, pi. 246.
Canvas, 168J cm. by 205 cm.
At the top is the inscription: „Soo d'oude songen soo pepen de jonge."
Z)i#0.Pinacothek,Munich,8i4 . $0,140.
Signed: J. JOR. fe. 1646.
Ditto. Museum, Berlin, No. 879.
79, pl- 8 4- Canvas, 163 cm. by 235 cm. Ditto. Earl of Wemyss ... 78. Canvas, 57^ d. by 84 d. Ditto. Sale.-JacobCromhout and Jasper Loskart, Amsterdam, 1709.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, March 9,
1734.
Ditto. Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, March 22, 1734. No. 76. 5 v., 6 d. by 7 v., 9 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, April 2, 1754. S v., 7 d. by 7 v., 11 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Ludovica Josepha Du Bois, Antwerp, 1777.
Canvas. 57^ d. by 92 d.
Ditto. Sale.— The Hague, October, 9, 1815. No. 145.
Ditto. Sale — L. Rotterdam, 1816.
Canvas, 55 d. by 65 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Van Laerbeke, Ghent, 1847. No. 37.
Ditto. Sale.— Van Laerbeke, Ghent, 1847. No. 50.
Ditto. Sale. — Van Goethem, Brussels, 1889.
Canvas, 42 cm. by 37 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Hotel Drouot, June 10, 1893-
Ditto. Sale. — Van den Berghen de Brezon.
Canvas, 42J d. by 76J d.
Ditto. Drawing. British Museum.
Red and black chalk, washed in colours.
Ditto. Drawing. Museum, Rotterdam.
Ditto. Pencil drawing. Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 121 3.
Ditto. Drawing. Boerner, Leipsic.
An old Cat doesn't play with a Ball.
Drawing. Louvre, 20018. . . 83.
Ditto. Drawing. Louvre (on view). No. 522.
Signed : „J. Jordaens ; a part of the signature, probably the year 1648, has been cut off.
The Pitcher goes once too often to the well. 83, 183.
The Hague, Steengracht collection.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, April 30, 1821.
Canvas, 7 v., 2 d. by 8 v., 4 d.
Ditto. Plantin-Moretus Museum, Ant- werp.
From the collection of Sir J. Lawrence. Presented by Mr. Ch. L. Cardon.
When offered porridge, gape . . 83.
Drawing. Hermitage, St. Petersburg. No. 4215.
In colours.
Never buy a pig in a poke. 83, pl. 92.
Drawing. Copenhagen, J. Rump.
Ditto. Watercolour drawing. Sale — Habich, 936.
They are good candles which light us on our way. . . 84, 183, pl. 184.
Drawing. Paris, Eugene Rodrigues.
Black and brown chalk.
The King drinks.
Museum, Brussels. No. 242.
Canvas, 263 cm. by 286 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Pommersfeld, Wurzburg, 1857 and Paris, 1867.
Ditto. Chiswick, Duke of Devonshire. 148, pl. 150.
Canvas, 165 cm. by 234 cm.
Ditto. Museum, Brussels. 70, 73, pi. 68, Frontispiece.
Canvas, 150 cm. by 203 cm.
At the top on a cartouche is the inscription :
In een vry gelach 1st goet gast te sijn.
Ditto. Louvre, Paris, No. 2014. 68, 78.
Canvas, 152 cm. by 204 cm.
Formerly belonged to the Fizeau family at A mster .dam, and afterwards to Le Brun, Paris, from whom Louis XVI bought it.
Ditto. Imperial Museum, Vienna. No. 942. ... 61, 73, 148, pl. 151.
On a cartouche at the top is:
Nihil similius insano quam ebrius.
From the collection of the Archduke Leopold-Wilhelm.
Ditto. Museum, Cassel. No. 99. . 66, 81, pl. 151.
Canvas, 242 cm. by 372 cm.
Belonged to the Museum as early as
1749.
Ditto. Museum, Valenciennes, No. 115.
67, 81.
Canvas, 153 cm. by 200 cm.
Old copy of the picture at Cassel.
Ditfo. Museum, Brunswick, 119. 148.
Canvas, 158 cm by 260 cm.
Ditto. Amsterdam, Private Collection.
Ditto. Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg . 73, pl. 69.
Canvas, 58 d. by 78* d.
Ditto. Engraved by Pontius. 73, 179.
Ditto. Drawing for the engraving by Pontius 72, 193, pl. 72.
Museum, Antwerp.
Ditto. Engraved by J. F. Poletnich. 7l.
Inscription : Jac. Jordaens pinxit i6yg.
X)z'«<?.Paris,Massius Collection, 1825. 67.
Ditto. Sale. — Mr. Johan van de Marcq, Amsterdam, 1773.
Ditto. Overmantel, Inventory, Jufv. Anna Jordaens, widow of Signor Zacharias de Vriese, 1668.
Ditto. Sale. — Johan van Marseles, Amsterdam, 1703. Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, 1734.
Ditto. Sale. — Ietswaart, Amsterdam, 1749, 8 v. by 13 v.
,Dit(o. Sale. — Karel van der Mier, Antwerp, 1755.
Ditto. Sale. — Augustus de Steenhault, Brussels, 1758, 3 v , 2 d. by 4 v., 4 d
Ditto. Inventory, Simon Balthasar de Neuf, Antwerp, 1740.
Ditto. Sale. — Mrs. de Neuf, Antwerp, 1790.
Panel, 57 d. by 78 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Randon de Boisset, Paris, 1777. 4 v., 9 d. by 6 v., 5 d.
Ditto. Sale.— Choiseul Praslin, Paris, 1793.
Ditto. Sale. — Count Redeen, London,
1794-
264
LIST OF JORDAENS 1 WORKS.
Ditto. Sale.— joh. Phil de Monte, Rotterdam, 1825.
Canvas, ij el by 2J el. ^
Ditto. Sale. — Pierre Jean Aerts d'Opdorp, Brussels, 1819.
Ditto. Sale. — E. Marechal, Brussels, 1899.
Panel, 44 cm. by 58 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Van der Schrieck, Lou- vain, 1861 148.
Canvas, 120 cm. by 165 cm.
Ditto. Schwedt Schloss (Parthey 85).
Ditto. Drawing. Royal Print-room, Berlin . 74.
Brown, white and blue paint.
A Bagpipe-flayer. (Study for The Ring drinks).
Sale. — Jan Lucas van der Dussen, Amsterdam, 1774.
The King of jesters. (The King drinks).
Sale. — de Preuil, Paris.
Canvas, 45 d. by 61 d.
A merry Meal . . . . I4g, 183.
London, Duke of Abercorn.
Canvas, 233 cm. by 268 cm.
Ditto. Drawing. Wateicolour, Ghent, ■Delacre .... 150, 183, pi. 56.
Ditto. Sale. — Friedrich Kay ser, Cologne, 1879.
Canvas, 140 cm. by 175 cm.
The Peasant and the Satyr, ig, 177,
pi. 19.
Brussels, Mr. A. Cels.-
Canvas, 190 cm. by 160 cm.
Engraving, Vosterman.
Ditto. Musettm, Cassel, No. 102. 23.
Canvas-, 203 cm. by 163 cm.
ZWA\ Museum, BudaPest, No. 738 . so.
Canvas, 192 cm. by 165 cm.
Ditto. Museum, Brussels, No. 311.
S7, 60, 183, pi. 60.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 171 cm.
Bought at the Wellesley Sale, Brussels, 1846.
Ditto. Munich, Pinakothek, No. 813. 20, pi. 21.
Canvas on panel, 194 cm. by 200 cm.
Ditto. Museum, Cassel, No. 10 1.
20/21, pi. 24.
Canvas, 170 cm. by 192 cm.
Ditto. Brussels, Mr. Harcq 58, pi. 61.
Canvas, 180 cm. by 19b cm.
Ditto. Brussels, Leon Janssen . 22.
Engraving, Jac. Neefs. (1610 — 1665).
179.
Ditto. Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 650 22.
Canvas, 158 cm. by 196 cm.
From the Bruhl collection.
Ditto. Brussels, de Wouters d'Oplinter.
22.
Canvas, no cm. by 150 cm.
Ditto. Brussels, Count Ferd. de Beauffort ... . . . 58.
Canvas, 170 cm. by 243 cm.
Ditto. Drawing. Copenhagen, J. Rump.
Black chalk, red chalk and pen.
Ditto. Stirling. (Waagen, Art Treasures, IV, 450-
Ditto. Erfurt von Tetten (Parthey 50).
Canvas, I v., n d. by 2 v., i\ d.
Dated: 1650.
Ditto. Berlin, Bartels (Parthey 55—58).
Ditto. Schloss Swedt (Parthey 55—58).
Ditto. Sale. — Jan Agges, Amsterdam, 1702.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, April 24, 1716. 5f v. by 5| v.
Ditto. Sale. — De Amory, Amsterdam, 1722. 6 v. by 7 v.
Ditto. Sale. — Johan van Schuylenburg, Burgomaster, The Hague, 1735. 2 v , \ d. by I v., 7 d.
Ditto. Sale.— The Hague, June 26, 1742. 5 v. by 6 v., d.
Ditto. Sale. — Adrichem van Dorp, Haarlem, 1750. 6J v. by 5 v., 10J d.
Ditto. Sale. — Jeronymus Tonneman, Amsterdam, 1754. 14I d. by 15J d. -
Ditto. Sale. — Jacob De Wit, Amster- dam, 1755. 6 v., 4 d. by 8 v.
Ditto. Willem van Haansbergen, The Hague, 1755.
Ditto. Sale. — Karel Joseph De Schrij- vere, Bruges, 1763.
Canvas, 4 v., 6 d. by 7 v., 7 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, August 10,
• I785-
Canvas, 28 d. by 35 d.
Ditto. Sale.— Robit, Paris, 180 1.
Canvas, 146 cm. by 225 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Marquess ofLansdowne, London, 1806.
Ditto. Sale.- — Cremer, Rotterdam, 1816.
Canvas, 50 d. by 66 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Walschot, Antwerp, 1817.
Canvas, 6o| d. by 65J d.
Ditto. Sale. — Schamp d'Aveschoot, Ghent, 1810.
Canvas, 54 d. by 60 d.
Ditto. Sale.— De Raedt, Mechlin, 1839.
Canvas, 91 cm. by 75 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Van Klinkenberg, Am- sterdam, 1843.
Canvas, 180 cm. by 160 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Pieter De Leeuw, Amster- dam, 1843.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 160 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Smets — Steenecruys, Mechlin, 1847.
Canvas, 63 cm. by 50 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Brussels, March 25, 1849. 65 cm. by 50 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Welczeck, Berlin, 1355.
Canvas, 57^ d. by 67 d.
Ditto. Sale.— M. Z., Paris, February 28, 1870. .
Ditto. Sale. — Van Rooy, Antwerp, 1870.
Canvas, 168 cm. by 176 cm.
Ditto. Sketch. Sale. — Loridon de Ghel- linck, Ghent, 18th century.
Panel, 11 d. by 16 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Simon — Emil — Moritz Oppenheim. Cologne, 1878, 20 cm. by 25^ cm.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — At Frederik Muller's, Nov. 20 and 21, 1882, Amster- dam.
Pen, washed with bistre and Chinese ink, heightened with white.
Ditto. Drawing. British Museum.
Various colours.
Ditto. Drawing. London, Fairfax Murray 58, 183, pi. 20.
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797.
The Porridge- Eater.
Museum, Cassel, No. 105. . . jq.
Canvas, 190 cm. by 210 cm.
Ditto. Museum, Strasbourg, No. 87. 60.
Canvas, 195 cm. by 212 cm.
Signed : / lordaens 1632. Ditto. Sale.— de Montriblond, Paris 1784. Ditto. Vienna, Liechtenstein, No. 118. 60, pi. 64.
Canvas, 127 cm. by 92 cm.
A Peasant meal. 60
Sale. — Dr E. von Schauss Kempfen hausen of Munich, Cologne Heberle April .-29 — 30, 1901.
A Peasant-Family 61
Munich, Michel.
Serenade. . 81, 86, 187, pi. 89
Antwerp, Leon Leblon.
Canvas, no cm. by 162 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Ghent, Sept. 23, 1777
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, October 30 1780.
Ditto. Sale. — Bernard Clemens, Ghent. 1788.
Ditto. Sale. — Monfalcon, Paris, 1802
Ditto, Sale. — J. B. Bollerman, Mentz
1853.
Ditto-. ■ Sale. — E. Huybrechts, Antwerp 1902.
Three Musicians . . 82, title-page,
Lord Yarborough.
Canvas, 109 cm. by 105 cm..
A Musician and his wife. 82, pi.
Bruges, Duverdyn..
Canvas, 118 cm. by 93' cm.
Three wandet ing Musicians. 1 94, pi. 232
Sketch.. Museum, .Madrid, No. 14 n
Canvas, 49 cm. by 64 cm. . Wandering Musicians
Sale. — Franken, Brussels, 1858.
Canvas, 140 cm. by 99 cm.
A Concert.
Berlin, Licht (Parthey 90).
Ditto. Sale. — v. d. Paltsgraaf, Bruges, 1767. 4 v., 2 d. by 3 v., 6 d.
A Music Party. . . 185, pi. 113.
Drawing. Ghent, Delacre. (See Tapes- tries).
Ditto. Paris, Eug. Rodrigues. 188,
pi. 188.
An old Musician.
Sale. — Krauspe, Berlin, 1895.
Panel, 46 cm. by 29 cm.
Man playing a Bag-pipe.
Sale. — Antwerp, May 25, 1768.
Canvas, 27 d. by 21 d.
A Fluteplayer.
Sale. — Zech, Mechlin, 1865. 49 cm. by 36 cm. -
A Fluteplayer and two other figures, (half-length).
Sale. — Lavillarmois, Lille, 1795.
Canvas, 35 d. by 27 d.
A Father teaching his son to play the Flute.
Sale. — v. d. Paltsgraaf, Bruges, 1767. 2 v., 3 d. by I v., 9 d.
An old man, singing (from, " As the old Cock crows").
Drawing. Sale. — Hazard, Brussels, 1789.
Black, red and white chalk.
Ditto. Sale.— Jos. De Bom, Antwerp., 1878. H
Canvas, 63 d. by 55 d.
An old man blowing a bugle.
Drawing. Sale.— Ploos van Amstel, Amsterdam, 1800.
A young man playing the flute, an old man holding a hare by its leg.
Sale. — Geelhand, Antwerp, 1784.
Canvas, 31$ d. by 44J .d.
Rustic Courtship . 187, pi. 152.
Frankfort, Emile Goldschmidt.
Merry Party in a Boat. 188, pi. 73.
British Museum, London. (See Tape- stries).
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
265
Young Love ,8 7] ^8
Brussels, Alfons Cels.
Canvas, 190 cm. by 89 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Jac. Jordaens, The Hague 1734, No. 102. 6 v. by 2 v., 10 d. . . 187.
A Balcony with young people . . 187.
Sale.— Jordaens, The Hague, 1734 No. 103, 11 v. by 4 v. 4 d.
Old Love . igy_
Brussels, Alfons Cels.
Canvas, 190 cm. by 89 cm.
Sale.— Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, March 22, 1734, No. 105.
Jester and Reader.
Sale. — Van Rotterdam, Ghent, 1835.
Ditto. Sale. — De Coninck de Merckem Ghent, 1856.
Ditto. Sale. — Wente van Amsterdam, Paris, 1893.
Ditto. Sale. — Mr. de B. van Nancy, Brussels, 1899.
A Party of Ladies and a Beggar.
Sale. — Philip van Dyk, The Hague, '753. 3 v., 9 d. by 6 v., 2 d.
A Balcony with a Moor and a Woman.
187.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, March 22, 1 734, No. 104, 11 v. by 4 v., 4 d.
A Dance in a landscape.
Sale. — Martin Robyns, Brussels, 1758,
3 v., 5 d. by 5 v., 1 d.
A young couple with a Cupid. Sale — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, March 22, 1734. No. 100. 5 v., 6 d., by
4 1., 10 d.
A young woman and an old man.
Sale. — Amsterdam, April 30, 1821.
Canvas, 1 el, 2 d. by 8 v. 6 d.
An old man and a young woman.
Drawing. Miinich, No. 2724.
Black and red chalk.
Two Lovers.
Sale. — Fistetits, Amsterdam, 1889.
Panel, 64 cm. by 50 cm.
A Declaration of Love.
Drawing. Sale. — Neyman (Amsterdam), Paris 1776.
Bistre and colour.
Corydon (The amorous shepherd) . 180.
Engraving by Jacob Neefs, 1610 — 1665.
A Shepherd kneeling before a Shepherdess.
Drawing. Vienna, Albertina, No. 626.
Shepherd and Shepherdess at a fountain.
Sale. — Stradbee, Brussels, 1872.
Canvas, 68 cm. by 48 cm.
Shepherd's Meal.
Sale. — Hendrik Reydon, Amsterdam, 1827.
A Shepherdess pouring out milk for u. Shepherd.
Sale. — Miss Regaus, Brussels, 1775.
5 v., 7 d. by 7 v., 6 d.
Ditto. Sale.— Horion, Brussels, 1788.
Ditto. Sale.— Gooris, Mechlin, 1844.
A Shepherd and a Shepherdess, pi. 180.
Drawing. Museum, Berlin, 1200.
Watercolour in various colours.
A Brothel.
Sale. — Jac. Jordaens, The Hague, March 22, 1734, No. 93, iv., 4jd. by 1 v., I d.
Cards, Women and Wine.
Antwerp, Koninckx Collection.
Inscription: Le jeu, la femme et vin friant, Faict Vhomme pauvre en riant.
A Woman giving a black cherry to a parrot 97-
Lord Darnley.
Canvas, 90J cm. by 87 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Choiseul, 1772. . 97.
Ditto. Sale. — Prince deConti,Paris,i777.
Ditto. Antwerp, F. De Witte . 97.
Canvas, 90J cm. by 87 cm.
A Woman and a parrot . . . 97.
Drawing. Sale.— Hazard.Brussels, 1789.
With red, black and white chalk, on bleu paper. •K The fruit-vendor. 82, 86, 187, pi. 190,
Museum, Glasgow, No. 247.
Canvas, 3 v., g£ d. by 5 v., 1 d.
From the Mc. Lellan and Lucien Bonaparte collection.
Ditto. Sale. — Proli, Antwerp.
Ditto. Sale. — Chevalier Simon, Brussels, 1852.
Ditto. Drawing, Watercolour, Copen- hagen, J. Rump 187.
Ditto. (Full length of the Fruitvendor in the picture in the Museum at. Glascow) 187.
Printroom, Berlin. Watercolour.
A Girl with fruit.
Marquess of Bute (Waagen, Art Treasures, III, 475).
A Nocturnal apparition. . 142.
Museum, Schwerin, No. 547.
Canvas, , 133 cm. by 146J cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Van Hal, Antwerp, 1836.
142.
Ditto. Sale. — Thor^ (Burger), Paris, 142. 1892;. under the title of The Dream
Canvas, 112 cm. by 140 cm.
Ditto. Fr. Kleinberger, Paris, pi. 142.
Canvas, 115 cm. by 142 cm.
The Noviciate.
Dessau, Amalienstift (Parthey, 30).
Soldiers on horseback.
Drawing. Sale. — Schepen, Amsterdam 1811.
Red and black chalk.
The Poulterer . .... 96.
Antwerp, Young Hand-bow (1756).
By Jordaens and Fyt.
The Poulterer.
Sale. — De Renesse Breidbach.Coblentz, 1828.
Ditto. Sale.-Salamanca, Paris, 1867. 96.
Canvas, 212 cm. by 241 cm.
Poulterer with a woman and two old men 96.
Prague, Strahow (Parthey, 100).
Canvas, 4. v. ,.4! d. by 5 v., ij d.
The poulterer (woman).
Sale. — Berlin, April 17, 1901.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 168 cm.
A Fish and Poultry shop. 9.5, 97, pi. 101.
Museum, Brussels,. No. 476.
Canvas, 198 cm. by 300 cm.
By Jordaens and van Utrecht. . Dated: 1637.
Bought from Mr. Ch. L. Cardon, 1887.
Ditto. Sale.— Stevens, Antwerp, 1837.
Ditto. (Copy) Museum,Hanover,No.io7.
95-
A Fishmonger's Shop . . . .95-
Sale. — Paulus van der Spy ck, Dordrecht, 1802. 3 v., 5 d. by 3 v.
Signed: Jordaens.
A Fishmonger (with Jacob van Es).
Hanover, Haussmann (Parthey, 92).
Canvas, 5 v., 9J d. by 9 v., 2 d.
A Greengrocer [woman).
Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brus- sels, 1797.
A Kitchen.
Drawing. Sale. — Ellinckhuysen, Am- sterdam, 1878.
Ditto. Drawing. Louvre, 20024 ( see Tapestries).
From :the Blokhuizen collection.
A Barn.
Sale. — Jacob Jordaens, The Hague 1734.. 1 v , 10 d. by 2 v., 4J d.
A Usurer.
Drawing. Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
In yellow, red and blue.
Ditto. (Dealers in antiquities). Museum, Budapest. Drawing in watercolour.
Streetscene.
Drawing. Prince de Ligne, 1794.
Pen washed with bistre, in 4 .
Soldiers ransacking a village.
Engraving, Prenner.
A Turkish Bath.
Sale. — Charles Leoffroy de Saint-Yves, Paris, 1806. Panel, 19 d. by 29 d.
The Astrologers.
Sale. — Narischkine, Paris, 1883.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 182 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Munoz, 1867.
A Negro bringing his master's horse. 135, 183, pi. 137.
Museum Cassel. No. 106.
Canvas, 81 cm. by 112 cm.
Signed : J. JOR fe
A Hunter with dogs 40, 185, pi. 121.
Museum Lille. No. 837.
Canvas, 7° cm - by 56 cm.
Dated: 1625.
Sale. — Tence, Paris, 1881, No. 27.
Ditto. Sale. — Leboeuf, Paris, 1783.
A Procession on Horseback . 193.
Drawing-Louvre, No. 20.026.
Black and red chalk ; the ground washed in bistre.
A young prince hunting . . . 185.
Drawing. British Museum (See Tapes- tries).
A Sile of Property.
Drawing. Museum, Rotterdam.
Boat, with men, children andoxen. 193.
Drawing. Watercolour. British Museum.
Men and cattle in a kitchen.
Sale. — Martin Robyns. Brussels, 1758. 5 v., 4 d. by 7 v., 4 d.
A Kitchen.
Drawing. Louvre, No. 20024 (See Tapestries').
A woman (Queen) surrounded by women and men.
Drawing. Museum Stockholm, No. 1761.
In various colours.
A Woman and three children.
Sale. — Boucher, Paris, 1 77 1.
Panel, 15 d., 6 s. by n d. 6 a.
A child put in the cradle by its mother.
193-
Drawing. Albertina, No, 6343. . The flesh in red chalk, the draperies washed in, and the outlines in bistre.
Ditto. Prince de Ligne, 1794.
Two child) en in a cradle. . 42.
Museum Valenciennes, No. 116.
Canvas, 70 cm. by 88 cm.
Children and .a lamb . . . .43.
Sale. — Rothan, Paris, 1890.
Canvas, 80 cm. by 80 cm.
A Child and a lamb in the cradle. 43.
Drawing. Engraved, A. Bartsch.
Prince de Ligne 1794.
Black and red chalk, on gray paper.
A Child with two monkeys and fruit.
Sale. — Lyversberg, Cologne, 1838, 3 v., 8| d., by 1 v., 7 d.
34
266
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
VII. PORTRAITS.
The Duke of Alba.
Sale.— Rotterdam, July 12, 1815.
Abraham van Diepenbeeck.
Sale — Otto Rossel, Brussels, 1890,
Francois Flamand (Duquesnoy).
Museum, Angers, No. 367.
Canvas, 100 cm. by 68 cm.
Frederick Henry of Nassau.
Sale. — Tiberghien, Brussels.
Finished sketch. Canvas.
The Infanta Isabella, as a nun.
Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brus- sels, 1797.
, Black, red and white chalk, and washed.
Jacob Jardaens ill.
Sale. — Philip van Dijk, The Hague,
1753-
Ditto. Drawing. Sale. — Artaria, Sterne, etc. Vienna, 1886.
Jordaens and his wife . . . 112. , Sale. — Prince de Conti, Paris, 1777.
Canvas, 3 v., 2 d. by 2 v., 8 d.
Belonged in 1763 to the Confrerie of Painters in the Hague.
Catharina van Noort . . . 112.
Prince Galitzin, Collection.
Exhibition of the Netherlands Bene- volent Society, Brussels, 1873.
Canvas, 78 cm. by 61 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Jean — Leopold— Jos de Man d'Hobrugge, Brussels, 1820.
Catharina van Noort, 23 years of age.
112.
Sale. — Thore (Burger), Paris, 1892.
Canvas, 68 cm. by 54 cm.
Ditto. Sale.— Feb vre, Paris, 1882.
Canvas, 92 cm. by 72 cm.
A child of Jordaens' (?) . . 112.
Sketch. Museum, Lubeck.
Portrait of Baron Waha ae Linter.
National Gallery, London.
At the top, the coat of arms of Waha de Linter and the inscription : .ETATIS SVE 63, 1626 53.
Portrait of Jan Wierts 108, pi. 116.
Museum, Cologne, No. 612.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 105 cm.
Under the frame we read: .ETATIS 48.— 16 . . .
Ditto. Sale. — Van Gemert, Antwerp, 1778.
Ditto. Sale. — Lebrun, Paris, 1791. 54 d. by 42 d.
Portrait of the wife of Jan Wierts 108, pi. 117.
Museum, Cologne, No, 613.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 105 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Lebrun, Paris, 1791, 54 d. by 42 d.
Portrait of van Zurpele and his wife
54. pi. 55- London, Devonshire House. Canvas, 211 d. by 187 d. Portrait of a man. . 1 11, pi. 119. Uffizi, Florence.
A copy is in the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.
Family Portrait . . 154, pi. 157,
Museum, Cassel, No. 98.
Canvas, 130 cm. by 158 cm.
As early as 1749 in the possession of the Landgrave of Hesse — Cassel.
Family group in a garden 5I> pi- 54-
Museum, Madrid, No. 1410.
Canvas, 181 cm. by 187 cm.
Family Portrait.
Hermitage, St Petersburg, No. 652.
Canvas, 178 cm. by 138 cm.
From the Duke of Portland and the Walpole collections.
Ditto. Lord Darnley.
Grisaille. Panel, 34 cm. by 36^ cm.
Family portraits.
Geelhand de Labistrate; Ehibition van Bree, 1849.
Portrait of a Man. . . 108, 192.
Sale.— Huybrechts, Antwerp, 1902.
Canvas, 140 cm. by 112 cm.
Dated: Aetatis 73 A°. 1641.
Sale. — Beurnonville, Paris, 1881.
Ditto. (Replica). Hermitage, St Peters- burg, No. 653 108.
Canvas, 155 cm. by 120 cm.
From the Crozat collection.
Ditto. Drawing Louvre 524.
108, 192, pi. no.
Portrait of a Woman. 108, 192.
Pendant to the former.
Museum, Brussels, No. 244.
Canvas, 135 cm. by 112 cm.
Inscription: 66 (.ETA) Ts 1641.
Ditto. Drawing. Louvre, No. 523. 108, 192, pi. in.
lortrait of a Man .... 108.
Hermitage, St Petersburg, No. 653.
Canvas, 155 cm. by 120 cm.
Replica of the preceding Portrait of a Man.
From the Crozat Collection.
Ditto. Antwerp, Mrs Bosschaert-Dubois.
So.
Dated: Aetatis 44 A°. 1623.
Portrait of a Woman
Antwerp, Mrs Bosschaert— Dubois. 5a.
Signed : Aetatis 3 ... J. Jordaens fecit.
Old Woman 50.
Antwerp, Mrs Bosschaert —Dubois.
Two Portraits.
Sale. — Antwerp, August 25, 1762, 5 v., 3 d. by 4 v. Portrait of a Man . . 240, pi. 244.
Louvre, Paris, No. 2016.
Canvas, 94 cm. by 73 cm.
Ditto. Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 654-
Canvas, 611 cm. by 39 cm.
Portrait .... .pi. 249.
Museum, Budapest, No. 659.
Canvas, 98 cm. by 75 cm.
Dutch Burgomaster.
Museum, Turin, No. 422.
Canvas, 112 cm. by 86 cm.
Portrait of a Man.
Dowaai, Museum, No. 197.
Canvas, no cm. by 93 cm.
Head of a Man.
Sketch.Wiirzburg,Frolich(Parthey,lo7).
Man and Woman.
Sale. — Rotterdam, June 28, 1756. 3 v. by 2 v. 4 d.
Two Cardinals.
Drawing. Sale. — Artaria, Vienna, 1896.
Black chalk.
A man in armour.
Palais Royal, 1727.
Panel, 3 v., 8 d. by 3 v.
Portrait (with a pot).
Sale. — Martin Robyns, Brussels, 1758. No. 98. 4 v. by 3 v., 2 d.
Portrait.
Sale. — Martin Robyns, Brussels, 1758, No. 98. 2 v., 2 d. by 1 v., 7 d.
Portrait of a Man.
Sale.— Mme. la douariere de Proli, Ant- werp, 1762.
Ditto Sale. — Johan van der Marck, Amsterdam, 1773.
Canvas, 27 \ d. by 31 \ d.
Portrait of a young Man, •.
Sale. — de Robiano, Brussels, 1837.
Canvas, 42 cm. by 34 cm.
Portrait of a Man.
Sale.— de Robiano, Brussels, 1837.
Canvas, 75 cm - by 58 cm -
Portrait of a Burgo?naster.
Sale. — R. Vernon Gordon, London, 1877.
Burgomaster's Wife.
Sale. — R. Vernon Gordon, London, 1877.
Wife of the preceding.
Portrait of a Man.
Sale. Von Klinkosch, Vienna, 1889.
Canvas, 52 cm. by 40 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Lanfranconi, Cologne,
1895-
Panel, 46 cm. by 35 cm.
From the Fogelberg Collection.
Woman and two children.
Sale. — San Donato, Florence, 1880.
Canvas, 185 em. by 280 cm.
Portrait of a Wo?nan . . . 108.
Lord Chesham, Latimer, Chesham.
Panel, 97 cm. by 72 cm.
Portrait of a Lady (with a locket). 158; pi. 158.
Museum of the Academy, Vienna, No. 640.
Canvas, 75 cm. by 57 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — Amsterdam, Sept. 10, 1798.
Portrait of a Woman.
Sale. — Pommersfelden,Wiirzburg,i857, Paris, 1867.
Canvas, 78 cm. by 60 cm.
Portrait of a young zvoman,
Sale.— Geelhand de Labistrate, Ant- werp, 1878.
Canvas, 178 cm. by 142 cm.
Portrait of a Woman.
Sale. — Bruynincx, Antwerp, 1791.
Portrait of an old woman.
Drawing. Weigel, Handzeichnungen, No. 3932.
Black chalk, heightened with white.
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
267
VIII. CHARACTER HEADS AND STUDIES.
A laughing Man.
Sale. — Chapuis, Brussels, 1865.
Panel, 56 cm. by 48 cm.
Laughing-Man' s head ... pi. 9.
Drawing. Museum, Brunswick.
A Drunkard.
Sale.— E. Marechal van Dowaai, Brussels, 1899.
Canvas, 58 cm. by 44 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — von Conrath von Sieg- burg, Brussels, 1901.
Canvas, 69 cm. by 60 cm.
Ditto. Sale. — E. Marechal van Dowaai, Brussels, 1899.
Canvas, 24 cm. by 18 cm.
Two Hermits.
Sale. — de Robiano, Brussels, 1837.
Panel, 62 d. by 47 d.
A Hermit.
Sale. — Verellen, Antwerp, 1856.
Canvas, 100 cm. by 83 cm.
Head of Man at prayer.
Museum, Budapest.
A Priest.
Sale. — Tence, Paris, 1 881.
Canvas, 70 cm. by 56 cm.
A Man on horseback.
Drawing. Museum, Berlin, No. 2823.
Blue and red chalk.
A gentleman -with a walkingstick in his hand.
Drawing. Amiens, J. Masson.
A Peasant.
Sale. -Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, No. 43. 1 v., I d. by t v., 6£ d.
A Peasant eating.
Brunswick, Hollandt. (Parthey, 96).
Bust. Canvas, 4 v., 7 d. by 5 v., 1 d.
Five comical figures.
Drawing. Prince de Ligne, 1794.
Red chalk, with a few touches in black chalk.
Four heads of Shepherds.
Sale. — Verellen, Antwerp, 1856, 49 cm. by 64 cm.
Three studies of heads . 194.
Museum, Antwerp, No. 819. Panel, 41 cm. by 50J cm. Three figures (life-size). Sale. — Martin v. d. Bosch, Antwerp, 1849.
Two heads of men.
Sale. — Santels, Louvain, 1765.
Canvas, 22 d. by 21 d.
Two heads of weeping peasants.
Drawing. (WEIGEL, Handzeichnungen,
3931)-
Red and black chalk.
Two studies of heads. . .194.
Museum, Ghent, No. 97.
Panel, 44 cm. by 51 cm.
Two heads of old men.
Drawing. Sale. — P. Wouters, Brussels,
1797-
Study of two figures in the style of Veronese.
Sale. — Charles Spruyt, Ghent, 181 5.
Paper on wood, 14 d. by 18 d.
Two heads
Drawing. Sale. — Ploos van Amstel, Amsterdam, 1800, No. 5.
Miscellaneous.
Red chalk. Two Heads (men). Drawing. Red and white chalk. Sale.— Lauwers, Amsterdam, 1802. Two Heads.
Drawing. Sale.— P. Wouters, Brussels, 1797.
Bistre and colours. Two Men's Heads, on one sheet. Drawing. Museum, Miinich, No. 2725. Ditto. Sale. — Countess van Moens, Amsterdam, 1803. -Red and black chalk. Two Heads.
Sale.— P. J. Verhaghen, Louvain, 1835. Canvas, 73 cm. by 58 cm. Two Studies of Heads . . 1 79.
Drawing. Sale.— Gildemeester, Am- sterdam, 1800.
Red and black chalk. Study ■. Men's figures. Drawing. Museum, Berlin, No. 2826. Red and blue chalk. Study of a Man with his hands on the ground.
Drawing. Sale.— Boucher, Paris, 1771. JVude man.
Drawing. Albertina, No. 629. Red and black chalk. An old man.
Sale. — Chapuis, Brussels, 1865. Panel, 64 cm. by 46 cm. Bust: old man.
Sale. — v. d Hecke van Ghent, Brussels, 1884.
Panel, 63 cm. by 49 cm. (sic). A nude old man.
Drawing. Catalogue, Prince de Ligne, 1794-
Head of an old man with ziplifted eyes.
Museum, Dowaai, No. 198. Panel. 41 cm. by 29 cm. Head of an old man. Sale. — de Robiano, Brussels, 1837. Canvas, 41 cm. by 33 cm. Ditto. Ermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 656. Canvas, 52 cm. by 41 cm. (sic). Ditto. Museum, Dowaai, No. 199. Panel, 63 cm. by 48 cm. Ditto. Museum, Besancon, No. 300. Canvas, 40 cm. by 55 cm. From the Lacaze collection. Study for the head of an old man. Sale. — J. B. van Rooy, Antwerp, 1870. Canvas, 46 cm. by 40 cm. Study of the head of old man. Sale. — Schoenlank, Berlin, 1896. Canvas on panel, 55 cm. by 41 cm. An elderly Soldier.
Drawing. Sale. — Ploos van Amstel, Amsterdam, 1800. An old man.
Sale. — Th. Schwenck, The Hague, 1767, \i\ d. by 10 d. Bust (man).
Museum, Augsburg, No. 181. Paper on wood, 1 v., 9 d. by I v., 3 d , 4 strepen.
Ditto. Sale.— Knijff, Antwerp, 1785. Canvas, 23 \ d. by 21 d.
Head of a man.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 657. Panel, 53 cm. by 38 cm. (sic). Ditto. Museum, Aix en Provence, No. 251.
Canvas, 44 cm. by 36 cm.
A sleeping man.
Drawing. Sale.— Artaria, Vienna, 1886.
Ink and black chalk.
From the Erasm von Egert collection.
Study of a man's head.
Museum, Aix-Ia-Chapelle, 77.
Canvas, 59 cm. by 53 cm.
Study of a Head.
„, Sale -— Robert J- B - V£m de Berghe, Ghent, 1829. s
Panel, 3J v . by 3 v.
Study: Man's Head (Profile)
Drawing. Prince de Ligne, 1794.
Red, black and white chalk, on grev paper. & '
Study of a Head.
Sale.— Robert J. B. van de Berghe, Ghent, 1829.
Canvas on wood, 3 J v . by 2i v.
Ditto. Drawing. Bistre and colour.
Sale.— Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1707
A Head. ""'
Sale.— Daniel De Jongh, Rotterdam, 1810.
Two Figure Studies. An old man and a young woman.
Drawing. Black and red chalk.
Munich, No. 2724.
Study of five heads of women.
Drawing. Sale.— Gutekunst, Stuttgart May 1903.
Three women and a child. 194, pi. 193.
Baron Bruckenthal Collection, Her- mannstadt.
Studies of Heads.
Drawing. Black, red and white chalk.
Sale.— Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797.
Mother and daughter.
Sale.— Van der Straelen-Moons-van Lerius, Antwerp, 1885.
Panel, 49 cm. by 63 cm.
An old and a young woman.
Drawing. Hermitage, St. Petersburg,. No. 4214,
Woman and Child.
Sale.— Bruynincx, Antwerp, 1791.
Panel, 19 d. by 24 d.
Two heads of women (studies).
Museum, Nancy, No. 203.
Canvas, 63 cm. by 63 cm.
Ditto. Drawings. Sale.— Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797.
Black, red and white chalk.
A Woman eounting money.
Sale. — The Hague, October 9, 1815.
Women with flowers and birds 187.
Drawing. Sale.— Habich, Cassel, 1899, (see Tapestries).
An old woman holding a Dish. pi. 38.
Drawing. Mr. Delacre, Ghent.
A Figure with fruit and flowers.
Sale. — J. Siebrecht, Antwerp, 1754.
A woman crowned with vine-tendrils.
Sale. — Ghent, September, 23, 1777. Canvas, 37J d. by 27 d.
268
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
Ditto. Sale.— Jacques Clemens, Ghent,
1779.
A Woman carrying a basket with fruit. Sale. — AtTerbruggen's, Antwerp, 1868. Canvas, 70 cm. by 40 cm. A cook bringing a basket with fruit. Drawing. Museum, Berlin, No. 87, (see Tapestries).
Head of an old woman. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brussels, 1797. Black chalk, heightened with white, on blue paper.
Ditto. Sales.— de Knijff, Antwerp, 1785. Panel, 17J d. by 13 d. Ditto. Drawing. Boymans Museum, Rotterdam.
Ditto. Drawing. National Museum, Stockholm.
Ditto,. Drawing. Museum, Munich, 2756.
Red and black chalk (in profile).
Head of an old woman.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 655.
Canvas, 41 cm. by 36 cm.
Figure of a woman praying.
Drawing. Museum, Berlin, 2835.
Watercolour, white, red, black, brown.
A kneeling woman.
Drawing. Museum, Brunswick.
Black and white chalk.
A young woman combing her hair.
Sale. — de Vinck de Wesel, Antwerp, 1814.
Canvas. 30 d. by 25! d.
A woman drinking from a glass, pi. 13.
Drawing. Museum, Brunswick, 1612.
Red and white chalk.
Study of a Head {Negro woman).
Drawing. Sale. — Pierre Wouters, Brus- sels, 1797.
A woman with a pot in her hand.
Sale. — Jacques Clemens, Ghent, 1779.
Canvas, 37J d. by 27 d.
A Milkmaid .... 192, pi. 59.
Drawing. Ghent, Mr. Delacre.
Black, red and white chalk.
A young shepherdess with a straw hat.
Sale. — Danoot, Brussels, 1828.
Panel, 57 d. by 29 d.
A Woman's figure.
Drawing. Boymans Museum, Rotter- dam.
A woman adorned with pearls.
Dessau, Castle, (Parthey, 104).
Canvas, 3 v., 11 d. by 2 v., 10 d.
Head of a young woman . . pi. 5-
Drawing. Museum, Brunswick.
Black and red chalk.
Woman's head pi. 1.
Drawing. Museum Brunswick.
Head of a young girl.
Museum, Cambridge, No. 254.
Ditto. Amsterdam, Mr. Mensing.
Panel, 52 cm. by 26.5 cm.
Study of Woman's dress.
Drawing. Museum Berlin, No. 2824.
Red, grey, and blue chalk.
Three Child-heads {Study) . . 194.
Ermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 589.
Canvas, 44 by 57 (sic). Two Children with a hound (Study). Drawing. Albertina, 627. Red and black chalk and ink. Naked Child {Back view). Drawing. Sale. — Von Klinkosch, Vienna, 1889.
Black and red chalk. Unfinished study.
Head of a child from a cast. Drawing. Sale. — Artaria, Vienna, 1886. Red chalk, From the Fries collection. A child in a chair with a dog. Drawing. Museum, Munich. A young prince hunting . . . 185. Drawing. British Museum (see Tapes- tries).
Birds of prey and fowls, (with Paul
De Vos) • ■ 186.
Antwerp, Rene della Faille, From the Geelhand de Labistrate sale. Canvas, 182 cm. by 248 cm. Wild boar chase. Sale.— Antwerp, Aug. 20, 1835. Ruthart and Jordaens. In front of the hen-run. Sale. — Dr. E. von Schauss Kempfen- hausen.
Munich. Heberle, Cologne, April 29, 1901.
Canvas, 100 cm. by 142 cm.
Study of cows.
Sale.— de Robiano, Brussels, 1837.
Canvas, 54 cm. by 67 cm. (sic).
Head of an ox and of a donkey.
Sale. — Auguste Hoyet, Brussels, 1867.
Canvas, 66 cm. by 77 cm.
Cows. (Study).
Museum, Lille, No. 295.
Canvas, 66 cm. by 82 cm.
Two Oxen. . .... pi. 4.
Drawing, Louvre, 20025. Watercolour, brown, black, red. Study of a bitch.
Drawing. Sale. — Neyman (Amsterdam) 1776, Paris.
Red and black chalk. Tigress with cubs.
Sale. — de Robiano, Brussels, 1837. Canvas,- 120 cm. by 167 cm. Animal study.
Sale. — Lenglart van Rysel, Paris, 1902. Paper pasted on canvas, 50 cm. by 62 cm.
Study of dogs.
Drawing. Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 627.
Red and black chalk and ink. Landscape (by Joost de Momper, with figures by Jordaens). Museum, Vienna, 1026. From the Collection of the Arch-duke Leopold Wilhelm in the catalogue of which the figures are attributed to Jordaens. Landscape.
A picture by Momper with figures by Jordaens,
Inventory, Juffr Anna Jordaens, widow of Signor Zacharias de Vriese, 1668.
Landscape with people and animals.
Sale. — Cuypers de Rymenam, Brus- sels, 1802.
Canvas, 2 v., 4 d. by 4 v., 5 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Jacques de Roore, The Hague, 1747, 3 v., 3 d. by 4 v., 5 d.
Landscape with figures ana cows.
Panel. Sale.— Moyson, Ghent, 1829.
Landscape.
Among the pictures taken from the halls of the suspended guilds to the Museum at Antwerp was a landscape by Jordaens from the Guild of St. Luke.
Landscape with sheep and goats.
Sale. — Pieter Lyonnet, Amsterdam, 1791. 10 d. by 13 d.
Landscape with an old shepherd, children, and a white horse.
Drawing.Sale. — deSilvestre,Paris,l8io.
Landscape with a woman milking a cow.
Drawing. Sale. — de Silvestre, Paris, 1810.
A small Landscape.
Inventory, Erasm. Quellin, Antwerp, 1678.
Ditto. Inventory, Alexander Voet, 1689.
A Farm shed.
Sale. — Jordaens, The Hague, 1 734, 1 v., 4^ d. by 1 v., 1 d.
A Stable with figures.
Inventory, Simon Balfhasar de Neuf, Antwerp, 1740.
Fruit piece with figures by Jordaens.
Museum, Amiens, No. 100.
Still Life, Fruit and Meat.
Madrid, Royal Palace, 1787.
A fruit and flowerpieee.
Sale.— Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, No. 106, 3 v., I d., by 5 v. 9 d.
Ditto. Sale. — Jordaens No. 106, 3 v. by 6 v. 2 d.
A figure, in a wrerth of flowers by Jan Breughel 97
Sale. — Jordaens, The Hague, No. 39, 2 v., 3 d. by I v., 11 d.
A fruit piece, by Father Zegers, with figures by Jordaens .... 97
Sale. — Jordaens, The Hague, 1734 No. 47, 2 v., 3 d. by 1 v. 11 d.
A figure, with still-life by Snijders.
Sale. — Ferdinand, Count van Platten berg and Wittem, Amsterdam, 1738. 5 v., S d. by 6 v., 5 d.
A Medallion in a wreath of flowers by F. Ykens.
Sale. — Busso, Ghent, 1832.
A Nightlight.
Sale. — Jordaens, The Hague, 1734, No. 9, 1 v., 4i d. by 2 v. 7I d.
Escutcheon. . . . . pi. 217.
Drawing. Museum, Amsterdam. N0.2 19.
With the pen and slightly tinted with different colours. Signed: Jordaens.
Vignette pi. 170.
Drawing, Albertina, Vienna, No. 634.
Watercolour, blue and brownish yellow.
IX. TAPESTRIES.
Proverbs . . . 134, 150, 176, 181, pi. 1-82, pi. 184.
On September 22, 1644, Jordaens enter- ed into an agreement with Frans van Cotthem, Jan Cordys, and Boudewijn van Beveren to deliver designs for " a chamber-
tapestry, figurework, to wit certain figures illustrating proverbs, at his discretion, at 8 guilders an ell."
These tapestries are now in the pos- session of Prince Schwarzenberg in his castle at Frauenberg. They were bought
in 1647 by the Archduke Leopold- Wilhelm, Governor of the Spanish. Netherlands from 1646 — 1656, for the sum of 4610 guilders, 12J stuivers. Ridingschool of Louis XIII.
8, 136, 184, 190
LIST OF JORDAENS' WORKS.
269
(Eight pieces of tapestry)
Imperial Palace, Vienna.
In 1666 the Emperor Leopold I bought a set of tapestries representing a riding- school, for 8327 guilders.
Large Horses ... . . 184.
(Painted for Signor Carlo Vinck, 165 1).
Ditto. A replica (seven pieces) made for Jan de Backer, 1654. . . . 184.
Scenes from Rural life . . . 185.
Eight pieces tapestry, with Jan Fijt.
Imperial Palace, Vienna.
The Sacrifice of Abraham . . 189.
Drawing. Museum, Berlin, No. 2819.
Black and red chalk. Signed : Jordaens.
Intended for a tapestry.
The Month of March . . . 188.
Drawing. Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 4209.
A design for a tapestry, washed in ink, heightened with red chalk.
Astronofny. . . ... 192.
Sale. — Francois Pauwels, Brussels, 1803, 3,4 M. by 2,52 M.
Design for a tapestry.
The pitcher goes once too often to the ■well 83, 183, pi. 93.
Drawing. Museum, Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp. Presented by Mr Ch. Leon Cardon, Brussels.
Coloured watercolour.
In the centre of the drawing in Jordaens' handwriting is the incription: „De kruyc gaet soo lange te waeter tot dat sy breeckt, 1638." From the Sir J. Laurence collection.
Music Party . . 185, pi. 113.
Drawing, Ghent, Mr. Delaere.
Design for a tapestry.
Ditto. Drawing Paris, Mr. Eug. Rodrigues 188, pi. 188.
Drawing for a tapestry in various coulours.
Merry party in a boat . 188, pi. 73.
Drawing. British Museum, London.
Kitchen 185.
Drawing. Louvre, 20024.
Brown and red on black ground.
Intended for a tapestry. Probably No. 3 of the'„Rural life" series.
Women with flowers and birds. 187.
Drawing. Sale. — Habich, Cassel, 1899. 39 cm. by 34 cm.
Sketch in various watercolours.
Cook, bringing a basket with -fruit.
Drawing. Museum, Berlin, No. 87.
Watercolour in many colours. Study for one of the „Rural life" series.
Ditto. Mr. Rump, Copenhagen . 187.
A youn% prince hunting . . . 186.
Drawing. British-Museum.
Watercolour in many colours.
Study for one of the „Rural life" series.
Tapestries with the date 1620 . . 9.
Mols says in a manuscript communic- ated by Kramm (p. 822) that about 1770 designs for tapestries, made by Jordaens, and bearing the date 1620, were sold at Antwerp.
Two designs with merry subjects. Sale. — Anonymous, London, 1773. 123 d. by 94 d. reaching to no d. . . . 1 88.
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES OF PERSONS
AND PLACES.
Page
-Abercorn (Duke of) . . - 149, 183 Adriaensen (Alexander). . 7
A el ten (Elisabeth van) . . 2
Aertsen ... . . . 11
Aertsen (Pieter) . . 23, 101
Aesop . ... . 18, 19
Agges (Jan: Sale) . . . .181
Albert (Archduke of Austria) 38, 65, 67,
114, 219 Allard de la Court . 134
Alton Towers ... . 144
Alvin 222, 227
Ambachts (Jacobus) . . 123
America . . . ... 185
Amiens ... . 12, 35
Amiens (Museum) . . 6
Amsterdam 28, 35, 48, 49, 82, 83, 87,
91, 97. 99. 104. 105, 119. 13'. I 3 2 >
134, 139, 145. 152, 153. 154. 179, 181, 193, 204, 210, 228, 239.
Amsterdam (Rijks-Museum)48, 104, 106,
153. 193. 194. 197. 198, 217,
224, 235.
Amsterdam (Town Archives) . . 204
Amsterdam (Town Hall: Palace) 195,204,
205, 227 Anabaptists . .... 218
Angers (Museum) . . . 43
Anguiot (Sale) 27
Antwerp 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 20, 23, 27, 30, 33, 35—37. 40-43, 45, 48, 50, 52, 65 -67, 70, 72, 78, 79, 82, 86, 88, 89, 93, 94. 95. 96, 97, 100, 101, 103, 107, 109, no, 113, 114, 115, 116, 119, 122, 123, 126, 127, 128, 137, 139, 140, 143, 144, 148, 153, 154, 171, 178, 182, 187, 191, 201,221,221. 224, 226, 234, 240, 242, 244, 246. Antwerp (Museum) 14, 40, 68, 71, 75,
135, 144, 159, 164, 165, 177, 180, 183, 192, 194, 196, 207, 228, 230, 232, 234, 235, 237.
Antwerp (Plantin-Moretus Museum) 6, 42, 45. 63, 83, 93, 132, 183, 192, 193. Antwerp (Academy) . . . 206
Antwerp (Church of St. Anthony) 106 Antwerp (Archives of the Town) . 65 137, 140, 239, 240, 243 Antwerp (Archives of the State) . 37 Antwerp (Archives of the Bishopric of)
220
Antwerp (Augustine Fathers) . 38, 40
Antwerp (Church of the Augustines)
39, 113, 179, 191, 233
Page Antwerp (Church of the Beguinage) 13
175. 237 Antwerp (The Shod Carmelites) 201 Antwerp (St. Elisabeth Hospital) . 234 Antwerp (Falcon Cloister) . . 63, 64 Antwerp (The Young Hand-Bow) . 96 Antwerp (Church of St. James) 201,202,
227 Antwerp (Church of the Jesuits) . 41 Antwerp (Professed House of the Jesuits)
99 Antwerp (Church of St. George) . 114 Antwerp (Guild of St, Luke) 1, 5—10, 35 — 38, 63, 66, 67, 121, 192, 206, 207. 214 Antwerp (Maagdenhuis) . 238, 239, 240 Antwerp (Abbey of St. Michael) . 130 Antwerp (Church of the Franciscan Friars)
237 Antwerp (Minimi) .... 15
Antwerp (Church of Our Lady) 2, 3, 6, 11, 130, 227 Antwerp (Church of St. Paul) 10, n. 13, 14, 20, 32, 41 Antwerp (Abbey of Pieter Pot) . 236 Antwerp (Preekheerenkerk) see Ant- werp, Church of St. Paul. Antwerp (Teirninck School) 14, 15, 177,
227, 238 Antwerp (Church of St. Walburgis) 1 1
• 139
. . 114
48, 80, 81, 85
Page
• ■ 103
. . 228 243. 244
Appelbom (Harald)
Aragon (Ferdinand of)
Aremberg (Gallery)
Armentieres
Arras (Museum)
Artaria.
Aschaffenburg (Museum)
Atrecht
Austria-Hungary .
B
Backx (Catharina)
Backx (Nicolas) .
Baert (J.) ....
Balen (Hcndrik van) .
Balen (Jan van)
Bamberg .
Bare dc Comogne
Bartels ....
Bartsch
Bassano
Batavian Republic
Beauffort (Count de).
Beccius (Joan)
Beckerath (Adolf von)
. 90 . in . 229 . 221 244
134 122 140 152 152
42
49 239
44
3
225
58 225
33
. 20c
34. 239
79, 80, 84
74, 178, 180,
189, 193
.82,
181,
160,
Beeckmans (Sale) Beets (C. van der) Belgium .... 203,
Berbie (Gerardus) . . Berghe (Ch. van den) Berlin . . Berlin (Museum) . Berlin (Print-room) 33, 187 Berlin (Castle) Beschey .... Beurnonville . Beveren (Boudewijn van) 13
Beysterbos
Bielke (Count A.) . . Birk (Dr. Ernst Ritter von) Bizet (Karl Emmanuel) . Boel (Peter; Boerhaven .
Boeyermans (Theodoor Bogaerts (Sale)
Bohemia
Bohemia (The Queen of) Bol (Ferdinand) . .
Bol (Hans)
Bolechowice .
Bolswert (Schelte a) 14, 74—
87. 143 Bonaparte (Lucien) . Bordeaux (Museum)
Bosch (Hieronymus) 23
Bosschaert (Thomas Willeborts) See :
Willeborts. Bosschaert-Dubais (Mme. la Dou-
airiere) . . .50, 55, 106, 178 Botticelli (Sandro) . . 94
Bouchet (P. Magr.) . . . . n
Bougard (Mrs.) ... 91, 92, 217
Bourgois 148
Bouvrey (Peeter) . 10
Brabant . . . . 6, 55, 227
Brabant (North) 231
Branden (F. Jos. van den) 3, 6, 8, 36,
37, 41, 47, u8, 122, 137, 138, 140,
162, 182, 190, 220, 223, 239
Brandenburg (Fred. Wilhelm von). 161
Brandenburg (The House of) . 165
Brandt (J.) 37
Branicki (Prince) . . ... 90
BraqueniS . . 185
Brazil 160
Breda . I, 231
Bredius (A ) . . 29, 46, 112, 228
Breslau (Standehaus) . . . . 137
Breughel (P.) the Elder . 4, 23, 25, 62 Breughel ("Velvet") . .4, 36, 97, 135 Briel (Elisabeth van) ... 2
215 127 240 127 182
154 140 184 142
235 22 <; 208 82 182 158 205
■ 7
. 246
76,85,86,
177, 178
. . 187
235
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES OF PERSONS AND PLACES. 271
1 60.
82, 88.
193.
Brize (Cornells) . -Broeck (J. B. van den) Bronckhorst . Brouns (P. N.) . Bruges . ...
Brugge (Van den) Brukenthal (Baron) . Brunswick (Museum) I, 6, 9, 13, 17 27. 30, 3°, 50, 86, 87, 94; 95,
173, 175. 193. 218, -Brussels 5, 10, 15, 19, 22, 23, 26 29, 31. 32, 35. 42, 49, SI. 52 58, 59, 60, 61, 65, 68, 71, 72 85, 88, 90, 91, 94, 95, 98, 103, 104, 107, 112, 127, 135, 148, 171, 176, 180, 187, 191, 200, 223, 225, Brussels (Church of the Carthusians) Brussels (Museum) 5, 30, 31, 42, 44. 45. 47. 48, 49. 51. S3. 57. 70, 71, 72, 96, 101, 105, 107, 134, 136, 146, 149, 153, 163 183, 191, 192, 198, 201, 213
20,
Page 205 121 205 206 221 I8 5 194 . 18, I48, 235 27.
57.
82,
101,
H4. 192,
239 15
43.
68, 127, 164, 216,
239
82
134 240
243
157
203,
29 206
79 218 230
143 205 217 137 137 1 1 208
Bruyninck (Sale) . Bruynincx ......
Buda-Pesth (Museum) . TJurbure (Ridder Leo de) Buren (The Castle of) . Burger. See Thore.
c
Caen (Museum)
Caland (F.) . . .
Calloo
Calvinists
Calvin
Campbell (Sir Archibald) Campen (Jacob van). 158 — 171 Can (Johan, Ridder v. Domburg) Cantelbeck (Casper van) Cantelbeck (H. van) . Capello (The Widow) . Caracena (Marquess of)
Carravagio 3, 67
Cardon 83
Cardys (See Cordys). Carenna (Jacobus Antonius) . . 201 Carlsruhe (Museum) . . 30, 32
Cassel (Museum) 20, 21, 23, 24 ,32, 44, 50, 59, 60, 66, 81, 82, 86, 87, 88
89. 135. 151 Catto . . Cels (Alfons) . Cevry (de) ... Chantilly ... .
Chapuis
Charles I of England 115, 118 Charles V of Austria Charles-Gustavus of Sweden
Chatsworth
Chenevieres (Phil, de) Chesham (Lord)
Choiseul (Duke of) . 97,
Choiseul — Praslin ....
Christina (of Sweden) 118, 138, 139,246 Claessens (Joh. Jac.) . . . 171 Claesz (Pieter) ... 160
Clarisse (Lod.) ... 11
Cleef (The Brothers van) . . 163
Clemens (Eberhard) . . . 28
Coenen (Ignatius) .... 39
Colnaghi .... . . 1 07
Cologne . 43, 61, 108, 117, 148, 171 Cologne (Museum) 95, 100,108, 116, 117
154, 156, 183
• 79
19, 187, 188
• • 143
239
. . 180
159, 161
114, 219
139
148
. 124
109
112
217
Colyn
Coninck (de Merckem de) . Conti (Prince de) ... Cophem See Cotthem. Copenhagen (Museum) 26, 145,
Copius (G.) ... Coques (Gonzalez) 160, 161, Cordys or Cordeys (Jan) 135^ Coredys See Cordys. Cornelissen (Norbert) . Cossiers (Jan). . 114,
Cotthem (Frans van). 135, Courdys See: Cordys Couteaux (Gustave: Sale) . Courtray ... Couwenbergh . Couzeau (S.). . Cracow .... Craesbeek (Guill. van) Crefeld. Crozat Cuypers (de Rymenam) .
Page . II . 187 . 112
147. 198, 213, 229 . 112 162, 228 l8l, 182
227, 243 122, 247 l8l, 182
• 92 ■ 7. 198
. 160
97 246
" 137
105
108, 178
• 135
D
Dambrun ....
Dantzic
Darnley (Lord) . . ...
Dean (John) . ....
De Backer (Jan) . . 181,
De Beukelaer (Joachim) 23, 29, 30.
De Bodt (Maria) .
De Bommaerts (Johan Philips)
De Bon .
De Brais . ....
De Bray (Salomon) . . 160, 161.
De Bruyn (Ant.) .
De Bruyn (Jan)
De Buck ...
De Cocx (Jacques) .
De Crayer (Gaspar) . . 160, 161,
De Cuyper (Rogiers)
De Gier (Louis)
De Graeff (Andries) 204
De Grebber (Pieter) . . r6o, 161, 169
13
35
212,
230
239 200 150,
221
233 1
144
45 186
93 246
97
29
184
101
3
138
143
i°3
169
11
130 162
121 104
De Hester (Maria)
D'Hoop van Abstein
De Jode (Pieter) 2, no, 130, 180,
. 49, 56, 59. 192, 210,
113. 214,
-Leopold
De Jonghe (Daniel) De Kuyper Delacre 18, 29, 38 183, 185 Delange (Aarnout) Delft Delbeke
Dellafaille . . . Delia Faille (Rene) . De Man d'Hobruge (Jean-
— Joseph) . De Meyer (Orliens) De Moy (Clara) . De Moy (Dirick). De Munckninck (Adrian) Denmark . De Neyt (Herman) . De Nooy . De Paepe (Guill.) De Peuter (Math.) . De Potter (Frans) De Raedt (J. J.) . . De Roever (N.) . . De Ruyter. ... .
Descamps (J. B.). 13, 27, 42, 201
145
243
112 122
13 2 122 244 152 171 244
7 128
135 29 240 203, 233
Page
De Valck (Alb.) 160
Devonshire (The Duke of) 54, 148, 150 De Vos (Cornelius) . 10, 53, 113, 247 De Vos (Jan Baptist) . . .10
De Vos (Marten) 73. 24
De Vos (Paulus) . . ... 186
De Vries (Gilliam) . . . . 121
De Wit (Jacob) . 97, 239
De Witte (F.) 97
Diepenbeeck (Abraham van) . . 162 Dierckxsens . . , 220, 243
Diest ... .54
Diksmude 130, 131, 132, 174, 193,
209 231 Doncker .... 40
Dordrecht . . . , . 96, 191
Dou (Geraard) .... .138
Dreyfus (Tony) . . .93
Dresden (Museum) 29, 30, 32, 33, 50,
78, 92, 94, 98, 99, 102, 130, 144,
192, 193, 210, 212, 230, 246
Dublin (Museum) . . 26, 191
Dullaert . . . .135
Duster (Hubert) . . . 171
Duval (Charles) . -35
Duverdyn . . .... 82, 88
Dyck (Ant. van) 4, 10, n, 38, 39, 40,
5i. 53. 57, 62, in, 118, 121,
135. 159. 194. 218, 244
Dyck (Phil, van) . . . 29, 1 1 1
Edinburgh (National Gallery) England 135, 159, 161, 218, Ernst (Archduke of Austria) Errera (Mrs) . . . .
Es (Jacob van) . Esterhazy ... Everdingen (Cesar van).
225,
160,
112
244
114
97
97
35
161
223, 209,
23
Facqz (de). . . 222
Faulx (Anna) . 2
Febvre (Sale) . .112
Ferdinand, Cardinal Infant of Spain 65,
113. "4 Ferdinand of Hungary . Fesch (Sale) . . .
Feyt (Joannes). See Fyt. Finspong (The Castle of) . Flanders . . 60, 221,
Flanders (West) Flinck (Govert) . Florence (The Uffizi) . in, Floris (Frans) . Foulon (Henri) . Franck-Chauveau . Franck .... Franckens (De)
Frankfort ... 151,
Frankfort (Museum) . . 195,
France 13, 29, 62, 184, 221, 244, Frauenberg (Castle) . . 182,
Fredenborg (Castle) . Fredericq (Paul) .... Frederik III of Denmark Frederick-Henry of Orange 54, 158 — 171, 194, 228 Frimmel (von) . . 30
Fyt, (Jan) . .... 96, 184
"4 93
i°3 224 219 205 119
24 171 200
10
23 187 196 246 184
26 221 145
272 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES OF PERSONS AND PLACES.
G
Page Galle . . . .... 130
Garscube ...» . . 144
Geelhand de Labistrate .... 186
Geelhand (Mme. la Douairiere Robert)
49
Geertruyen (van) 103
Gemert (van).- . . . .109
Genard (P.) 2, 3, 6, 15, 127, 201, 226
Gennep (van) 154
Gentil de Chavignie, Mrs . . . 200 Genoa (Church of the Jesuits) . . 41 Gerbier (Balthasar) 115, 116, 118, 121 Germany . . . 244
Geudens (Edm.) 240
Gevers-Fuchs 127
Gevigny (Abbe Guillaume) . 93, 152
Gheldolf .... . 200
Ghent 2, 18, 27, 29, 35, 38, 48, 49,
57, 59, 100, 130, 150, 183, 183,
185, 1.92, 194, 210, 214 221, 243
Ghent (Abbey of St Peter). . .214
Ghent (Museum) 27, 29, 49, 95, 146,
153, 155 214, 215, 230
Gildemeester (Sale) . . 179
Gladitsch (S.) 181
Glasgow (Art Galleries) 82, 86, 151, 186
Goetkint (Antoni) 37
Goetvelt (Pauwel) 122
Goldschmidt (Emile) . . 151, 187 Goldsmid. See Neville.
Gooris (Sale) 180
Gosford House .... .78
Gossaert (Jan van Mabuse). . .23
Goulinx (Jan). 122
Gouvaerts (Abraham) ... 37
Granberg (Olof) 139
Greenwich House. . . . 115, 118 Grenoble (Museum) 145, 197, 198, 215 Griensven van Berrits (Mrs. van). 82 Grieve (Mr. William) . . . .178 Grimbergen (van). See Smit.
Guarienti 33
Gustavus II of Sweden ... 16
H
Haarlem 140, 171
Habich (Sale). . . 42, 83, 179, 187
Haecht (Jan van). . . . 47, 239
Haecht (Tobias van). . . 47
Hague (The) 3, 6, 29, 30, 33, 45, 46,
47, 49. 82, 91, 93, 99, 103, 105,
in, 112, 131, 138, 139, 145, 153,
158, 183, 213, 227
Hague (The: Confrerie v. Pictura) 45, 1 1 2
Hague (The) The House in the Wood
157, 169, 195; 205, 227
Hague (The) Museum . .118
Hall (van) I42
Hals (Frans)
Hamburg . . 7, 29, 136,
Hamburg (Museum) .
Hannet. . .
Hanover (Museum) .
Hansens (Conraet)
Happart (Jan).
Harcq (A.). ....
Hard wick (The Earl of)
Havre (Ridder Albert van)
Hazard (James) .
Helsinborg.
Helsingfors (Museum) .
Heist (van der) .
Helt-Stocade (Niklaas) .
160 139
58
238
241
■ 30
. 127
95, 189
. 122
37
127
29
3 180 178 181 160 205
61
Page Hemissen (Jan van) . . . 23, 25
Hemmerlein ... . 42
Hainault . . .... 221
Henrietta, Queen of England 115, 118
Herberts (Herman) 225
Herenthals. . . . . 2, 214
Hermannstadt . . . . 194
Heseltine . 46, 51
Hesse (Duke of) ... . .90
Heurck Jr. (Joan Carlo van). 123, 124 Heurck Sr. (Joan Carlo van) . .123
Heyman 135
Hillewerve 228
Hoecke (Gaspar van den) . . 114 Hoet (Gerard: Sale). . . • 33, 49 Holland 123, 159, 161, 227, 243, 244 Hondius (Hendrik) .... 138
Honselaarsdijk 157
Honthorst (Gerard) . . 66, 160, 169
Horion (Sale) 180
Homes (Graaf van) ... .7
Houbraken . 139
Houyet 171
Hubert (E.) . 221
Hulin (G.). .... 144, 146
Hulst . . .192, 205, 227, 228, 230
Hustin (A.) 125
Huybrechts (Edm.) 50, 108, 153, 187,
192
Huybrechts (Jan Batist). . . . 12 1
Huygens (Constantijn) 74, 158, 159, 160,
161, 227, 242
Huys (Pieter) 23, 101
Hymans (Henri) 52
Isabella of Austria Italy . . .
38, 65,
114, ■ 3.
217 139
J
Jacobs (Sebast.) 11
Jan Casimir (King of Poland) . 246 Jan Sobieski (King of Poland). 246
Janssen (Leo) .22
Janssens (Abraham) . . . . 120
Joanna (Infanta of Spain) . .114
Jones (Inigo) 115, 117
Jordaens (Arnoldus) . Jordaens (Arnoldus) . . Jordaens (Abraham) . Jordaens (Anna) . Jordaens (Anna Catharina) Jordaens (Augustijn). . Jordaens (Catharina) . Jordaens (Elisabeth: sister) 2,
Jordaens (Elisabeth : daughter) 226, Jordaens (Gaspar). . Jordaens (Hans) . . Jordaens (Hendrik) . Jordaens (Isaac) . . Jordaene (Jac, Junior) Jordaens (Jac: father) Jordaens (Jan). Jordaens (Magdalena) Jordaens (Michiel) . Jordaens (Peter) . . Jordaens (Simon) . Jordens Julienne (Sale).
. 122
1
, 227
3
123, 227
1, 227
• 20, 54 34. 227,
231
3. 6 . 224,
242, 244
1
1
1
2
6, 43
2, 3. 10
1
227, 231
2
2
• .2,3 1
■ 76, 213
K
Kernkamp (Dr. G.
Kersgiter (Jan)
Kerstens (Hendrik)
Kleinberger .
Klinkosch (Sale) .
Knocke
Kramm
Kramp (Melchior)
Kuchelna .
Kums (Sale) .
W.)
Page
138
121
. 121
I42
■ • 93 178, 233
• • 9
• • 123 . . 16
93
Lacaze (Collection) . . . . 118 La Garde (Countess de), . 178
Lambeaux (Jef) 243
Langenhoven (Martinus van) 81, 137,
140, 141, 142, 145
Lastman (Pieter) . . . . 28
Latinie . 1 5 3
Lauwers (Amsterdam) . . . .35
Lauwers (Nic) 18 1
Leblon (Leo) . 81, 86, 89, 109, 187 Leblon (Michel) . . ... 139
Lebrun (Collection) . . . 27, 78, 93 Lecandele (Sale) .... -93
Leenders de Neufville (Pieter) . 134
Legrand 205
Legrelle (Gerard) 134
Leyden 134
Leipzic . 29, 143
Lennep (Jac. van) ... . 205
Lens (Andreas) 93
Leopold I of Austria ... 184 Leopold-Wilhelm, Archduke of Austria
148, 182
Lepke (Rudolf) 144
Le Roy (J. en A.) . . 103, 104, 193 Louvain .... 6, 148, 191, 196 Lewieter iMagdalena) . . . .11 Lewiter (Maria Catharina) . . II
Le Witre (Roger) .... n
Leyniers (Everaard) . . 181, 184
Librechts (Mercelis) . . 122
Lichnowsky (Prince). . 16, 187
Liechtenstein (Gallery) . . 60, 64
Lier 2, 15
Lier (Church of St. Gommarius) 15, 227,
235 Lierse (Sebastiaan) .... 103
Lievens (Jan). . 160, 161, 204, 205 Ligne (Prince de) . . 43, 135, 191 Lille (Museum) 27, 49, 50, 100, 121 127, 185, 214, 230, 235 Limburg . . . . . 22O
Limburgh (Hendrik van) . . 153
Linden van Slingelandt (van der) . 19I Linden (Ch. van der) 122, 126, 127 Linden (Joh. Franc. Henric. van der) 123 Lokeren ... .... 88
London 6, 9, 20, 27, 43, 45, 46, 52",
54. 55. 59, 73. 77, 79 81,94,103,
108, 116, 153, 159, 160, 180, 188,
207, 210, 212, 213, 214, 225
London (British Museum) 8, 17, 42, 73,
81, 140, 160, 181, 185, 188, 191,
193 London (National Gallery) . . 53, 94 London (Wallace Collection) . . 46 London (Winter Exhibition, R. A.) 27, 79 Loquet (sale) . . . . 87, 180, 217 Louis XIII of France . . 136, 184 Louis XVI of France . . 29, 79 Louisa of Orange ... . 161
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES OF PERSONS AND PLACES. 273
Page Lubeck (Museum) .... i I2
Lucas (Francois) ill
Lucas van Leyden . . .23
Lie ge .'104.
Lydius (Herman) 225
Lyons (Museum) 41, 128, 129, 143, 177,
196, 212 Lyonnet (Pieter: Sale) . . . 91
M
Mabuse. See Gossaert.
MacLellan. . . .... 187
Madrid (Museum) 33, 34, 35, 36, 37,
SO, Si. 52, 53, 54. "4. 119, 153.
194 Madsen (Karl) . 34, 145, 187
Maillard " . 131
Mallery (Charles van) ... 37
Mallinus (Sale) . . . . 191
Mander (Karel van) . . .7, 241
Mantegna 4
Mantua ... ... 41
Margaretha Theresia of Spain . 184 Marie de Medici, Queen of France 159,
160 Mary of Burgundy . .114
Maria-Hoorebeke 219
Mary Stuart 159
Marinus . . 17, 18, 40, 179, 192 Marlborough (The Duke of) . .137 Marneffe (de) .... . . 217
Marnix van St. Aldegonde . . .219 Martens ... .... 128
Massius . . . . . . 67
Masson 2, 12, 35, 224
Massy s (Cornelis) 23
Matsys (Quentin) . 23, 24, 25
■ ■ 7 160, 167
• • 175 114 239 27
29 127
145 194 208, , 236 38 191
Matheusen (Math.). Maurice of Orange .
Mauzaisse
Maximilian I of Austria. Mechlin 7, 27, 29, 135, 213, 221 Mechlin (Church of St. Catherine) Mechlin (Church of St. John) . Mechlin (Leliendael Cloister) . Mechlin (Church of the Beguinage) i8o :
247
Menke 144
Mensaert . ... 27, 124, 240
Mensart .... . .
Mensing
Mentz (Museum) 174. 208—213, 210, 211, 213, 229
Mersch (Paul;
Mertens
Mertens and Torfs 220
Meulewels 228
Meyerheim (Paul) . • • x 44
Meyssens (Jan) . . . 2, no, 139 Michael Wisnowiecki.King of Poland 246
Michel (Collection) 6l
Michel Angelo . . . . 4, 66
Middelburg i 6 o
Milan 201
Milan (Museum) 215
Moitte (F. A.) 79
Molinaris (Sale) 8z
Mols (Frans) 9, 39, 240
Moretus (Balthasar II) .... 63 Moretus (Widow of Jan) . . 63
Moretus (Jan) 6
Moretus (Melchior) 7
Moulyns (Pierre de) 35
Mount of Olives (Brabant) . 225, 226 Mount of Olives (Under the Cross) 224
Page
Muller (Frederik) 162
Munich (Pinakothek) 20, 21, 81, 140,
142, 149, 209
Munster . ., . 62, 167, 220, 225
Murray (Mr. Fairfax) 6, 20, 58, 59, 77,
172, 179, 180, 183, 191, 207, 210,
212, 213, 214, 228, 229
Murray (William) . . . 115, 116
Mycielski (Prof. Georges) . . 246
N
Namur . . . 54, 221
Nancy .... ... 187
Napoleon (Jerome) ... 60
Napoleon . . . 40, 203, 208, 235
Naylor (S. J.) 160
Netherlands (Spanish) 62, 104, 182, 208,
218, 219, 221, 224, 246 Netherlands (United Provinces) . 136,
219, 220, 221, 224, 231 Neefs (Jacob) . . 22, 58, 179, 180 Neufville (Robert) . . . .153 Neville (D. Goldsmid) . 49 New York (Museum) 24, 25, 26, 28, 30
Neyman (Sale) 91
Nieuhof (Nicolas: Sale) 82, 131, 134
Nieuwerkerk 2
Nispeu (Joh. van: Sale). . - 93
Nordlingen . 114
Noort (Adam van) 5, 6, 7, 38, 69, 74,
95, no, 241 Noort (Anna van) . . 6
Noort (Catharina van) 6, 20. 52, 112,
224, 243 Noort (Elisabeth van) . . .6
Noort (Jan van) 6
Norgate (Edw.) . . . . 115, 116
Norkoping 105
Northwich (Lord) 217
Nottebohm (Auguste) .... 244
Nourri (Sale) H5
Noville (Noe de) (or Noewille) 1
o
Ogier (Willem) 63
Oldenburg (Museum) 105, 109, 152, 154 Oosterhout (Cloister) . . 231
Orley (Barend van) 23
Orville (Frangois d') 217
Ossendrecht 224
Ouderaa (P. van der) . . . 119
Ovens . 205
Ovid 9, 114
Page (S. Flood) . ... 27
Papebrochius .... • • 242
Parma (Alexander of) . .62, 219
Parmentier (Mrs Paul) . . 178, 233
Parthey . . 35, 42, 95, 198, 239
Paris 16, 27, 28, 30, 38, 40, 43, 50,
70, 72, 78, 79, 80, 84, 88, 91, 93.
112, 114, 118, 127, 131, 142, 145,
148, 151, 152, 159, 175. 178, 187,
188, 198, 200, 201, 203
Paris (Louvre) 4, 16, 23, 27. 29, 68,
72, 76, 78, 83, 84, 85, 86, 96, 97,
no, in, 127, 180, 185, 192, 193.
203, 215, 228, 230, 240, 244
Paris (Luxemburg) I2 4
Pastrana (Collection, Madrid) . 114
Page Pauwelaert (Frans) . ... 243
Pauwels (Frans) . . . 9, 191, 192 Pecher (Jules). . . • . 244
Peetersen (Mattijs) 121
Philip I of Spain. . 114
Philip II of Spain . 114, 219
Philip III of Spain . . . . 114 Philip IV of Spain 9, 65, 1 1 3, 114. 115, 119, 206 Phillips (Claude). . . . .118
Philips (Joannes). . . 204
Picot (V. M.) 29
Pieters (Hendrik). . . . .131
Pieters (Robert) 130
Pinchart ... . . .223
Piot (A) 203
Plettenberg and Witte (Count Fer- dinand van) 97, 210
Poland ... .... 246
Poletnich (J. F.) . . . 71
Pommersfeld . . . 148, 178
Pontius (P.) 71, 72, 73, 107, 179, 193,
212
Porges 82, 88, 151
Portielje (G.) 160
Potsdam (New Palace) . . . . 35,
Poullain 178, 181
Poussin 87, 246
Prague ■ 95
Proli (de) 187, 201
Putte . . . 224, 226, 243, 245
Q
Quellin (Artus) . Querton (Georges)
160, 208
R
4, 41.
118.
57, • 13 233,
103,
Raphael .... Randon de Boisset . Ravaisson . Rees (A. B.) . Regaus (Mejuffer) Rembrandt van Rijn. Rennes (Museum). . Reynolds (Sir Joshua) Richardt .... Ringborg . Ris (Clement de) . . Robiano (Countess de)
Robit
Robijn (Martin: Sale)
Robijns (Sale).
Rockso (Hyndrick) .
Rodrigues (Eugene) .
Roemerswael (Marinus van)
Roermond .
Roland Fahne (Castle)
"Romanists" (The) .
Rombouts (Theodoor)
Rome
Rooses (Max) . .5,
Rostewiecki (Edouard)
Rothan (Sale) .
Rotterdam (Boymans Museum) 17,
76, 124, 131, 132, I9L !92, Roussel (Valentin) Rubens 3, 4, 5, 7,
15, 16, 23, 24
50, 53, 54, 56 .
87, 91, 96, 102, 113, 114, 115
119, 120, 121, 123, 130, 131
151, 159. 161, 175. 181, 191
198, 203, 212
162 178 127 226 180 160
84, 183,
• 23:
189, 16
66, . 87 66, 133,
- , 9, 10, n, 13
29, 30, 40, 41 57, 58, 62, 66
218,
233 243
237, 244
, 14 234 171 105 204
93 201 82 90 121 188 ■ 25 221 198 , 23 114
. 93 192 246
43 65,
23 1
43 . 14,
47. .,81, 117, 137, 194, 242,
245
274 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES OF PERSONS AND PLACES.
Rump (Mr. J.
Page
Copenhagen) 83, 92, 187,
214, 240, 242
128, 129
Rupelmonde
Russia ... ... . 244
Ryckaerts (Tobias) . ... 130
Rydams (Hendrik) . . 181, 184. 185 Rymenam (P. J. van) . . . 239
Ryssels (Franchois) 223
Ryswijck ... .... 157
Sainsbury (Noel) 115
St. Petersburg. . 21, 54, 69, 75, 107 St. Petersburg (Academy) 69, 73, 74 St. Petersburg (Hermitage) 21, 52, 93, 108, 134, 144, : 92, 194, 206 St. Petersburg (Print-room) 83, 188, 206,
214 Saxony. . . . . 49, 213
Saxony (Elector of) . . 99, 103
Salamanca. . . .• . 96, 213
Salzthalen (Museum) . . .94
Sandrart (Joachim) 3, 7, 9, 18, 19, 25, 26, 47, 138, 139, 177, 242 Scaglia (Abbe de) . . 11 6, 117, 118
134.
182, 82,
Schauss (D. G. von) Kempfenhausen 60
Scheltema (P.) . . .
Schinckel (A. D.). . . . 160
Schleissheim (Museum) .
Schbnborn Gallery (Vienna)
Schorel (van: Sale) . 93, 94
Scotland ....
Schrieck (van der) .
Schut (Cornelis) .
Schuyts (Mathias)
Schwartzschild
Schuwaloff (Prince) .
Schwarzenberg (Prince)
Schwenck (Thomas) .
Schwerin (Museum) .
Scribe ....
Sedelmeyer
Segers (Daniel) . 97, 160
Sels
Seville (Cathedral of SanJos£) . 's Hertogenbosch . . . 162
Shrewsbury (The Earl of) . Siebrecht (Sale) . Siegburg (Conrad von)
Silesia .
Silvercron (Johan Philips) . 137
See Spierinx. Simon (Sale) ....
Simon .
Six (Jonkheer W.) 153, 197
Slicher (Anthonis).
Smit (Frans) . . .7
Smit en van Grimbergen
Snellaert (Willem)
Snellinckx (Geeraart).
Snyders (Andries)
Snyders (Frans) .
Snyers (Jan Adriaan)
Soeder . . .
Solms (Amalia van) 54
160
163 26 96
240
178 148 114 241 171 106 184 105 . 142 27
• 134 162, 228
154 230 228 144
49 181
16 138
47.
239 114 217
!23
l8l
122
7
239
122
45. 47. 93. 97
. . 178
181
158— 171, 194,
205
Solvyns (Laurentius— Petrus) 123, 127
Solvyns (Maria Theresia— Gertruda) 123
Solvyns (The Widow of Laurentius) 123
Souillie' (L.) 27
Soutman (P.) . . . 160, 161, 169 Spain 9, 38, 63, 66, 114, 119, 204, 224,
228 Sparre (Count G. A.) . . .178
Speck (von) •
Speyck (Paulus van). Spierinx Silvercron (heer van
Spilbeeck (F. Waltman van) Spronck (Peeter) . Stanstead (F. Bernard) Spruyt ... Stalbemt (Adriaan van) Steen (Jan) . Steene (Jan van den) Steenegracht (Collection) Stevens (Sale) . Stevens (Mrs Arthur) Stier d'Aartselaer. Stockholm (Museum) 15, 17, 31, 34, 140, 141, 142
Stockum (van) Stolberg (Andre de) Strasburg (Museum) Strantwijk (Sale) . Stratow (Collection) Stuttgart (Museum) Surpele (van) . Sweden 17, 103, 104, 118,
139. 178 Swieten (van) .
Page
. . 29
. . 96
Norsholm)
138, 139
• • 145 . . 10
• • 103
191
243. 244
247
223
83. 183
. 88, 95
200
. 88
19, 20, 28,
193. 196,
228
. 160
181
.60, 203
91
95
.42, 215
54
128, 138,
. 218, 244
153
105 106 238
49 121 142 228 122 231 3. 4
43
Tack (Jan) Amsterdam .... Tack (J. Heinrich, Crefeld) 105, Teirninck (Christiaan) . . .14, Tence (Sale) . ...
Teniers (David) . 10, 62,
Thore (Burger) . .112,
Thulden (Th. van) 160, 161, 169, Thys (Aug.) . . ...
Thyssens (Augustijn) Titian ...
Tolozan . ...
Tongerloo 145
Torfs. (See Mertens) Tournay . . . 2, 15, 29, 42 Tournay (Church of St. Brice) Tournay (Cathedral). . . ,15, Tournay (Cloister of the Jesuits) Tournay (St. Martin's Cloister). Tournay (Church of the Oratory) Toussaint . . 100
Trente
Triangl (Bartholomeus) Tricius (Jan) . . ...
Turnhout
221
240
238
29
40
15 103 222 184 246 2
u
Uffelen (Margareta van) . Utrecht . . .
Utrecht (Adriaan van) Uyterhoeve (Adrianus)
V
Vaerewyck (A.) .
Valenciennes (Museum)
Valentin ....
Varick (Nicolaes van)
Velasquez
Velpius (Rutgeert) .
2 7, 228
95. 97 . 225
■ 213 42, 81 66, 67
223
■ 65 219, 224
Venice
Venius (Otto) .
Verbeeck (Corn.) .
Verbraken (Daniel) .
Verbruggen (Edouard)
Verbrugghen (Theodoor)
Verdelft (Barbara) .
Verellen (Sale)
Verjuis (Adam)
Verlinden (P. A.) .
Verona (Museum)
Veronese ....
Verstraeten (Frederik)
Veurne ....
Vienna 3, 4, 50, 62. 64,
Vienna (Academy of Fine Arts)
132, 156, 191, Vienna (Albertina) 134, 170, 180,
191, 193, 213,
Vienna (Imperial Museum) 42, 61
73, 148, 181,
Vienna (Imperial Palace) 50, 136,
208, 209 73: 93
Villain. ...
Vinci (Leonardo da).
Vinck (Carlo). . 136, 181, 182
Vinck d'Orp (de) . .
Vinck de Wesel (J. T. de) .
Vinckenborgh (Arnout)
Viruly van Vuren en Dalem
Viruly (C. E ) . . . .
Vlerick (Peter) . .
Vloers (The Widow) .
Voet (Abraham)
Voet (Alexander). . 42, 82
Voet (Matthijs) .
Vondel.
Vorsterman (Lucas) 18, 1 Vos (Jan) . Vosmaer (C.) . Vrancken (Sale) .
w
Page- 159. I& II 121 30 63
243' 27 11
3°- 201
3 129-
227- III 127, 192-
186,
240
62,
185 185,
190-
175
4
184
• 46-
46, 87-
11
132 132
7
. 10
40
81, 240
10, 11
■ 2Q5
25. 177' 204 242
29, 55, 106, 144,
139.
217
53 117 246
53 107
Waagen
Waha de Linter Wake (Lionel), . Waldou (Joris) Walpole . . Walschot (Sale) .
Wargny d'Audenhove (Ridder George de)
127 Warsaw (Museum) . . 164, 165
Wauters (Michel) . . . . 189, 1 90
Wauters (Alfons) 182
Weber (Consul) . . 136, 139
Weert . 2
Weerts .... . 240
Weiner 246
Wellens (Mrs) ... . RR
Wemyss (The Earl of)
Weri (Geeraard) .
Werte . ■ . .
Wesel ....
Wiael (Antoinette) .
Wiegel .....
Wierts (Jan) 6, 108, 109, 116,
Wierts (The wife of Jan)
Wierts (Susanna — Maria)
Wildens (Hendrik) ...
Wildens (Jan) .... 49,
Wildens (Jeremias) . . . 119,
Willeborts Bosschaert (Thomas)
160, 162, William III (King of England) ,
123,
78 114 187 162
47 175 227 117
123 121 119 152 159, 228
I2J
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES OF PERSONS AND PLACES. 275
Page William II (King of the Netherlands)
49. 132 William II (Prince of Orange) 161, 170 William III (Prince of Oranje) 7, 157 Willemsen (Hendrik) . . , .121
Wilson (Collection) 82
Wimpole . . 29
Winckler 43
Windsor Castle 114
Wissekerke (Juffr.) 10
Page
Witdoeck ( Jan) 113
Wittouck (Paul) . . . . 43, 48
Witte (F. de) 97
Wolfaert (Artus) 114
Wolschaten (Barbara van) ... 2 Wouters (Mrs. Ch.) . . . 143, 144 Wouters (Pierre) . 35, 107, 176, 179
Wouters d'Oplinter 22
Wouters (Ghent) . . ... 100
Wurzburg\ ... 79. 80, 82, 148
Y
Yarborough (Lord) .
Zande (van de) . . Zeeland . Zurpele. See Surpele. Zypestein (van) . .
Page . 82
175 123
160
ERRATA.
Page 52 under the plate: „Abandance",.read: Abundance.
72 „ „ „ : „Plantin-Moretus Museum", read: Museum, Antwerp. 93 line 36: „Rubiano", read: Robiano. 114 _,, 45: „Pastiana", read: Pastrana. 116 „ 1: „Abbot of", read: the Abbe de.
127 „ 18: „in the church", read: from the church.
128 under the plate: „Church of Rupelmonde", read: Museum, Lyons. 154 „ „ „ : „Calisto", read: Callisto. 178 line 4: „van Knocke", read: of Knocke.
197 under the plate: „Rijksmuseum", read: Jhr. W. Six.
198 line 10: „in the Rijksmuseum", read: in the possession of Jhr. W. Six. 224 under the plate: „Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam", read: Mr. Masson, Amiens.
PRINTED IN HOLLAND.
