JORDAENS, yro•diins, JACOB (1303-10i5). A Flemish historical, genre, and portrait painter, one of the chief masters of the school. lie was born at Antwerp, Nay 19, 1593, the son of a cloth-merchant. He was a pupil of Adam van Noo•t, the master of Maens, and remained with that master when his other pupils left him, filially marrying his daughter. In 1615 he was admitted to the Guild of Saint Luke as a painter in water-colors, though most of his work was in oils. lie was unable to travel in Italy, as did most Flemish painters of his day; but this had the advantage of making him more essentially Flemish. He was influenced IT Rubens, and associated with him in work, but there is no evidence to show that he was his pupil. Rubens gave him a commission for a series of cartoons for tapestry, which he had received from the King of Spain. Jordaens also painted "Vertumnus and Pomona" for this monarch, as well as a pic ture for Charles I. of England (1640), and a passion suite for Charles Gustavus of Sweden (1665). In 1652 he decorated the palace of the widow of Frederick Henry of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland. near Scheveningen. These mural paintings are his best works. The principal one represents the "Triumph of the Stadtholder," who is seated in a triumphal car drawn by four white horses. It is imposing in effect and masterly in treatment. Jordaens had a large number of pupils, who assisted him in his work, and on the death of Rubens he was considered the chief painter of his time. lie had a fine house at Antwerp, filled with works of art. Not withstanding his numerous commissions for the Catholic clergy, he was an ardent Calvinist, and suffered no little persecution for his faith. Ile died in Antwerp, October IS', 1075.
The characteristics of the Flemish School, its exaggerated treatment of form and crude humor. are more evident in Jordaens than in any other painter. Like Rubens, he painted in full light red healthy faces, and figures inclined to corpulency.
His color was even warmer and more harmonious than that of his great contemporary, and his pic tures possess a peculiar and effective golden glow. His excessive realism, however, often descends into coarseness. He was a most prolific painter, his works abounding in all the principal European galleries.
.Among his chief religious and mythological paintings are "Christ Chasing the Money Lenders from the Temple" and the "Four Evangelists" in the Louvre; the "Entombment of Christ," the "Last Supper," "Commerce and Industry Protect ing the Arts." "Pegasus." the "Divine Law Pro tecting Human Law," in the _Museum of Antwerp; the "Martyrdom of Saint Apollonia," "Saint Charles Borromeus Praying for the Pest-Stricken at Milan," and "Saint James," in the Church of the .Auglistinians. Antwerp. Others are in the _Museum of Brussels, The Hague, Brunswick, Cas sell, and Madrid. In the Gallery of Dresden there are a "Presentation in the Temple" and "Diogenes Seeking an Honest :Man:" at Vienna, "Jupiter and Mercury," with "Philemon and Baueis," one of his best mythological pictures. The :Metropoli tan Museum in New York possesses amples, the best of which is a "Holy Family." His genre pieces are divided into two classes: the first being representations of the Flemish proverb, "As the Old have sung, so twitter the Young"—assemblages of bons vironts eating and making merry, of which there are examples in the Louvre and principal German galleries; the second class, entitled the "Beanfeast," is a rep resentation abounding in coarse humor, the best of which is in the Vienna Gallery. Among his portraits are the powerful likeness of Admiral Rueter in the Louvre, of himself in the Uffizi, and of a girl at Cobham Hall. Consult Genard, Notice ear Jacob Jo•daens (Ghent, 1852).