JACOB

See also:

• JACOB JORDAENS (1593-1678)

JORDAENS (1593-1678)  , Flemish painter, was born and died at Antwerp . He studied, like Rubens, under Adam van Noort, and his marriage with his master's daughter in 1616, the year after his admission to the gild of painters, prevented him from visiting Rome . He was forced to content himself with studying such examples of the Italian masters as he found at home; but a far more potent influence was exerted upon his style by Rubens, who employed him sometimes to reproduce small sketches in large . Jordaens is second to Rubens alone in their special department of the Flemish school . In both there is the same warmth of colour, truth to nature, mastery of chiaroscuro and energy of expression; but Jordaens is wanting in dignity of conception, and is inferior in choice of forms, in the character of his heads, and in correctness of drawing . Not seldom he sins against good taste, and in some of his humorous pieces the coarseness is only atoned for by the animation . Of these last he seems in some cases to have painted several replicas . He employed his pencil also in biblical, mythological, historical and allegorical subjects, and is well-known as a portrait painter . He also etched some plates . See the elaborate work on the painter, by Max Rooses (1908) .