Jacob Jordaens
(1593 - 1678)
Jacques (Jacob) Jordaens was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and a designer of tapestries and prints. He was a prolific artist who created biblical, mythological, and allegorical compositions, genre scenes, landscapes, illustrations of Flemish sayings and portraits. After the death of Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he became the leading Flemish Baroque painter of his time. Unlike those illustrious contemporaries he never travelled abroad to study the Antique and Italian painting and, except for a few short trips to locations elsewhere in the Low Countries, he resided in Antwerp his entire life. He also remained largely indifferent to Rubens and van Dyck's intellectual and courtly aspirations. This attitude was expressed in his art through a lack of idealistic treatment which contrasted with that of these contemporaries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Jordaens
The Holy Family
1625 - 1630
Oil on canvas
113 × 118 cm
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania
Jordaens recreates an intimate family atmosphere, no doubt stemming from his own life, in terms of the figures, clothes and furniture displayed in the painting. The two candles heighten the visual effect of the painting; they are artificial light sources, creating a strong contrast, deepening shadows and throwing the shapes of the characters into deep relief. The religious character of the painting resides exclusively in the figure of the infant Saint John the Baptist, who alone bears clearly identifiable religious attributes: the staff ending in a cross piece, the belted camelhair shirt. Also, clearly significant, is the character’s reaction to the touch of the hand of Jesus, a trance-like state that foreshadows his future prophetic role. The figure of Saint John the Baptist also helps to identify precisely the other characters in the painting: the Virgin Mary, the infant Jesus and Saint Joseph, bending protectively over the group. The figure to the right of the painting in the upper tract is Elisabeth, mother of John the Baptist; both Elizabeth and the Virgin Mary carry a candle, symbolizing the blessing of the special grace of motherhood, bestowed upon them.
©Dana Roxana Hrib, European Art Gallery Guidebook, Second edition, Sibiu 2011.
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