Jacob Jordaens

Jacques Jordaens was born in Antwerp on 19 May 1593 and stayed there his entire life, aside from a few short trips in the Low Countries. He never traveled abroad to study Italian masters or classical antiquity, a path both Rubens and van Dyck took, and he showed little interest in their intellectual and courtly ambitions. Instead he built a career on biblical, mythological, allegorical, genre, and portrait work for wealthy local bourgeoisie and churches, avoiding idealistic treatment in favor of something earthier. After Rubens and van Dyck died, he became the leading Flemish Baroque painter of his era. Only late in his career did royal commissions arrive - from Charles I of England, Queen Christina of Sweden, the Dutch stadtholder class. Today he's known for large-scale genre scenes like The King Drinks and As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young, though his contemporary reputation rested equally on mythological and biblical work. He was never recorded as a pupil in Rubens' workshop but collaborated independently, absorbing Rubens' chiaroscuro and drawing influence from northern Italians: Bassano, Veronese, Caravaggio. He died in Antwerp on 18 October 1678.