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 o…