Page 33 - Jordaens

f one characteristic of Jordaens’ oeuvre is the daring variety and audacity of his compositions, another is his know of sets being ordered in the 1650s, while
eschewal of any regular attempt to document his work. Perhaps in his eyes the brilliance of his handling another was purchased by the Emperor in 1666.
Iand the richness of his colouring were sufficient hallmarks of his authorship, for it was not usual for him to But Jordaens’ design work was probably done

sign or date his paintings. This was an idiosyncrasy he shared with both Rubens and Van Dyck. Whereas with much earlier in the 1640s, as was the set of the
Rubens documented commissions are an abundant and frequent feature of his career, these are rare at least Story of Odysseus ordered by Carlo Emanuele II,
in the early decades of Jordaens’ career. Indeed we know of only three in the period up to 1628. In that year Duke of Savoy in the same year, for it had been
his outstanding merit was recognised with the commission to join Rubens and Van Dyck, who had recently designed even earlier.
returned from Italy, in painting altarpieces for the church of the Augustinian Fathers in Antwerp. Between

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this altarpiece of the Martyrdom of Saint Apollonia and the earlier Self-Portrait with his Wife and Child, he Indeed, the Story of Odysseus has been regarded as
had completed a remarkable series of striking works pulsating with colour and energy like the Copenhagen one of Jordaens’ earliest forays into tapestry design
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masterpiece of Susanna and the Elders and the Homage to Ceres (Fig. 5). Yet for none of these works do we and dated on stylistic grounds from the 1630s.
have details of when or for whom it was painted. This date, due in large part to Roger D’Hulst,
has recently been challenged. A set of the Scenes
Rubens was in his late thirties (coincidentally so was Van Dyck) when he embarked on his first commission from Country Life at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire,

for a tapestry series. Recent research suggests that Jordaens was slightly younger when he embarked on what was woven by a leading Brussels tapissier, Jacob
was to prove an enduring and fruitful relationship with the great weavers of Brussels and the tapestry dealers Geubels II, who died c.1629, and had probably
in that city and in Antwerp, where a tapestry ‘pand ’ or entrepôt had been founded in 1554. been ordered by the 2nd Earl of Devonshire who
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had died the previous year (Fig. 6). If this were
It has recently been claimed that Jordaens contributed more in the 17th century to secular decoration indeed the case, it would suggest for reasons of
through the medium of tapestry than any other Fleming apart from Rubens. Such a realisation has been slow style that most scenes in the Story of Odysseus had
in coming, for at the beginning of the last century only three sets of tapestry designs were credited to him; been designed somewhat earlier. Some forty years
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that had increased to seven by 1965, while in 2005 a hitherto unknown set came to light. Significantly, a before, Emile Duverger was already advocating
tapestry dealer is recorded as having bought thirty assorted designs or cartoons for tapestries from Jordaens’ an early start to Jordaens’ involvement with the
estate, of which at least some could have been of his invention. Probably the most successful and famous series tapestry business based on the record made in the

he designed was The Riding School, inspired by the Manège Royal, a copiously illustrated book of 1623; we 18th century of the date 1620 on a tapestry cartoon
attributed to him, a claim no longer verifiable as Fig. 5. Jordaens, Homage to Ceres, Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine
Arts of Belgium, inv. no. 119.
the cartoon has not survived. He then went on to
30. Oil on canvas, 409 x 225 cm, Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (on loan), see D’Hulst et al. [Exh.Cat.], propose that the set of the Story of Odysseus, known to have been ordered from the same Jacob Geubels on behalf
Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten,1993)1993, no.A.38. of the son of the King of Poland in 1624, should be identified with that by Jordaens with which we are concerned
31. See note 28.
32. Oil on canvas, 180 x 241 cm. Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. no. 119.
33. See K. Brosens, ‘The Story of Theodosius the Younger: a rediscovered tapestry set by Jacob Jordaens and his studio’, Burlington
Magazine, CXLIX, 1251, 2007, pp. 376-382. 34. K. Nelson, ‘Jacob Jordaens: Design for Tapestry’ (Pictura Nova, V), 1998, pp. 29-32, 87-100, nos. 16-25a.

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