Page 65 - Jordaens

source at the left, with a subtly rich play
of chiaroscuro not only on the features and
gestures of the figures, human and pagan,

but also on the splendidly realized still-
life hung on the wall where the basket and
Italianate earthenware vessels are closely
observed. The play of light differs from that
in the well-known composition of the same

subject (Cassel, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe),
which was painted almost immediately
after the present work (Fig. 3). The slightly
larger Cassel painting (172 x 194 cm) sets
the scene outdoors on a hill, the figures
slightly more sunlit from the front (this is

most obvious in the young peasant standing
at the back), and also more harshly. The
palette in the present composition is close Fig. 5A. Jordaens, The Satyr and the Peasant Family. Schematic
Fig. 3. Jordaens, The Satyr and the Peasant Family, Kassel, Staatliche of the pentiments.
Gemäldegalerie. to that used by Caravaggio - blue, buff,
white, grey-brown and subdued red - this
is especially evident in the less agitated draperies of the mother, the child and the peasant. Jordaens appears to
have been directly inspired by Caravaggio’s Madonna of the Rosary (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), which
was reputedly brought to Antwerp by Louis Finson, who died there in 1617 (Fig. 4).

There are other differences between the present composition and the Cassel variant, which are no less obvious,

even in reproduction. In the Cassel picture there is no wall on which to hang a basket and jugs, no kitchen floor
on which to scatter garlic cloves, nor is the child’s head covered with a white kerchief. Moreover, the white
tablecloth is folded in a different manner and the satyr’s loins are loosely girt, his brow bound with sprays of foliage.
Equally, the colours of the dress of the mother and her bareheaded child are entirely different. Furthermore, in
the present painting, and apparent only when standing in front of it or in the infrared photographs, are numerous Fig. 4. Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio, Madonna of the Fig. 5B. Jordaens, pentiment Fig. 5C. Jordaens, pentiment

pentimenti: in the crown of the straw hat, in the outlines of the satyr’s leg and right arm, in the mother’s drapery Rosary. Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum. in the head of the boy adjacent in the head of the standing
and, most significantly, in the shift of the young peasant’s head in the background considerably to the left from a to the satyr. youth.
position beside the satyr (detail of infra-red photograph Figs.5A, B & C). This shift establishes beyond doubt the

64 65