Bulletin 13, 1969

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Reflections on the Jordaens Exhibition

by Michael Jaffe

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Items Exhibited

158 This drawing comes even closer then the Albertina MADONNA AND CHILD WITH A MAID, BY CANDLELIGHT [No. 147] to the borderline of pure genre, at a rermarkably early date. The holiness of the persons involved in the scene is introduced through the horneliness of changing the baby's napkin.

160 Susanne Heiland. "Two Rubens Paintings Rehabilitated... Burlington Magazine. CXI. July 1969. pp. 421- 426. fig. 7. has now published the predella panel referred to in paragraph I. She attributes the Albertina copy (her fig. 8) to "school of Rubens."

161 Reference should have been made to the comparative illustration of the Louvre painting [fig. XVIII], in which Jordaens anticipates Rembrandt in his adoption of a Jewish rather than an Italianate Christ.

167 Commentary, fine 7: for master read martyr.

168 This type of comparison was inspired evidently by Rubens's JUDGEMENT OF CAMBYSES of c. 1622, painted for the Brussels Town Hall, and burnt in 1695. The oil sketch for that, recorded by J. Smith, Catalogue raisonné, London, 1842, no. 844, at Schloss Brandenburg, Potsdam, is now at Schloss Sanssouci (1965 catalogue, No. 92, as "Werkstattwiederholung nach Rubens," fig. 13). This sketch was imitated with such verve by Jordaens that his painting (oil on oak panel, fig. 14, 43.2 x 43.2 cm., 17 x 17 in; with Adrian Merz, Grasmere, Westmorland, 1963; with Frederick Mont, New York, 1965; stolen 1966 from the collection of Mr. Lawrence A. Fleischman, Detroit) has passed as an original sketch by Rubens for the picture, which was engraved in reverse by R. Eynhoudts. Comparison of the colour combinations in this brilliant imitation with those in such Jordaens drawings of the second half of the 1620s as Nos. 163, 168 and 169 leaves no doubt of the true authorship: especially the bright blue, brick red, pink, violet and yellow. There are the same beady eyes and other characteristic abbreviations in the faces; and the same cyphering of hands. Precise analogies are to be found between the centurion in the plumed helmet standing at the right and the equivalent figure in the copy after Rubens's modello for the ADLOCUTIO OF THE CONSUL DECIUS MUS [No. 169]; and between the page and Allucius [No. 168]. Jordaens evidently wished to school himself about this time in the favourite technical means as well as in the compositional ideas of Rubens when sketching. The Rubens original at Sanssouci (Rooses 1886-92, No. 793) is identified with the sketch of this subject in the Lormier sale, The Hague, 1763. The copy of that at the Verbuecken sale, Antwerp, 1777, may be the Jordaens copy, or it may be another by a Rubens follower, formerly in the Neues Palais, or a third belonging to the Metropolitan Museum (Goris-Held, A. 88).

170 Add PROV. Prince Charles de Ligne Sale, Vienna (Blumauer), 4 November 1794. 

Add to LIT.: A. Bartsch, Cat. raisonné des desseins originaux ...du cabinet de feu le Prince Charles de Ligne, Vienna, 1794, p. 267, No. 1 (as Jordaens). (30)

171 Cross-reference should have been made to No. 134. The fragment of the print, mounted on linen (94 x 274 mm., 3 5/8 x 10 25/32  in. approx.), which Jordaens used in the makeup of his sheet, shows at the right a pair of oxen ploughing uphill. This detail resembles the background of J. Saenredam's WORSHIP OF CERES engraved in 1596 after Goltzius (B. III, 70.1; Hollstein, 355). The fragment which Jordaens found to be of the right quality of paper to make up his sheet for drawing, and apt in tone, was evidently taken from an incomplete proof or from a very damaged impression. That the design of the engraving by Saenredam was known to him is virtually certain; and it may well have stimulated him to undertake this rare subject in the Prado picture [cf. No. 141].

174 The Lille painting is illustrated [No. 46].

181 Notice should have been included of the change of setting indicated by the drawing from that realized in the painting. In the drawing Martha enters from the open air, where foliage is visible. In the painting she comes from indoors into a room hung sumptuously with cuir de Malines. In either case Jordaens revolutionizes the sixteenth-century tradition established by Aertsen and Beuckelaer, of treating this theme as an opportunity to display a kitchen still-life.
 
183 Physical description: for white paper read two pieces of white paper. (31)
 
188 In addition to Hamhurg Kunsthalle No. 22063, justification should he made here of another large and highly finished drawing by Jordaens of this type and date, THE FALL OF MAN, at the Hessisches Landes museum, Darmstadt, Hz 921 (likewise classified by d'Hulst 1956, No. 242, with Replieken en Kopieen naar Jakob Jordaens). This masterly drawing at Darmstadt, in which a significant numher of pentimenti are apparent where the definitive outlines do not follow the basic indications, is superior in quality to the painting at Budapest (1924 catalogue, No. 420a). D'Hulst claims it as a copy of that painting; and indeed, except for changes in the foreground plants and in the disposition of the apples and boughs, it corresponds closely. But although it may be classed as a ricordo, rather than as a modello, it is nonetheless drawn by Jordaens himself (fig. 15).

189 jacques jordaens is inscribed in black chalk,- not red chalk. Only 45 is in red chalk.

192 The Rubens sketch in the Art Institute of Chicago is illustrated [fig. XXXIV].

195 In the course of unfolding and remounting this sheet at the Albertina in preparation for exhibiting fully both recto and verso, an inscription, Jordaens del. nato 154, black chalk (not later than the early eighteenth century), was found on the verso. On the right half of the recto (fig. 16) appeared a hasty sketch in red chalk of a figure leaning over a balustrade, drawn by Jordaens in preparation for composing the subject of A FOOL WITH AN OLD MAN AND A YOUNG WOMAN.

200 The dating suggested for these studies, c. 1640-45, is confirmed by the observation, first made to me by Mrs. Mary C. Taylor, that the left-hand figure was adapted, with a new pose for the head, for Amphitrite in No. 81. This crouching figure was changed for a seated one in the cartoon for the tapestry [No. 280].

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