Hans Jordaens the Elder (1555–1630), was a Flemish Baroque painter whose religious works are often confused with that of other painters with the same name.

Biography

He was born in Antwerp, but after the siege of Antwerp, his family moved to

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

in 1589, where he later joined the

Guild of St. Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Four Evangelists, Evangelist Saint Luke, Luke, the patron sa ...

there in 1613.Hans Jordaens I
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

According to

Karel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander I (May 1548 – 2 September 1606) was a Flemish painter, poet, art historian and art theoretician, who established himself in the Dutch Republic in the latter part of his life. He is mainly remembe ...

he had been a pupil of Martin Van Cleve who first became a member of the Antwerp guild in 1579.Hans Jordaens
in Karel van Mander's ''

Schilder-boeck or is a book written by the Flemish writer and painter Karel van Mander first published in 1604 in Haarlem in the Dutch Republic, where van Mander resided. The book is written in 17th-century Dutch and its title is commonly translated into Engl ...

'', 1604, courtesy of the

Digital library for Dutch literature The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Dutch: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren or DBNL) is a website (showing the abbreviation as dbnl) about Dutch language and Dutch literature. It contains thousands of literary texts, second ...

He was a good landscape and staffage painter currently (ca.1603-1604) living in Delft, who took as his wife, the second wife of

Frans Pourbus the Elder Frans Pourbus the ElderGaëlle Brackez, ''Frans Pourbus de oudere (1545-1581) Een blik op zijn leven en oeuvre volume i: tekst'', Masterproef voorgelegd aan de Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte, Vakgroep Kunst -, Muziek- en Theaterwetenschappen ...

after he died suddenly in 1580. His pupil was

Anthonie Palamedesz. Anthonie Palamedesz., also Antonie Palamedesz, birth name Antonius Stevens (1602 in Leith, ScotlandM. Westhoff, 'Fragmentgenealogie van Palamedes Stevensz', Gens Nostra 73 (2018), p. 188-189 – 27 November 1673 in Amsterdam), was a Dutch po ...

in Delft. The later art historian

Arnold Houbraken Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660 – 14 October 1719) was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of Dutch Golden Age painters. Life Houbraken was sent first to learn ''threadtwisting'' (Twyndraat) fr ...

, who mentioned his data was sketchy at best, confused this painter with his probable later descendants

Hans III Jordaens Hans III Jordaens (1590 – 1643), was a Flemish Baroque painter. Biography According to the RKD his birth year and place is uncertain. He could have been born in Delft as a son of Hans Jordaens, or he may have been born in Antwerp as a rela ...

(1590-1643) and the later Rome traveller

Hans IV Jordaens Hans IV Jordaens (1616 in Delft – 1680 in Voorburg), was a Dutch Golden Age painter who travelled to Rome. Biography According to Houbraken he was born in Delft in 1616, where he became a grand master.Hans Jordaans biography
in ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'' (1718) by

, courtesy of the

Houbraken mentions that he (Hans IV) was born in Delft, and travelled to Rome and received the nickname ''Pollepel'' (spoon) from the

Bentvueghels The Bentvueghels (Dutch for "Birds of a Feather") were a society of mostly Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome from about 1620 to 1720. They are also known as the Schildersbent ("painters' clique"). Activities The members, which included ...

, for his ability to ''spoon up figures on canvas''. The widow of the lawyer Nicolaas Muys van Holy (1653/54-1717) owned a painting by him (Hans III) of the Pharaoh's army crossing the red sea and drowning with horses and wagons. Most such paintings are now attributed to Hans III Jordaens (d.1643), of Antwerp.

Son?

Houbraken also mentioned that

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Ear ...

was possibly his son from the period that he lived in Naples (his tone shows he felt this unlikely), whose works hung (ca. 1712-1718) in the gallery of Jan van Beuningen in Amsterdam. Though this has been dismissed by later historians, there is evidence of an engraver L. Jordaens who was active around 1660 and who could have been the son of Hans IV. He worked with the mapmaker Zacharias Roman on landscapes of Zeeland.L. Jordaens
in the RKD He died in

, or

Voorburg Voorburg is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Together with Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it makes up the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. It has a population of about 39,000 people ...

References

External links

Vermeer and The Delft School
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Hans Jordaen {{DEFAULTSORT:Jordaens, Hans 1555 births 1630 deaths Flemish Baroque painters Painters from Delft Painters from Antwerp