Jan Baptist Borrekens, after Rubens - The apotheosis of Hercules

Jan Baptist Borrekens or Jan Baptist Borkens (17 May 1611 – 23 February 1675) was a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

painter and art dealer.Jan Baptist Borrekens
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History 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 ...

He was a history painter and is known to have collaborated with

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradi ...

.Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, ''Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool'', Antwerpen, 1883, p. 913-914

Life

Jan Baptist Borrekens was born in Antwerp. His brother Mattheus later became a prominent print maker. It is not known with whom Borrekens trained. It is possible he trained in the workshop of Rubens, which would explain why he was not mentioned as a pupil in the records of the Antwerp

Guild of Saint 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 Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was ide ...

. Rubens was exempted from membership of the Antwerp

as he was a court painter. Borrekens became a master of the Antwerp

in the Guild year 1629–1630. In 1631 he joined the Society of the Aged Bachelors (Sodaliteit der Bejaarde Jongmans), a fraternity for bachelors established by the Jesuit order.De liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche sint Lucasgilde
Volume 2, by Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, Antwerp, 1864, p. 2 In 1634 he received Gillis Bollaert as his pupil. On 30 January 1636 he married Catharina Breugel, the daughter of the famous painter

Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. He was the son of the eminent Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A close friend and frequent collabora ...

. Peter Paul Rubens was one of the witnesses at the wedding as he was the guardian of the bride. As a result of the marriage Borrekens became the brother in law of the prominent painter David Teniers the Younger who was the husband of a sister of his wife. Borrekens and Teniers did not get along and at some point Borrekens reported Teniers to the authorities on the ground that Teniers was passing himself off as an aristocrat and was using a coat of arms. As a result of this report Teniers was prohibited from using the coat of arms. Borrekens and his wife had two daughters and one son. His wife died on 4 December 1654. The artist remarried on 7 December 1656 to the 27-year old Anna Maria van Ginderdeuren. His second wife died on 20 September 1659. Borrekens was active as an art dealer and accumulated important assets. He was an art collector who owned many paintings of prominent Flemish masters of the 17th century as well as tapestries. He died in Antwerp on 13 February 1675.

Work

Only very few works have been ascribed to Borrekens. He seems to have been active more as an art dealer than as an artist. He collaborated with Rubens in the mid 1630s. Rubens received in 1636 a commission from the Spanish king

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV ( es, Felipe, pt, Filipe; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered ...

to create a series of mythological paintings to decorate the

Torre de la Parada The Torre de la Parada is a former hunting lodge that was located in present-day Monte de El Pardo in Fuencarral-El Pardo, near the Royal Palace of El Pardo, some way outside Madrid in the Sierra de Guadarrama. It was mostly destroyed by fire whe ...

, a hunting lodge of the king near

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. The mythological scenes depicted in the series were largely based on the

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

. Rubens realized this important commission with the assistance of a large number of Antwerp painters such as Jacob Jordaens, Cornelis de Vos, Jan Cossiers,

Peter Snayers Peter Snayers or Pieter Snayers (1592–1667) was a Flemish painter known for his panoramic battle scenes, depictions of cavalry skirmishes, attacks on villages, coaches and convoys and hunting scenes. (p. 241-243, v.1; plate 92, v.2)Hans V ...

Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (1613 – 23 January 1654) was a Dutch Republic-born Flemish Baroque painter. Biography Willeboirts Bosschaert was born in Bergen op Zoom, where his Catholic family had moved in the late sixteenth century. He moved ...

Theodoor van Thulden Theodoor van Thulden (1606–12 July 1669) was a painter, draughtsman and engraver from 's-Hertogenbosch. He is mainly known for his altarpieces, mythological subjects, allegorical works and portraits. He was active in Antwerp, where he had tr ...

Jan Boeckhorst Jan Boeckhorst or Johann Bockhorst (c. 1604 – 21 April 1668) was a German-born Flemish Baroque painter and draughtsman. He was a versatile artist who produced history paintings, genre scenes and portraits in a style influenced by the trio ...

, Peeter Symons, Jacob Peter Gowy and others, who worked after Rubens' designs. Borrekens was also involved in this project as a collaborator.Javier Portús Pérez, ''Torre de la Parada''
on the Prado website The canvas which Borrekens created after a design by Rubens represents ''The apotheosis of Hercules'' and was in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid before it was donated to the Fine Arts Museum of Coruña.Jan Baptist Borrekens, after Rubens, ''The apotheosis of Hercules''
at the Coruña Fine Arts Museum This is the only known painting by Borrekens.

Notes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borrekens, Jan Baptist Flemish Baroque painters Flemish history painters Painters from Antwerp