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Jan van Balen (21 July 1611 in
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History His father was a prominent painter in Antwerp and played an important role in the renewal of Flemish painting in the early 17th century. He was also one of the teachers of
Jan van Balen had two brothers, Gaspard (born in 1615) and Hendrik (born in 1620) who were both painters. Jan was the teacher of his two younger brothers.''Jan en Kasper van Balen'' in: Frans Jozef van den Branden, ', Antwerp: J.-E. Buschmann, 1883, pp. 467–468 His sister Maria married the painter Theodoor van Thulden.
Jan van Balen trained with his father. He was registered at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as an apprentice in 1631 and as a master in 1639–1640. At the occasion of the Joyous Entry (Pompa Introitus) by the new governor of the Spanish Netherlands Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand into Antwerp in 1635, Jan van Balen collaborated with his brother Gaspard, Theodoor van Thulden, Jan de Labare and
As was the custom in Antwerp at the time, Jan van Balen often collaborated with other painters who were specialists in particular genres. In particular, his collaborations with Jan Brueghel the Younger have been documented. Jan Brueghel the Younger was a close collaborator with Rubens and had also worked on compositions with Jan's father Hendrick van Balen. Some of the collaborations between Jan Brueghel the Younger and Jan van Balen appear to have been based on compositions on which Jan Brueghel the Younger or his father Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen had collaborated before.
Examples are '' The sleeping goddess Diana and her nymphs after the hunt, observed by satyrs'' based on an earlier composition of Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen and '' The Feast of Bacchus'' (Auctioned at Dorotheum on 21 October 2014, Vienna, lot 27) based on an earlier composition of Jan Brueghel the Younger and Hendrick van Balen. In these collaborations Jan van Balen painted the figures.
Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601–1678) and Attributed to Jan van Balen (1611–1654), ''Flower garland with Holy Family''
at Hampel Auctions
Jan van Balen (21 July 1611 in Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
– 14 March 1654) was a Flemish painter known for his Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
paintings of history and allegorical subjects. He also painted landscapes and genre scenes.
Life
Jan van Balen was the son of Hendrick van Balen and Margriet Briers.Jan van Balenat the Netherlands Institute for Art History His father was a prominent painter in Antwerp and played an important role in the renewal of Flemish painting in the early 17th century. He was also one of the teachers of
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy.
The seventh c ...
.Carl Van de Velde. "Balen, Hendrik van, I." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 8 January 2016
Jan van Balen had two brothers, Gaspard (born in 1615) and Hendrik (born in 1620) who were both painters. Jan was the teacher of his two younger brothers.''Jan en Kasper van Balen'' in: Frans Jozef van den Branden, ', Antwerp: J.-E. Buschmann, 1883, pp. 467–468 His sister Maria married the painter Theodoor van Thulden.
Jan van Balen trained with his father. He was registered at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as an apprentice in 1631 and as a master in 1639–1640. At the occasion of the Joyous Entry (Pompa Introitus) by the new governor of the Spanish Netherlands Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand into Antwerp in 1635, Jan van Balen collaborated with his brother Gaspard, Theodoor van Thulden, Jan de Labare and Erasmus Quellinus the Younger
Erasmus Quellinus the Younger or Erasmus Quellinus II (1607–1678) was a Flemish painter, engraver, draughtsman and tapestry designer who worked in various genres including history, portrait, allegorical, battle and animal paintings. He was a ...
on the execution of designs for the gallery on the Meir and the triumphal arch at St. John's Church in Antwerp. The overall design of the decorations was under the direction of 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 traditio ...
.
Jan van Balen left on 8 September 1639 with his brother Gaspard on a trip to Italy. The two brothers worked in Rome where Gaspard died on 7 March 1641. Jan then returned to Antwerp where he married Joanna van Weerden on 31 May 1642. Not long after giving birth to their only child Peeter, his wife died on 6 April 1643.
Jan van Balen died in Antwerp in 1654. He was buried in the St. James' Church, Antwerp
St. James' Church ( nl, Sint-Jacobskerk) is a former Collegiate church in Antwerp, Belgium. The church is built on the site of a hostel for pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. The present building is the work of the Waghemakere family and Rombo ...
.
Work
General
Like his father Hendrick, Jan van Balen painted mythological and religious scenes in the style of his father. He also painted landscapes and genre scenes.Collaborations
As was the custom in Antwerp at the time, Jan van Balen often collaborated with other painters who were specialists in particular genres. In particular, his collaborations with Jan Brueghel the Younger have been documented. Jan Brueghel the Younger was a close collaborator with Rubens and had also worked on compositions with Jan's father Hendrick van Balen. Some of the collaborations between Jan Brueghel the Younger and Jan van Balen appear to have been based on compositions on which Jan Brueghel the Younger or his father Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen had collaborated before.
Examples are '' The sleeping goddess Diana and her nymphs after the hunt, observed by satyrs'' based on an earlier composition of Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen and '' The Feast of Bacchus'' (Auctioned at Dorotheum on 21 October 2014, Vienna, lot 27) based on an earlier composition of Jan Brueghel the Younger and Hendrick van Balen. In these collaborations Jan van Balen painted the figures.
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Garland paintings
A special type of collaborative painting on which Jan van Balen collaborated regularly with Jan Brueghel the Younger are the so-called 'garland paintings'. His father Hendrick van Balen played a role in the development of the genre of garland paintings, which typically show a flower garland around a devotional image or portrait. Together with Jan Brueghel the Elder, Hendrick van Balen had painted the first known garland painting around 1607–1608 for Italiancardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
Federico Borromeo, a passionate art collector and Catholic reformer. Borromeo requested the painting to respond to the destruction of images of the Virgin in the preceding century and it thus combined both his interests in Catholic reform and the arts.Susan Merriam, ''Seventeenth-Century Flemish Garland Paintings. Still Life, Vision and the Devotional Image'', Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012
The genre of garland paintings was inspired by the cult of veneration and devotion to Mary prevalent at the Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
court (then the rulers over the Spanish Netherlands) and in Antwerp generally. Garland paintings were usually collaborations between a still life and a figure painter. The genre was initially connected to the visual imagery of the Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...
movement.David Freedberg, "The Origins and Rise of the Flemish Madonnas in Flower Garlands, Decoration and Devotion", ''Münchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst'', xxxii, 1981, pp. 115–150.
Like their fathers, the sons of the inventors of the genre of garland painting also collaborated on similar paintings. An example of a collaborative garland painting of Jan van Balen and Jan Brueghel the Younger is the '' Flower garland with Holy Family'' (Hampel Auctions on 26 June 2014 Munich, lot 193). The medallion in the centre depicts the Holy Family while the garland consists of flowers and fruits with a symbolic connection to the devotion to Mary. Van Balen painted the medallion while Brueghel painted the abundant garland._-_Flower_garland_with_Holy_Family.jpg.html){kind=link}
at Hampel Auctions
References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Balen, Jan van 1611 births 1654 deaths Flemish Baroque painters Flemish history painters Painters from Antwerp