JORDAENS, Jacob. – Painter, b. at Antwerp on 19 May 1593, d. there on 18 Oct. 1678. In 1607 he entered the workshop of the painter Adam Van Noort. His first known work is a *Crucifixion* of 1617; the *Adoration of the Shepherds* in Stockholm, signed and dated, dates from 1618, as do almost all his subsequent works. It is known that in 1621 he was elected dean of the city’s painters’ guild and must have been in close contact with Rubens, with whom he collaborated in 1634–35 on the erection of the triumphal arch for the entry into the city of Cardinal Ferdinand.
His fame grew rapidly; he maintained a large workshop, and after Rubens’ death he was considered the leading painter of southern Holland, receiving numerous commissions from churches and private patrons for which he executed large altarpieces, mythological and historical scenes, allegories, and designs for tapestries, hangings, and textiles. After Rubens and Van Dyck, J. is the third great painter of the Antwerp school. In works from his early period, such as the *Adoration of the Shepherds* in Stockholm, illuminated by a sharp, penetrating light, he already reveals that distinctive phosphorescent luminism that would characterize his late works (*Susanna and the Elders*, 1651; *Jesus among the Doctors*, 1663, now in Mainz), while his mature works are deeply influenced by Rubens’ manner. In his small genre paintings, scattered across nearly all the collections of Europe, J. displays a particular taste for scenes of everyday life, illustrating proverbs with scenes drawn from popular life that he frequently introduces even into religious compositions.