Jacob Jordaens

Flemish painter and tapestry designer Jacob Jordaens is known for his brightly colored canvases with mythological and religious content. The majority of his work is either in situ, frescoes executed for churches and palaces across Europe, or in tapestries.  Many of his paintings were originally created as models for tapestries.  

Apprenticed to painter Adam van Noort at the age of 14, Jordaens was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke as a master of watercolor painting at the age of 23.  He ran a popular and active workshop of students and assistants and became one of the most successful painters and tapestry designers in the Antwerp area - second in reputation only to Peter Paul Rubens.  Jordaens assisted Rubens with some of the painter’s major commissions, and became the principle painter in the region following Ruben’s death in 1640.