Jacob Jordaens (Jordaens Jacob)

(1593-1678)
Born in Antwerp, May 19, 1593. At age 14 became a pupil of Adam van North, who has studied and Peter Paul Rubens. He began his career with the creation of images of the apostles, working in a workshop organized by the young artist Anthony van Dyck. In 1621 he was elected dean of the painters guild in Antwerp.
Jordaens lived uneventful, quiet life burger and a tireless worker. Rubens invited him to perform a number of decorative works, including - decorate several triumphal arches (1635), and send pictures for the castle of La Torre de la Parada near Madrid (1637).

Jordaens was a good decorator. He created sketches of tapestries, four belong to the enforcement of a cardboard collections of the Louvre. Jordaens wrote a huge decorative paintings for the palace Hayes-ten-Bosch in The Hague (1651 and 1652), as well as three large compositions for the Amsterdam City Hall (1661). Throughout his long life he never ceased to work for churches and for private orders. The famous canvas among the scribes, Jesus (1663, Mainz, Art Gallery) shows great inner strength of his painting. Jordaens died Oct. 18, 1678.

Along with Rubens and Van Dyck Jordaens is one of the greatest masters of baroque Flemish school. Unlike the famous contemporaries, he often turned to the explanation of urban life, and in religious and mythological scenes introduces an element of everyday life