The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (243 page)

Jordaens , Jacob
(1593–1678).
Flemish painter. He was the pupil and son-in-law of Adam van
Noort
. Although Jordaens often assisted
Rubens
, he had a flourishing studio of his own by the 1620s, and after Rubens's death in 1640 he was the leading figure painter in Flanders. His style was heavily indebted to Rubens, but was much more earthbound, using thick
impasto
, strong contrasts of light and shade, and colouring that is often rather lurid. His physical types, too, are coarser than Rubens's and his name is particularly associated with large canvases of hearty rollicking peasants. Two of his favourite subjects, which he depicted several times, are
The Satyr and the Peasant
, based on one of Aesop's fables, and
The King Drinks
, which depicts a boisterous group enjoying an abundant Twelfth Night feast. Jordaens's prolific output, however, included many other subjects, including religious works and portraits, and he also etched and made designs for tapestries. He rarely left his native Antwerp, but commissions came from all over Europe, the most important being
The Triumph of Frederick Hendrik
(1651–2), an enormous composition painted for the Huis ten Bosch, the royal villa near The Hague. In about 1655 Jordaens became a Calvinist; he continued to paint pictures for Catholic churches, but the work of the last two decades of his life is more subdued.
Jorn , Asger
(Asger Oluf Jørgensen )
(1914–73).
Danish painter and graphic artist, active in Paris for much of his career. He was one of the founders of the
Cobra
group in 1948, and his mature works are highly coloured abstracts executed with violently expressive brushwork.
Jouvenet , Jean
(1644–1717).
French painter, the outstanding member of a family of artists from Rouen. He went to Paris in 1661 and joined the studio of
Lebrun
. His early works, including decorations for the Salon de Mars at Versailles, were closely imitative of the style of Lebrun and Eustache
Le Sueur
(
St Bruno in Prayer
, Nat. Mus., Stockholm). He was the most distinguished of the group of artists who collaborated with
La Fosse
in the decorations at Trianon and Les Invalides, but he is now best remembered as the leading French religious painter of his generation, carrying out numerous major commissions for churches in Paris and elsewhere. His later work was marked both by
Baroque
emotionalism and by a realistic treatment of details foreign to the principles encouraged by the Academy. It is recorded, for example, that before painting his
Miraculous Draught of Fishes
(Louvre, Paris,
c.
1706) he studied fishing scenes on the spot at Dieppe.
Juan de Flandes
(d.
c.
1519).
Netherlandish painter active in Spain from 1496. He was one of a number of north European artists employed by Queen Isabella , who appointed him court painter in 1498. A miniature altarpiece he painted for her was once much renowned, but is now dismembered and scattered; a characteristic panel from it,
Christ Crowned with Thorns
(Detroit Institute of Arts), shows his delicate
miniaturistic
style. After Isabella's death in 1504 he worked for churches in Salamanca and Palencia.
Juan de Juanes
.
See
MACIP
.
Juan de Juni
(
c.
1507–77).
Sculptor, probably of Burgundian origin, active in Spain from
c.
1533. He worked at León and Salamanca before settling at Valladolid in 1540. He was a prolific sculptor of religious subjects, excelling in the dramatic expression of emotion, and is generally ranked next to Alonso
Berruguete
as the outstanding Spanish sculptor of his period. Berruguete himself called him ‘the best foreign carver in Castile’. Juni's most famous works are probably the two groups of the
Entombment
in Valladolid Museum (1539–44) and Segovia Cathedral (1571).

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