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拍品專文
Michael Jaffé dated this sketch to circa 1620 in the catalogue of the landmark 1969-70 Jordaens exhibition in Ottawa, observing that all four heads were taken from the same model and that the reverential tilt of the lower right figure suggests Jordaens may have been thinking of an Adoration of the Shepherds. In the first half of his career, Jordaens produced numerous oil head studies following the example of Peter Paul Rubens, a practice also adopted by Anthony van Dyck. Sometimes he focused on a single figure; at other times, as here, he grouped several studies together on one panel. These would have been retained in the studio as a repertory of expressions and types for later compositions. While the four heads cannot be linked with certainty to a specific finished painting, the leftmost figure bears a striking resemblance to Meleager in Meleager and Atalanta of circa 1624 (Madrid, Museo del Prado).
Jordaens demonstrates remarkable economy in the present sketch, both in execution and in his ability to explore four distinct viewpoints within a single study. Other works in which he combines multiple head studies include Three Studies of a Child of circa 1620 (St Petersburg, Hermitage Museum) and Four Studies of a Man, datable to circa 1620-23 (Amsterdam, Bernard Houthakker). Comparable in intensity and handling to studies made around circa 1620-21 – such as the Two Head Studies of Abraham Grapheus (Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent), the Job (Detroit Institute of Arts), and the related study in Douai (Musée de la Chartreuse) – the sketch reveals Jordaens at his most direct and experimental (see Jacob Jordaens, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp, 1993, pp. 96-103, nos. A21-A23). In each, he uses a heavily loaded brush and applies the paint with swift, fluent strokes. Like the Detroit Job and the Douai Grapheus, the present panel is painted alla prima, a technique pioneered in the sixteenth century by Titian and perfected by Rubens, here harnessed to convey a vivid immediacy of observation.
Jordaens demonstrates remarkable economy in the present sketch, both in execution and in his ability to explore four distinct viewpoints within a single study. Other works in which he combines multiple head studies include Three Studies of a Child of circa 1620 (St Petersburg, Hermitage Museum) and Four Studies of a Man, datable to circa 1620-23 (Amsterdam, Bernard Houthakker). Comparable in intensity and handling to studies made around circa 1620-21 – such as the Two Head Studies of Abraham Grapheus (Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent), the Job (Detroit Institute of Arts), and the related study in Douai (Musée de la Chartreuse) – the sketch reveals Jordaens at his most direct and experimental (see Jacob Jordaens, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp, 1993, pp. 96-103, nos. A21-A23). In each, he uses a heavily loaded brush and applies the paint with swift, fluent strokes. Like the Detroit Job and the Douai Grapheus, the present panel is painted alla prima, a technique pioneered in the sixteenth century by Titian and perfected by Rubens, here harnessed to convey a vivid immediacy of observation.