The Four Evangelists (Jordaens)
The Four Evangelists | |
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Artist | Jacob Jordaens |
Year | 1625-1630 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 133 cm × 118 cm (52 in × 46 in) |
Location | Louvre Museum, Paris |
The Four Evangelists is an oil-on-canvas painting by the
Description
The canvas depicts the
All four evangelist stand erect, and are seen only from the knees upwards. Their eyes are fixed upon the book which lies open on a table. The four Evangelists are all lost in meditation and deliberation. Three of them are tanned by the sun and wrinkled as if by hard labour. They do not resemble intellectuals, but rather men who take their mission seriously, in the same way as earlier they had applied themselves to their trade. Saint Matthew is holding a book in his left hand and lifts a pen in his right hand as if he is about to write. A glimpse of sky shows in the background behind the red drapery which chiefly occupies it.[2]
Provenance
It is possibly the painting mentioned in the inventory of the estate of the painter Pieter Lastman (1583-1633). Lastman also made a copy of the work. Later the work passed to J. H. Fr. de Paule de Rigaud, count of Vaudreuil (1740-1817). It was sold on 25 November 1784 in Paris as lot 25 and acquired at this sale by A. J. Paillet, art dealer in Paris, for Louis XVI. It was exhibited at the opening of the Louvre Museum in 1793.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Record of the work on the Louvre Museum site
- ^ Max Rooses, Jacob Jordaens, his life and work, London, J.M. Dent & Co., New York, E.P. Dutton & co., 1908, p. 27-30