An elaborate façade with an open door flanked by a bacchante and a satyr, a window with a broken pediment flanked by a dolphin and a satyress with a ram above

Details

Jacob Jordaens (Antwerp 1593-1678)
An elaborate façade with an open door flanked by a bacchante and a satyr, a window with a broken pediment flanked by a dolphin and a satyress with a ram above
with inscription 'Jordaens' (recto) and an illegible apparently 17th Century inscription (verso, laid down)
red chalk, brush and blue wash
9 5/8 x 7 1/8 in. (246 x 183 mm.)

Provenance

Possibly Pierre Crozat, with associated numbering '14'; Paris, 10 April - 13 May 1741, part of lots 856-857.
An unidentified collector's mark HF in a circle (not in Lugt).

Literature

R.-A. d'Hulst, Jordaens Drawings, Brussels, 1974, no. A177, fig. 189.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

The symbolism of the attributes on this façade is not entirely clear, but as R.A. d'Hulst notes they may refer to 'the animal forces of nature, love and fertility' (loc. cit.). D'Hulst further suggests that the drawing can be dated to circa 1640-45, and so may have been intended as a design for decoration in Jordaens' own house which was substantially complete in 1641. Another drawing for an allegorical façade using the same architectural elements was in the same Swiss collection as the present drawing (R.A. d'Hulst, op. cit., no. A176).

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