Jacob Jordaens

Jacob Jordaens's paintings bring substantial figures and crowded social encounters into religious, classical, and everyday subjects. Faces, hands, food, and clothing often compete for attention within compositions organized around a shared action. In paintings of the King Drinks and the Satyr and the Peasant, familiar customs and fables provide material for observing human behavior. His work also served large decorative commissions, connecting these figure-painting methods with patrons beyond Antwerp.