Portrait of a Family 1650

Jacob Jordaens created this painting of a family, using oil paints on canvas. But before we consider the image itself, it is worth thinking about the labor involved in producing it. The canvas, woven from flax, the ground layer, prepared with rabbit skin glue, and the pigments, made from minerals, plants, and even insects, all had to be painstakingly processed before Jordaens even picked up a brush. And of course, the making of the brushes was itself another craft tradition. The intense materiality of the work goes further: Jordaens’s characteristic style is all about the sensuous handling of paint. Note in particular the dress of the central figure, painted with thick impasto. This is not just an image of wealth, it is wealth, transmuted into a dense field of labor. Looking closely, we can appreciate the significance of materials and making, helping us to see the work not just as a depiction, but as an object in its own right, tied to the economy of its time.