Jacob Leyssens or Jacob Lyssens (nickname Notenkraker) (1661,

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

- 1710, Antwerp), was a Flemish painter and decorator. After training in Antwerp, he spent a long time in Rome. After his return to Antwerp, he was active as a painter and decorator and collaborated with prominent Antwerp still life painters such as Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen the Younger and Jan Baptist Bosschaert.Jacob Leyssens
in: Jacob Campo Weyerman, ''De levensbeschryvingen van Nederlandsche konstschilders en konstschilderessen'' (1729–1769)

Life

He was born in Antwerp in 1661 as the son of Jacobus and Anthonetta Sas.''1561 LEYSSENS, Jacobus van'' in: Godelieve van Hemeldonck, ''Kunst en kunstenaars'', s.p.: s.n. (2007), type script kept in the Felixarchief in Antwerp He was registered as a pupil of Peter Ykens in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1674.Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius (ed.), ''De liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche sint Lucasgilde''
Volume 2, Antwerp, 1864, pp. 439, 441, 609, 613, 615 He travelled to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

at a young age as he is mentioned there in 1680.Jacob Leyssens
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

He became a member of the

Bentvueghels The Bentvueghels (Dutch for "Birds of a Feather") were a society of mostly Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome from about 1620 to 1720. They are also known as the Schildersbent ("painters' clique"). Activities The members, which incl ...

, an association of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists working in Rome, with the nickname ‘Notenkraker’ (Nutcracker). He was probably one of the youngest Bentvueghels ever admitted.Jacob Leyssens
at Hadrianus The difficult financial situation of his father caused him to return to Antwerp in 1689.Jacob Leyssens
in Van der Aa e.a., Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden He was admitted as a 'wijnmeester' (wine master) to the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in the guild year 1698–1699. As this is a title reserved for the sons of members of the Guild, it demonstrates that his father was or had been also a member of the Guild. In the year in which he became a master he also received Jan Baptist Bellenraet as a pupil. He was active in Antwerp as a painter and decorator in the period 1698–1710. He made a will on 31 January 1706 as he was ill. He lived at the time with his father in Hopland in Antwerp.

Work

Only a few of his works are known, one of which is in the collection of the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. He decorated many rooms and ceilings in prominent residences and buildings in Antwerp. He is known to have collaborated as a

staffage In painting, staffage () are the human and animal figures depicted in a scene, especially a landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often c ...

painter with other artists such as Jan Baptist Bosschaert and Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen the Younger, who painted the flowers and fruits. The early Dutch biographer

Jacob Campo Weyerman Jacob Campo Weyerman (9 August 1677 – 9 March 1747) was a painter and writer during the period known as the Dutch Enlightenment. His work encompassed flower and fruit still life paintings, satirical magazines, plays, and biographies of painter ...

referred to Jacob Leyssens as a

history painter History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek mythology, Greek and Roman my ...

, which indicates that he painted in this genre. A religious painting entitled ''St. Joseph with the Child Jesus'' was listed in the inventory on the death of J.J. Moretus and was made over to the city of Antwerp in 1876 when the Plantin-Moretus printing company was sold to the city. Leon Voet, The Golden Compasses. The History of the House of Plantin-Moretus
Vangendt & Co, Amsterdam / Routledge & Kegan Paul, London / Abner Schram, New York 1969–1972

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leyssens, Jacob Flemish Baroque painters Flemish history painters Flemish genre painters 17th-century births Members of the Bentvueghels Painters from Antwerp 1710 deaths