Jan van Balen (21 July 1611 in

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 ...

– 14 March 1654) was a Flemish painter known for his

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

paintings of

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

and allegorical subjects. He also painted landscapes and

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

scenes.

Life

Jan van Balen was the son of Hendrick van Balen and Margriet Briers.Jan van Balen
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 ...

His father was a prominent painter in Antwerp and played an important role in the renewal of Flemish painting in the early 17th century. He was also one of the teachers of

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of ...

.Carl Van de Velde. "Balen, Hendrik van, I." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 8 January 2016 Jan van Balen had two brothers, Gaspard (born in 1615) and Hendrik (born in 1620) who were both painters. Jan was the teacher of his two younger brothers.''Jan en Kasper van Balen'' in: Frans Jozef van den Branden, ', Antwerp: J.-E. Buschmann, 1883, pp. 467–468 His sister Maria married the painter Theodoor van Thulden. Jan van Balen trained with his father. He was registered at the Antwerp

Guild of Saint Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was iden ...

as an apprentice in 1631 and as a master in 1639–1640. At the occasion of the

Joyous Entry A Joyous Entry (; ) is a ceremonial event marking the entry into a city by a monarch, prince, duke, or governor in parts of modern-day Belgium. Originating in the Middle Ages, it generally coincided with the affirmation or extension of the city' ...

(Pompa Introitus) by the new governor of the Spanish Netherlands

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand (also known as Don Fernando de Austria, Cardenal-Infante Fernando de España and as Ferdinand von Österreich; 16 May 1609 – 9 November 1641) was a Spanish and Portuguese prince (Infante of Spain, Infante of Portugal (u ...

into Antwerp in 1635, Jan van Balen collaborated with his brother Gaspard, Theodoor van Thulden, Jan de Labare and Erasmus Quellinus the Younger on the execution of designs for the gallery on the Meir and the triumphal arch at St. John's Church in Antwerp. The overall design of the decorations was under the direction of

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...

. Jan van Balen left on 8 September 1639 with his brother Gaspard on a trip to Italy. The two brothers worked in Rome where Gaspard died on 7 March 1641. Jan then returned to Antwerp where he married Joanna van Weerden on 31 May 1642. Not long after giving birth to their only child Peeter, his wife died on 6 April 1643. Jan van Balen died in Antwerp in 1654. He was buried in the St. James' Church, Antwerp.

Work

General

Like his father Hendrick, Jan van Balen painted mythological and religious scenes in the style of his father. He also painted landscapes and

scenes.

Collaborations

As was the custom in Antwerp at the time, Jan van Balen often collaborated with other painters who were specialists in particular genres. In particular, his collaborations with Jan Brueghel the Younger have been documented. Jan Brueghel the Younger was a close collaborator with Rubens and had also worked on compositions with Jan's father Hendrick van Balen. Some of the collaborations between Jan Brueghel the Younger and Jan van Balen appear to have been based on compositions on which Jan Brueghel the Younger or his father

Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painting, Flemish painter and Draughtsmanship, draughtsman. He was the younger son of the eminent Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, Flemish ...

and Hendrick van Balen had collaborated before. Examples are '' The sleeping goddess Diana and her nymphs after the hunt, observed by satyrs'' based on an earlier composition of Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen and '' The Feast of Bacchus'' (Auctioned at Dorotheum on 21 October 2014, Vienna, lot 27) based on an earlier composition of Jan Brueghel the Younger and Hendrick van Balen. In these collaborations Jan van Balen painted the figures.

Garland paintings

A special type of collaborative painting on which Jan van Balen collaborated regularly with Jan Brueghel the Younger are the so-called 'garland paintings'. His father Hendrick van Balen played a role in the development of the genre of garland paintings, which typically show a flower garland around a devotional image or portrait. Together with

, Hendrick van Balen had painted the first known garland painting around 1607–1608 for Italian

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Federico Borromeo Federico Borromeo (; 18 August 1564 – 21 September 1631) was an Italian cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milan, Archbishop of Milan, and prominent figure of the Counter-Reformation in Italy. His acts of charity, ...

, a passionate art collector and Catholic reformer. Borromeo requested the painting to respond to the destruction of images of the Virgin in the preceding century and it thus combined both his interests in Catholic reform and the arts.Susan Merriam, ''Seventeenth-Century Flemish Garland Paintings. Still Life, Vision and the Devotional Image'', Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012 The genre of garland paintings was inspired by the cult of veneration and devotion to Mary prevalent at the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

court (then the rulers over the Spanish Netherlands) and in Antwerp generally. Garland paintings were usually collaborations between a still life and a figure painter. The genre was initially connected to the visual imagery of the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

movement.David Freedberg, "The Origins and Rise of the Flemish Madonnas in Flower Garlands, Decoration and Devotion", ''Münchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst'', xxxii, 1981, pp. 115–150. Like their fathers, the sons of the inventors of the genre of garland painting also collaborated on similar paintings. An example of a collaborative garland painting of Jan van Balen and Jan Brueghel the Younger is the '' Flower garland with Holy Family'' (Hampel Auctions on 26 June 2014 Munich, lot 193). The medallion in the centre depicts the Holy Family while the garland consists of flowers and fruits with a symbolic connection to the devotion to Mary. Van Balen painted the medallion while Brueghel painted the abundant garland.Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601–1678) and Attributed to Jan van Balen (1611–1654), ''Flower garland with Holy Family''
at Hampel Auctions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Balen, Jan van 1611 births 1654 deaths Flemish Baroque painters Flemish history painters Painters from Antwerp