The Jordaens Van Dyck Panel Paintings Project has announced the publication of a new open-access journal dedicated to the panel paintings of the famous Flemish artists Jacques Jordaens (1593-1678) and Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641). The four-part series will publish the wide-ranging, scholarly findings of the international and multidisciplinary Jordaens Van Dyck Panel Paintings Project (JVDPPP).
Anthony Van Dyck, Sir Kenelm Digby (1603–1665), c.1640, oil on canvas, 116.8 by 91.4 cm, London, The National Portrait Gallery. © National Portrait Gallery, London / Illustration to the JVDJ article Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens in the collection of the French painter Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743) by Alexis Merle du Bourg.
The beautifully illustrated first issue is now free to view online and will be available to print on demand at cost price through jordaensvandyck.org/journal. The publication is accompanied by the online launch of the Summary Catalogues of the Van Dyck and Jordaens panels examined by the project. The online expansion publishes over 500 high-resolution photos and includes multidisciplinary research data of more than 250 panel paintings. The journal and expanded website have been designed to be complementary resources.
The Jordaens Van Dyck Journal is made possible by the Fonds Baillet Latour with the support of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the University of Amsterdam.
Inaugural issue
Cover of the Jordaens Van Dyck Journal issue no. 1 showing John the Baptist by Jacques Jordaens, c.1620, oil on panel, 66.8 by 48.6 cm, Groninger Museum, loan from Municipality of Groningen, donation Hofstede de Groot.
This first issue introduces the methodologies of the JVDPPP and shares the first tranche of its findings. The publication is edited by Dr. Emily Burns and has been designed to explore the panel paintings of Jordaens and Van Dyck through focusing on the different disciplines the project employs: dendrochronology, analysis of panel marks, archival research, stylistic and iconographic analysis and connoisseurship.
The first issue begins by setting seventeenth-century Antwerp panel making in context (by Sara Mateu, Panels Advisor), while Justin Davies (Co-founder) and Ingrid Moortgat (Archival Research Fellow) explore panel makers and their marks, and Andrea Seim (Lead Dendrochronologist) introduces how dendrochronology can be used in the study of panel paintings. The Project’s Co-founders Joost Vander Auwera and Justin Davies have provided introductions to their extensive research into the use of panels by Jordaens and Van Dyck, and Alexis Merle du Bourg (Archival Research, France) shares the product of his research into the paintings of Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens in the collection of Hyacinthe Rigaud. The issue closes with an exciting selection of discoveries from the archives made by Ingrid Moortgat, James Innes-Mulraine and Justin Davies.Cover of issue 1
Three further issues will follow in September, November 2021 and January 2022, containing new research and new discoveries on Van Dyck, Jordaens and their contemporaries.
Summary Catalogues
In conjunction with the launch of the Jordaens and Van Dyck Journal, the JVDPPP is also publishing Summary Catalogues of the panel paintings of these two famous artists examined by the Project, including works by their studios and copies, through an expansion on the project’s website jordaensvandyck.org. The new section on the website serves as a permanent resource for information and further scholarship into Jordaens, Van Dyck and seventeenth-century Flemish panel paintings.
Currently the Summary Catalogues include more than 250 paintings that have been examined by the JVDPPP in the past five years. The panels are in public and private collections worldwide, from Puerto Rico to Budapest. Some are well known, others are published for the first time. Further paintings examined before the end of the project in early 2022 will be added as they are studied.
The Summary Catalogues present the paintings in a multidisciplinary context combining data from analysing the reverses of the panels, archival research, and dendrochronology. Each entry offers a wealth of information such as the most recent published attribution, available literature and known provenance of the artwork. The entries are accompanied by a bibliography for each cited source. All paintings are displayed with high-resolution images of the front and back of the panel in addition to detailed photos of guild marks, panel maker marks, inscriptions and labels (if present). If dendrochronological examination of the panel was possible, the results for each plank are presented by approximate felling dates, the origin of the wood and the number of tree rings. Links to related translated articles and archival documents that are available on the project website are offered wherever possible.