Study of an old man with clasped hands

This 1621 study of an old man with clasped hands served as preparation for a devotional figure, likely a praying saint or apostle. Jordaens' practice of painting from live models gave his religious figures a physical presence and psychological directness that distinguished them from the more idealized approach of Rubens. Jacob Jordaens, the most productive and commercially successful painter in Antwerp after Rubens's death in 1640, dominated Flemish painting through the middle decades of the seventeenth century. His mastery of large-scale multi-figure compositions, his ability to orchestrate warm golden light across complex scenes of festivity and narrative, and his characteristic combination of Flemish earthiness with Baroque compositional ambition made him the natural heir to Rubens's tradition in the Southern Netherlands. His enormous output served the aristocratic, ecclesiastical, and civic patrons who continued to commission ambitious paintings even as the Flemish economy contracted in the later seventeenth century.

The study captures the intensity of prayer through the intertwined hands and concentrated expression, rendered with warm flesh tones and vigorous brushwork that convey both spiritual focus and physical effort.