Pan and Syrinx

This 1620 Pan and Syrinx is another version of the Ovidian metamorphosis myth that Jordaens found particularly congenial. The woodland pursuit of the nymph by the lustful god allowed for the display of landscape, the nude figure, and dramatic action that Jordaens handled with distinctive Flemish earthiness. Jordaens's mythological paintings belong to the great tradition of Flemish mythological painting that Rubens had established, in which the gods of antiquity inhabit a world of Flemish physicality and sensuous abundance. Like his master and model Rubens, Jordaens treated classical mythology as a vehicle for celebrating the beauty of the human body and the pleasures of the natural world, but his mythology is heavier and more earthbound than Rubens's, his gods more recognizably Antwerp burghers temporarily promoted to divine status. His command of multi-figure compositions in warm dramatic light made him one of the most sought-after painters of monumental mythological subjects in the Spanish Netherlands.

The mythological chase is depicted with energetic brushwork and warm, sensuous flesh tones, set within a lush landscape that demonstrates Jordaens' ability to integrate figure and nature in dynamic composition.