Crucifixion of Jesus

This 1618 Crucifixion of Jesus is an early work by Jordaens that demonstrates the powerful influence of Rubens and Caravaggio on the young Antwerp painter. The dramatic subject demanded the emotional intensity and physical realism that would become hallmarks of Jordaens' religious art. Jordaens, who outlived both Rubens and Van Dyck to become the dominant figure in Flemish Baroque painting for the second half of the seventeenth century, was particularly celebrated for his exuberant genre subjects, especially his series on the Flemish proverb about the King of the Bean.

The early Crucifixion shows Jordaens absorbing the dramatic chiaroscuro of Caravaggio and the dynamic energy of Rubens, with powerful anatomical modeling of Christ's body and expressive grief in the surrounding figures.