Jacob Jordaens, The Daughters of Cecrops Find the Serpent-Child Erichthonius, 1617

by Atelier Liesjes

Three young women and an elderly servant fill a dark room containing a stone pillar and a carved herm. On the left stands a naked woman in a red cloak, a torch in her hand; a small winged boy is reaching for her leg. In the centre sits a woman with a wreath of flowers in her hair, a woven basket on her lap, from which an infant with a serpent’s body is emerging. Behind her, an old woman wearing a white headscarf bends forward, her finger raised. On the right sits a fair-haired woman with her back to the viewer, wrapped in a lilac cloth. At the edge of the scene stand a gold-bronze jug, a parrot pecking at grapes and a large turkey; at the bottom lies a dog. The subject is the discovery of Erichthonius, the serpent-child whom the daughters of the Athenian king Cecrops found in a basket. Jordaens depicts their astonishment not as drama, but as a bustling, almost theatrical scene full of contrasts: youth versus old age, pale skin versus dark stone, nudity versus heavy fabric. The colours are rich and warm – carmine red, old rose, ochre yellow and olive green – against a deep brown background. The paint is applied with a fluid and confident hand, with broad strokes in the drapery and delicate touches on the faces. In this way, an ancient myth is transformed into a Flemish family room, full of life and noise.
Jacob Jordaens (Antwerp 1593 – Antwerp 1678) painted this work at a young age, even before he was admitted as a master to the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1617. He remained in Antwerp throughout his life and, following Rubens’s death, became the city’s most sought-after history painter. His work is on display in the major Flemish museums. An early, powerful work for a collector of Flemish Baroque art.