The Story
The Conversion of Saul with Horseman and Banner, c. 1645–47. Jacob Jordaens (Flemish, 1593–1678). Black and red chalk, pen and black and gray ink, brush and brown wash, watercolor, and gouache, heightened with white gouache; framing lines in red chalk and graphite (right edge); sheet: 32.9 x 19.9 cm (12 15/16 x 7 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds, 1954.366
Created in 1645 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the portrait tradition. Jacob Jordaens worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in Black and red chalk, pen and black and gray ink, brush and brown wash, watercolor, and gouache, heightened with white gouache; framing lines in red chalk and graphite (right edge), measuring Sheet: 32.9 x 19.9 cm (12 15/16 x 7 13/16 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Jacob Jordaens builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
