The Story
The Conversion of Saul with Christ and the Cross, c. 1645–47. Jacob Jordaens (Flemish, 1593–1678). Brush and brown wash, gouache and watercolor over black and red chalk, heightened with traces of white; framing lines in graphite; sheet: 33 x 19.9 cm (13 x 7 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds, 1954.367
Created in 1645 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology 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 brush and brown wash, gouache and watercolor over black and red chalk, heightened with traces of white; framing lines in graphite, measuring Sheet: 33 x 19.9 cm (13 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.”
