Friday, March 23, 2018

Jan and Jacob Pynas (Painters and Brothers, Amsterdam)

anonymous draughtsman after David Bailly
Portrait of Jan Pynas (1582-1631)
ca. 1620-1700
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

"Jan Pynas is one of the few artists who can be assumed to have visited Italy twice.  . . .  Pynas's name, together with Pieter Lastman's, appears in the biographies of the German artists Adam Elsheimer and Jakob Ernst Thomann, who were working in Italy.  Houbraken took this information from Sandrart.  Although he mentions Jacob Pynas in the same breath as Jan, it may not be concluded from this that the younger brother had also been in Italy.  Jan Pynas is mentioned again in the biography of Thomann, and again Houbraken copied this information from Sandrart: 'He chose particularly to keep company in Rome with Adam Elsheimer, Pieter Lastman and Johannes Pinnazio, otherwise known as Jan Pinas, who every day with great industry, as soon as the sun rose above the horizon, drew pleasing landscapes from life.'  . . .  Jan's brother Jacob, who is mentioned in Houbraken's book, was born in Amsterdam in 1592 or 1593, making him more than ten years younger than Jan.  It is quite likely that he became his older brother's pupil when Jan returned from Italy, and he may well have continued to work with him.  They may have shared a studio.  It is also conceivable that Jacob went to Italy with his older brother in 1617, but there is no evidence of this.  His brother's influence is very evident in Jacob's work.  However, the Italian buildings in his drawings and paintings could equally well have been borrowed from other artists' examples." 

– Peter Schatborn, from the catalogue of a 2001 exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, published in English as Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch artists in Italy, translated by Lynne Richards

Jan Pynas after Adam Elsheimer
Religious offering of cattle before the statue of a god
before 1631
drawing
private collection

Jan Pynas
Jacob seeking the household gods from Rachel
ca. 1617
drawing (with background of Roman ruins)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jacob Pynas
Round tower and buildings
1616
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jacob Pynas
Landscape with calling of St Peter
before 1650
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jan Pynas
Aaron transforming the Nile into blood
1610
oil on panel
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jan Pynas
Jacob's sons showing him Joseph's blood-stained robe
1618
oil on panel
Hermitage, St Petersburg

Jan Pynas
Ulysses and Nausicaa
1630-31
oil on panel
Hermitage, St Petersburg

Jacob Pynas
Mountain landscape with Narcissus
1628
oil on panel
National Gallery, London

Jacob Pynas
Paul and Barnabas at Lystra
ca. 1627-29
oil on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jacob Pynas
Paul and Barnabas worshipped as gods by the people of Lystra
1628
oil on panel
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jacob Pynas
Feast of Ceres
before 1650
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Jacob Pynas
Ruined classical building with herdsmen
ca. 1624
drawing
British Museum

attributed to Jan Pynas
Imaginary landscape
before 1631
drawing
British Museum

Jan or Jacob Pynas
 Mars in armor standing over defeated enemies
before 1650
drawing
British Museum