Painter of the Bible
Jan Lievens
Jan Lievens was a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker who shared a studio in Leiden with the young Rembrandt van Rijn from roughly 1626 to 1631 — the formative years for both painters — and went on to a substantial i…
Their faith
Why Jan Lievens painted Christ
Jan Lievens was deeply engaged with Christian themes throughout his artistic career, producing numerous works that reflect his commitment to biblical narratives. His paintings, such as 'The Pilate Washing His Hands' and 'Christ on the Cross,' illustrate not only his technical skill but also a profound exploration of spiritual subjects. These works showcase Lievens' ability to convey the emotional weight of biblical events, suggesting a personal connection to the stories he depicted.
Lievens' early years in Leiden, where he shared a studio with Rembrandt, were crucial for his development as an artist. In this environment, he created a series of biblical history paintings that engaged in a stylistic dialogue with his contemporary. The cultural context of the Dutch Golden Age, marked by a flourishing of art and a strong Protestant influence, provided a rich backdrop for Lievens' exploration of faith through art, allowing him to contribute significantly to the visual representation of Christian themes in his time.
Life & work
Jan Lievens was a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker who shared a studio in Leiden with the young Rembrandt van Rijn from roughly 1626 to 1631 — the formative years for both painters — and went on to a substantial international career across the Netherlands, England, and the Spanish Netherlands. Born in Leiden in 1607 (a year older than Rembrandt), trained briefly in Leiden under Joris van Schooten and then in Amsterdam in the workshop of Pieter Lastman (the same Amsterdam workshop in which Rembrandt also briefly trained around 1624), he returned to Leiden in 1625 and shared his early Leiden studio with Rembrandt for several years before traveling to England in 1632 (where he worked at the court of Charles I) and then to Antwerp from 1635 to 1644 (where he absorbed the loose painterly Antwerp manner of Rubens and van Dyck). He returned to the Netherlands in 1644 and worked in Amsterdam, The Hague, and Leiden for the rest of his life, dying in Amsterdam in 1674.
His Christian religious work is concentrated in altarpieces and small biblical narrative paintings produced across his entire career. The Pilate Washing His Hands (Bredius Museum), the Christ on the Cross compositions, the Resurrection of Lazarus (Brighton, c. 1630, painted in close stylistic dialogue with Rembrandt's almost-contemporary Lazarus etching), the Job on the Dunghill (Ottawa, 1631), the Esther preparing to Approach Ahasuerus (Madrid), and the late Antwerp altarpieces fill the painted corpus.
The early Leiden years are the most consequential for the history of Dutch painting. Lievens and the young Rembrandt produced biblical-history paintings in close stylistic competition — sometimes painting the same subject within months of each other, sometimes seemingly correcting each other's compositions — and the small body of paintings produced in their shared Leiden studio in the late 1620s constitutes one of the most studied workshop dialogues in the entire history of Dutch art. Several paintings traditionally attributed to Rembrandt have been reattributed to Lievens, and vice versa; the careful Rijksmuseum and Mauritshuis exhibition in 2008–2009 sorted out much of the confusion.
His later international career was substantial but never quite caught the supreme reputation Rembrandt achieved in the same years; modern criticism increasingly treats Lievens as a major painter whose career was overshadowed by his early studio mate's later supremacy.
Notable works in detail
Adoration of the Shepherds, etched by Jan Lievens around 1620 in his Leiden workshop years (during the period he shared a studio with the young Rembrandt), depicts the moment from Luke 2 in which the shepherds, having heard the angels' announcement of the birth of Christ, arrive at the small dwelling at Bethlehem to find the newborn child laid in the manger. Lievens stages the scene with characteristic Leiden-period dramatic chiaroscuro: the seated Virgin holding the swaddled Christ Child illuminated by a single source of golden light, Joseph waiting behind, three peasant shepherds in the foreground in postures of recognition and tender adoration. The print is one of the principal early Lievens etchings and demonstrates the dramatic Caravaggesque manner that he and the young Rembrandt were both developing in their shared Leiden studio in the late 1620s.
The Resurrection of Lazarus, etched by Jan Lievens around 1620 in his Leiden workshop, illustrates the climactic miracle of John 11. Lievens stages the scene with characteristic Leiden-period dramatic chiaroscuro: Christ at the lower left with his right arm extended in command, the bound figure of Lazarus emerging upright from the open tomb at the upper right, the sisters Martha and Mary kneeling between them at Christ's feet, and a small crowd of witnesses gathered behind. The print was painted in close stylistic dialogue with Rembrandt's own Lazarus etching of about 1632; the Lievens-Rembrandt Leiden studio years produced a remarkable body of paintings and etchings on shared subjects, with the two painters in stylistic competition with each other across nearly identical subject matter.
Saint Jerome, etched by Jan Lievens around 1620 in his Leiden workshop, depicts the early Church Father in the conventional iconographic posture of his hermit years — half-naked, kneeling on his rocks, with his small open book and his lion (the iconographic attribute that distinguishes Jerome from any other bearded saint) at his feet. Lievens stages the scene with characteristic Leiden-period dramatic Caravaggesque chiaroscuro and a particularly strong contrast between the dark cave of the saint's retreat and the small bright opening to the sky above. The print is one of the principal early Lievens etchings and demonstrates the dense narrative composition and atmospheric tonal range that defined his Leiden-studio output.
