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Jan Pynas (1631)
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*JACOB PYNAS (CIRCA 1585-CIRCA 1656)
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Attributed to Jan Pynas (Alkmaar 1581/2-1631 Amsterdam)
Jan Pynas Biography
(b ?Alkmaar, 1581–2; d Amsterdam, 1631). In 1605 he travelled to Italy, returning two years later to Amsterdam, where he made a reputation for himself with history paintings, particularly representations from biblical and ancient history. The painting of Jacob Being Shown Joseph’s Bloodstained Robe (1618; St Petersburg, Hermitage) was the inspiration for the play Joseph in Dothan by the poet Joost van den Vondel. In Jan’s early work (e.g. the Raising of Lazarus , 1605, Aschaffenburg, Schloss Johannisburg, Staatsgal.; and Moses Turning Water into Blood , 1610, Amsterdam, Rembrandthuis) there are signs of the influence of the artists with whose work he had obviously become familiar in Italy, especially Adam Elsheimer and Jacopo Tintoretto. Within a few years he came under the influence of Pieter Lastman and the group of Amsterdam artists known as the PRE-REMBRANDTISTS. In the Dismissal of Hagar (1613; Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Mus.) the size and the construction of Pynas’s figures are reminiscent of Lastman’s work. However, Pynas reduced the eloquent gesticulation used by Lastman to restrained gestures, which he then emphasized by depicting his protagonists in profile. In this he represented the opposite pole within the circle of Amsterdam Pre-Rembrandtists to his brother-in-law Tengnagel, who exaggerated the movement of his figures to such an extent that they seem to be dancing. Pynas’s history pictures are generally simple and lacking in ornament, a tendency also cultivated at times by Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert. A comparison between Pynas’s painting of Joseph Selling Corn in Egypt (1618; ex-art market, London, see 1974 exh. cat. above, fig. 23) and Lastman’s version of the same theme (1612; Dublin, N.G.) shows Pynas’s inclination towards simplicity and the reduction of narrative devices.
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