- Elizabeth McGrath // Jordaens, Psyche And The Abbot
Myth, Decorum And Italian Manners In Seventeenth-century Antwerp
In 1639 Jacob Jordaens received a commission to paint a series of pictures illustrating the Story of Cupid and Psyche. The commission, for over twenty pieces of different sizes, came from Abate Alessandro Cesare Scaglia, the eminent Italian diplomat who had been living in semi-retirement in the Spanish Netherlands for some years, and had recently settled in Antwerp. The fifteenth Gerson Lecture (November 12th, 2009) discusses this commission.