CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Jacob Jordaens: the making of a masterpiece

Exhibition: 13 March - 14 June 2009

Information from the museum, 18 February 2009

Two versions of The tribute money: Peter finding the silver coin in the mouth of the fish by Jacobs Jordaens take pride of place in the exhibition, which was created in collaboration with the Statens Museum for Kunst. The Danish version of the painting underwent extensive technical research and was fully restored in Copenhagen in 2007 and 2008. The presentation is completed by all the paintings by Jordaens on long-term loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum as part of its alliance with the Rijksmuseum.

Jacob Jordaens is one of the most important painters of the Flemish Baroque. One of his indisputed masterpieces is The tribute money: Peter finding the silver coin in the mouth of the fish from ca. 1623. The monumental painting has been in Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen since 1912. A second, considerably smaller version of the painting from the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam is on display in the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. Up to now, it was presumed that this version was a copy of the larger painting, but technical research has shown the relationship between the paintings is much more complex than assumed.

On this occasion, the large painting from Copenhagen is surrounded by some of Jacob Jordaens’ paintings and drawings of the same period. This gives the visitor a unique picture of this great Antwerp painter around the year 1625.

Publication

Jordaens: the making of a masterpiece
Contributions by Troels Filtenborg, Lars Hendrikman, Badeloch Noldus, Karsten Ohrt, Eva de la Fuente Pedersen, Annefloor Schlotter, Johanna H. Verhave and Jørgen Wadum
Published on the occasion of an exhibition held in 2008-09 in Copenhagen (Statens Museum for Kunst) and in 2009 in Maastricht (Bonnefantenmuseum)
120 pp.
Copenhagen (Statens Museum for Kunst) 2008
ISBN-13: 978-97-92023-26-1

Related events