Around 1509 -1575 · Antwerp Renaissance between realism and Italy

Saint Jerome and the disheveled old woman reveal two sides of Jan Matsys: humanist meditation and expression pushed to the grotesque. Flemish precision meets the monumentality learned in Italy.

Born in Antwerp around 1509 and died in the same city in 1575, Jan Matsys is the eldest son of Quinten Matsys and the brother of Cornelis. Received master at the guild of Saint-Luc in 1531, he began in direct continuity with the family workshop: precise contours, meticulous materials, highly individualized faces and taste for religious subjects. In 1544, his convictions considered heretical led to his banishment from Antwerp. The fifteen years of exile were still imperfectly documented, but his stay in Italy was assured. When he returned to Antwerp in 1558, his language changed: the figures lengthened, the compositions gained monumentality and the female nudes borrowed from the models of the Italian Renaissance. Biblical and mythological subjects often become the occasion for sensual refinement, notably in Judith, Suzanne or Lot and his daughters. Saint Jerome belongs to the humanist universe transmitted by his father. The saint is not only penitent: book, skull and concentrated gaze identify him as a scholar confronted with the brevity of life. The old woman who tears her hair out, on the contrary, pushes wrinkles, locks and gestures to an almost theatrical expressiveness. The attribution of certain versions remains discussed between Jan, his circle and the workshop, a sign of the circulation of family models. In both images, extreme attention to face makes the body the main location of the story. The "Jan Matsys" selection notably compares Old Woman Pulling Her Hair and Saint Jerome. His reading favors the material.

Matsys makes the skin, hair and hands speak: Jérôme's erudition like the old woman's despair become physical events.