1617 -1673/1678 · Ypres, Antwerp and Vienna

Sensual mythology, Rubenian movement and court elegance define Jan Thomas van Yperen, Flemish painter turned Habsburg portraitist in Vienna.

Jan Thomas was born in Ypres in 1617, hence the forms van Yperen, van Ieperen or van Ypres added to his name. Ancient sources present him as one of the last students of Peter Paul Rubens. He seems to have attended the master's workshop in the 1630s, at the time of the great decorations of the Torre de la Parada, before being received master at the guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp in 1639 -1640. His first paintings and engravings extend the Rubenian lesson: fleshy bodies, circular movement, warm light and taste for mythological or religious subjects. Diane's Sleep belongs to this universe. The goddess, abandoned at rest, becomes the center of a composition where nudity, drapery, shadow and presence of companions create a suspended atmosphere. The subject allows Jan Thomas to associate pastoral sensuality with a clear order inherited from the great Antwerp Baroque. In the mid-1650s, the artist left the southern Netherlands for the Germanic space, then settled in Vienna. He worked for Archduke Leopold William and the Habsburg imperial court. His portraits of Leopold I, Infanta Marguerite-Thérèse and the aristocracy put costumes, jewelry and ceremonial gestures at the service of the dynastic image. At the same time, he continued the religious, allegorical and mythological scenes, as well as a graphic production which disseminated his inventions. His date of death remains debated between 1673 and 1678. His career thus links Rubens' workshop to the visual culture of the Viennese court and shows how Flemish Baroque was adapted to the representation needs of Central Europe. The "Jan Thomas van Yperen" selection notably compares Diane’s Sleep. His reading favors space.

Jan Thomas transforms Rubens' momentum into court language: the body remains alive, but every drapery, every look and every burst of light now serves the elegance of the spectacle.