Jacob Ferdinand Saeys
(Antwerp 1658 — Vienna 1725 or 1726)

A Classical Portico with an Elegant Company Gathered by a Fountain
signed and dated Saeys 1694 in the lower center on the base of a column

oil on canvas

36 3/4"×28 7/8" (93.3 cm×73.3 cm)

PROVENANCE:

This work is a striking example of the artist’s mastery of fanciful architectural renderings. An elegant and exotically dressed company have gathered to make and enjoy music before a monumental portico. The sharp light on the front of the building contrasted against the pale sky are particularly evocative elements employed to suggest volume and scale. The inclusion of the peacock, attentive dogs, and dragon spouting water add a playful dimension to the work.

Jacob Ferdinand Saeys was probably born in Antwerp circa 1658. He was apprenticed to Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg (1630 — after 1687) in 1672, and entered the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1680. He was recorded in Mechelen in 1684, and in Vienna in 1694. Saeys exclusively painted architectural scenes, and was inspired by Italian architecture under the influence of his teacher, but probably also by Viviano Codazzi (1604-1670). Many of his compositions closely resemble those of his Antwerp contemporary Jacob Balthasar Peeters (before 1665 — 1720 ?). The staffage figures in his pictures were often painted by colleagues, e.g. Hieronymus Janssens (1624-1693).

Paintings by the artist can be found in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes and the Steiermärkisches Landesmuseum Joanneum, Alte Galerie, Graz, as well as the Jesuit Church of Antwerp.

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