The Wise Man Has Two Tongues: Images Of The Satyr And Peasant
Despite many commonalities, Dutch and Flemish culture typically remain segregated in scholarship. Indeed, the same might be said of the fields of art history and cultural history. This chapter redresses these divisions by examining the rich artistic interplay between Jacob Jordaens and Jan Steen as displayed in their related images of the Satyr and Peasant . These artists make a particularly intriguing case study because Jacob Jordaens was a Protestant, the confessional minority in Counter-Reformation Antwerp, while Jan Steen was the Northern equivalent, a Dutch Catholic in Holland. As we shall see, though separated by confessional and political boundaries, they shared an over-arching interest in traditional Netherlandish popular culture and mythology. Keywords: Jordaens; Satyr and Peasant ; Steen