JEAN, DUC DE BERRY (1340–1416). The duc de Berry was the son of King Jean II the Good of France and the brother of Philip the Bold of Burgundy. In 1356, he was made Count of Poitiers and, during his father’s captivity in England two years later, he was appointed lieutenant of Auvergne, Languedoc, Périgord, and Poitou, which gave him control of a large portion of France. In 1360, his father also gave Jean the duchies of Berry and Auvergne. From 1380 until 1388, Jean acted as member of the regency council of his nephew and heir to the throne, Charles VI. In that capacity, he negotiated for peace with John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. In 1405, he also negotiated the temporary reconciliation between John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis, Duke of Orléans, both of whom were vying for control of France. Louis was murdered in 1407 and, three years later, Jean allied himself with the Orleanists. Jean’s mediations effected the Peace of Auxerre (1412). However, hostilities soon resumed and, in the following year, he also negotiated the Peace of Pontoise, which resulted in Orleanist victory. Jean is best remembered for his lavish spending on the arts. He left a collection of no less than 150 illuminated manuscripts, among them Les Très Belles Heures du duc de Berry (c. 1410; New York; The Cloisters) and Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (1416; Chantilly; Musée Condé), both executed by the Limbourg brothers.
JEROME, SAINT (EUSEBIUS HIERONYMOUS SOPHRONIUS; c. 342–420). One of the Latin Doctors of the Church. Born in Dalmatia to a wealthy pagan family, St. Jerome went to Rome to acquire an education and there he was baptized by Pope Liberius in 360. A vision of Christ convinced him to settle in the Syrian Desert where for four years he engaged in fasting, prayer, meditation, and the study of the Hebrew language. This is the subject of Andrea del Castagno’s Vision of St. Jerome (c. 1454–1455) in the Church of Santisima Annunziata, Florence, where the saint is shown as an ascetic character who beats his chest with a rock, the vision of Christ above him, the lion whose thorn he removed at his side, and his followers Sts. Paola and Eustochium bearing witness to the event. When Jerome emerged from the desert, he went to Antioch where he was ordained by St. Paulinus. His newly acquired knowledge allowed him to translate the Bible from the true Hebrew version into Latin, which the Council of Trent declared to be the official Vulgate of the Catholic Church. It remained as such until 1979 when Pope John Paul II replaced it with the New Vulgate.
As a result of the Tridentine council’s declaration, St. Jerome became one of the preferred subjects of Baroque art. George de La Tour rendered the Penitent St. Jerome (1628–1630; Stockholm, Nationalmuseum) on one knee, his whip in one hand, his crucifix in the other, and his ecclesiastic vestments prominently displayed. Jusepe de Ribera (1626; Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte) and Simon Vouet painted St. Jerome and the Angel of Judgment (c. 1625; Washington, National Gallery) where the saint (and the viewer) is reminded of the Last Judgment and transience of life. Agostino Carracci (c. 1592–1593; Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale) and Domenichino (1614; Vatican, Pinacoteca) rendered the Last Communion of St. Jerome where he is administered the last rites.
JESUIT ORDER. A mendicant religious order founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534 when he gathered a group of fellow students of theology from the University of Paris. Ordained in Venice in 1537, after a year of pilgrimage in Spain, Ignatius and his followers also resolved to do pilgrimage in Jerusalem. As war impeded their travel, they instead went to Rome to offer their services to Paul III who approved their order in 1540. Their main objective was missionary work meant to spread the Catholic faith around the world. St. Francis Xavier, a member of the original group, went to India, Indonesia, and Japan, and Matteo Ricci to China. By the 17th century, the Jesuits were also performing missionary work in North and Latin America. During the Counter-Reformation, the Jesuits became the leading force in the fight against the spread of Protestantism. Until the 18th century, when the order was suppressed by Clement XIV (1773), they were also leaders in education, establishing schools in all the major urban centers of Europe. Pius VII reinstated the Jesuits in 1814 and to this day they enjoy a solid reputation as educators. The mother church of the order is Il Gesù in Rome.
JOACHIM, SAINT. Joachim is the father of the Virgin Mary. While in Jerusalem, where he and his wife Anne went to sacrifice to God, Joachim was expelled from the temple by the high priest for not having been blessed with children. Shamed, he went into the mountains and there he prayed, asking for his barrenness to be lifted. In a dream, an angel informed him that God had heard his prayers and that his wife was now with child. This was deemed a miracle as Joachim and Anne were of advanced age. Joachim returned to Jerusalem to meet his wife at the city gates, as commanded by the angel. The story, which stems from the Apocrypha, was depicted in various scenes by Giotto in the Arena Chapel, Padua (1305), and Taddeo Gaddi in the Baroncelli Chapel (1332–1338) at Santa Croce, Florence.
JOHN THE BAPTIST, SAINT. Son of Zacharias, a priest of the Temple of Jerusalem, and Elizabeth, the Virgin’s cousin, who conceived him in old age. St. John lived as a hermit in the desert of Judea until the age of 30 when he chose to preach in the banks of the Jordan River against the evils of the world and to persuade his listeners to engage in penance and submit to baptism. There, he recognized Christ as the Messiah and baptized him, a scene depicted by Piero della Francesca in the 1450s (London, National Gallery), Andrea del Verrocchio in 1472–1475 (Florence, Uffizi), and El Greco in 1608–1614 (Toledo, Hospital de San Juan Bautista de Afuera). As St. John had attracted large crowds, Herod, fearful of his power, had him arrested. Also contributing to his arrest was the fact that John denounced Herod’s marriage to his sister-in-law, Herodias, who retaliated by effecting the saint’s execution. Herod held a banquet and asked Salome, Herodias’ daughter, if she would dance for him. Persuaded by her mother, Salome retorted that she would do so if he gave her the head of the Baptist, to which Herod agreed. The story is the subject of Fra Filippo Lippi’s frescoes in the choir of the Prato Cathedral (1452–1466) and Benozzo Gozzoli’s painting in the Washington National Gallery (c. 1461–1462). Caravaggio depicted the Baptist’s decollation in 1608 (Malta, Church of St. John in Valetta) and Titian painted Salome holding his severed head on a platter in c. 1515 (Rome, Galleria Doria-Pamphili).
JOHN THE EVANGELIST, SAINT. St. John the Evangelist, the youngest of the apostles, was called along with his brother James by Christ at Lake Genesareth. John was present at the Transfiguration, Agony in the Garden, and Crucifixion. After Christ’s death, he went to Rome where Emperor Domitian submitted him to martyrdom. Having escaped unscathed from a pot of boiling oil, he was exiled to the island of Patmos where, after experiencing visions, he wrote the Revelations, the final book in the Bible. Correggio depicted St. John in one of those mystical moments in 1520–1524 in the dome fresco of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma, and Hans Memlinc (1479; Bruges, Hospital of St. John) did the same in one of the lateral panels of his Altarpiece of the Virgin and Angels. After Domitian’s death, St. John went to Ephesus where he also wrote his Gospel. He died there, the only apostle to do so of natural causes. Scenes from St. John’s life are included in the Peruzzi Chapel at Santa Croce, Florence, rendered by Giotto in the 1320s, and in the chapel of Filippo Strozzi at Santa Maria Novella, Florence, painted by Filippino Lippi in 1502. See also APOCALYPSE.
JOHNSON, CORNELIUS (1593–1661). Leading portraitist of the Baroque era in England. Cornelius Johnson was the son of Dutch immigrants who settled in London, and worked for kings James I and Charles I, as well as members of the court. His popularity waned after Anthony van Dyck arrived in England in 1632. When civil war broke out in 1643, Johnson moved to Holland where he remained for the rest of his life. Johnson’s portraits are closely tied to Dutch portraiture. His figures are usually placed in front of dark, undefined backgrounds with focus on their faces and elaborate costumes that denote their social standing. His portrait Sir Thomas Hanmer (1631; Wales, National Museum) depicts a member of King Charles’ court who retired from politics after the civil war to devote himself to gardening, becoming one of the most distinguished horticulturists of his era. Here, he is depicted at the age of 19 when he served Charles as page and cupbearer, wearing an aristocratic black silk costume with lace collar and gazing out at the viewer without expression. Johnson’s portrait Baron Thomas Coventry (1639; London, National Portrait Gallery), which depicts a prominent lawyer, politician, and judge, shows the sitter with the signs of his parliamentary office: the bag, great seal, and mace. A comparison of these two works demonstrates the impact of van Dyck’s art on Johnson’s style as the later portrait presents a softening of forms, particularly in the details of the drapery, and greater accuracy of proportions than the earlier example.
JONES, INIGO (1573–1652). Inigo Jones is credited with bringing Palladianism to England. He was born in Smithfield to a cloth worker and is mentioned in documents dating to 1603 as a picture maker. Soon thereafter, he went to Italy where he must have seen Andrea Palladio’s buildings. By 1605, he is recorded in London working for Queen Anne of Denmark, James I’s wife, designing costumes and sceneries for masks in a Palladian style. In 1610, Inigo was working for Prince Henry, James’ son, as his official surveyor and, following Henry’s death (1612), he became the Surveyor of the King’s Works (1613). At this time, Inigo returned to Italy as the escort to Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, visiting Milan, Parma, Venice, Bologna, Siena, Florence, and Rome. Inigo brought with him his copy of Palladio’s Quattro Libri and made notations on the margins as he studied his buildings.
Having returned to England in 1615, in the following year he received the commission to build the Queen’s House in Greenwich for Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s wife, a commission he completed in 1635. The structure, composed of two equal squares connected by a covered bridge, utilized a Palladian vocabulary, mathematical proportions, and emphasis on symmetry—features that up to that point had not been seen in England. In 1619–1622, Inigo was also occupied with the building of the Banqueting House in Whitehall Palace, London, meant to function as the reception hall for foreign dignitaries, to host official ceremonies, and to replace the previous banqueting hall that had burned down in 1619. Here too the design derived from Palladio, and specifically the Palazzo Thiene, illustrated in the Quattro Libri, and the Basilica in Vincenza, the Venetian architect’s reinterpretation of an ancient basilican plan as described by Vitruvius. Inigo’s façade is raised on a podium and utilizes the Colosseum principle. Originally, each level was faced with a different colored stone, replaced in the 19th century with a stark white front. The frieze still carries the swags and masks intended by Inigo to denote the function of the building. The interior is in essence a large, open hall, meant to house large numbers of peoples, its ceiling decorated with a magnificent painting by Peter Paul Rubens depicting the Apotheosis of James I (1629), installed there in 1635. Charles I was beheaded in front of the Banqueting House in 1649.
JORDAENS, JACOB (1593–1678). After the death of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens became the leading painter of Flanders. But unlike his predecessors, he was never a court painter, instead catering to bourgeois customers. Like Rubens, Jordaens trained with Adam van Noort, whose daughter he married. He spent most of his life in Antwerp, save for short visits to Southern and Northern Netherlands. Though the influence of Rubens is clearly seen in his works, particularly in the loose brushwork and the monumentality and energy of his scenes, he differs from the older master in that his figures are vulgar peasant types with exaggerated rosy cheeks and saggy flesh highlighted with blue-gray tones. Examples of his paintings are the Satyr and Peasants (c. 1620; Munich, Alte Pinakothek), the Allegory of Fertility (c. 1622; Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts), Pan and Syrinx (c. 1625; Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts), the Four Evangelists (c. 1625; Louvre, Paris), and the Martyrdom of St. Apollonia (1628; Antwerp, Augustinian Church). Jordaens’ most important work is the Triumph of Stadholder Frederik Hendrik (1652), commissioned by Frederik’s wife, Amalia van Solms, for the Oranjezaal at the Huis ten Bosch in The Hague to commemorate the deeds of her deceased husband.
JOSEPH, SAINT. St. Joseph was one of the suitors who brought rods to the temple to determine who would wed the Virgin Mary. That Joseph’s rod flowered made clear that he was the one chosen. Pietro Perugino depicted the Marriage of the Virgin to Joseph in 1500–1504 (Caen, Musée des Beaux-Arts) and Raphael in 1504 (Milan, Brera). Joseph was alarmed to hear that Mary was pregnant, as they had not consummated their relationship. An angel appeared to him and dissuaded him from divorcing her, explaining that her pregnancy was the work of the Holy Spirit. Joseph was present at Christ’s birth and took his family to Egypt to escape the massacre of the innocents. He was also at Christ’s Presentation in the Temple, as exemplified by Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s painting of the subject of 1342 (Florence, Uffizi). After he and Mary find the 12–year-old Christ disputing with the doctors in the temple, Joseph disappears from the New Testament, save for a brief mention in the Gospel of Luke.
The cult of St. Joseph had existed in the East since the fourth century. In the West, however, his veneration was not popularized until the 15th century and his feast was only introduced into the Roman calendar in 1479. In art, he gradually took on a more active role in images of the Holy Family. Examples include Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo (c. 1503, Florence, Uffizi) where he helps the Virgin balance the Christ Child on her shoulder, Ludovico Carracci’s Cento Madonna (1591; Cento, Museo Civico) where he leans his elbow on the Virgin’s throne, Caravaggio’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1594; Rome, Galleria Doria-Pamphili) where he holds the music score for the music-playing angel who sooths the Christ Child to sleep, and La Tour’s Christ and St. Joseph (1645; Paris, Louvre) where he engages in carpentry with the young Christ.
JUDAS RETURNING THE THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER (1629; Yorkshire, Mulgrave Castle). Christ was arrested after Judas led the Roman soldiers to him, for which he was paid 30 pieces of silver. After the arrest, Judas, overwhelmed by a sense of remorse, attempted to return the money, but the high priests and elders refused it. This is the scene depicted by Rembrandt in this work. Judas is shown on his knees with hands clasped as he explains to the priests and elders that he has betrayed innocent blood. This gesture is so powerful that, upon seeing the work, Constantijn Huygens, secretary to Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, praised Rembrandt’s ability to convey great emotion and predicted that he would soon surpass the famous masters of his era, which in fact he did. Huygens also called Rembrandt the greatest of history painters.
JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES. A story from the Apocrypha that relates how Judith saved the Israelites from the Babylonians, who had cut off their water supply. Judith entered the Babylonian camp and agreed to dine with Holofernes, their commander. She gave him so much to drink that he fell into a stupor. Then she grabbed his sword and beheaded him. In the morning, the Babylonians, confused by the event, were defeated by the Israelites. In art, the image of Judith and Holofernes became a symbol of virtue overcoming vice. Andrea Mantegna depicted Judith placing the head of Holofernes in a bag held by her servant Abra, while the beheaded corpse lies on a bed behind them (c. 1495; Washington, National Gallery). Donatello (1459; Florence, Palazzo Vecchio), Caravaggio (c. 1598; Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica), and Artemisia Gentileschi (1612–1613; Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte) chose to portray the moment when Judith cuts off Holofernes’ head.
JULIUS II (GIULIANO DELLA ROVERE, r. 1503–1513). Nephew of Pope Sixtus IV who raised him to the cardinalate upon ascending the throne in 1471. Elected to the papacy in 1503, Julius set out to expand the Papal States by capturing the Romagna, Perugia, and Bologna territories the papacy had once owned. In 1508, he joined the League of Cambrai against Venice, which resulted in the recovery of Rimini and Faenza. His other major political concern was to free Italy from the French. In 1511, he formed the Holy League with Venice, Spain, England, Switzerland, and the Holy Roman Emperor. In 1512, the Swiss defeated the French in Novarra, and Parma, Piacenza, and Reggio Emilia were annexed to the Papal States. The victory was short-lived as Julius died in the following year. The league was dissolved, and the French captured Lombardy. Julius is best remembered for his art patronage. Michelangelo painted the Sistine ceiling (1508–1512) under his papacy and Raphael the Stanza della Segnatura (1510–1511), both at the Vatican. Donato Bramante submitted his design for New St. Peter’s under Julius’ patronage (1506), and Michelangelo rendered the pope’s tomb (1505–1545) originally intended for St. Peter’s, but eventually placed in the pope’s titular Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome.
JUNO. Jupiter’s consort, Juno is the mother of Vulcan and Mars and the protectress of marriage and childbirth. Her sacred bird is the peacock, often seen in paintings related to the goddess, such as Tintoretto’s Origin of the Milky Way (c. 1570; London, National Gallery) where the infant Hercules suckles from her breast, the galaxy formed by the milk that drips from his mouth. The peacock is also included in Andrea Mantegna’s ceiling in the Camera Picta at the Ducal Palace in Mantua (1465–1474), also known as the Camera degli Sposi (Room of the Married Couple), as reference to Juno’s role as patroness of marriage. Juno persecutes the many loves of Jupiter to avenge his infidelity, and she is also ruthless toward the offspring resulting from these illicit affairs. In the Judgment of Paris, she is one of the goddesses in the contest, the scene Lucas Cranach the Elder depicted in 1530 (Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle) and Peter Paul Rubens in 1602 (London, National Gallery).
JUPITER. The god of gods, Jupiter is the ruler of heaven and Earth. In his infancy, he was hidden so his father Saturn would not devour him and was nurtured by the goat Amalthea, a scene sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1615 (Rome, Galleria Borghese). As an adult, he battled his father, defeated him, and established order in the cosmos. The giants rose up against him, but Jupiter defeated them and cast them to the underworld, the scene depicted in Perino del Vaga’s Fall of the Giants (c. 1529) in the Palazzo del Principe, Genoa, and Giulio Romano’s (1530–1532) in the Palazzo del Tè, Mantua. Juno became Jupiter’s consort, yet, for him, fidelity to her was not a priority. He was notorious for his many affairs and illegitimate children. He appeared to Danaë in the form of a gold shower, to Leda as a swan, and to Europa as a bull. He fathered Apollo with Letona, Proserpina with Ceres, and Bacchus with Semele. His many loves are common subjects in art. Correggio alone painted Jupiter and Ganymede, Jupiter and Io (both 1530s; Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum), and Jupiter and Danaë (c. 1531; Rome, Galleria Borghese). Titian (1554; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) and Jan Gossart (1527; Munich, Alte Pinakothek) also rendered his indiscretion with Danaë, and Paolo Veronese painted the Rape of Europa (1580; Venice, Doge’s Palace).