Jacob JORDAENS (Antwerp 1593-1678). Telemachus leading Theoclymene before his mother Penelope Provenance: J. Wauters Collection, Brussels. Belgian private collection. Our sketch is a first preparatory thought for the series of tapestry cartoons devoted to the life of Ulysses [1], on which Jacob Jordaens worked around 1640. The subjects are taken from Canto XVII of Homer's Odyssey, and the commissioner of this decoration remains unknown. It depicts the arrival of Telemachus, son of Ulysses, at his mother Penelope's house, accompanied by Theoclymene, a soothsayer exiled from Argos, both dressed as beggars. The queen, who is working on her tapestry, welcomes them as distinguished guests. The latter announces to Penelope the return of her husband Ulysses to Ithaca and his revenge against his suitors. The play of chiaroscuro underlines the contrast between the serenity of this feminine space and the disturbance caused by the arrival of the male visitors. Jordaens seems to have been the first to depict this particular subject, which he used as a pretext to represent a richly decorated palatial interior, populated by animals: monkeys, dogs and birds. Several works related to this composition are known. A drawing in the National Museum in Stockholm is close to our composition. A second sketch, in preparation for the carton pour le tapissier (no longer in existence), is more finished and is kept at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence. Larger than ours (122 x 230 cm), it shows a number of significant changes: the staircase on the left has been replaced by a door opening onto a garden, and the central group has been modified, with the addition of two children. The niche housing a marble bust of a philosopher [2] has been replaced in Aix by a blue drapery (the painter certainly understood the anachronism of the presence of a Roman antique in an older Greek scene). 1. A copy of this series is kept in the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome. 2. Rubens often painted this antique bust, which he thought represented Seneca, for example in The Four Philosophers, 1612, Palatine Gallery, Pitti Palace, Florence. Bibliography: - Kristi Nelson, Jacob Jordaens - design for tapestry, V, Brepols, Picture Nova collection, 1998, pp. 82 and 83, reproduced on p. 334, fig.27. - Catalogue of the exhibition Jacob Jordaens, Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, September 2013-January 2014, p. 303. Dimensions: 103 x 136 cm. Expert: Cabinet Turquin Paris.