Female Seated Nude

This drawing was undoubtedly made from a live model, although the motif itself was probably borrowed from Rubens’s celebrated picture of Venus with a Mirror. Jordaens used this study for the figure of Juno enthroned on a cloud in his painting of Aeneas Aided by the Gods (Princeton University Art Museum). Finely modelled with cross-hatching in two tones, this study is notable for its exceptional persuasive sense of volume and the masterly depiction of the reflected light on the surface of the skin, although our perception of this today is somewhat distorted by the later non-authorial watercolour tinting of the background.