Jan Symonsz. Pynas (1582, Alkmaar – 1631, Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age painter.
Biography
According to Houbraken Jan and Jacob Pynas were good at landscapes and figures, but Jan was better than Jacob.[1] Jan travelled to Italy in 1605 with Pieter Lastman where they spent several years practising art after the great Italian masters.[1]
According to the RKD he was the brother of Jacob and he made two trips to Italy in 1605 and 1617 and it is not certain his brother accompanied him.[2] In Rome he was friends with Adam Elsheimer, Pieter Lastman, and Jacob Ernst Thomann von Hagelstein.[1] Jan's sister Meynsge married the artist Jan Tengnagel in 1611.[2] He became the teacher of Bartholomeus Breenberg and Steven van Goor.[2]
The works of the Pynas brothers are close in style to the painter Adam Elsheimer, and there has been a history of mis-attribution between the three, where both of the Pynas brothers are known to have signed their works "J. Pynas."[3]
Jan died in Amsterdam; Jacob survived him by many years and is thought to have died in Delft.
Selected works
- 1605 – Raising of Lazarus, (Aschaffenburg)
- 1610 – Moses Turning Water into Blood, (Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam)
- 1613 – Dismissal of Hagar, (Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, Aachen)
- 1618 – Jacob Being Shown Joseph’s Bloodstained Robe (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg)
- 1618 – Joseph Selling Corn in Egypt, (London)
References
- 1 2 3 (in Dutch) Jan en Jacob Pinas Biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature
- 1 2 3 Jan Symonsz. Pynas in the RKD
- ↑ Kren and Marx, Comments on Landscape with Mercury and Battus at the Web Gallery of Art