| Oost,
Jacob van, the Elder
(1603-1671) |
| Flemish Baroque painter. The face of painting in seventeenth-century Bruges was shaped by Jacob van Oost the Elder, whose significance is comparable with that of Pieter Pourbus in the previous century. Not surprisingly, his works are liberally sprinkled around the city's convents and churches. Besides altarpieces, Van Oost painted numerous portraits - both of individuals and of families, a genre in which he excelled. The Groeninge Museum in Bruges has samples of both his religious and his secular work, acquired as donations or recovered after the French occupation. Van Oost's large canvas with Saint Augustine, once the altarpiece of Saint Trudo's Abbey, is a case in point. The provincial serenity of the composition, more evident for its organization than its decorative effect, perfectly expresses the temperament of this Bruges painter, whose quiet style contrasts with the virtuoso exuberance of Rubens and the courtly distinction of Van Dyck. |