The Conversion of Saul with Horseman and Banner

The Conversion of Saul with Horseman and Banner, c. 1645–47. Jacob Jordaens (Flemish, 1593–1678). Black and red chalk, pen and black and gray ink, brush and brown wash, watercolor, and gouache, heightened with white gouache; framing lines in red chalk and graphite (right edge); sheet: 32.9 x 19.9 cm (12 15/16 x 7 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds, 1954.366

Created in 1645 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the portrait tradition. Jacob Jordaens worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

Working in Black and red chalk, pen and black and gray ink, brush and brown wash, watercolor, and gouache, heightened with white gouache; framing lines in red chalk and graphite (right edge) at Sheet: 32.9 x 19.9 cm (12 15/16 x 7 13/16 in.), Jacob Jordaens constructs depth through value contrast rather than outline, letting figures emerge from darkness the way they would under candlelight or through a shuttered window.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. Every prop in a portrait like this is a decision — jewelry, fabric, and hand position were negotiated between painter and patron to shape how the sitter would be remembered.

Housed at Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, the painting has passed through the hands of collectors, dealers, and institutions before reaching public view — a provenance that is itself part of the object's story.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”