The Betrayal of Christ

The Betrayal of Christ, late 1650s. Jacob Jordaens (Flemish, 1593–1678). Oil on canvas; framed: 249 x 271.5 x 8 cm (98 1/16 x 106 7/8 x 3 1/8 in.); unframed: 225.5 x 246.3 cm (88 3/4 x 96 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1970.32

Created in 1650 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology 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 oil on canvas at Framed: 249 x 271.5 x 8 cm (98 1/16 x 106 7/8 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 225.5 x 246.3 cm (88 3/4 x 96 15/16 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. Figures and gestures here follow a visual vocabulary contemporary viewers would have read fluently — attributes, poses, and settings that identify who is who and what is at stake.

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.”