'As The Old Ones Sing, So The Young Ones Pipe’
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About this artwork
This is Jordaens’s design for the first in a series of eight tapestries depicting popular proverbs or sayings. He received the commission in September 1644, and Jordaens retained control of exactly which Netherlandish proverbs he would illustrate. The saying ‘As the Old Ones Sing, so the Young Ones Pipe’ warns parents to set a good example to their children, as whatever they do, their children will copy. Moralising sayings such as this were popular in the region in the seventeenth century, and had their roots in biblical commands. People were accustomed to the imagery used to illustrate proverbs, and would have recognised the symbolic use of items to reinforce the point. For example, the jug on the table represents temperance.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Jacob Jordaens (1593 - 1678) Flemish
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title:'As The Old Ones Sing, So The Young Ones Pipe’
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date created:About 1644
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materials:Pen and brush and brown ink, watercolour and bodycolour over black chalk on paper
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measurements:26.20 x 29.80 cm (laid down)
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object type:
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credit line:David Laing Bequest to the Royal Scottish Academy transferred 1910
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accession number:D 1192
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gallery:
Jacob Jordaens
Jacob Jordaens
After Rubens’s death in 1640, Jordaens succeeded him as the leading artist in Antwerp. Jordaens had collaborated with Rubens as an independent assistant on several projects, and they shared the same master in Antwerp, Adam van Noort. Jordaens married Van Noort’s daughter in 1616. His paintings...