Portrait of a young gentleman, formerly believed to be a self-portrait

By about 1615 Jacob Jordaens had just been admitted as a master in Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke, the license a painter needed to take his own commissions. For a long time this confident young face was read as Jordaens himself, a self-portrait made at that starting point. The Uffizi now catalogues it more cautiously, as the portrait of a young gentleman whose name is not known, and the old self-portrait label has been set aside. It still shows the kind of picture a young Antwerp painter made to prove what he could do, a single sitter, plainly lit, turned toward the viewer. The face is dated to around 1615 to 1618, the years just after he qualified, which is part of why it was once taken for the painter looking at himself.