The Sacrifice of Isaac

For most of its life this canvas passed as a Rubens. It was bought at The Hague in 1734 from the painter's heirs, went into the Prussian royal collection at Potsdam under Rubens's name, was requisitioned by the French and taken to the Louvre still as a Rubens, and only when it came to Brera in an exchange was it recognised as the work of Jacob Jordaens. The mistake was easy to make. Jordaens worked in Antwerp inside Rubens's circle and became the leading painter of the city after Rubens died in 1640. The colour is what dates the picture. Those sober browns and blues belong to about 1625, when Jordaens was in his early thirties. The canvas stands more than two metres high, and it hangs in room 31 of the Pinacoteca.