Jan van Balen Jan van Balen Jan van Balen (21 July 1611 in Antwerp – 14 March 1654) was a Flemish painter known for his Baroque paintings of history and allegorical subjects. He also painted landscapes and genre scenes. Jan van Balen was the son of Hendrick van Balen and Margriet Briers. His father was a prominent painter in Antwerp and played an important role in the renewal of Flemish painting in the early 17th century. He was also one of the teachers of Anthony van Dyck. Jan van Balen had two brothers, Gaspard (born in 1615) and Hendrik (born in 1620) who
Daniel van den Dyck biographer Carlo Ridolfi's book on Venetian painters of 1648 entitled "Le maraviglie dell'Arte ovvero, Le vite degli Illustri Pittori Veneti and dello Stato". He was also praised by Marco Boschini in his "La carta del navegar pitoresco" of 1660, a panygeric poem about Venetian painting. Boschini dedicated two pages to van den Dyck and represented the artist in a print as "Jupiter embellishing Virtue with a royal mantle". Giovan Francesco Loredano, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incogniti, a learned society of freethinking intellectuals established in 1630 in Venice, often ordered the illustrations for his multiple writings from