The Four Elements and Ages of Man: Air and Youth

mythological

This painting is part of a series of four representing the personification of the four elements and the four ages of man. The second painting of the series combines air with youth. In the bare arms and shoulders of Youth the painter seems to want to demonstrate his ability to render the human body.

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The Four Elements and Ages of Man: Air and Youth

About the Artist

Jan Lievens

1607 – 1674

Jan Lievens (or Lievensz.), Dutch painter of portraits and religious, allegorical and genre subjects. He was a friend and contemporary of Rembrandt and a pupil of Lastman in Amsterdam. Then shared a studio with Rembrandt in Leiden in the later 1620s: many works of this period show one influencing the other. Lievens went to England, probably in 1632 after Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, but he was in Antwerp by 1635, where he was influenced by the courtly style of Van Dyck. He returned to Holland in 1639 and became a successful painter of portraits and allegories. Raising of Lazarus is a good example of his works.

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