Jan Symonsz

JAN SYMONSZ. PYNAS (Alkmaar, 1581/82 – Amsterdam, 1631).
“Christ Healing the Woman with the Issue of Blood.”
Oil on panel.
The work is registered in the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague, under no. 122915, as a work by Jan Symonsz. Pynas.
Measurements: 57.4 x 75.8 cm; 72.9 x 92.1 cm (frame).

This work is an interesting example of history painting developed in Amsterdam during the early decades of the 17th century. Jan Pynas was one of the leading figures among the so-called “pre-Rembrandt” history painters, a group of artists specializing in biblical and mythological scenes whose narrative approach and treatment of light exerted a significant influence on the young Rembrandt. Alongside Pynas were masters such as Pieter Lastman, Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert, and Jan Tengnagel.

The composition depicts the episode of Christ healing the woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years, as recounted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Convinced that merely touching Christ’s cloak would be enough to heal her, the woman pushes her way through the crowd and discreetly reaches for his garment. Pynas focuses the drama on this precise moment, integrating the sacred narrative into a monumental setting of Roman ruins—a device that directly links the work to the painter’s experience in Italy.

The artist depicted this same episode on three occasions, a fact that attests to his particular interest in this iconography. There is a second version closely related to the present work and a third composition, cataloged in the RKD under no. 47680, currently known only through an old black-and-white photograph.

Around 1605, Pynas traveled to Italy with Pieter Lastman, staying first in Venice and later in Rome. There he was exposed to the latest developments in Italian painting and was particularly influenced by Tintoretto, Adam Elsheimer, and Carlo Saraceni. After returning to Amsterdam, he developed a style of painting characterized by the integration of figures and landscape, warm tones, and restrained narrative—elements that would prove fundamental to the subsequent development of Dutch history painting. Jan Pynas’s significance lies precisely in his position within the generation immediately preceding Rembrandt. The Pynas brothers and Pieter Lastman played a decisive role in introducing a new conception of narrative painting to Amsterdam, enriched by their experiences in Italy and their familiarity with Elsheimer. This panel, with its biblical scene set amid the ruins of Rome, is a significant example of this transitional period and helps us understand the artistic context in which Rembrandt’s first painting would emerge just a few years later.