Jan Pynas

According to Houbraken Jan and Jacob Pynas were good at landscapes and figures, but Jan was better than Jacob.[1] Jan travelled to Italy in 1605 with Pieter Lastman where they spent several years practising art after the great Italian masters.[1]

According to the RKD he was the brother of Jacob and he made two trips to Italy in 1605 and 1617 and it is not certain his brother accompanied him.[2] In Rome he was friends with Adam Elsheimer, Pieter Lastman, and Jacob Ernst Thomann von Hagelstein.[1] Jan's sister Meynsge married the artist Jan Tengnagel in 1611.[2] He became the teacher of Bartholomeus Breenberg and Steven van Goor.[2]

The works of the Pynas brothers are close in style to the painter Adam Elsheimer, and there has been a history of mis-attribution between the three, where both of the Pynas brothers are known to have signed their works "J. Pynas."[3]

Jan died in Amsterdam; Jacob survived him by many years and is thought to have died in Delft.

• 1605 – Raising of Lazarus, (Aschaffenburg)
• 1610 – Moses Turning Water into Blood, (Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam)
• 1613 – Dismissal of Hagar, (Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, Aachen)
• 1618 – Jacob Being Shown Joseph’s Bloodstained Robe (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg)
• 1618 – Joseph Selling Corn in Egypt, (London)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jan Pynas.

• Jan Symonsz. Pynas on Artnet