Jacques de l'Ange (Maybe)

Ecco Homo

Jacques de l'Ange is an extremely obscure Dutch painter of the 17th century. There were some paintings in European museums signed JAD, but before 1994 nobody knew what that stood for and the painter was known as "the Monogrammist JAD."

Allegory of Lust

Then in 1994 by the scholar Bernhard Schnackenburg linked those paintings to several others that seemed to be by the same hand, including one attributed to Jacques de l'Ange. Thus a new artist was born.

Martyrdom of Saints Dymphna and Gerebernus, and Detail

Wikipedia tells us:

Very little is known about the life of Jacques de l'Ange. It is not clear whether he can be identified with the genre and history painter Jacques (Jacob) de Langhe who was recorded in Antwerp in 1632–1633 and was a pupil of Jan Cossiers. It remains unclear whether he Ange could be the "J. de Langhe," who was active as a portraitist in 's-Hertogenbosch from 1644 to 1693.

So, yeah.

A Geographer

Whoever painted these, they are in the style known as Caravaggesque, because they copy the dramatic lighting and extreme facial features of Caravaggio.

I am of course skeptical of all these reconstructions based on style, but think some of these are terrific paintings, especially this one, Chained Promtheus.