in 1571. He married Michaela del Tronco. A son, also called Jacob was born in 1582 or 1583 and a daughter named Suzanna was born around 1584. Jacob the Elder was still recorded as a master painter at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1585.

He travelled with his family via Paris to Italy in 1591. In Naples he started a collaboration with Wenceslas Cobergher, a Flemish painter who had trained in Antwerp with the leading history painter Maerten de Vos.