Abraham Janssens, called Van Nuyssen

(Antwerp circa 1575–1632)
Saint Jerome,
oil on canvas, 149.5 x 119 cm, framed

Abraham Janssens was a prominent figure in the history of Flemish Baroque painting and a contemporary of Peter Paul Rubens. Here Janssens renders the penitent saint with his head resting on his hand and surrounded by his iconographic symbols of the lion, a red cardinal’s hat, a crucifix, and his books which display his scholarly interests and the present composition relates to other autograph versions by Abraham Janssens including those in the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, inv.no. 52-25) and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (inv. no. 731, 181 x 141 cm) and works offered at Sotheby’s, New York, 25 January 2017, lot 27 and 25 January 2017, lot 57.

Abraham Janssens was born in Antwerp as the son of Jan Janssens and Roelofken van Huysen or Nuyssen. There is some uncertainty regarding his year of birth and he is thought to have been born in the year 1567. Janssens studied under Jan Snellinck and was registered as a pupil in the local Guild of Saint Luke in 1585. He travelled to Italy where he stayed mainly in Rome between 1597 and 1602. The art that Janssens encountered during his Italian travels undoubtedly influenced his artistic output and in the present work it is possible to detect elements derived from Michelangelo and Raphael as well as examples taken from classical antiquity and the present painting has a sculptural quality. Janssens would also have been aware of the contemporary developments in Italian art and especially the innovations of the Carracci and Caravaggio. The Caravaggesque influence can be seen here in the use of dramatic lighting and shadows creating a sense of drama together with a realistic depiction of the saint.

After returning to Antwerp Janssens became a master in the Antwerp Guild in the guild year 1601–1602. In 1607 he became the dean of the Antwerp Guild of St Luke. This is also the time when he received his first major commissions, which initiated the most important period of his career and Janssens was considered one of the best history painters of his time. In 1610 Janssens joined the Confrerie of Romanists, a society of Antwerp humanists and artists who had travelled to Rome. Janssens died in Antwerp in 1632. His pupils included his son Abraham Janssens II, Giovanni di Filippo del Campo, Michele Desubleo, Nicolas Régnier, Gerard Seghers, and Theodoor Rombouts.