Abraham Janssens

Private collection, Spain, by 1998.

Cuenca, Fundación Antonio Pérez, 2010-2015 (on extended loan);
Cuenca, Fundación Antonio Pérez, El fulgor de la mirada: Alfredo Castañeda, Abraham Janssens, April - May 2011.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has been restored and could easily be hung in its current condition. The work is clean. The varnish is extremely glossy, but the painting looks well nonetheless. The canvas is well lined. The canvas is made of two pieces. The join runs through the base of the crucifix and below the knee on the left side. Although there are numerous extremely fine and detailed retouches throughout the work, the paint layer seems to be quite lively and rich. There is very slight milkiness or blooming that has developed in some of the darkest colors, but this is only visible in isolated areas upon close inspection.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This commanding depiction of Saint Jerome is a testament to the versatile talents of Abraham Janssens, a prominent figure in the history of Flemish Baroque art and a contemporary of Peter Paul Rubens.  The sculptural monumentality of this life-size figure is both enlivened by the dramatic Caravaggesque lighting but also tempered by an overwhelmingly contemplative mood.  With his characteristic bold handling, crisp coloration, and smooth technique, Janssens renders the penitent saint within a dark niche, his weary head resting heavily on his large hand. The intricate definition of his musculature contrasts with the flowing deep folds of the crimson robe that cascades around his lower body.  Surrounding him are his iconographic symbols, including his devoted lion, his red cardinal's hat, a crucifix, and his books, which are emblematic of his scholarly interests.

Abraham Janssens was born in Antwerp in 1567 and trained from 1584-1585 with the Flemish painter Jan Snellinck (1548-1638).  He then continued his training in Italy where he was student of Willem van Nieulandt the Elder, and was recorded in 1598 and 1601 in Rome.  Janssens returned to Antwerp from his Italian sojourn around 1602.  In the years before Rubens returned to Antwerp at the end of 1608, Janssens established his reputation as a professional artist, became the dean of the Guild of Saint Luke, and welcomed countless important commissions.  Upon Rubens’ return, an artistic rivalry commenced.  Although Rubens would eventually surpass Janssens, masterpieces such as the present painting confirm his prominent position alongside Rubens throughout his career.      

The Renaissance masterworks that Janssens encountered during his Italian travels undoubtedly inspired his artistic output.  In the present work, one can detect influences of  Michelangelo’s prophets and ignudi in the Sistine Chapel and Raphael’s bearded Heraclitus in his School of Athens.  At the same time, Janssens would have encountered countless examples from classical Antiquity, and the distinct outline of the figure in the present work is emblematic of an interest in the sculptural art form that would become a defining element of his compositions.  Comparisons can even be drawn between the figure in the present work and the famous Belvedere Torso in the Vatican, a work that also inspired Rubens to complete a number of drawings that he used for later compositions.

During his training abroad, Janssens would have also been aware of the contemporary developments in Italian art, witnessing firsthand the innovations of artists such as the Carracci and Caravaggio, the latter of whom was working in Rome from 1592-1606.  Caravaggio’s influence can be seen in the dramatic highlights and shadows cast on Saint Jerome from a light source above as well as in the naturalism of the saint’s bulging veins, dirty toenails, and wrinkled brow.  Additional similarities are visible in the present painting and the contemplative and clothed figure in Caravaggio’s Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness dated circa 1604 (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, inv. no. 52-25).  In both paintings the artists have placed the saint at the forefront of the picture plane, rendering the composition with a captivating and palpable sense of immediacy.

The portrayal of a contemplative Saint Jerome seated within a darkened interior proved to be a popular compositional prototype for the artist, for it is known in a number of other versions, each with slightly differing dimensions, including The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virgina (inv. no. 71.459)¹; The Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (inv. no. 731)^2; and in Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire.³ 

1. 152 by 118 cm., see D. Weller, Saints and Sinners, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and his Dutch and Flemish Followers, exhibition catalogue, 1998, p. 152, cat. no. 26, reproduced.
2.  181 by 141 cm., ibid., p. 154, reproduced fig. 1.
3.  176.5 by 141 cm., reproduced on a photocard in the Witt Library.