page_title: Abraham Janssens
section_title: Early works
hierarchical_section_title: Abraham Janssens / Work / Early works
context_page_description: Abraham Janssens I, Abraham Janssen I or Abraham Janssens van Nuyssen was a Flemish painter, who is known principally for his large religious and mythological works, which show the influence of Caravaggio. He was the leading history painter in Flanders prior to the return of Rubens from Italy.
context_section_description: His earliest works are steeped in late 16th-century Mannerism and are characterized by an artificial design and a palette composed of dispersing colours. An example is his earliest dated picture Diana and Callisto of 1601 (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), which demonstrates that at the time he was less influenced by Italian painting than by the late Mannerist style that was at the time being developed in Utrecht and Haarlem and drew inspiration from the work of the Flemish painter Bartholomeus Spranger.  The work Diana and Callisto does, however, rely on Italian sculpture of both Antiquity and the Renaissance, as does his later work.
  Following his return to Antwerp in 1602 Janssens' work displayed a strong reliance on Raphael.  This is clear in the composition Mount Olympus (Alte Pinakothek, Munich) which shows the combination of Janssens' study of the Antique and of Michelangelo, during his stay in Italy and with the help of prints which he could view in Antwerp.
  From 1606 onwards, his style started to show the influence of Caravaggio.  It is believed that this was a response to new tendencies in the Antwerp school of painting around this time.  He painted in this style for about five to six years.
  His composition Scaldis and Antverpia (also referred to as Allegory of the Scheldt) of 1609 (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) is a key work of Janssens' Caravaggesque period.  It was commissioned by the Antwerp city magistrate to decorate the chimney in the city hall's Assembly Room where the Twelve Years' Truce between Spain and the Dutch Republic was signed on 9 April 1609.  Rubens also received a commission for the same occasion.  It was hoped that the Truce would bring new prosperity and trade to Antwerp, for which the city had traditionally relied on the river Scheldt. The subject of the work is therefore Scaldis (the river Scheldt) and Antverpia (the city of Antwerp). This work was made when Janssens' artistic powers had reached their peak.  The figure of Scaldis is inspired by the statute of the Tiber on the Capitoline Hill while the composition itself resembles Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. This work shows how Janssens' style had developed towards a classic academic beauty, harmonious in form and with an unbroken palette. The influence of Caravaggio is seen in the use of strong contrasts of light and shadow (chiaroscuro) to create expressive power, while the influence of the School of Bologna can be found in his search for noble classicism.  The preference of Janssens for sculptural form impairs the drama of the work as the figures are represented in frozen poses and expression.
  Other works dating to this overtly Caravaggesque period are the Allegory of the burdens of time (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, 1609), Peace and plenty (Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 1614), which was also commissioned for the Antwerp city hall's Assembly Room, and The dead Christ in the tomb with two angels (Metropolitan Museum of Art, c. 1610). The latter painting was likely commissioned as an altarpiece.  This Caravaggesque composition predates comparable Dutch works such as Dirck van Baburen's Roman charity by a decade.
caption: The Virgin and Child with the infant St John the Baptist
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