Abraham janssens biography

Following his apprenticeship to the rather mediocre painter Jan Snellinck the Elder (1548-1638), Janssens continued his studies in Italy.

Abraham janssens biography wikipedia

According to surviving documents he was in Rome in 1598 and again in the spring of 1601, when he is recorded as a pupil of his compatriot Willem van Nieulandt the Elder (1561?-1626). Oddly enough, his earliest dated picture, Diana and Callisto of 1601 (Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest) appears to have been less influenced by Italian art than by the late Mannerist style then taking root among his contemporaries in Utrecht and Haarlem, inspired by the work of the Flemish painter Bartholomeus Spranger (1546-1611).

On the other hand – like many of Janssens’s later works as well – it does draw on Italian sculpture of both antiquity and the Renaissance. With his return to Antwerp in 1601 (or at the latest 1602) Janssens joined the local painters’ guild, taking over a number of administrative functions as of 1606.

In the years up to 16