Flemish painter

Antwerp 1578 – 1623 Antwerp

 

Painter of genre scenes, biblical scenes and picture galleries, also of some still lifes and portraits.

 

Son of Frans Francken I (1542 – 1616). Frans I had many children. Three years after his death six were still alive, four men who were all four painters, and two women.

 

The Francken-family counted many painters over five generations:

 

- none of the paintings of Nicolas Francken (circa 1510/20 – 1596) have survived;

- three of his sons were painters: Hieronymus I, Frans I and Ambrosius I;

- four sons of Frans I also became painters: Thomas, our Hieronymus II, Frans II (best-known member of the family) and Ambrosius II;

- three sons of Frans II were painters: Frans III, Hieronymus III and Ambrosius III;

- finally for Constantyn Francken, son of our Hieronymus III, his father died too young to give him lessons in painting.

 

Hieronymus the Younger studied painting with his father until 1605 and then with his uncle Ambrosius I (1544/45 – 1618). He joined the Painter’s Guild of Saint Luke in his birthplace Antwerp in 1607. 

 

Hieronymus II remained unmarried. His early works and those of his young brother Frans II ((1581 – 1642) are often confounded. Hieronymus II must have worked in the studio of Frans II. 

 

At their father’s death in 1616 Hieronymus II carried on his workshop. He died seven years later.

 

 

In a nocturnal landscape numerous figures have gathered in different groups. This complex composition is an open invitation for observation and identification of the various figures: a difficult task for modern observers.

 

At the top of our composition Fama, that is Fame, is blowing her trumpets.

 

Under Fama three writers-philosophers from Antiquity (judging by their clothes and hats) are engaged in a lively intellectual debate: these must be Socrates, Plato and Aristoteles. Behind the middle figure sits one of the Liberal Arts: a painter at work in front of his easel with an unfinished painting. In the right background are War and Death, represented by fighting soldiers, horsemen and a skeleton.

 

At left we see brave figures from Antiquity: Cesar or Emperor Augustus speaks to his soldiers. In front of them Mucius Scaevola bravely burns his right arm. The young woman who is turned towards us is Queen Tomyris, holding a bucket with the head of the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great soaked in wine. The man to her right, looking at us (the spectators) might be a self-portrait of Hieronymus II.

 

At right stands an intriguing group of five figures: Saint Anthony Abbot, a person wearing a turban, two Renaissance figures at left and a scholar who is lifting a large flask.

 

At the extreme right one sees a sculptor and a mathematician or geographer holding a pair of compasses.

 

There is monogrammed painting by Frans Francken II, sold at Lempertz Cologne, 16/11/19, that represents a related subject: the Allegory of the triumph of the Liberal Arts over War and Death. That painting also holds Fame flying over the composition, a painter at his easel in the background and a figure looking out of the composition. That figure was identified by Ursula Härting as a self portrait of Frans II; our figure sharing similar features might therefore also be a self portrait, but then of course of Hieronymus II of whom no other portraits are known.

December 2020 we sold another version of that Lempertz composition, but painted on canvas, which was attributed to Hieronymus II. He is indeed known to have made copies and variations of paintings by his famous brother Frans II, when working in his workshop until circa 1616.

 

 

First of all because it is in mint condition.

Secondly because it is an original composition of Hieronymus II of a special, intellectual subject.