Hieronymus Janssens was nicknamed “le danseur”, “the dancer”, because he loved painting elegantly dressed people dancing.

 

Judith is the hero of a ferocious story taken from the Ancient Testament: in order to save her besieged town this beautiful widow gave herself to the Babylonian general, Holofernes. At night she decapitates him and returns with her loyal maid to Bethulia. When his soldiers find Holofernes’ body they flee.

 

 

Flemish painter

Antwerp 1624 – 1693 Antwerp

 

Pupil from 1636/37 onwards of Christoffel Jacobsz. van der Laemen (Brussels 1606/1615 – 1651 Antwerp), whom he surpassed.

He became Master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in the year 1643/44.

 

Painter of elegant, joyful genre scenes, of rich and noble families, set in open air or in interiors. People are playing fashionable games, such as “la main chaude”, listening to music or having breakfast.

But foremost Janssens specialized in dance scenes and was thus named “the dancer”, “le danseur”.

Representations of balls and banquets are subjects which were also treated by other Flemish painters such as Hieronymus Francken I and II, Frans Francken II, Louis de Caullery and Gonzales Coques, and by the French engraver Abraham Bosse. 

Janssens figures are always elegant, refined, immaculately dressed and behaving properly.

 

Like his master, van der Lamen, he also treated the subject of the Prodigal Son.

 

Architecture and perspective play an important role in Janssens’ pain-tings. The setting is usually the terrace with portico or the ballroom of a palace or important home.

Janssens regularly painted staffage figures for painters specialized in architectural compositions such as :

- Willem van Ehrenberg 

- Pieter Neeffs I

- Jacob Ferdinand Saeys 

- Anton Günther Gheringh

- Barthold van Bassen

 

Janssens’ influence lasted well into the 18th century, for example on both the Horemans, father and son: Jan Jozef I and II (1682 – 1759 and 1714 – after 1790). 

 

 

The story of Judith and Holofernes is told in the deuterocanonical Book of Judith. Although considered apocryphal by the church authorities the story was very popular in Renaissance and Baroque art, both in Italy and in the North.

 

Holofernes was a general of Nebuchadnezzar II (circa 634 – 562 B.C.), King of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar II (the Nabucco of Guiseppe Verdi) conquered Judah and Jerusalem, where the First Temple was destroyed. He was the builder of the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. 

During the siege of the Judean city of Bethulia Holofernes cut of the water supply to the town, thus hoping its inhabitants would surrender. But the town was saved by Judith, a beautiful, but pious Hebrew widow. She entered Holofernes’ camp with her maid, who carried jars of wine. They were brought to the general’s tent who, hoping he would spend a pleasant time with this beautifully dressed “prostitute”, told his soldiers not to disturb him until the next morning. When drunken Holofernes fell asleep Judith cut off his head with his own sword, put it in a bag and returned to Bethulia. Upon discovering their dead general the enemy soldiers fled, chased by the Jews.

The figure of Judith was interesting for European artists because she is a contradictory combination of female sexuality and of an almost masculine aggression.

 

 

Janssens artistic production always stood for luxury, nobility and grace. This is not different in his unique treatment of our religious subject taken from the Ancient Testament. Judith is represented as a sophisticated, graceful young woman, who seemingly just escaped from one of Janssens’ ballroom scene, not as the hero of a brutal, murderous story. 

Judith’s attractive figure actually reminds of representations of Salome who, having just danced for King Herod, demanded the head of Saint John Baptist.

 

In the right background one sees the (fictitious) town of Bethulia.

At left Holofernes’ tent, where his body lies down.

In the foreground Judith is proudly showing Holofernes head, that she will put in the bag that her servant is holding.

 

 

Because it is such a wonderfully contradictory composition that underscores the feminine power of this heroine: she remains elegant until the bitter end.