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Oil on copper. Antwerp school of the first half of the 17th century, attributed to Frans Francken II
A veritable hagiographic synthesis, our painting brings together in a single composition several episodes from the life of Saint Jerome. The scene is set in a grotto evocative of the saint's penitence in the desert. While translating the Bible into Latin under the watchful eye of his lion, the Doctor of the Church is suddenly interrupted by an angel sounding a trumpet; this is an illustration of an apocryphal letter attributed to the saint: "Whether I am awake or asleep, I always believe I hear the trumpet of the Last Judgment". This motif, unknown in the art of the Middle Ages, first appeared in the Flemish school in the 16th century. Around 1602, the Dominiquin in turn exploited this iconography in a Vision of Saint Jerome (Prado, Madrid), although the angel does not play any instrument. Two engravings by Giuseppe de Ribera, dated 1621, show the angel playing the trumpet in the saint's ears, with the saint seated in a contrapposto similar to our painting. Subsequently, the motif of the musical angel enjoyed a certain iconographic fortune, with Le Guerchin, Simon Vouet and Antonio de Pereda each painting similar works.
This Mannerist drawing, combined with the meticulousness required to paint the symbols of vanity, was a natural exercise for Frans Francken II, the artist of our painting. This famous representative of Antwerp Mannerism had already signed a composition similar to ours, in which the saint adopts the same writing position and displays the same attributes. However, the greatest richness of our version lies in the presence of the angel rising from an iridescent sky, below which opens a landscape whose bluish and green tones add depth to the whole. This vibrant colorimetric range is reinforced by the copper support on which the artist executed this delightful cabinet painting, a format Rubens called the "cose piccole".
Our composition is presented in an upside-down profile-style frame with painted decoration in the flats.
Dimensions: 30 x 23.5 cm - 40 x 33 cm with frame
Biography: Frans Francken II (Antwerp, bapt. May 6, 1581 - Id., May 6, 1642) was born into a family of Antwerp painters, of which he was the most prominent representative. Probably apprenticed to his father, Frans Francken I, he became Master of the Saint Luke's Guild in Antwerp in 1605. He worked directly for the great dealer Christian van Immerzeel, who helped spread his cabinet painting throughout Europe. His mastery of the glaze technique enabled him to compose rich scenes in small formats, while maintaining a high standard of quality. This virtuosity earned him collaborations with the greatest painters of his time, such as Joos de Momper II, Abraham Govaerts and Jan Brueghel I and II.
Bibliography :
- HARTING, Ursula, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581-1642): die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren, Luca, 1989.
- La dynastie Francken, dir. Sandrine Vézilier Dussart, (cat. exp., Cassel, Musée de Flandre, Sept. 4, 2021 - Jan. 2, 2022), In Fine, 2020.
- PARIS, Jean, Saint Jérôme, Paris, Éd. du Regard, 1999.
- REAU, Louis, Iconographie de l'art chrétien, 3 vols. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1959.
