(Antwerp 1581–1642)
St. Jerome and the lion in a landscape with ruins, signed lower right: FFrannck p.,
oil on copper, 52.5 x 58 cm, framed

Provenance:
Dorotheum auction, Vienna, 13 April 2011, lot 460;
European Private Collection

This painting comes with a certificate by Dr. Ursula Härting, Hamm (February 2011). Dr Härting, who was able to examine the painting in the original, dates it to Antwerp in the 1620s. Hitherto no other version is known of this composition. The landscape in the background was executed by an as yet unidentified artist close to Francken, perhaps Paul Bril or Willem van Nieulandt. In order to date the present painting reference must be made to the Antwerp milieu of the time, in which a type of lion was formulated that would be later be reproduced by numerous artists from Antwerp in their compositions, among these J. Vos and both Jan Brueghels. This refers to Peter Paul Rubens’ famous painting, Daniel in the Lions’ Den, which in turn goes back to a model executed by Maerten de Vos in 1572. The painting that Rubens executed in about 1617 was without any doubt known by Francken and the lion of the present painting is a direct copy. All the artistic details of the present painting indicate that it must be a work of the highest quality from Francken’s mature period.