Flora

1630 · Private collection

mythological

The allegorical figure appears here as a voluptuous lady with golden flowing hair, draped only in a shimmering white and blue trim silk dress with one breast exposed. She wears an elaborately abundant floral headdress, as well as am elegant pearl necklace and single pearl earring. This depiction corresponds with the description of Flora, goddess of flowers, under the heading of the season of Spring in Cesare Ripa's Iconologia of 1603 (translated into Dutch in 1644).

About the Artist

Abraham II Janssens

1616 – 1649

Flemish painter, son of Abraham Janssens van Nuyssen. He became a Master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke around 1636 and also worked as an art dealer. After the death of Janssens the Elder in 1632, he took over the running of his father's workshop. Like his father, Janssens travelled to Rome and studied antique sculpture and the art of Michelangelo and Raphael. He lived and worked in the city for a period of about ten years up to 1649, at one point residing with his friend, the Dutch landscape painter Johannes Lingelbach. In contrast to the more tenebrist style of his father, however, the son's independent paintings display an elegance and grace which reflect the work of Rubens, Antwerp's most influential painter.

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