(Antwerp 1575–1632)
The Samic Sibyl,
oil on canvas, 71 x 59 cm, framed

The present work depicts a sibyl, one of the oracles of ancient Greece. Janssens executed several paintings of the sibyls, as did his contemporary Peter Paul Rubens. Popular in Antwerp humanist circles and beyond (notably exemplified by Philippe de Champaigne’s ceilingdecorations of the Palais du Luxembourg) viewers could show their erudition by identifying each sibyl by her attributes, codified in contemporary works such as the series Sibyllarum icones elegantissimi, engraved by the Utrecht artist Crispijn de Passe in 1601.
The sibyl portrayed is the Tiburtine Sibyl. Her ancient seat was at Tivoli, later the site of the Emperor Hadrian’s Villa, and in Janssen’s time, celebrated for the Villa D’Este decorated with much antique statuary spoliated from the nearby ruins and with frescoes commissioned in the 1550s, some showing the sibyl.
Another example by Janssens, also based on de Passe’s series is the European Sibyl, recently bought by the Museum of Fine Art Antwerp (inv. 5151, oil on canvas, 61 x 48.5 cm).
Both are important works from the artist’s early 17th century oeuvre, characterised by deep Caravaggesque shadows but also still indebted to Mannerism.