Frans Francken (II), Hieronymus Francken (II)

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

c. 1610 - c. 1620

Inscriptions

  • inscription, indistinct, in the central scene, above the owl in the painting by the door:DAE[l]BRVR
  • inscription, indistinct, top right, on the inn sign:MUN[..]O[..]

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: I. Verslype / L. Nijkamp, RMA, 13 oktober 2006
  • dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 13 september 2007

Provenance

…; ? sale, Johan van Marselis (1641-1702), Amsterdam (auction house not known), 25 April 1703, no. 12 (‘De History van de Verlore Zoon, (in een stuk) van Sebastiaen Franks’), fl. 205;1G. Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver Pryzen Zedert een langen reeks van Jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere Plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt. Benevens een Verzamelingvan Lysten van Verscheyden nog in wezen zynde Cabinetten, 3 vols., The Hague 1752-70, I, p. 70.…; sale, Pieter Pellicorne (c. 1634-c. 1711), Amsterdam (auction house not known), 4 April 1724, no. 7 (‘De Historie vande Verlooren Zoon, door Seb. Francks, zyn beste trant’), fl. 440;2G. Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver Pryzen Zedert een langen reeks van Jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere Plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt. Benevens een Verzamelingvan Lysten van Verscheyden nog in wezen zynde Cabinetten, 3 vols., The Hague 1752-70, I, p. 305.…; sale, Amsterdam (auction house not known), 1765, fl. 200, to Gerret Braamcamp (1699-1771), Amsterdam; his sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 31 July 1771 sqq., no. 62 (‘Franks. (Sebastiaan) Hoog 22, en breed 33 duim. [57.5 x 86.3 cm.] PNL [panel]. De Geschiedenis van den Verlooren Zoon; van het begin tot aan het einde in negen Tafereelen, verbeeld. Het middelste is in Koleur en de andere zyn in’t graauw’), fl. 500, to the dealer Jan Yver;3Copy RKD. C. Bille, De Tempel der Kunst. Of, het kabinet van den Heer Braamcamp, 2 vols., Amsterdam 1961, II, pp. 15-15a. Bille proposed as a possible provenance sale Tibout Regters (1710-1768) and Jan Calkoen (?1698-1768), Amsterdam (H. de Winter and J. Yver) 18 April 1768, no. 116 (‘S. Frank […] de Historie van de Verloren Zoon, het Middenstuk met kleuren geschildert en rondom met kleine stukjes in’t graauw’), fl. 180, to Van Diemen. But this painting may rather be identified with that on panel, 63 x 88 cm, in private collection, Paris, bought in an anonymous sale, Paris (Beaussant-Lefevre, Drouot), c. 2000, whose owner was in contact with the museum. Judging from a scan this is perhaps a studio replica.…; from the dealer C.F. Roos, fl. 600, to Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), end of August 1843;4Van der Hoop Lijst, p. 32, no. 213: ‘Een voorstelling van den Verloren Zoon in het laatst van Augustus gekocht van den Heer Roos, door Sebastiaan Franks, zijnde buitengewoon helder en fijn geschilderd met kleine tafereelen rondom in ‘t Grijs; zulke Schilderstukken van dien ouden meester zijn zeer zeldzaam, voor fl. 600’. by whom bequeathed to the City of Amsterdam with 223 other paintings, 1854;5Van der Hoop Taxatie 1854, p. 1, no. 213: ‘S. Francks. Voorstelling van den verloren zoon fl. 125’. on loan from the City of Amsterdam to the museum since 30 June 1885; on loan to the Rijksmuseum Muiderslot, Muiden, 1949-736Provenance also reconstructed in A. Pollmer-Schmidt, ‘Catalogus van de schilderijen in de verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop’, in E. Bergvelt et al. (eds.), De Hollandse meesters van een Amsterdamse bankier. De verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum/Rijksmuseum) 2004-05, pp. 135-95, esp. p. 149, no. 57.

ObjectNumber: SK-C-286

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam (A. van der Hoop Bequest)

The artist

Biography

Hieronymus Francken II (Antwerp 1578 - Antwerp 1623)

There is not much information about the life and work of Hieronymus Francken II, the second son of Frans Francken I and Elisabeth Mertens, who was baptized in the Antwerp Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk on 12 September 1578. He may have been an apprentice and then assistant to his father before registering as a pupil of his uncle, Ambrosius, in 1605/06 when already aged twenty-six or seven. He enrolled as a master in the guild two years later. Still recorded as living with his father in 1616, the year in which the latter died, Hieronymus was associated with the confraternity of unmarried young men from 1618 to 1622. By 1621/22 at least, he presumably had his own premises as in that year he took in an apprentice. In the following year on 17 March 1623 he died and was buried in the Sint-Andrieskerk.

Paintings by Hieronymus Francken II are hardly ever listed in the seventeenth-century Antwerp inventories published by Duverger, nor do they appear to have been traded by Antwerp dealers such as Matthijs Musson or Guilliam Forchondt. There is some contemporary evidence of his activity: as a collaborator with Joos de Momper II (1564-1634/35)7E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, II, p. 257. and as executing The Seven Acts of Mercy for a client.8E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, I, pp. 374-75. A (?)witches sabbath en grisaille by his hand was owned by his father.9E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, I, p. 392. One extant and certain, but seemingly atypical work by him is Horatius Cocles Defending the Bridge, which is signed and dated 1620.10Catalogus Schilderkunst, Oude Meesters, Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) 1988, p. 151, no. 163. The client referred to above had also commissioned work from his brother Frans (1581-1642); and the notarised declaration of 1615 is evidence of the close working relationship between them at the time.

Härting has succeeded in constructing a small, somewhat heterogeneous oeuvre, which includes depictions of cabinets of art and ballroom scenes.

REFERENCES
U. Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581-1642): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1989, pp. 167-82

Entry

The subject of the present painting is Christ’s parable of the Prodigal Son, which is recounted in Luke 15:11-32.

Van Vloten in 1874 seems to have been the first to abandon the confused and misleading ascription to Sebastian Franks which had most likely been given to the present painting since the early eighteenth century.11J. van Vloten, Nederlandsch schilderkunst van de 14e tot de 18e eeuw etc., Amsterdam/Haarlem 1874, p. 123. He described it as the work of Frans Francken II, an attribution that was accepted until challenged by Härting in 1989.12U. Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581-1642): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1989, p. 182. She then suggested that it was the work of collaboration between Frans and his brother Hieronymus who was responsible for the central, coloured depiction, and made a comparison with the signed larger-scale Ballroom in the collection of the University of Stockholm.13In E. Mai and H. Vlieghe (eds.), Von Bruegel bis Rubens: Die goldene Jahrhundert der flämischen Malerei, Cologne (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum)/Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1992-93, no. 17.1; Härting in E. Mai, K. Schütz and H. Vlieghe (eds.), Die Malerei Antwerpens: Gattungen, Meister, Wirkungen: Studien zur flämischen Kunst des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts: Internationales Kolloquium Wien 1993, Cologne 1994, no. 17.1. The issue is complicated by her view that the latter results from a collaboration between Hieronymus and his homonymous uncle (1540-1610), who she believes was responsible for the lady playing the clavichord there. Although the Rijksmuseum retained the attribution to Frans alone,14E. Bergvelt et al. (eds.), De Hollandse meesters van een Amsterdamse bankier. De verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum/Rijksmuseum) 2004-05, no. 57. Härting’s assessment of the Amsterdam picture seems correct as a comparison between the demeanour and characteristics of the Prodigal Son and the male dancer confirms. Although there is nothing strictly comparable in Frans’s oeuvre, the fluently handled landscapes in grisaille and brunaille (rather far from the idiom of Jan Brueghel I) are acceptably his. The same episodes were executed as surrounds to another depiction of the Prodigal Son, dissipating his wealth at a dance.15Anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), 26 November 1976, no. 46. The support was made by Lambrecht Steens I ( active 1608-after 1617). Influential in their compositions, especially that bottom centre, may have been the set of small landscapes engraved by Johannes van Doetecum I (c. 1530-1605).16H.J. Nalis, G. Luijten, C. Schuckman, The New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: The Van Doetecum Family 1554-1606, 4 vols., Rotterdam 1998, I, nos. 118-61 esp. no. 134(1).

The oak of the support cannot be dated dendrochronologically. From the costumes in the central scene a date of execution from circa 1610-20 would appear likely. Open-necked, starched collars and high hats are depicted by Jacques Jordaens (1593-1678) in his group portraits in the Alte Meister Gemäldegalerie, Kassel, and the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, of circa 1615-16.17R.-A. d’Hulst et al., Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) I: Paintings and Tapestries, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) 1993, nos. A.6, A.5. Also similar is the costume worn by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) in his Self-Portrait with His Wife Isabella in the Munich Alte Pinakothek of 1609/10.18K. Renger with C. Denk, Flämische Malerei des Barock in der Alten Pinakothek, Munich/Cologne 2002, p. 253, no. 334. Another open-necked, stiff collar later appears in Anthony van Dyck’s (1599-1641) Portrait of a Man in the Dresden Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister which probably dates from circa 1617-1618.19S.J. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Anthony van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven (Conn.)/London 2004, no. I.148.

In the central composition Francken emphasizes the lubricious scene of a brothel with a procuress and includes (following classical precedent) a painting of Danaë being seduced by Jupiter in the form of a shower of gold coins, and by a cat, popularly thought to be a lecherous creature which entices men to sexual intercourse.20B. Rowland, Animals with Human Faces: A Guide to Animal Symbolism, Knoxville 1973, pp. 50-53. For the classical source of the Danaë painting, see E. Sluijter, ‘Emulating Sensual Beauty: Representations of Danaë from Gossaert to Rembrandt’, Simiolus 27 (1999), pp. 4-45, pp. 14-17 and 29-30. The composition of the fictive painting may have derived from Abraham Bloemaert’s design engraved by Jacob Matham I, 1610, see L. Widerkehr and H. Leeflang, The New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Jacob Matham, 3 vols., Ouderkerk aan de IJssel 2007-08, no. 188. The outer scenes follow the traditional themes of the parable as set out for instance by Réau.21L. Réau, Iconographie de l’art chrétien, 3 vols., Paris 1955-59, II (2), pp. 335-37. From the top left, clockwise, is: verse 12 ‘… Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living …’; verse 13: ‘…the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country …’; verse 13 (centre image and top right): ‘… there wasted his substance with riotous living …’; verse 16: ‘…and no man gave unto him …’; verse 15: ‘… he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent unto his fields to feed swine …’; verse 18: ‘…I will arise and go to my father, and will say until him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee …’; verse 20: ‘…he arose, and came to his father … his father had compassion …’; verse 23: ‘…bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry…’.

A notable and exceptional scene is the illustration of ‘no man gave unto him’ in which a Catholic priest (wearing a biretta) spurns the prodigal’s entreaty. On the face of it, this seemingly anti-Catholic sentiment suggests that Francken may have had a specific patron in mind, but it should be noted that the same scene was repeated in another, extant, joint Francken treatment of the parable, and occurs again in a more simplified form in the painted cabinet, by Frans Francken III, in the Rijksmuseum (BK-NM-4190). It was omitted in Frans Francken II’s grisaille surround to his 1633 treatment of the parable in Musée du Louvre, in which the central painting depicted the departure of the Prodigal Son.22U. Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581-1642): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1989, no. 159.

A painted surround, or binnenlijst, was a contrivance popularized by Frans Francken II; it had been introduced by the Antwerp artist Gillis Mostaert (c. 1528/29-1598).23C. Van de Velde, ‘Taferelen met grisaillelijsten van Gillis Mostaert’, in A.-M. Logan (ed.), Essays in Northern European Art Presented to Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann on his Sixtieth Birthday, Doornspijk 1983, pp. 276-82. He had painted scenes on strips of wood that had been fixed to the main support. Francken simplified the device by merely ruling the demarcation lines in gold paint and a little carelessly as the lines do not meet bottom left and there is a pentiment in that at the top right.

Hieronymus Francken’s brothel scene is an early example of the ‘merry company’ genre soon to be popular in the northern Netherlands. The connection of its composition with that of the Dutch painter Willem Pietersz Buytewech’s (1591-1624) Merry Company at Berlin of 1622-24, now in the Mauritshuis,24M. van Berge-Gerbaud et al., Willem Buytewech 1591-1624, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen)/Paris (Institut Néerlandais) 1974-75, no. 4, pl. 2. may be fortuitous. But it could indicate that Francken’s work was early in the northern Netherlands in the possession of a dealer or collector in Rotterdam or Haarlem (where Buytewech was active); this might also explain its seemingly obvious, anti-Catholic bias. Relevant in this respect, is that the picture may have been that in the collection of the Dutchman (and likely, but not necessarily so, Protestant) Johan van Marselis (1641-1702).

Gregory Martin, 2022

Literature

U. Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581-1642): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1989, p. 182

Collection catalogues

1887, p. 47, no. 372 (as F. Francken II); 1904, p. 101, no. 937 (as F. Francken II); 1934, p. 102 (as Frans Francken II); 1976, p. 232, no. C 286 (as Frans Fancken II)

Citation

G. Martin, 2022, 'Frans (II) Francken and Hieronymus (II) Francken, The Parable of the Prodigal Son, c. 1610 - c. 1620', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8439

(accessed 25 April 2025 09:00:43).

Footnotes

  • 1G. Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver Pryzen Zedert een langen reeks van Jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere Plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt. Benevens een Verzamelingvan Lysten van Verscheyden nog in wezen zynde Cabinetten, 3 vols., The Hague 1752-70, I, p. 70.
  • 2G. Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver Pryzen Zedert een langen reeks van Jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere Plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt. Benevens een Verzamelingvan Lysten van Verscheyden nog in wezen zynde Cabinetten, 3 vols., The Hague 1752-70, I, p. 305.
  • 3Copy RKD. C. Bille, De Tempel der Kunst. Of, het kabinet van den Heer Braamcamp, 2 vols., Amsterdam 1961, II, pp. 15-15a. Bille proposed as a possible provenance sale Tibout Regters (1710-1768) and Jan Calkoen (?1698-1768), Amsterdam (H. de Winter and J. Yver) 18 April 1768, no. 116 (‘S. Frank […] de Historie van de Verloren Zoon, het Middenstuk met kleuren geschildert en rondom met kleine stukjes in’t graauw’), fl. 180, to Van Diemen. But this painting may rather be identified with that on panel, 63 x 88 cm, in private collection, Paris, bought in an anonymous sale, Paris (Beaussant-Lefevre, Drouot), c. 2000, whose owner was in contact with the museum. Judging from a scan this is perhaps a studio replica.
  • 4Van der Hoop Lijst, p. 32, no. 213: ‘Een voorstelling van den Verloren Zoon in het laatst van Augustus gekocht van den Heer Roos, door Sebastiaan Franks, zijnde buitengewoon helder en fijn geschilderd met kleine tafereelen rondom in ‘t Grijs; zulke Schilderstukken van dien ouden meester zijn zeer zeldzaam, voor fl. 600’.
  • 5Van der Hoop Taxatie 1854, p. 1, no. 213: ‘S. Francks. Voorstelling van den verloren zoon fl. 125’.
  • 6Provenance also reconstructed in A. Pollmer-Schmidt, ‘Catalogus van de schilderijen in de verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop’, in E. Bergvelt et al. (eds.), De Hollandse meesters van een Amsterdamse bankier. De verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum/Rijksmuseum) 2004-05, pp. 135-95, esp. p. 149, no. 57.
  • 7E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, II, p. 257.
  • 8E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, I, pp. 374-75.
  • 9E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, I, p. 392.
  • 10Catalogus Schilderkunst, Oude Meesters, Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) 1988, p. 151, no. 163.
  • 11J. van Vloten, Nederlandsch schilderkunst van de 14e tot de 18e eeuw etc., Amsterdam/Haarlem 1874, p. 123.
  • 12U. Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581-1642): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1989, p. 182.
  • 13In E. Mai and H. Vlieghe (eds.), Von Bruegel bis Rubens: Die goldene Jahrhundert der flämischen Malerei, Cologne (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum)/Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1992-93, no. 17.1; Härting in E. Mai, K. Schütz and H. Vlieghe (eds.), Die Malerei Antwerpens: Gattungen, Meister, Wirkungen: Studien zur flämischen Kunst des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts: Internationales Kolloquium Wien 1993, Cologne 1994, no. 17.1.
  • 14E. Bergvelt et al. (eds.), De Hollandse meesters van een Amsterdamse bankier. De verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum/Rijksmuseum) 2004-05, no. 57.
  • 15Anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), 26 November 1976, no. 46. The support was made by Lambrecht Steens I ( active 1608-after 1617).
  • 16H.J. Nalis, G. Luijten, C. Schuckman, The New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: The Van Doetecum Family 1554-1606, 4 vols., Rotterdam 1998, I, nos. 118-61 esp. no. 134(1).
  • 17R.-A. d’Hulst et al., Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) I: Paintings and Tapestries, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten) 1993, nos. A.6, A.5.
  • 18K. Renger with C. Denk, Flämische Malerei des Barock in der Alten Pinakothek, Munich/Cologne 2002, p. 253, no. 334.
  • 19S.J. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Anthony van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven (Conn.)/London 2004, no. I.148.
  • 20B. Rowland, Animals with Human Faces: A Guide to Animal Symbolism, Knoxville 1973, pp. 50-53. For the classical source of the Danaë painting, see E. Sluijter, ‘Emulating Sensual Beauty: Representations of Danaë from Gossaert to Rembrandt’, Simiolus 27 (1999), pp. 4-45, pp. 14-17 and 29-30. The composition of the fictive painting may have derived from Abraham Bloemaert’s design engraved by Jacob Matham I, 1610, see L. Widerkehr and H. Leeflang, The New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Jacob Matham, 3 vols., Ouderkerk aan de IJssel 2007-08, no. 188.
  • 21L. Réau, Iconographie de l’art chrétien, 3 vols., Paris 1955-59, II (2), pp. 335-37.
  • 22U. Härting, Frans Francken der Jüngere (1581-1642): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Freren 1989, no. 159.
  • 23C. Van de Velde, ‘Taferelen met grisaillelijsten van Gillis Mostaert’, in A.-M. Logan (ed.), Essays in Northern European Art Presented to Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann on his Sixtieth Birthday, Doornspijk 1983, pp. 276-82.
  • 24M. van Berge-Gerbaud et al., Willem Buytewech 1591-1624, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen)/Paris (Institut Néerlandais) 1974-75, no. 4, pl. 2.