Description: Hieronymus Janssens was a Flemish genre painter who particularly enjoyed depicting distinguished groups of people playing, enjoying music, and especially dancing, which is why he was nicknamed "the Dancer." In 1637, he became a student of Christoffel van der Lamen, surpassing him in the magnificence and skillful arrangement of many figures in his compositions. In 1644, he became master of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke. The scenic backgrounds of his compositions usually include terraces and magnificent halls with tiled floors and stone fireplaces. These compositions owe their underlying elegance largely to the successful combination of delicate draftsmanship and soft silvery to yellowish tones. Janssens particularly enjoyed painting the splendid festivities at the court of Prince Don Juan d'Austria, for whom he carried out various commissions. Janssens also frequently painted staffage figures for the architectural compositions of W. van Ehrenberg, J. Ghernix, P. Neeffs, J.F. Saeys, and B. van Bassen.

Represented in the collections and museums of Antwerp, Brussels, Dunkirk, Gothenburg, Lille, Montargis, Paris, Prague, Schleissheim, and Braunschweig.

A signed version very similar to our painting is in the Braunschweig Museum.

A painting with a comparable composition is in Oranienburg Palace in Dessau.