Victor Honoré Janssens

Victor Honorius Janssens or Victor Honoré Janssens (or Jansens) (11 June 165814 August 1736) was a Flemish painter of religious and mythological works and a tapestry designer. He spent a substantial period of his career abroad and worked in Germany, Italy, Vienna and London. He was court painter of Emperor Charles VI of Austria in Vienna. He is mainly known for his mythological and history paintings.

Life Janssens was born in Brussels as the son of a tailor. He studied design and was entered as a pupil in the register of the Brussels Guild of Saint Luke in 1675. After working in the studio of Lancelot Volders, he spent some time in the district of Oldenburg (now in the German state of Lower Saxony). Here he was the court painter to Joachim Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön. The Duke allowed him to visit Italy in 1681.

Janssens stayed for about nine years in Italy and visited the main capitals of the country to study the masters. It has been assumed that Janssens befriended the Dutch painter of landscapes and seascapes Pieter Mulier the younger in Rome and that he painted the figures in his landscapes. The scholar M. Röthlisberger-Bianco has rejected this assumption. While in Napels, Janssens obtained a major commission to paint a large altarpiece for the church of the Jesuits. He gained a solid reputation and became well-off. He was appointed the court painter of Emperor Charles VI of Austria and resided in Vienna from 1719 to 1722. This series established Janssens' reputation as a designer of tapestries and he received in 1716 a commission from the States of Brabant to make designs for a series of tapestries on the history of the Duchy of Brabant. The designs were realised by the Leyniers-Reydams workshop the next year and still adorn the Brussels Town Hall. Recent investigations have shown that Janssens made the designs for three other tapestries: Zephyr abducts Psyche to an enchanted palace, Zephyr transports Psyches sisters to this palace and Psyche discovers the identity of Cupido (Paris, Louvre).