St Jerome

Janssens travelled to Italy, where he was recorded in Rome in 1598 and 1601. He was strongly influenced throughout the rest of his career by what he saw there; he certainly fell under the spell of Caravaggio. The present highly Caravaggesque painting, for example, with its dramatic diagonal lighting, strong chiaroscuro and almost totally dark background, is particularly close to Caravaggio's St John the Baptist, which dates from circa 1604.