Artwork
Concord, Charity and Sincerity Conquering Discord
Concord, Charity and Sincerity Conquering Discord is an oil painting by the Flemish Baroque painting artist Abraham Janssens I. It dates from 1622 and is held in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
About this work
Overview
Abraham Janssens I’s 1622 oil on canvas, titled Concord, Charity and Sincerity Conquering Discord, belongs to the Flemish Baroque collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Executed during the early phase of Janssens’s career, the work presents an allegorical tableau in which personified virtues triumph over disorder, rendered with the dramatic lighting typical of the period.
Subject & Meaning
The composition features three female figures embodying Concord, Charity and Sincerity, each bearing symbols of abundance, a vase of fruit and wheat, a bound bundle of sticks, and a child clutching a red object. Their crowns of laurel and flowers, together with a small winged attendant on the child’s shoulder, reinforce the moral message that unity and generosity overcome conflict.
Technique & Style
Janssens employs a pronounced chiaroscuro, allowing illuminated forms to emerge from a deep, shadowed background. The strong contrast between light and dark models the figures with a sculptural quality, while the rich coloration of the garments and the detailed rendering of the fruit and wheat reflect the influence of Caravaggist realism on the Flemish painter.
History & Provenance
Active between 1575 and 1632, Janssens was a leading history painter in Flanders before the return of Peter Paul Rubens from Italy. Concord, Charity and Sincerity Conquering Discord entered the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp’s holdings as part of its Baroque collection, illustrating the artist’s prominence in the early 17th‑century Flemish art market.
Context
The painting belongs to a broader tradition of allegorical works that conveyed moral instruction through personified virtues. In the early 1620s, Flemish patrons favored such didactic imagery, and Janssens’s synthesis of Caravaggist lighting with local narrative conventions positioned him at the forefront of this trend.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Abraham Janssens I, Abraham Janssen I or Abraham Janssens van Nuyssen (1575–1632) was a Flemish painter, who is known principally for his large religious and mythological works, which show the influence of Caravaggio.
