Meleager and Atalante

Painted on oak panel in 1610, this composition brings together two of the great heroes of the Calydonian boar hunt: Meleager, son of the Aetolian king, and Atalanta, the swift huntress who drew first blood on the beast. Janssens treats the aftermath of the hunt as an occasion for sensuous figure painting: the bodies press close, trophies of the chase visible nearby, the emotional charge somewhere between comradeship and desire. Oak panel was the traditional Flemish support, though Janssens — who normally worked on canvas — chose it here, suggesting the work may have been conceived as a cabinet piece for a collector's private gallery. By 1610 Janssens was at the height of his powers, producing work that rivalled Rubens in compositional ambition, though with a cooler, more sculptural modelling of flesh that reflects his sustained engagement with Central Italian ideals. The Gemäldegalerie Berlin preserves this as a key example of his mythological output — a painting that uses ancient narrative as a vehicle for the display of idealised human form.

The oak panel support allowed Janssens to build up thin, precise layers of paint. Flesh tones are modelled with smooth transitions from warm highlight to cool half-shadow, reflecting study of antique sculpture. The background is handled broadly, directing attention to the two figures. Panel cradle marks in the wood grain remain visible in raking light.