Venus kroont Aeneas

Painted around 1625, this panel depicts the pivotal moment in Virgil's Aeneid when the goddess Venus appears to her son Aeneas and places upon his head a crown — an act of divine endorsement that prefigures his destiny as the founder of the Roman lineage. The subject had strong political resonances for Habsburg patrons, who cultivated the Trojan genealogy as part of their dynastic mythology. By the mid-1620s Janssens was an established master in Antwerp and a significant presence at the court networks that circulated across the southern Netherlands. The Bavarian State Painting Collections hold this work, testifying to its early journey into Central European royal or aristocratic hands. The panel format and the careful finish suggest a collector's commission rather than a large devotional or decorative scheme. Janssens's late works show a slight softening of his earlier Roman severity, with colour relationships becoming warmer and the compositions more openly graceful — a drift toward the dominant Rubensian current without abandoning his own distinct sculptural clarity.

Panel support permitted tight modelling of the goddess's drapery and the gleaming surface of Aeneas's armour. Janssens uses a warm golden palette in the celestial zone, contrasting with the cooler earthly tones around the hero. Drapery folds are defined by sharp, lighted edges and deep tonal jumps, consistent with his mature figure style.