Hieronymus Janssens or Jeroom Janssens (nicknamed Den danser) (1624, Antwerp – 1693, Antwerp) was a Flemish genre painter known for his compositions depicting elegant companies engaging in dance, music or play, which were of influence on the development of the genre of the conversation piece. He also painted architectural scenes of real or imaginary palaces, churches, temples and art galleries.
He was a student of Christoffel Jacobsz van der Laemen in 1636-1637. He was first registered as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp in 1643-1644. He married Catharina van Dooren in 1650. He took on four pupils including Jacob Lafosse (III) in 1651-52. The game of “Main chaude” Janssens’ paintings are often both signed and dated, with dates ranging from 1646 to 1661. Like his teacher van der Laemen he was specialized in dance scenes, set inside a house or on an outside terrace. This is where he got the nickname Den danser or The dancer. These works contributed to the development of the genre of the conversation piece in the Low Countries. His representations of elegant companies and balls and the works of Peter Paul Rubens, in particular his Garden of Love (Prado Museum), were significant for the formation of the genre. In this last work, Rubens showed how a garden could be used as a setting for amorous dalliance and courtship. One of Hieronymus Janssens’ dance pieces depicts King Charles II of England dancing with his sister Mary of Orange at a ball in The Hague during the period of his exile.
Some of his elegant company scenes such as The Prodigal Son Dining with a Music-Making Party and the Elegant company depict persons engaging in excessive drinking and apparently dissolute behaviour and ostensibly carry a moralistic message.