Hieronymus Francken I

1540, Herentals – 1610, Paris) was a Flemish painter and an important member of the Francken family of artists.

His compositions with elegant groups of dancing figures, musicians and courtiers anticipate the development of this genre in the 17th century.

Such a trip is suggested by a work of his hand dated 1565 that depicts a scene from the Carnival of Venice (in the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen).

In 1571 he was back in Antwerp to finish the large Adoration of the Magi triptych (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and London, Brompton Oratory) that Frans Floris had left unfinished when he died in 1570.

His second wife was Françoise Miraille, the daughter of an Italian embroiderer who was also concierge of Madame de la Roche-sur-Yon in Tournon Street.

Near the end of his life, in 1607, Hieronymus was elevated to the nobility and could from then onwards refer to himself as 'noble homme, peintre du roy' ('nobleman, painter to the king').

[11] Hieronymus Francken I painted religious works, that were idealistic and fully in line with 16th-century taste.

In 1602, Hieronymus made a group-portrait of the senior merchants, city officers and aldermen of Paris (current location unknown, probably destroyed in 1871).

[8] Hieronymus was much acclaimed for his anatomical drawings, as is confirmed by Philip Galle's series of prints published under the title Instruction et fondements de bien pourtraire.