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Flemish painter of devotional and historical subjects. Active in Antwerp, he was a member of a dynasty of artists. His elder brother, Hieronymus Francken, enjoyed an international reputation as a painter to the French court at Fontainebleau. Like his brother, Frans was a mannerist artist and specialized initially in devotional painting. He received an important commission for an altarpiece for the Antwerp Cathedral, which he completed in 1587. Altarpiece painting in Antwerp was at that time dominated by Martin de Vos, whose elegant and decorative manner of painting slender, life-size figures had influenced Francken. He later reduced the scale of his paintings and worked on cabinet pictures that became a trademark of the Franckens. His subjects were often unusual, showing exotic figures and objects. Among his pupils and followers was his even more successful son, Frans Francken the Younger, best known for his paintings of interiors with pictures and sculptures, and for works executed with Jan Brueghel the Younger. |
