JANNECK, Franz Christoph

This fête galante is set in a formal garden with balustraded walkways, garden statuary and cypress trees. A party of elegantly-dressed diners is gathered round a table, decked with delicacies and fine tableware. In this painting, like his other conversation pieces, Janneck was principally inspired by the French Rococo, notably the work of Antoine Watteau.

This painting shows an elegant company, with figures playing musical instruments and merrymaking in an interior. Janneck’s oeuvre consists of cabinet pictures of conversation pieces, as well as a smaller number of landscapes and religious subjects. His interior scenes, such as the present work, are considered his finest achievements and remain among the greatest examples of the Austrian Rococo.

The picture shows an elegant company merrymaking in a wooded landscape.

The picture shows an elegant company dining and merrymaking in a wooded landscape, near the banks of a river.

This painting on copper, representing the scene in which the high priest wed the Virgin and Joseph, belonged to a series depicting New Testament scenes. The composition follows Renaissance traditions.

This is one of the few religious paintings by Janneck, a leading Austrian Rococo painter.

The painting depicts an elegant company in a landscape serenaded by musicians, a classical building beyond.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 19 minutes):

Francesco Maria Veracini: Suite in F Major

The painting depicts an elegant company in a landscape with a couple playing backgammon, beside a sculpted urn and a classical fa�ade.

The painter is known for his cabinet pictures illustrating mythological, religious and conversation scenes such as is depicted in the present painting. Here his figures are clad in elegant 17th-century fashions. His style reflects the works of French and Dutch painters such as Watteau and van Mieris.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 19 minutes):

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme

This painting has a companion piece of the same size and same subject. One is set in an interior, the other in an exterior. In both paintings money and riches (the pearl necklace) appear to be used as a means of payment or exchange between the man and the woman, with the old maid, or madame, playing the intermediary.

Janneck’s use of copper was influenced by the works on copper by Jan Brueghel the Younger and Jan van Kessel.

This painting has a companion piece of the same size and same subject. One is set in an interior, the other in an exterior. In both paintings money and riches (the pearl necklace) appear to be used as a means of payment or exchange between the man and the woman, with the old maid, or madame, playing the intermediary.

Janneck’s use of copper was influenced by the works on copper by Jan Brueghel the Younger and Jan van Kessel.

This painting is an example of Janneck’s abilities as a painter of cabinet pictures. The copper support favoured by the artist not only intensifies the richness and luminosity of the palette but also allows for a meticulous rendering of drapery folds, reflective surfaces and finely delineated facial features.

This painting shows travellers on a forest road overlooking a city, a distant landscape beyond.