After a musical competition between Apollo, playing the fiddle, and Pan with his pipe, the deity of the mountains, Tmolus, who is depicted between the competitors, adjudged the victory to Apollo. King Midas, whom nobody had asked for his opinion, opposed this judgement, which is why Apollo punished him by giving him ass’s ears. The painting shows the end of the competition, at which a satyr (at the lower right), some nymphs and other persons were present – the whole scene takes place outdoors.

This painting has firm roots in the work of the masters of international Mannerism (of the Abraham Bloemaert and Hendrick Goltzius type), stylistically it falls into Janssens’ early period. However, the quality certainly indicates a copy. According to a kind message from Dr. Joost Vander Auwera, the probable Janssens’ original was sold at auction at Sotheby’s in London on 9 March 1983, No. 61. We can date it to 1601–02, after Janssens’ return from Rome to Antwerp, before Rubens settled there.

Dr. Vander Auwera also informed us that many of Janssens’ works were copied as early as the 17th century, particularly after 1620. Our canvas is among the oldest copies known up to the present and was perhaps painted in the master’s workshop.