Jan Soens (ˈjɑn ˈsuns; c. 1547 – c. 1611), also known as Giovanni Sons, was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 from 's-Hertogenbosch.

Biography

According to Karel van Mander he moved to Antwerp to live with a schoolmaster named Jacob Boon, whereupon he taught himself the rudiments of painting. After becoming proficient, he moved in with the painter Gillis Mostaert

Gillis Mostaert

Gillis Mostaert was a Southern Netherlandish painter.-Biography:According to Karel van Mander, Mostaert's father was from Hulst, near Antwerp. According to the RKD, he was a painter, but he sent his sons to his own father Jan Mostaert in Haarlem...

, and assisted him creating landscape paintings in the manner of Gillis' twin brother Frans Mostaert

Frans Mostaert

-Biography:According to Karel van Mander he was the son of a common painter, the twin brother of the painter Gillis Mostaert and the grandson of the painter Jan Mostaert. Gillis looked so much like him that their own father couldn't tell them apart. Both brothers joined the Antwerp Guild of St....

. A few of these early landscapes could be seen in Amsterdam at the home of Hendrick Louwersz Spieghel at the time Karel van Mander was writing in 1604. Soens and he had met during Karel van Mander's trip to Italy, where Soens made small pieces on copper for the Pope in Rome.

According to the RKD he was in Rome from 1573 and in Parma from 1575. He was particularly active from 1575 with the Farnese in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, and in Piacenza

Piacenza

Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...

 and Parma

Parma

Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....

 in the early seventeenth century. He painted history

History painting

History painting is a genre in painting defined by subject matter rather than an artistic style, depicting a moment in a narrative story, rather than a static subject such as a portrait...

 works, such as the mannerist

Mannerism

Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...

 Jupiter and Antiope, as well as religious

Christian art

Christian art is sacred art produced in an attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form the principles of Christianity, though other definitions are possible. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of...

 paintings reflecting the Council of Trent

Council of Trent

The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...

's decrees on art and Counter Reformation ideals of clearly represented piety. He died in Parma between 1611 and 1614.