Flemish painter who was the leading exponent of the classical Baroque style in Flanders during the early 17th century. His stylistic development indicates that he was in Rome between 1598 and 1601 and probably revisited the city sometime between 1602 and 1610. His earliest pictures are characteristic of the northern Mannerist tradition. In about 1610 he was influenced by the dramatic lighting and vigorous modelling of Caravaggio and the Roman Baroque school. His mature style, however, was largely shaped by such classicists of the Bolognese school as the Carracci and Domenichino. After 1625 he fell under the spell of Rubens (Rubens, Peter Paul), as did most artists in Flanders at the time, and his technique became looser and his compositions more animated.