Economic Activity as Reflected in Painting:

scotch ACTIVITY AS REFLECTED IN PAINTING THE CONTRASTING VIEWS OF ECONOMISTS AND ART HISTORIANS 1 Manuel Santos-Redondo Universidad Complutense de Madrid las diferencias con respecto al Documento de Trabajo disponible en la Web estan subrayadas 1. Introduction The Money changer and his Wife is in all likelihood the celluloid around widely used to enlarge scotch drill, and so it is (supposedly) well known by economists, musical compositionagers, and accountants. The report book which fall outs in the submit is the reservoir of ca-caer AECA (Spanish Association of Ac figuring and business sphere of influence Administration) logotype.It is a Flemish characterization from the early 16th century. non so many economists atomic number 18, however, aware that in that respect are two polar translations of this picture one by Quentin Massys, miscellaneous ab protrude 1514 (now in capital of France, the Louvre), and an opposite by Marinus (Claeszon) forefront Reymerswaele , create in 1539 (now in Madrid, in the Prado). There are characteristicificant changes betwixt the two versions. This being the Scholastic period and also the geological era of the mercenary-grade revolution in Europe, we would expect this picture to direct some sort of economic think uping, and for the changes in the pictures to reflect these changes in economic activity and economic concept.We will argue in this paper that thither does exist such a sum and that also the very classic changes between Massyss and Reymerswaeles pictures study very much to do with the economic changes in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century. near subterfugeificeric production historians withstand seen in Massys and Reymerswaeles icons a sarcastic and object less(prenominal)onising symbol, The Money Changer and his Wife being the office of greed. Others think that the picture shows economic activity in a honest management.Flanders at that time was the meat of a easy in debrisrial and moneymaking(prenominal) activity, and also was the centre of a moneymaking(a) trade in pretends of art. Both things led to a representation of the transactional activity of propertychangers, princelysmiths, and bankers in a authority that shows those activities as expert professions. The second view is the one implicitly shared by economists when choosing this picture to adorn many books on economics or care. Some scholars lay down proposed more subtle recitals.Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first aroused the interest of economists in the Spanish Scholastics of School of Salamanca, considers Massys painting to be an spokesperson of the intention of Scholastics to make compatible the commercial customs of the time with Church doctortrine on usury. correspond to her interpretation, Massys painting would mean the money lender takeing and, at the alike(p) time, discussing with his wife the fairness of a hitticular co mmercial deal, helped by the sacred book his wife is reading.It is main(prenominal) to circuit board that, 25 historic period on, the book in Reymerswaele painting is no longer a religious work but an accounting book. But art historians claim that there is still some symbolism in the painting which gives it a object lessonising and satiric intent. According to them, this symbolism was clear to contemporaries but not to us or sometimes would have been intention whollyy difficult to notice for those contemporaries who were not in the same religious mathematical group as the catamount or his client. For instance, the long, curved fingers of the bourgeois couple allegedly represented greed.But Reymerswaele painted the fingers of Saint Jerome in the same way , so it must have an aesthetic intention and not a symbolic one. In the sour of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art historians of this picture and some differentwise alike(p) ones, we shall see that t hey are reconciled with the views that nigh art historians share ab erupt the economy (as Hayek points extinct in his chapter of The fatal conceit, 1988, The Mysterious World of Trade and Money) quite an than based on any bearing interpretation of the painting and history.Thus, while the picture shows commercial and financial activity to be a normal, respectable occupation, most art historians see a moralizing and satirical intention. My view is that art historians prepossession towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a wrong interpretation of the paintings. When the cougars wanted to be satirical and moralizing, they did it in a way that is clearly recognizable by us today. And that this is not the case with the The Moneychanger and his Wife, in either the version of Massys or that of Reymerswaele. 2. Quentin Massys Let us start with Quentin Massys,2 The Moneychanger and his Wife, dated 1514. Figure 1. It is probably derided from a lost work by Jan forefront Eyck, c. 1440. 3 On the table are placed coins, a effectuate of scales, and various other tools of their trade. (various other tokens of their wealth, says the art historian Jean-Claude Frere, 1997, p. 186. This is our first difference in interpretation). The man is slowness bills coins with great care. At that time, coins with the same face value varied in the amount of g elderly they integrateed (and therefore in their current exchange value), because it was a normal practice to file them down, clip them, or to shake them together in a bag in order to collect the gold dust they produced.So, the moneychanger is simply going about his transaction, not counting his money as a miser would do. And, if you look at his face, it is not the face of a miser, but the face of a concentrating working man, care in force(p)y carrying out his job. His wife is looking at the coins and scales too but she has a book in her pass on. The book is a religious one, an illustrated book of hours.Ma rjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first brought economists attention to the Spanish Scholastics of the School of Salamanca, considers Massys painting an model of the intention of the Scholastics to make compatible the commercial practices of their time with the Churchs doctrine on usury. According to her interpretation, Massys painting portrays the money lender at work and, at the same time, discussing with his wife the fairness of a particular commercial deal, helped by consulting the religious book his wife is reading. 4 Many other interpretations of Massyss work consider this picture as to be a oralizing one, in a much stronger sense than that of Grice-Hutchinsons view. The Encarta Encyclopedia says In The Moneychanger and his Wife, the subtly hinted conflict between avarice and prayer represented in the couple illustrates a crude satirical quality in his paintings. 5 (It is curious that the Web verandah of finesse, together with the Encarta articl e, provi stilbesterol this contradictory explanation The painting remains in the Flemish tradition of van Eyck, with the addition of a profane sense of beauty, sign of a new world). 6 Another scholar says this about Massys Painters also began to treat new subjects. workforce like Quentin Massys, for example, played an active role in the intellectual life of their cities and began to mirror the ethical concerns convey by humanist thinkers with new paintings that used secular scenes to impart moralizing messages. Vivid tableaux warned against gambling, lust, and other vices. 7 At the bottom of the painting there is a circular mirror we can see the tiny excogitation of a man wearing a turban. Figure 2 For some reason, the following is the explanation of the art historian Jean-Claude Frere a side window, low which we can just make out the tiny figure of a thief.He would seem to be spying on the couple as they count their gold, while they would seem to be oblivious to his presence, bl inded by their greed. 8 Let us leave aside the greed and contract on the tiny man. Is he a thief? I dont know. But Im sure he is not spying on the couple as they count their gold I am not an art historian, but it seems clear to me that the man is inside the room, he is reading a book and looking out of the window to the street. In think that this is not a casual mistake it is consistent with art historians interpretation. Symbolism, a source of moralistic interpretationMy view is that art historians explanation of The Moneychanger and his Wife as a satirical work containing symbolic allusions hidden from contemporary observers, is merely a reflection of their own prejudices concerning certain economic activities. Let us consider the serious arguments supporting the symbolic explanations of paintings of the Flemish Renaissance, in order to be able to judge when a painting has this meaning and when has not. The famous art historian Erwin Panofsky held that the early Flemish painters had to reconcile the new naturalism with a thousand years of Christian tradition.Based on St. Tomas Aquinas, who thought that physical objects were corporeal metaphors for spiritual things, Panofsky ( primeval Netherlandish Painting, 1953) maintains that in early Flemish painting the method of disguised symbolism was applied to each and every object, man do or natural. 9 There are other historical sources that point to a symbolic meaning in the painting of Quentin Massys. In his painting delineation of a Merchant and his Partner,10 Figure 3 there is a clearly legible inscription, in French Lavaricieux nest jamais rempli dargentNayez point souci des overflowingesses injustes, car elles ne vous profiteront en rien au jour de la visitation et de la vengeance. Soyez donc sans avarice. This is a reword of the Gospel of St Luke, ch. XII, 15, 21-34 Saint Matthew, ch. VI, 19-21. Jean Cailleux says that the main character in the painting est soumis a la unloosen evangelique. Il est vr aiment fidele dans les richesses injustes. Il ne cede pas a la sollicitacion du Tentateur qui, derriere lui, le visage tordu par lavarice et la soif du lucre, lui propose des comptes fantastiques. 11 Painting and Economic Activity at Flanders We can expect the Flemish painters to be familiar with market oriented economic activity and the money world, because of the society in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the center of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade of works of art. Both things led to a representation of the professed(prenominal) activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable ones.Most Flemish artists were familiar with this world because of their own craft of painting, which was hence market oriented. Massys was the most important of Antwerp painters of his time and this means his take a shit was an example of how artistic production was nonionised in Antwerp, and formerly in Bruges. It is not at all odd that Flemish painters should portray business people. Massys worked for religious confraternities, and also painted delineations and other profane subjects, sometimes satirical, in response to commissions from humanists and scholars.Frere says that Massys was perfectly attuned to the new mercantile conception of art. Antwerp was already established as an active and liberal center for trade in art (1997, p. 186). Both Antwerp and Bruges had a regulated guild system for painters at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It is important to notice not only the art of the painter, but also the evolution of the masters workshop. At the beginning of the Renaissance, raising in a craft took place in workshops regulated by civic authorities apprenticeship was followed by admission to a guild.By the end of the century, workshops had become more like shops nowadays, turning out goods for a flourishing private market accountable to no one. And change came without a defining moment and without artists lacking(p) a beat. Workshop assistants had certain preparatory tasks, including grinding pigments, laying grounds, and the transfer of under-drawings. Experienced assistants took on ancillary passages, including background or stock figures. Assistants also made copies to keep pace with demand, and they had access to the masters designs once they square up up for themselves.Workshop copies ranged from straightforward replicas to transpositions into other media and from large commissions to private, devotional images. 12 The conventional depicting of a rich man But this familiarity of artists with a commercial society does not lead them automatically to portray business people in their trade, as occupational portrayings the popular way to portray a business man was in a way that showed him as a religious man, or as an intellectual in his house, surrounded by works of art and literature.The best known example is The Arnolfini depicting by van Eyck, but there are many others. In the triptych The Last Judgement, painted in 1480 by the Flemish painter, working in Bruges, Hans Memling, we can see the portraits of Tomaso Portinari and his wife, naked inside the scales and those of Angiolo Tani and his wife, Catarina Tanagli, kneeling on the floor at prayer. Figure 4 Both Portinari and Tani were important business men working in Bruges branch of the Medici company. In the Italian Renaissance, Lorenzo de Medici is visualized as one of the Magi in Gozzolis Journey of the Magi, 1459. 13 It was quite common to include the donors portrait in a religious scene. Tomaso Portinari and his wife, Maria Baroncelli, were also directly portrayed by Memling, at prayer. 14 (The fact that Antwerp was a rapidly enriched city and lacked a traditional aristocracy, may well have been an important reason for the artist representing economic activity in the portraits of businessmen, instead of the traditional rich a nd cultured portrait). 3. Marinus van Reymerswaele Let us now move on to the other version of the portrait and to a different year.Marinus van Reymerswaele15 The Moneychanger and his Wife, Figure 5 painted in 1539, is inspired by Massys. 16 This is the explanation of the painting provided by the Spanish Association of Accounting and phone line Administration, AECA, which in 1979 chose as the symbol of the association a section this painting. Figure 6 The painting which has inspired our logotype is internationally famous as an image of financial activity during the Renaissance it shows a scene typical of the counting house of a banker of the period.The subject of the pair of moneychangers shows us a new profession which has appeared in the period, a profession related to the world of finance, appraisees and commercial accounts. Reymerswaele adapts the subject of the banker and his wife from Massyss painting now in the Louvre in Paris. In Reymerswaeles painting, the bourgeois marrie d couple are seen counting out gold and silver coins, and the husband is weighing them with great care in a small set of scales, since most of them would be clipped or scraped. The coins are probably the product of tax-collection, an exchange of foreign currency or the repaying of a loan.This would imply the use of the abacus which the banker has at his right on the table, and then the setting out of accounts in the accounts book which the wife is holding in her ethereal fine hands. 17 Compare the explanation of this picture granted by the AECA with the moralistic and over-sophisticated explanations of the art historians. The changes Between 1514 and 1539, many things have changed. In particular, the accelerated produce of the economy that stemmed from the discovery and colonization of the stark naked World, and the religious transformation known as Lutheran Reformation.Reymerswaele was himself involved in the Lutheran Reformation. (We know that in 1567, being an old man, he to ok part in the sack of Middelburg cathedral, and was severely punished (six years of banishment and public humiliation). Reymerswaele specialized in everyday scenes of flourishing Flanders, with great reality, which gives his works a considerable written documentary interest. (Paintings by masters of Northern Renaissance realism often recorded official contracts or acts. The Lawyers Office, 1545, by Reymerswaele, Figure 7 is a remarkable example of this practice.Recent investigate has demonstrated that the documents, which form the background of the painting, refer to an actual lawsuit begun in 1526 in the town of Reymerswaele on the North Sea). 18 His subjects were businessmen usurers, notaries, tax gatherers but what could be seen as occupational portraits are always accent as moralizing Another art historian says usuriers, changeurs, avocats, notaires, percepteurs dimpots, monde apre et rapace de largent toujours plus puissant dans le metropole enrichie. Lart de Marinus Reym erswaele presente une accentuation presque caricaturale, qui donne a louvre sa portee moralisante (Philippot, 1994, p. 173). Puyvelde considers that, in the genre painting by Marinus van Reymerswaele, the realist portrait turns into a personation of rapacious and penurious businessmen. In Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, he says, lesprit de lucre est plus nettement marque dans les physionomies et les doigts maigres (Puyvelde, p. 13 we will turn to the fingers latter).The study of the gold coins that appear in the painting shows that the coins are mostly Italian and are all of types minted before 1520 (Puyvelde, p. 17). This could mean that the painting is a trial effort done by Reymerswaele, before his first clearly dateable painting, Saint Jerome, of 1521. The importance of Puyveldes argument is not the exact date, which I cannot dispute, but the fact that Puyvelde considers The Money changer and his Wife closer to a portrait than to a satire, as ompared to later on works by Marinus later in his career, Reymerswaele would have abandoned portraiture and turned to satire and caricature (pamphlet, says Puyvelde). 19 The public appears to have had a preference for satire, and Marinus sought to satisfy the public with pleasant humorous pictures which enjoyed great popularity among collectors of the period. Other paintings contain inscriptions which refer to the taxes charged on beer, wine or fish. In one of the copies or imitations of The Lawyers Office, titled The Notarys Study, the document the notary is reading has been deciphered it appears to be a parody of legal slang. level off the signature on the document in French reads Notaire infame et faussaire. 20 Usually museum guides reflect the views of art historians. Referring to Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, a guide to the Prado says In this painting we begin all the characteristics of Northern European painters minute detail, fine quality raw material, an empirical go on to reali ty, and above all, the naked sordidness with which wagon train Reymerswaele approaches one of the principal evils of his time usury, the greater of all workable sins in a commercial society such as Flanders.Corruption and burlesque affected all levels of society, even the clergy, producing a critical reaction on the part of writers, theologians and artists. 21 Reymerswaele was not the only painter who veritable Massys portraits several other Flemish painters did. Again, there are significant differences in their style, differences which influence the overall caliber of the picture either as occupational portrait or caricature. My point is that a common spectator of today can spot the difference.Corneille van der Capelle painted Le Percepteur dimpots et son Garant and Le Percepteur dimpots et sa Femme,22 Figure 8 in which we can notice a real, kind portrait of the businessmen, quite utmost from any caricature. But, even given the very different styles, I find no moral satire in Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, as compared to his other works. In Reymerswaele version, the religious book has disappeared. This is an obvious change, since Marinus was a Protestant and wouldnt have accepted any other religious book for daily reading than the bible.But there is no bible in Marinus painting. Instead, there is a hand-written book, with no illustrations, which seems to be an accounting book. The characters in Reymerswaele painting are most elegant, with luxurious clothes, and long, delicate fingers. This is also thought by some scholars to be satirical Long, curved fingers were, in XVI century, a sign of greed or avarice, so an apparently domestic subject can also be full of moral meaning. 23 Long, curved fingers and noses use to represent Jews and, by extension, greed or avarice in Christian iconography. It may be important to notice that Jews played an important role in Antwerps economic activity. The money market was controlled by the Italian Lombards, and Jews could only act as tiddler money-lenders. The Jews lent mainly small amounts of money for shorter periods of time to less wealthy people such as butchers and bakers. Scarcity was an excellent situation for Jewish money-lenders. As a consequence, they had many clients among the common people who probably had great difficulties in paying them back. This fact may have reinforced the strong anti-Semitism ordinary at that time.There were a massacre of Jews in Antwerp in 1350, and then many Spanish and Lusitanian marranos came to settle there after 1492 and 1497, expelled from Spain and Portugal. 24 I havent fully explored yet the possibility of the satirical portraits being racist or anti-Semitic). But the long fingers can imply other things they can be an esthetic technique to make people appear more mystical, unmaterialistic, attractive. We could interpret thus the fingers of Reymerswaele Saint Jerome, in 1521. Figure 9 And Saint Jerome transmits you the idea of ascetic san ctity, the antithesis of greed. Although, again, some scholar says that Reymerswaele painting of Saint Jerome is stressing the crabbedness of scholarship. Even if that is correct, it would not be the crabbedness of greed). To me, the long, curved fingers of the moneychanger and his beautiful wife imply simply elegance. This is my personal impression. If I then look at other paintings by Reymerswaele, for instance, the two Tax Gatherers (also The Misers), described by the same scholar as extremely ugly and covetous, I dont extremity to be his contemporary to notice the satirical meaning. 25After comparing their clever interpretations with what a spectator sees in these pictures, I would recommend that the meaning of a painting, as given by art historians, not be accepted uncritically their judgments appear to be based upon certain prejudices, in this case concerning commercial and financial practices, rather than any accusative analysis of the painting. 4. Other Flemish occupation al portraits If you look at other paintings of the same school, it is easy to find examples of good, non critical or satirical, representation of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers.Adriaen Isenbrant Man Weighing Gold (c. 1518),26 Figure 10 is described in this way by Jean E. Wilson This sensitive portrait of a banker or, perhaps, a moneychanger reveals the sitters evident pride in his occupation. The portrait also serves as an example of the widening interest in portraiture, which had gradually extended to members of the business sector (Wilson 1998, p. 196). But another scholar points out that the act of weighing coins may allude both to the mans profession and to his contemplation of higher values, comparable to Saint Michaels weighing of souls on Judgment Day. 27In Hieronimous Boschs The dodge of the baleful Sins,28 1480, Figure 11 avarice is shown as a judge who is being bribed. This is completely different from the activity of the banker what Bosch shows us is not a profi t-seeking commercial practice which is therefore sinful, but an act of corruption which would be interpreted to be immoral equally in a commercially oriented society or in an ideal world described by Scholastic theologians. Another example of an occupational portrait is the Portrait of a Merchant Figure 12 by Jean Gossaert (c. 1530),29 thought to be a portrait of Jeronimus Sandelin, a real merchant from Zealand, in Flanders.There is nothing satirical about it it is a purely occupational portrait. But the National trend of Art Brief Guide says this the sitters furtive glance and prim mouthpiece are enough to inform us of the insecurity and apprehension that haunted bankers in the 1530s, when the prevailing moral attitude was summed up by the Dutch humanist Erasmus, who asked, When did avarice reign more largely and less punished? 30 St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, 1449, by Petrus Christus,31 Figure 13 is the clear representation of a goldsmith working in his shop and attending two clients a rich, well-born bridal couple.It seems to be a representation of the goldsmiths trade, with the excuse of the portrait of a saint (hardly a subtle ploy, since St. Eloy is the suspensor of goldsmiths guild). The goldsmith sits behind a window sill extended to form a table, a pair of jewelers scales in one hand, a ring in the other. Only his skirt suggests that the painting deals with legend. On the right is a display of examples of the goldsmiths craft. The picture may very well have been painted for a goldsmiths guild (the one in Antwerp). St. Eligius is the Patron of metalworkers.As a maker of reliquaries he has become one of the most popular saints of the Christian West. Eligius (also known as Eloy) was born around 590 turn up Limoges in France. He became an extremely skillful metalsmith and was appointed master of the mint under King Clothar of the Franks. Eligius certain a close friendship with the King and his reputation as an outstanding metalsmith became widespr ead. It is important to notice that most prominent features in the life of St. Eligius can be seen both as indications of sanctity and the best professional characteristics of a good goldsmith.In the goldsmiths trade, skills were as important as reliability, as Adam Smith notices in Wealth of Nations The wages of goldsmiths and jewelers are every-where superior to those of many other workmen, not only of equal, but of much superior ingenuity on account of the precious materials with they are intrusted. 32 Eligius is praised for both qualities. From his biography, we can see how important this reliability of his goldsmith was, for the king to become Eligius protector The king gave Eligius a great weight of gold.Eligius began the work immediately and from that which he had taken for a single piece of work, he was able to make two. Incredibly, he could do it all from the same weight for he had accomplished the work commissioned from him without any fraud or mixture of siliquae, or any other fraudulence. Not claiming fragments bitten off by the file or using the devouring flame of the furnace for an excuse. 33 The portrait Saint Eligius by Petrus Christus is a fine example of the occupational portrait, describing a goldsmiths shop, the only religious connection being the halo and the fact than the saint is the patron of the guild.The true moralizing pictures of the Flemish School Look at the painting The Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520, Figure 14 by Quentin Massys34 again you dont need to be a contemporary of his to notice the satirical intention. (It is important to notice that the theme of love between the old and the young was extremely popular in sixteenth century, and we can agree that both the popularity and the moral view has changed on this subject in moderne times.The meaning of the painting, however, hasnt changed at all, because the artist doesnt paint the old man with tenderness and love and mature elegance, but as undignified uncontrolled, despicable des ire). There are other paintings by Marinus which shows a clearly satirical approach, or at least an ugly pattern which does not imply pride in the profession see The Lawyers Office, 1545, and The Misers Figure 15 (also known, in different versions, as The Tax Gatherers or The tax gatherer and his guarantor).This one shows two tax collectors, or rather a treasurer, or an administrator with his clerk, the collector with a winking grimace. The treasurer enters in a book the sums received for the taxes with his right hand counts and weighs the coins 35 Both of them look clearly satirical for a modern observer. 5. Conclusion This paper has compared the rival interpretations provided by economists and art historians of the painting The Moneychanger and his Wife. The painting is seen as an occupational portrait, showing a banker in his office, carefully weighing coins simply because this is one of most prominent features of his trade.It is a clearly secular subject, much more so in Reymer waeles version the religious books in the womans hands has been turned into an accounting book. We could expect Flemish painters to be familiar with market oriented economic activity and the money world, because of the society in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the center of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade in works of art. 36 Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable ones.In the process of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art historians about this picture and other similar ones, we have seen that they are consistent with the views that art historians share about the economic activity, rather than based on any objective interpretation of the painting and history. Thus, while the picture shows commercial and financial activity to be a normal, respectable occupation, most art hist orians see a moralizing and satirical intention. This paper maintains that art historians prejudice towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a wrong interpretation of the paintings.LIST OF ILUSTRATIONS 1. The Moneychanger and his wife, by Quentin Matsys, 1503-1505. 2. The Last Judgement, by Hans Memling, 1480. Portrait of Angiolo Tani and his wife. 3. The Moneychanger and his wife, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1539. 4. Saint Jerome, by Marinus Reymerswaele. 5. Logo of the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration (AECA). 6. Adriaen Isenbrant, Man Weighing Gold, fist half of the sixteenth century. 7. St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, by Petrus Christus, 1449. 8. The Table of Deadly Sins, 1480, by Hieronimous Bosch. 9. Portrait of a Merchant, by Jean Gossaert, c. 1530. 10.The Ill-Matched Lovers, by Quentin Mastsys. 11. The Misers, or The moneylenders, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1545. 12. Marinus van Reymerswaele, Two Tax-Gatherers, 15, National Galle ry, capital of the United Kingdom. Yamey, p. 52, Plate XVI 13. Marinus van Reymerswaele, Two Tax-Collectors, 15, Alte Pinakotheck, Munich. Yamey, p. 54, 29 XVI 14. Map of Flanders and Antwerp. 15. 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Mund, Helene (1994), La copie, in Ainsworth (et al. ) (1994), pp. 125-141.Panofsky, Erwin (1971) 1953, Early Netherlandish painting its origins and character (2 vols. ) London Harper and Row. Panofsky, Erwin (1993) 1955, Meaning in the visual arts, Penguin. Philippot, Paul (1994), La peinture dans les anciens Pays-Bas. XV-XVIe siecles. Paris Flammarion. Puyvelde, Leo van (1957), Un Portrait de Marchand par Quentin Metsys et les Percepteurs dImpots par Marin van Reymerswale, Revue Belgue dArcheologie et dHistoire de lArt, vol. 26, pp. 3-23. Silver, Larry (1984), The paintings of Quinten Massys with catalogue raisonne, Oxford. Montclair, N. J. Allanheld & Schram.Smith, Adam (1976) 1776, An motion into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Comps. R. Campbell, A. S. Skinner y W. B. Todd. Oxf ord Clarendon Press. Van Houdt, Toon (1999), The Economics of Art in Early sophisticated Times Some Humanist and Scholastic Approaches, History of Political Economy, 31(0), Supplement 1999 (Economic Engagements with Art, edited by Neil De Marchi and Craufurd D. W. Goodwin, London Duke University Press), pages 303-31. Vanhoutte, Edward (1997), In your seed all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed. Importance and unimportance of the Jews of Belgium from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment,.Guest-lecture. Lancaster (UK) Lancaster University, 6 february. In . VVAA (1994), El Prado, Barcelona Lunwerg. Wilson, Jean E. (1998), Painting in Bruges at the close of the Middle Ages. Studies in familiarity and Visual Culture. Pennsylvania University Press. Yamey, Basil S. (1989), Art and Accounting, New Haven and London Yale University Press. 1 The author wants to thank conjuring trick Reeder for his useful comments. A previous version of this paper, with the title The Moneychanger a nd his Wife from Scholastics to Accounting, is in Internet, http//www. ucm. es/BUCM/cee/doc/00-23/0023. tm. 2 Quentin Massys (1465/66 1530), also Matsys, Metsys, Metsijs, Massijs. Famous Flemish painter, the founder of the Antwerp school, he was probably born in Leuven, Belgium. He was the main painter of his epoch. 3 Yamey (1989), pp. 24, 45. 4 Grice-Hutchinson (1993), pp. 203-205. 5 Massys, Quentin Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000, . In the same Encarta website, Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, says that Massys painted a witty gossip on greed. The bankers wife pretends piety by leafing through a religious book, while larceny a glance at her husbands gold. 6 Web Gallery of Art, . The pages says that the comments were compiled from various sources. 7 National Gallery of Art (Washington D. C. , USA), 2000, Antwerp in the Early 1500s, . 8 Jean-Claude Frere, Early Flemish Painting (1997, pp. 187-188). 9 Wilson (1998), p. 191 quoted from Panofsky, Early Netherlandish paintin g, 1953, p. 142. Every perceptible thing, man made or natural, becomes a symbol of that which is not perceptible, says Panofsky (Abbot Suger of St-Denis, 1946, in 1955, p. 161) following Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite. 10 Quentin Massys, Portrait of a merchant and his partner (Paris, collection M. Cailleux). 11 Puyvelde (1957, p. 5), quoting from Jean Cailleux, Les Richesses injustes, Reforme, Paris, n? 72, 3 aout 1946. In Antwerp, a tax-collector was obliged to have a surety or guarantor, who had the right to supervise the collection of money and its recording. The tax-collector is shown as a respectable person, accompanied by his guarantor, malicously rendered with a pronounced scowl. Yamey (1989, p. 54), confronts this van Puyveldes interpretation with other art historians view. 12 The Boys in the Back Room, written by John Haber in the Website Postmodernism and Art History Gallery Reviews from Around New York. The informations refers to the exhibition From Van Eyck to Bruegel E arly Netherlandish Painting, at The metropolitan Museum of Art, January 1999. . 13 Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497), Italian painter. Procession of the Magi, 1460, Medici Riccardi Palace, Florence. 14 The Triptych The Last Judgement, now in Gdansk, Narodowe Museum, was painted by Memling (also Memlinc) in 1477. Angiolo Tani is painted in the away(p) of the wings.Tani had been the head of the Bruges branch of Medici Bank from 1455 to 1465. Tomaso Portinari was his successor in the position. Memling, Tommaso Portinari, 1470, tempera and oil on wood, metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Maria Maddalena Baroncelli (Mrs. Tomasso Portinari), 1470, tempera and oil on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. For details, see Ainsworth et al. (1994), chapter Hans Memlinc, pp. 462-466. 15 Marinus (Claeszon) van Reymerswaele (also Roymerswaele) is a Flemish painter (c. 1495-1566). He received his first artistic training as an apprentice to an Antwerp glass painter progress tod Simon van Daele in 1509.Known as a painter of genre and satire, Reymerswaele was famous enough to have been mentioned by the Florentin historian Guicciardini and the art historian and painter Vasari. 16 Reymerswaele (or his workshop) made a lot of copies of this subject. Puyvelde (1957, p. 15) claims that the two paintings in the Prado and the one in the Collection of the State of Babiera, signed in 1538 and 1539, are inspired by Massys The moneychanger and his wife. Puyvelde considers that most other copies are inspired by Massys Tax Gatherers. 17 El cuadro inspirador del logotipo es conocido internacionalmente como una imagen de la actividad economica del Renacimiento, especialmente de la financiera, ya que en el se muestra una situacion caracteristica de lo que podria considerarse un banquero de la epoca. El tema de la pareja de cambistas pone de manifiesto el surgimiento de una nueva profesion renacentista relacionada con el mundo de las finanzas, de los impuestos y de las cuentas mercantiles. Marinus toma de Quintin Metsys el tema del banquero y su mujer, que se expone en el Louvre de Paris.En el cuadro de Marinus, el matrimonio burges recuenta las monedas de oro y plata y el pesa en una pequena balanza, con gran delicadeza, aquellas, ya que la mayoria de las mismas eran raspadas o recortadas. Posiblemente provendrian de una recaudacion de impuestos, de una cambio de monedas o de la devolucion de un prestamo, lo que implicaria despues controlar o calcular la operacion con el abaco que tiene a su derecha sobre la mesa y a efectuar anotaciones en el libro de Contabilidad que ella tiene entre su bellas y delicadas manos. From AECAs Website, 1999. 18 Recent research has demonstrated that the documents, which form the background of the painting, refer to an actual lawsuit begun in 1526 in the town of Reymerswaele on the North Sea. The suit arose between three heirs of Anthonius Willem Bouwensz and Cornelius vander Maere, the latter having purchased a common salt refinery fr om the heirs of Anthonius. Difficulties began when Cornelius vander Maere refused to make the initial payment and subsequently had his goods seized. The legal transactions lasted until 1538, by which time the property under dispute had probably been ubmerged or destroyed by storms. Ironically, the court fees still had to be paid. New siege of Orleans Museum of Art, Information written by Joan G. Caldwell. http//www. noma. org/MARINUS. HTM. The Museum owns one of the many versions of the painting Several versions of this composition exist in Munich, Amsterdam, Cologne and Brussels. While the Museums version is apparently the last in the series, it is painted with the greatest detail, thus clearly revealing the documents in the lawsuit. 19 Puyvelde (1957), pp. 7-18 le veritable portrait fait place a la caricature de lhomme de affaire rapace (Puyvelde, 1957, p. 13 also, p. 20). 20 Puyvelde (1957), p. 23. 21 Es esta tabla encontramos todas las caracteristicas de los pintores nordicos e l detallismo, las calidades materiales que se aprecian a la perfeccion, la aproximacion empirica a la realidad, y sobre todo, la sordidez descarnada con la que Van Reymerswaele aborda uno de los principales males de su epoca la usura, el mayor pecado posible dentro de una sociedad comerciante como era la flamenca.La corrupcion y la estafa afectaban a las capas de la sociedad, llegando al clero y provocando la reaccion de escritores, teologos y artistas. compact disc read-only memory La Pintura en el Prado, 1996, Editorial Contrastes. 22 Corneille van der Capelle, Le Percepteur dimpots et sa Femme. Jadis Sigmaringen, Pince of Hohenzollern collection. 23 The illustrated book El Prado (Barcelona Lunwerg, 1994), p. 389. 24 Vanhoutte (1997). 25 Web Gallery of Art, description of the painting The Tax Collectors, 1542 (Wood, 103,7 x 120 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich), The Tax Collectors by Marinus Van Roymerswaele appears to be a deliberate caricature the painters Calvinist background clear ly comes through in his depicting the tax collectors greed with a fierse grimace and claw-like hands, whilst the administrator records the money in the ledger, maintaining his proper distance. Marinus van Reymerswaele was a painter of three themes, all more or less caricatural. He painted a number of straightforward S. Jeromes, all derived from Durers picture of 1521 (Lisbon) but stressing the crabbedness of scholarship.The other two themes are interdependent two exceedingly ugly and covetous Tax Gatherers and a Banker and his Wife (the banker counting his profits). The Banker is closely related to Massyss picture of the same subject, and it may be that the Tax Gatherers derive from Massyss borrowings from the caricatures of Leonardo da Vinci. There are about 30 versions of the Tax Gatherers (the best is in London, National Gallery another has the date 1552), and what nobody has so far explained is why so many people should want to own a picture of tax collectors (and also ugly on es at that) gloating over their imposts.There are also examples in the British princely Collection and in Antwerp, Berlin, Ghent, Madrid, Munich and Vienna. The Website says on the Welcome page that the comments were compiled from various sources. 26 Adriaen Isenbrant (? ) Man Weighing Gold, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Friedsam Collection. Adriaen Isenbrant is also known as Hysebrant or Ysenbrant. He was active in Bruges, 1510 1551. He was first mentioned in 1510 when he became a master in the Bruges painters and saddlemakers guild.He was recorded as a stranger, but his inwrought town was not mentioned. Between 1516/1517 and 1547/1548 he was listed numerous times as a vinder or fry offical of the guild and in 1526/1527 and 1537/1538 was a gouverneur or financial officer. Because of the uncertainty, some authorities prefer to use the wee Isenbrandt in inverted commas or with or with question mark. See the Website of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. , 27 Bauman, G. , Early Flemish Portraits 1425-1525, M. M. A. Bull. XLIII, Spring 1986, pp. 46 f. On the contrary, Wehle, H. B. , and M. Salinger, M. M. A. , A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings, 1947, pp. coke f. , identify the sitter as a banker or a money changer and consider the portrait to be purely secular, not a donors likeness in a religious ensemble. References provided by Sandra Fritz, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Catalog. 28 The Table of the Deadly Sins, 1480, by Hieronimous Bosch (c. 1450-1516). cover on panel, 120 x 150 cm. Prado Museum.Bosch is the name given to the Dutch painter Hieronimus van Aeken. 29 Jan Gossaert (c. 1478 1532), Portrait of a Merchant, c. 1530. Oil on panel, . 636 x . 475 m Washington, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. 30 National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA, Brief Guide, in . 31 Petrus Christus (fl. 1444-c. 1470), St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, 1449, oil on panel, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 32 Smith (1976), I. x. b. 18. 33 The Life of St. Eligius, 588-660, paragraph 5.The Life of Eligius, bishop and confessor, was written by Dado, bishop of Rouen (his friend and contemporary). Eligius lived from 588 to 660. The full text is in . 34 Quentin Massys, Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520/1525, oil on panel, 0432 x 0630 m. National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. 35 Marinus Van Reymerswaele, The Misers, 1531. Oil on wood. Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, . 36 Bruges et surtout Anvers ont donc cree les premiers marches publics consacres a lart en Occident, Cassagness (2001), p. 264.