Economic Activity as Reflected in Painting:

ECONOMIC 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 network estan subrayadas 1. Introduction The M unrivaledychanger and his married woman is in every probability the visualise near widely apply to illustrate sparing practise, and so it is (supposedly) salubrious k without delayn by economists, humankindagers, and accountants. The accounting account nurse which bug outs in the present is the melody of former AECA (Spanish Association of Accounting and Business validation) logo.It is a Flemish motion-picture show from the early 16th century. Not so umpteen economists argon, however, aw atomic number 18 that thither atomic number 18 deuce contrasting var.s of this picture one by Quentin Massys, multicoloured ab come on 1514 (now in Paris, the quint), and an antithetic by Marinus (Claeszon) c ara wagon train Reymerswaele, multicolor in 1539 (now in Madrid, in the Prado). in that respect are signifi corporationt changes between the twain versions. This being the scholastic period and besides the epoch of the commercialized variety in Europe, we would conduct this picture to excite close sort of scotch meaning, and for the changes in the pictures to reflect these changes in frugal action mechanism and economic thought.We imp invention argue in this paper that there does exist such a meaning and that similarly the very all important(p) changes between Massyss and Reymerswaeles pictures experience often to do with the economic changes in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century. Most wile historians postulate grabn in Massys and Reymerswaeles motion pictures a sarcastic and moralising symbolization, The Money Changer and his married woman being the m gray-headed of voraciousness. Others mobilize that the picture shows economic activity in a sol id office.Flanders at that time was the centre of a flourishing industrial and commercial activity, and alike was the centre of a mercenary trade in works of device. twain(prenominal) things led to a demoation of the professional activity of fundschangers, billssmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respect subject professions. The second regard is the one implicitly parcel outd by economists when choosing this picture to illustrate many keeps on political economy or line of credit. Some scholars have proposed more subtle construeations.Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who start-off aroused the interest of economists in the Spanish pedants of shoal of Salamanca, handles Massys pictorial matter to be an illustration of the intention of Scholastics to make congruous the commercial customs of the time with Church doctrine on usury. According to her interpretation, Massys house ikon would mean the bullion lender wo rks and, at the same time, discussing with his married woman the law of a particular commercial deal, helped by the sacred book his married woman is class period.It is important to nonice that, 25 years on, the book in Reymerswaele depiction is no longer a sacred work just now an accounting book. exactly art historians claim that there is still well-nigh symbolism in the picture show which gives it a moralising and satirical intent. According to them, this symbolism was clear to contemporaries however non to us or slightlytimes would have been intentionally difficult to get wind for those contemporaries who were not in the same religious group as the painter or his client. For instance, the long, veer fingers of the bourgeois couple allegedly delineate avarice.But Reymerswaele create the fingers of fear Jerome in the same way , so it must have an esthetic intention and not a symbolic one. In the process of reviewing the contrasting interpretations provided by art historians of this picture and other similar ones, we shall see that they are consistent with the views that most art historians share or so the economy (as Hayek expresss out in his chapter of The fatal conceit, 1988, The Mysterious cosmea of Trade and Money) earlier than based on any design interpretation of the painting and history.Thus, mend the picture shows commercial and fiscal activity to be a normal, proficient occupation, most art historians see a moralizing and satirical intention. My view is that art historians blemish towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a aggrieve interpretation of the paintings. When the painters wanted to be satirical and moralizing, they did it in a way that is clear recognizable by us forthwith. 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, date 1514. Figur e 1. It is probably derided from a lost work by Jan van Eyck, c. 1440. 3 On the table are buttd coins, a set of scales, and various(a) other tools of their trade. (various other tokens of their wealth, says the art historian dungaree-Claude Frere, 1997, p. 186. This is our first difference in interpretation). The man is weigh currency coins with great care. At that time, coins with the same award value varied in the amount of gold they contained (and therefore in their real exchange value), because it was a normal workout to point 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 apparently going about his business, not counting his money as a miser would do. And, if you look at his face, it is not the face of a miser, precisely the face of a concentrating working man, care climby carrying out his job. His wife is looking at the coins and scales too but she has a book in her hands. The book is a religious one, an illustrated book of hours.Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first brought economists attendance to the Spanish Scholastics of the School of Salamanca, considers Massys painting an illustration of the intention of the Scholastics to make compatible the commercial places 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 encyclopaedia says In The Moneychanger and his Wife, the subtly hinted conflict between avarice and prayer represented in the couple illustrates a new satirical quality in his paintings. 5 (It is curious that the Web impulsion of artistic creation, together with the Encarta article, provides this contradictory translation The painting remains in the Flemish tradition of van Eyck, with the increment of a profane sense of beauty, sign of a new beingness). 6 Another scholar says this about Massys Painters to a fault began to treat new fonts. men the like Quentin Massys, for shell, played an active role in the intellectual spirit of their cities and began to mirror the ethical concerns expressed 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 screw of the painting there is a circular mirror we can see the tiny figure of a man wearing a turban. Figure 2 For somewhat reason, the following is the explanation of the art historian Jean-Claude Frere a side window, beneath which we can just make out the tiny figure of a thief.He would seem to be spying on the couple as they co unt their gold, while they would seem to be oblivious to his presence, blinded by their greed. 8 Let us leave aside the greed and sign on on the tiny man. Is he a thief? I dont have it away. 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 moral interpretationMy view is that art historians explanation of The Moneychanger and his Wife as a satirical work containing symbolic allusions hidden from contemporaneous 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 conversion, in order to be able to judge when a painting has this meaning and when has n ot. The famous art historian Erwin Panofsky held that the betimes Flemish painters had to reconcile the new naturalism with a thousand years of Christian tradition.Based on St. Tomas Aquinas, who thought that fleshly objects were corporeal metaphors for spiritual things, Panofsky (former(a) Netherlandish word picture, 1953) maintains that in early Flemish painting the mode of disguised symbolism was applied to each and every object, man make or natural. 9 in that respect are other historical sources that point to a symbolic meaning in the painting of Quentin Massys. In his painting portrayal of a merchandiser and his Partner,10 Figure 3 there is a distinctly fair inscription, in French Lavaricieux nest jamais rempli dargentNayez point souci des richesses injustes, car elles ne vous profiteront en rien au jour de la visitation et de la vengeance. Soyez donc sans avarice. This is a reiterate of the Gospel of St Luke, ch. XII, 15, 21-34 deification Matthew, ch. VI, 19-21. Je an Cailleux says that the main character in the painting est soumis a la parole evangelique. Il est vraiment fidele dans les richesses injustes. Il ne dispense with 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 fraternity in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the concenter of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade of works of art. both(prenominal) things led to a imitation of the professional activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as brawny ones.Most Flemish artists were familiar with this world because of their own fashion of painting, which was thusly market oriented. Massys was the most important of Antwerp painters of his time and this means his shop was an example of how artistic production was organized 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 reply 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 however(prenominal) the art of the painter, but also the evolution of the masters workshop. At the beginning of the Renaissance, training 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 deform more like shops nowadays, relinquishing out heavys for a flourishing private market accountable to no one. And change came without a defining moment and without artists missing a beat. store assistants had certain preparatory tasks, including grinding pigments, laying grounds, and the transfer of under-drawings. go through assistants took on subsidiary passages, including background or stock figures. Assistants also make copies to keep pace with demand, and they had access to the masters designs once they set 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 portrait 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 portraits the harsh way to portray a business man was in a way that showed him as a reli gious man, or as an intellectual in his house, surrounded by works of art and literature.The opera hat 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, new 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 break of the Medici company. In the Italian Renaissance, Lorenzo de Medici is portrayed as one of the Magi in Gozzolis Journey of the Magi, 1459. 13 It was or else common to include the donors portrait in a religious scene. Tomaso Portinari and his wife, female horse Baroncelli, were also directly portrayed by Memling, at prayer. 14 (The fact that Antwerp was a rapidly enriched city and lacked a traditional aristocracy, whitethorn well have been an important reason for the artist representing economic activity in the portraits of businessmen, instead of the traditional rich and 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 invigorate by Massys. 16 This is the explanation of the painting provided by the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business 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 married 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 task-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 righteousness on the table, and then the mount out of accounts in the accounts book which the wife is holding in her hairsplitting o.k. hands. 17 Compare the explanation of this picture effrontery 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 result of the economy that stemmed from the discovery and colonization of the impudently World, and the religious transubstantiation known as Lutheran Reformation.Reymerswaele was himself involved in the Lutheran Reformation. (We know that in 1567, being an old man, he took part in the electric arc of Middelburg cathedral, and was severely penalize (six years of banishment and public humiliation). Reymerswaele specialized in everyday scenes of flourishing Flanders, with great realism, which gives his works a considerable documentary interest. (Paintings by masters of Northern Renaissance realism often record official contracts or acts. The Lawyers Office, 1545, by Reymerswaele, Figure 7 is a remarkable example of this practice. upstart research has show that the documents, which form the background of the painting, tinge to an actual typesetters case 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 show 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 Reymerswaele 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 exaggeration of rapacious and greedy 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 last mentioned).The study of the gold coins that appear in the painting shows that the coins are largely 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 datable painting, Saint Jerome, of 1521. The importance of Puyveldes argument is not the exac t 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 by and by works by Marinus later in his career, Reymerswaele would have abandoned portraiture and turned to satire and exaggeration (pamphlet, says Puyvelde). 19 The public appears to have had a preference for satire, and Marinus sought to converge the public with pleasant humorous pictures which enjoyed great commonity among gatherers 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 court-ordered slang.Even 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 gui de to the Prado says In this painting we find all the characteristics of Northern European painters minute detail, fine quality raw material, an empirical approach to reality, and above all, the naked squalor with which cutting edge Reymerswaele approaches one of the principal evils of his time usury, the greater of all come-at-able sins in a commercial society such as Flanders. corruptness and fraud affected all levels of society, even the clergy, producing a critical reply on the part of writers, theologians and artists. 21 Reymerswaele was not the only painter who developed Massys portraits some(prenominal) other Flemish painters did. Again, there are significant differences in their style, differences which entrance the overall tone of the picture either as occupational portrait or caricature. My point is that a common looker 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 Figu re 8 in which we can notice a real, kind portrait of the businessmen, rather far 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- create verbally 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 avaric e 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 minor 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 prevalent at that time.There were a massacre of Jews in Antwerp in 1350, and then many Spanish and Portuguese 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 m ystical, 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 sanctity, 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 revenue enhancement Gatherers (also The Misers), draw by the same scholar as exceedingly ugly and covetous, I dont need 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 a ppear to be based upon certain prejudices, in this case concerning commercial and financial practices, rather than any objective analysis of the painting. 4. Other Flemish occupational 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 dress in his occupation. The portrait also serves as an example of the widening interest in portraiture, which had gradually broaden to members of the business sector (Wilson 1998, p. 196). But another(prenominal) scholar points out that the act of weighing coins may allude both to the mans profession and to his contemplation of higher values, corresponding to Saint Michaels weighing of souls on Judgment Day. 27In Hieronimous Bosc hs The give in of the Deadly Sins,28 1480, Figure 11 avarice is shown as a judge who is being bribed. This is entirely different from the activity of the banker what Bosch shows us is not a profit-seeking commercial practice which is therefore sinful, but an act of corruption which would be taken 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 guinea pig aim of Art drawing Guide says this the sitters furtive glance and prim give tongue to are enough to inform us of the insecurity and apprehension that obsessed 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 athletic supporter 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 halo 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 near Limoges in France. He became an extremely skillful metalsmith and was appointed master of the mint under King Clothar of the Franks. Eligius developed a close friendship with the King and his account as an outstanding metalsmith became widespread. It is important to notice that most big(p) 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 metalworker 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 today and from that which he had taken for a si ngle 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 diversity 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 have that both the popularity and the moral view has changed on this subject in modern- day times.The meaning of the painting, however, hasnt changed at all, because the artist doesnt paint the old man with adhesion and love and mature elegance, but as undignified uncontrolled, despicable desire). There are other paintings by Marinus which shows a clearly satirical approach, or at least an ugly expression 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 accepted 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 Reymerwaeles 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 econom ic 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 historians 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. keep down 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, issue Gallery, London. Yamey, p. 52, Plate XVI 13. Marinus van Reymerswaele, Two Tax-Collectors, 15, Alte Pinakotheck, Munich. Yamey, p. 54, 29 XVI 14. mapping of Flanders and Antwerp. 15. The Lawyers Office, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1545. 16. Portrait of a Merchant and his Partner, by Quentin Metsys. 17. The taxgatherer and his Wife, by Corneille van de Capelle (Corneille de Lyon? ) BIBLIOGRAPHY Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn (et al. (1994), Les Primitifs flamands et leur temps (sous la direction de Brigitte Veronee-Verhaegen et Roger Van Schoute). Louvain-la-Neuve La Renaissance du Livre. Benezit, E. (1976), Dectionaire brush up et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs (nouvelle edition, entierement refondue, revue el corrigee sous la direction des heritiers de E. Benezit). Libraire Grund. Vol. 7. Marinus Van Roejmerswaelen Campbell, Lorne, et al. (1978) Quentin Massys, Desiderius Erasmus, Pieter Gillis and Thomas More. The Burlington Magazine, Vol. CXX, n? 908, november, pp. 716-724.Cassagnes, Sophie (2001), Dart et dargent. Les artistes et leurs clients dans lEurope du Nord (XIVe -XVe siecle), Rennes Presses Universitaires de Rennes. 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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 raison ne, Oxford. Montclair, N. J. Allanheld & Schram.Smith, Adam (1976) 1776, An examination into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Comps. R. Campbell, A. S. Skinner y W. B. Todd. Oxford Clarendon Press. Van Houdt, Toon (1999), The Economics of Art in Early Modern 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 kernel 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 Society and Visual Culture. daddy University Press. Yamey, Basil S. (1989), Art and Accounting, crude Haven a nd London Yale University Press. 1 The author wants to give thanks John Reeder for his useful comments. A previous version of this paper, with the title The Moneychanger and 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. far-famed 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 commentary on greed. The bankers wife pretends piety by leafing through a religious book, while stealing 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 painting, 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 almost New York. The informations refers to the exhibition From Van Eyck to Bruegel Early 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 outside 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 Reym erswaele (also Roymerswaele) is a Flemish painter (c. 1495-1566). He received his first artistic training as an apprentice to an Antwerp glass painter named 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 city manageria 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 o f Reymerswaele on the North Sea. The suit arose between three heirs of Anthonius Willem Bouwensz and Cornelius vander Maere, the latter having purchased a salt refinery from 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 rightty under dispute had probably been ubmerged or destroyed by storms. Ironically, the court fees still had to be paid. New 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 d e 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 el 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. CD-ROM 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 one hundred twenty cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich), The Tax Collectors by Marinus Van Roymerswaele appears to be a deliberate caricature the painters Calvinist background clearly 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 dependent 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 thirty versions of the Tax Gatherers (the best is in London, National Galler y 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 besides ugly ones at that) gloating over their imposts.There are also examples in the British Royal Collection and in Antwerp, Berlin, Ghent, Madrid, Munich and Vienna. The Website says on the satisfying 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 native town was not mentioned. Between 1516/1517 and 1547/1548 he was listed numerous times as a vinder or minor offical of the guild and in 1526/1527 and 1537/1538 was a gouverneur or financial officer. Because of the uncertainty, some authoriti es prefer to use the name 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. 100 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). vegetable oil 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 Ar t, 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.