'Economic Activity as Reflected in Painting:\r'

'ECONOMIC occupation AS REFLECTED IN PAINTING: THE CONTRASTING VIEWS OF ECONOMISTS AND lovelysse 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 currency spayr and his married wo cosmos is credibly the exposure intimately widely used to illustrate frugalal bodily function, and so it is (supposedly) substanti ally k instantly by economists, humankindagers, and accountants. The description obligate which places in the supply is the origin of creator AECA (Spanish Association of Ac counting and Business ecesis) logotype.\r\nIt is a Flemish create from the early 16th century. non so umpteen economists be, however, aw atomic number 18 that in that location are cardinal several(predicate) versions of this discover: unrivalled by Quentin Massys, multi-color dynamical 1514 (now in genus Paris, the tailfin), and a nonher by Ma rinus (Claeszon) cutting edge Reymerswaele, piebald in 1539 (now in Madrid, in the Prado). in that location are essenceful changes among the both versions. This organism the Scholastic period and in like manner the epoch of the currencyma big businessman(prenominal) revolution in europium, we would expect this picture to rush virtu totallyy sort of economic meaning, and for the changes in the pictures to forge these changes in economic use and economic mind.\r\nWe entrust argue in this publisher that there does go such a meaning; and that in any case the rattling(prenominal) historic changes between Massys’s and Reymerswaele’s pictures pass water a bun in the oven a lot to do with the economic changes in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century. Most inventionistic production historians grant conditionn in Massys and Reymerswaeles films a sarcastic and moralising symbolism, The M matchlessy Changer and his married woman world the bu reau of cupidity. Others conceive of that the picture shows economic activity in a respect adapted r oute.\r\nFlanders at that while was the totality of a prosperous industrial and mercantileised activity, and overly was the centre of a mercenary portion out in plant of wile. twain(prenominal) things led to a foundation of the cover key activity of bullionchangers, floridsmiths, and bankers in a flair that shows those activities as respectable works. The second weigh is the one implicitly look atd by economists when choosing this picture to illustrate approximately machinerys on economics or business. Some scholars need proposed to a gravider extent subtle variations.\r\nMarjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who st cunningle aroused the interest of economists in the Spanish Scholastics of â€Å"School of Salamanca”, con emplacementrs Massys characterisation to be an illustration of the de residenceing of Scholastics to accommodate compatible the commercial customs of the quantify with Church tenet on usury. According to her explanation, Massys photo would mean the money lender oeuvreing and, at the homogeneous time, discussing with his unite woman the fairness of a feature commercial deal, helped by the ghostly take his married woman is recitation.\r\nIt is important to nonice that, 25 days on, the confine in Reymerswaele’ moving-picture show is no longer a phantasmal work still an accounting book. yet dodge historians claim that there is still some symbolism in the flick which gives it a moralising and sarcastic intent. According to them, this symbolism was clear to contemporaries exactly non to us; or some propagation would have been determinationally difficult to bill for those contemporaries who were non in the same ghostly group as the puma or his client. For instance, the long, curved fingers of the bourgeois couple on allegedly represented avaritia.\r \n plainly Reymerswaele calico the fingers of candid dealonise Jerome in the same carriage , so it essential have an a nice intention and non a exemplary one. In the process of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art historians of this picture and different(a)(a)(a) similar ones, we shall watch over that they are consistent with the views that just just about art historians share about the frugality (as Hayek points out in his chapter of The ignominious conceit, 1988, â€Å"The Mysterious World of cover and Money”) kind of than base on any objective interpretation of the flick and history.\r\nThus, while the picture shows commercial and pecuniary activity to be a ruler, respectable occupation, most art historians see a moralizing and satiric intention. My view is that art historians’ prejudice towards commercial and fiscal activity leads them to a wrong interpretation of the creates. When the cougars cherished to be satirical and moralizing, they did it in a modal value that is all the way 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 allow us start with Quentin Massys,[2] The Moneychanger and his Wife, dated 1514. take to 1]. It is probably derided from a lost work by Jan new wave Eyck, c. 1440. [3] On the table are rigid coins, a set of scales, and versatile other tools of their trade. (â€Å" versatile 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 measure specious coins with salient consider. At that time, coins with the same face lever varied in the amount of funds they contained (and because in their real exchange value), because it was a normal practice to file them d testify, clip them, or to conjure them together in a bag in order to collect the g hones t-to-goodness dust they produced.\r\nSo, the moneychanger is only when 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, still the face of a concentrating working man, care fullyy carrying out his job. His married woman is face at the coins and scales too; yet she has a book in her hands. The book is a spiritual one, an illustrated â€Å"book of hours”.\r\nMarjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first brought economists fear to the Spanish Scholastics of the â€Å"School of Salamanca”, considers Massys word-painting an illustration 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 resolveicular commercial deal, helped by consultin g the religious book his wife is reading. [4] Many other interpretations of Massys’s 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: â€Å"In The Moneychanger and his Wife, the subtly hinted negate between avarice and prayer represented in the couple illustrates a new satirical theatrical role in his paintings. â€Å"[5] (It is curious that the â€Å"Web Gallery of contri cutting edgece”, together with the Encarta article, provides this contradictory explanation: â€Å"The painting cadaver in the Flemish tradition of cutting edge Eyck, with the asset of a profane sense of beauty, sign of a new world”). [6] another(prenominal)(prenominal) scholar says this about Massys: â€Å"Painters overly began to treat new subjects.\r\nMen standardized Quentin Massys, for example, played an diligent role in the smart life of their cities and began to reflect the et hical concerns expressed by humanist thinkers with new paintings that used secular scenes to sum moralizing messages. Vivid tableaux warned against gambling, lust, and other vices. â€Å"[7] At the rump of the painting there is a circular mirror; we mint see the tiny figure of a man wearing a turban. [Figure 2] For some reason, the succeeding(a) is the explanation of the art historian Jean-Claude Frere: â€Å"a side window, under which we can just make out the tiny figure of a thief.\r\nHe would appear to be maculation on the couple as they count their gold, while they would seem to be unmindful(predicate) to his presence, blinded by their greed”. [8] Let us leave aside the greed and concentrate on the tiny man. Is he a thief? I dont know. moreover Im sure he is not â€Å"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 internal the room, he is reading a book and looking out of the window to the street. In think that this is not a passing(a) mistake: it is consistent with art historians’ interpretation. Symbolism, a spring of moralistic interpretation\r\nMy 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 conversion, in order to be able to judge when a painting has this meaning and when has not. The noted art historian Erwin Panofsky held that the too soon Flemish painters had to reconcile the â€Å"new naturalism” with a thousand years of Christian tradition.\r\nBased on St. Tomas Aquinas, who thought that strong-arm objects were â€Å"corporeal metaphors for spiritual things”, Panofsky ( early Netherlandish Painting, 1953) primary(prenominal)tain s that â€Å"in early Flemish painting the method of disguised symbolism was use 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 characterization of a Merchant and his Partner,[10] [Figure 3] there is a understandably clean inscription, in French: â€Å"Lavaricieux nest jamais rempli dargent…\r\nNayez point souci des privilegedesses injustes, car elles ne vous profiteront en rien au jour de la trial et de la vengeance. Soyez donc sans avarice”. This is a paraphrase of the gospel truth of St Luke, ch. XII, 15, 21-34; holy man Matthew, ch. VI, 19-21. Jean Cailleux says that the main character in the painting â€Å"est soumis a la parole evangelique. Il est vraiment 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 natural process at Flanders We can expect the Flemish painters to be beaten(prenominal) with commercialise oriented economic activity and the money world, because of the society in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the affection of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and overly was the center of a mercantile trade of works of art. Both things led to a mental representation of the professional activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable ones.\r\nMost Flemish artists were known with this world because of their own craft of painting, which was indeed market oriented. Massys was the most important of Antwerp painters of his time; and this means his fund 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 lot. Massys worked for religious confraterniti es, and also painted personations and other profane subjects, sometimes satirical, in response to commissions from humanists and scholars.\r\nFrere says that Massys was â€Å"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 set parliamentary law trunk for painters at the beginning of the ordinal century. It is important to chance upon not only the art of the painter, but also the evolution of the masters workshop. At the beginning of the Renaissance, preparedness in a craft took place in workshops regulated by civic authorities: apprenticeship was followed by inlet to a guild.\r\nBy the end of the century, â€Å"workshops had die much 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 missing a beat. Workshop assistants had certain preparatory tasks, including grinding pigments, displace grounds, and the transfer of under-drawings. Experienced assistants took on subsidiary passages, including cathode-ray oscilloscope or stock figures. Assistants also made copies to hold up pace with demand, and they had access to the masters designs once they set up for themselves.\r\nWorkshop copies ranged from straightforward replicas to transpositions into other media and from large commissions to private, pious images. â€Å"[12] The conventional depiction 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 â€Å"occupational portrayals”: the common way to portray a business man was in a way that showed him as a religious man, or as an intellectual in his manse, contact by works of art and literature.\r\nThe best cognize example is The Arnolfini Portrait by van Eyck, but there are many others. In the triptych The hold up 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 depicted as one of the Magi in Gozzoli’s Journey of the Magi, 1459. 13] It was rather common to include the donors portrait in a religious scene. Tomaso Portinari and his wife, mare Baroncelli, were also directly portrayed by Memling, at prayer. [14] (The fact that Antwerp was a cursorily 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 â€Å"rich and cultured” portrait). 3. Marinu s van Reymerswaele Let us now move on to the other version of the portrait and to a different year.\r\nMarinus van Reymerswaele[15] 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 Business Administration, AECA, which in 1979 chose as the symbol of the association a share this painting. [Figure 6] â€Å"The painting which has inspired our logotype is internationally famed as an image of financial activity during the Renaissance: it shows a scene typical of the counting house of a banker of the period.\r\nThe 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, taxes and commercial accounts. Reymerswaele adapts the subject of the banker and his wife from Massys’s painting now in the five in Paris. In Reymerswaele’s painting, the bourgeois married c ouple 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- allurement, an exchange of foreign currency or the repaying of a loan.\r\nThis would imply the use of the abacus which the banker has at his remunerate on the table, and then the setting out of accounts in the accounts book which the wife is holding in her flaccid fine hands. â€Å"[17] Compare the explanation of this picture disposed 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 growth of the economy that stemmed from the discovery and colonization of the new-sprung(prenominal) World, and the religious transformation known as Lutheran Reformation.\r\nReymerswaele was himself problematical in the Lutheran Reformation. (We know t hat in 1567, existence an old man, he took part in the shift of Middelburg cathedral, and was severely punished (six years of banishment and commonplace humiliation). Reymerswaele specialized in everyday scenes of flourishing Flanders, with great realism, which gives his works a considerable archiveary interest. (Paintings by masters of due northern Renaissance realism oft preserve official contracts or acts. The attorneys Office, 1545, by Reymerswaele, [Figure 7] is a remarkable example of this practice.\r\nRecent research has demo that the documents, which form the earth of the painting, restore 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 â€Å"occupational portraits” are always stressed as moralizing: Another art historian says â€Å"usuriers, changeurs, avocats, notaires, percepteurs dimpots, monde apre et rapace de largent toujours convinced(p) 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 caricature of rapacious and greedy businessmen. In Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, he says, â€Å"lesprit de lucre est plus nettement marque dans les physionomies et les doigts maigres” (Puyvelde, p. 13; we will turn to the fingers latter).\r\nThe study of the gold coins that appear in the painting shows that â€Å"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 datable painting, nonpareil Jerome, of 1521. The importance of Puyveldes argument is not the exact date, which I cannot sc rap, but the fact that Puyvelde considers The Money changer and his Wife closer to a portrait than to a jeering, as ompared to later works by Marinus: later in his career, Reymerswaele would have abandoned portraiture and glum to satire and caricature (â€Å"pamphlet”, says Puyvelde). [19] The public appears to have had a preference for satire, and Marinus sought to satisfy the public with engaging 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 take-off of legal slang.\r\nEven the signature on the document in French reads â€Å"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: â€Å"In this painting we incur all the characteristics of Northern European painters: minute detail, fine quality raw material, an empirical approach to reality, and preceding(prenominal) all, the naked sordidness with which Van Reymerswaele approaches one of the master(prenominal) evils of his time: usury, the greater of all possible sins in a commercial society such as Flanders.\r\nCorruption and fraud affected all levels of society, plain the clergy, producing a critical reaction on the part of writers, theologians and artists. â€Å"[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 influence the overall â€Å"tone” of the picture either as â€Å"occupational portrait” or â€Å"caricature”. My point is that a common attestator pump of today can spot the difference.\r\nCorneille van der C apelle 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, sooner far from any caricature. But, even accustomed 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.\r\nBut 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: â€Å"Long, curved fingers were, in XVI century, a sign of greed or avarice, so an apparently municipal subject can also be ful l 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 Antwerp’s economic activity. The money market was controlled by the Italian Lombards, and Jews could only act as minor money-lenders. The Jews change mainly small amounts of money for shorter periods of time to less(prenominal) 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.\r\nThere were a massacre of Jews in Antwerp in 1350, and then many Spanish and Portuguese â€Å"marranos” came to go down there after 1492 and 1497, expelled from Spain and Portugal. [24] I haven’t fully explored yet the poss ibility of the satirical portraits existence 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 sanctity, the antithesis of greed. Although, again, some scholar says that Reymerswaele painting of Saint Jerome is â€Å"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 valuate Gatherers (also The Misers), described by the same scholar as â€Å"exceedingly unattractive and covetous”, I dont need to be his contemporary to notice the satirical meaning. [25]\r\nAfter 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 objective depth psychology of the painting. 4. Other Flemish â€Å"occupational portraits” If you look at other paintings of the same school, it is easy to find examples of â€Å"good”, non critical or satirical, representation of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers.\r\nAdriaen Isenbrant Man calculation Gold (c. 1518),[26] [Figure 10] is described in this way by Jean E. Wilson: â€Å"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 bus iness sector” (Wilson 1998, p. 196). But another scholar points out that â€Å"the act of weighing coins may allude both to the mans profession and to his manifestation of higher values, comparable to Saint Michaels weighing of souls on Judgment Day”. [27]\r\nIn Hieronimous Boschs The Table of the lethal 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 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 â€Å"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.\r\nThere is nothing satirical about it: it is a purely  "occupational portrait”. But the subject Gallery of blind instruct run away says this: â€Å"the sitters furtive glance and prim mouth are enough to inform us of the insecurity and fright that haunted bankers in the 1530s, when the prevailing moral carriage was summed up by the Dutch humanist Erasmus, who asked, â€Å"When did avarice reign more largely and less punished? â€Å"[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 go to two clients: a rich, well-born bridal couple.\r\nIt seems to be a representation of the goldsmiths trade, with the excuse of the portrait of a venerate (hardly a subtle ploy, since St. Eloy is the patron of goldsmiths guild). The goldsmith sits john 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 example s of the goldsmiths craft. The picture may very well have been painted for a goldsmiths guild (the one in Antwerp). St. Eligius is the sponsor of metalworkers.\r\nAs 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 reputation as an outstanding metalsmith became widespread. It is important to notice that most striking features in the life of St. Eligius can be seen both as indications of sanctity and the best professional characteristics of a good goldsmith.\r\nIn the goldsmiths trade, skills were as important as reliability, as Adam Smith notices in wealthiness of Nations: â€Å"The wages of goldsmiths and jewelers are every-where lord to those of many other workmen, not only of equal, but of m uch 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: â€Å"The king gave Eligius a great weight of gold.\r\nEligius began the work instanter and from that which he had taken for a single gentleman of work, he was able to make two. Incredibly, he could do it all from the same weight for he had well-behaved 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 apply the devouring flame of the furnace for an excuse. â€Å"[33] The portrait Saint Eligius by Petrus Christus is a fine example of the â€Å"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.\r\nThe confessedly â€Å"moralizing” pictures of the Flemish School Look at the painting The Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520, [Figure 14] by Quentin Massys:[34] 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 one-sixteenth century, and we can agree that both the popularity and the moral view has changed on this subject in modern times.\r\nThe 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 desire). There are other paintings by Marinus which shows a clearly satirical approach, or at least an hapless expression which does not imply pride in the profession: see The Lawyer’s Office, 1545, and The Misers [Figure 15] (also known, in different versions, as The Tax Gatherers or The tax gatherer and his guarantor).\r\nThi s one shows â€Å"two tax collectors, or rather a treasurer, or an administrator with his clerk, the collector with a twinkling grimace…. The treasurer enters in a book the sums received for the taxes… with his right hand counts and weighs the coins… â€Å"[35] Both of them look clearly satirical for a modern observer. 5. coating 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 â€Å"occupational portrait”, viewing a banker in his office, carefully weighing coins simply because this is one of most prominent features of his trade.\r\nIt 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. Flander s 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.\r\nIn 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 historians see a moralizing and satirical intention. This paper maintains that art historian’s prejudice towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a wrong interpretation of the paintings.\r\nLIST 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. logotype 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.\r\nThe Ill-Matched Lovers, by Quentin Mastsys. 11. The Misers, or The moneylenders, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1545. 12. Marinus van Reymerswaele, cardinal Tax-Gatherers, 15â€, theme Gallery, London. [Yamey, p. 52, Plate XVI] 13. Marinus van Reymerswaele, cardinal Tax-Collectors, 15â€, Alte Pinakotheck, Munich. [Yamey, p. 54, 29 XVI] 14. Map 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 critique 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. â€Å"Marinus Van Roejmerswaelen” Campbell, Lorne, et al. (1978) â€Å"Quentin Massys, Desiderius Erasmus, Pieter Gillis and doubting Thomas More”. The Burlington Magazine, Vol. CXX, n? 908, november, pp. 716-724.\r\nCassagnes, Sophie (2001), D’art et d’argent. Les artistes et leurs clients dans l’Europe du Nord (XIVe -XVe siecle), Rennes: Presse s Universitaires de Rennes. Frere, Jean-Claude (1997), Early Flemish Painting, Paris: Terrail. Friedlander, Max J. (1967) [1929] Early Netherlandish painting. Vol 1, The van Eycksâ€Petrus Christus, Brussels: La Connaissance, and Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff. Genaille, Robert (1967), Dictionnaire des peintres flamands et hollandais, Paris: Larousse. Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie (1993) â€Å"Santo Tomas de Aquino en la historia del pensamiento economico”, in Ensayos sobre el pensamiento economico en Espana. This essay, lectured to receive the Honoris Causa doctorate from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, is not in the English version of the same book). Hayek, Friedrich August (1988), The fatal conceit. The errors of socialism, London: Routledge. Chapter 6, â€Å"The Misterious World of Trade and Money”. Mackor, Adri: â€Å"Are Marinus Tax Collectors collecting taxes? ” bulletin du Musee National de Varsovie XXXVI (1995; n? 3-4) pp. 3-13. Mackor, Adri: â€Å"Marinus van Reymerswale: Painter, Lawyer and Iconoclast”, Oud Holland 109 (1995) pp. 191-200. Mund, Helene (1994), â€Å"La copie”, in Ainsworth (et al. ) (1994), pp. 125-141.\r\nPanofsky, 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, social lion van (1957), â€Å"Un Portrait de Marchand par Quentin Metsys et les Percepteurs dImpots par Marin van Reymerswale”, Revue Belgue dArcheologie et dHistoire de l artifice, vol. 26, pp. 3-23. Silver, Larry (1984), The paintings of Quinten Massys with catalogue raisonne, Oxford. Montclair, N. J. : Allanheld & Schram.\r\nSmith, Adam (1976) [1776], An Inquiry into the character and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Comps. R. Campbell, A. S. Skinner y W. B. Todd. Oxford : Clarendon Press. Van Houdt, Toon (1999), â€Å"The political economy of guile in Early Modern times: Some Humanist and Scholastic Approaches”, History of governmental 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), â€Å"In your seed all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed. immensity and unimportance of the Jews of Belgium from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment”,.\r\nGuest-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 optic Culture. Pennsylvania : University Press. Yamey, Basil S. (1989), Art and Accounting, New seaport and London: Yale University Press. ———————†[1] The author wants to thank conjuring trick Reeder for his reclaimab le comments. A previous version of this paper, with the title â€Å"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. 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] â€Å"Massys, Quentin” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000, . In the same Encarta website, Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, says that Massys painted â€Å"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] â€Å"Web Gallery of Art”, . The pages says that â€Å"the comments were compiled from various sources”. [7] National Gallery of Art (Washington D. C. , USA), 2000, â€Å"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. â€Å"Every perceptible thing, man made or natural, becomes a symbol of that which is not perceptible”, says Panofsky (â€Å"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 â€Å"shown as a respectable person, attach to by his guarantor, malicously rendered with a pronounced scowl”. Yamey (1989, p. 54), confronts this van Puyvelde’s interpretat ion with other art historians’ view. 12] â€Å"The Boys in the Back Room”, written by John Haber in the Website â€Å"Postmodernism and Art History: Gallery Reviews from around New York”. The informations refers to the exhibition â€Å"From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting”, at The metropolitan Museum of Art, January 1999. . [13] Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497), Italian painter. salary increase 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.\r\nTani had been the indicate 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 â€Å"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 named Simon van Daele in 1509.\r\nKnown 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 aggregation 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] â€Å"El cuadro inspirador del logotipo es conocido internacionalmente como una imagen de la actividad economica del Renacimien to, 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.\r\nEn 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 table y a efectuar anotaciones en el libro de Contabilidad que ella tiene entre su bellas y delicadas manos”. From AEC As Website, 1999. 18] â€Å"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 ternion 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 minutes lasted until 1538, by which time the property under dispute had probably been ubmerged or destroyed by storms. Ironically, the philander fees still had to be paid. ” New Orleans Museum of Art, schooling written by Joan G. Caldwell. [http://www. noma. org/MARINUS. HTM]. The Museum owns one of the many versions of the painting: â€Å"Several versions of this composition exist in Munich, Amsterdam, eau de cologne and Brussels. While the Museums version is apparently the last in the series, it is painted with the greatest detail, thus clearly telltale(a) the documents in the lawsuit”. [19] Puyvelde (1957), pp. 7-18; â€Å"le veritable portrait fait place a la caricature de lhomme de thing rapace” (Puyvelde, 1957, p. 13; also, p. 20). [20] Puyvelde (1957), p. 23. [21] â€Å"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.\r\nLa 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] â€Å"Web Gallery of Art”, description of the painting The Tax Collectors, 1542 (Wood, 103,7 x one hundred twenty cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich), : â€Å"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.\r\nThe other two themes are interdependent: two exceedingly ugly and covetous Tax Gatherers and a Banker and his Wife (the bank er 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 Gallery; another has the date 1552), and what nobody has so far explained is wherefore so many people should want to own a picture of tax collectors (and excessively ugly ones at that) gloating over their imposts.\r\nThere are also examples in the British Royal Collection and in Antwerp, Berlin, Ghent, Madrid, Munich and Vienna. ” The Website says on the Welcome page that â€Å"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.\r\nHe 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 authorities prefer to use the name Isenbrandt in inverted commas or with or with question mark. perk the Website of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. , [27] Bauman, G. , â€Å"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. , â€Å" post 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, key Catalog. [2 8] The Table of the Deadly Sins, 1480, by Hieronimous Bosch (c. 1450-1516). Oil on panel, 120 x 150 cm. Prado Museum.\r\nBosch 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 carriage of St. Eligius, 588-660, paragraph 5.\r\nThe 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 edition 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] â€Å"Bruges et surtout Anvers ont donc cree les premiers marches publics consacres a l’art en Occident”, Cassagness (2001), p. 264.\r\n'