DOCSLIB.ORG

The Moneylender and His Wife by Quentin Metsys (1466-1530) Oil on Panel 1514

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Moneylender and His Wife by Quentin Metsys (1466-1530) Oil on Panel 1514 The Moneylender and His Wife By Quentin Metsys (1466-1530) Oil on panel 1514 ABOUT THE ARTIST: Born in Louvain, Belgium in 1466, Quentin Metsys was trained as an ironsmith before becoming a painter and later settling in Antwerp, Belgium where in 1491 he is mentioned as a master in the guild of painters. At this time, Antwerp was the center of economic activity in the Low Countries which were comprised of Flanders (Northern Belgium) and the Netherlands. The growth and prosperity of Antwerp also attracted many artists who benefitted from the wealthy merchants who would collect and purchase their art. Metsys became Antwerp’s leading artist and founder of the Antwerp School. There is little known of Metsys’s artistic training but his style reflects the influence of multiple artists. “Matsys’ firmness of outline, clear modelling and thorough finish of detail stem from Van de Weyden's influence; from the Van Eycks and Memling by way of Dirck Bouts, the glowing richness of transparent pigments.” Other artists that have been referenced are Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Durer, Hans Holbein and Leonardo da Vinci. Not only is a religious influence felt in Metsys’s paintings, which was typical of traditional Flemish works, but he included a bit of satire as well. Metsys died in Antwerp in 1530. To mark the first centennial of his death there was a ceremony and a relief plaque with an additional inscription on the facade of the Antwerp Cathedral. Cornelius van der Geest, a patron, came up with the wording: "in his time a smith and afterwards a famous painter" honoring Metsys’ life. ABOUT THE PAINTING: A major trading center for commerce between Northern and Southern Europe, merchants from all over Europe would come to Antwerp using a variety of currencies allowing many moneylenders and moneychangers an opportunity for their business to thrive. This oil on panel exhibiting a moneylender and his wife is an example of genre painting. This form of painting depicts everyday life and was a very popular form in Flanders and the northern Netherlands during the 16th century. Another common device used was the inclusion of a moralizing undertone. Metsys was one of the founders of this form and here he has made a commentary on society and its vices as well as the weakness of humanity. Centered in the painting is a man and woman staring intently at something in the man’s hand. Scattered across the table in the foreground are various gold coins, pearls nestled against a black velvet box, a stack of gold rings with gems, a glass canister, various silver objects, a convex mirror, a scale (a possible reference to the scales of the Last Judgment) and a religious book in the woman’s hands. Many of these items are symbols of greed and vanity. Metsys has paid a great deal of attention to the detail of this painting rendering it in such clarity that it is easy to see and almost feel the brass tacks holding the decorative banding on the front of the table. The convex mirror reflects a stained glass window with a building and trees as well as an image of a man, some think it is in fact Metsys. This technique was used a great deal in Flemish painting as a way to incorporate the space beyond the central scene. The pages of the religious book show highly detailed illustrations as well as the miniscule text. The man appears to have paused while weighing the coins and his wife has been distracted from her reading of the Virgin Mary. It is here with the wife’s loss of interest in her religious text and clear fascination with the rich objects her husband pores over where we see Metsys’s commentary on the greed of society. The man and his wife are also painted in great detail. Looking closely you can see the stubble on the man’s face and his furrowed brow as he concentrates on the task at hand. Metsys uses shadowing to depict the folds and pleats in the clothing. Typical of Flemish artists at the time, there was a focus on ornamentation, jewelry and the trim of the clothing. The wife has a fur-lined dress and meticulously painted gold braid along her cuff. The decorative hat pin stands out against the folds and the white of her headdress. Continuing to reinforce his moral message Metsys includes objects in the background that also may have symbolic significance. The apple alludes to original sin, the extinguished candle refers to death. The purity of the Virgin is portrayed with the carafe of water and the rosary hanging from the shelf. Lastly it is believed the small wooden box is a place where faith has retreated. Other objects included in the shelves are ledgers, paperwork and a beautifully depicted tin plate. Painted with such detail the light is reflected off each hanging glass ball of the rosary as well as the carafe and tin plate. To the right of the shelves is an open doorway. It appears a young man is in deep conversation with an old man. This small slice of the painting leads the eye and imagination to a scene beyond its frame. The use of contrasting red and green as well as the meticulously paid attention to detail of the objects has led some to believe this is a copy of a lost work by Jan Van Eyck. QUESTIONS TO ASK: • Is this a painting? Or a photograph? It is painted in such fine detail as it almost looks like a photograph. • What do you think the Moneylender is holding in his hand? • What is the expression on both of their faces? Surprised? Mad? Happy? • If they could speak. What do you think they would say to us? • If you did not know the date of the painting would you think it was painted now? What clues give you an idea it was from a long time ago? • Where is the light source? How do you know where it is coming in? • Besides light what else is reflected in the mirror? • How many figures are actually in this painting? What do you think they are they doing? • What is the mood of this painting? How does it make you feel? • Metsys paid great attention to detail- what other interesting objects can be found? .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Jheronimus Bosch-His Sources
    In the concluding review of his 1987 monograph on Jheronimus Bosch, Roger Marijnissen wrote: ‘In essays and studies on Bosch, too little attention has been paid to the people who Jheronimus Bosch: his Patrons and actually ordered paintings from him’. 1 And in L’ABCdaire de Jérôme Bosch , a French book published in 2001, the same author warned: ‘Ignoring the original destination and function his Public of a painting, one is bound to lose the right path. The function remains a basic element, and What we know and would like to know even the starting point of all research. In Bosch’s day, it was the main reason for a painting to exist’. 2 The third International Bosch Conference focuses precisely on this aspect, as we can read from the official announcement (’s-Hertogenbosch, September 2012): ‘New information Eric De Bruyn about the patrons of Bosch is of extraordinary importance, since such data will allow for a much better understanding of the original function of these paintings’. Gathering further information about the initial reception of Bosch’s works is indeed one of the urgent desiderata of Bosch research for the years to come. The objective of this introductory paper is to offer a state of affairs (up to September 2012) concerning the research on Bosch’s patronage and on the original function of his paintings. I will focus on those things that can be considered proven facts but I will also briefly mention what seem to be the most interesting hypotheses and signal a number of desiderata for future research.
    [Show full text]
  • A New Look at the Cure of Folly
    Medical History, 1978, 22: 267-281. A NEW LOOK AT THE CURE OF FOLLY by WILLIAM SCHUPBACH* THE MEDICAL and surgical scenes depicted by Netherlandish artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have attracted the admiring attention of historians of medicine to such a degree that almost no book on "art and medicine" omits such paintings as Jan Steen's A love-sick (or pregnant) girl visited by a physician (several versions) or Gerrit Dou's Quacksalver (Rotterdam, Boymans-van Beuningen museum), although their documentary value is problematical.' Almost as popular are the paint- ings and graphics which illustrate the scene known in Dutch as Het snijden van den kei, in French as La pierre de tte or La pierre defolie, in English as The cure offolly, and in German as Der Steinschneider. In these scenes, a medical practitioner- physician, surgeon, barber-surgeon or quack, or a combination of those four-makes an incision in the patient's scalp and appears to extract from it a foreign body, usually a stone, the pierre de tete, which, according to contemporary inscriptions, had caused the patient to be afflicted with some kind of mental disorder ("folly"). One of the first modem writers to discuss these scenes, writing about the version in the Prado (Madrid) which is attributed to Hieronymus Bosch, interpreted it as a fantastic suggestion to the surgeons, comparable to Swift's suggestion of reciprocal hind-brain transplants for contentious politicians.2 This interpretation was soon overcast by another, which was first put forward by Henry Meige of the Salpetri6re in a fascinating and persuasive series of articles.3 The Persian physician Rhazes *William Schupbach, M.A., Weilcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BP.
    [Show full text]
  • Holy Shit: Bosch's Bluebird and the Junction of the Scatological and The
    Marginalia, October 2010 28 Holy Shit: Bosch’s Bluebird and the Junction of the Scatological and the Eschatological in Late Medieval Art Marisa Mandabach Harvard University* In the ‗Hell‘ panel of the Garden of Earthly Delights (ca. 1500), a devil with the head of a bird and a humanoid body with glowing blue skin devours one naked soul and drops two more, in a transparent blue bubble, into a cesspool (Figure 1). Its black eye conveys no hint of consciousness; glinting with two white highlights, it is all surface and all abyss. Although the orifice that expels the bubble is hidden by the seat of a throne-like privy chair, in its hue the bub- ble is a material extension of the devil‘s body, a body shown to be doubly po- Figure 1: Hieronymus Bosh (Netherlandish, ca. 1450-1516) Garden of Earthly Delights, ca. 1500 Detail from interior right panel: "Bird-headed devil" Museo del Prado, Madrid. Image courtesy of Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY *I would like to express my thanks to Jeffrey F. Hamburger who helped inspire this paper. Marginalia, October 2010 29 rous: half-ruptured from the bubble, a naked male falls from one abjection to- wards another, his arms still flailing inside the blue membrane, his legs dan- gling over the cesspool he will join. Another victim follows him headfirst. Their tormentor is an eating and defecating machine. Moreover, the half-eaten victim in its raised claw has been infected with the latter of these modes, releasing (no doubt in terror, as in a literal ‗fight or flight‘ response) a smoky cloud of black- birds from his or her anus.
    [Show full text]
  • Reinterpreting Hieronymus Bosch's Table Top of the Seven
    REINTERPRETING HIERONYMUS BOSCH'S TABLE TOP OF THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS AND THE FOUR LAST THINGS THROUGH THE SEVEN DAY PRAYERS OF THE DEVOTIO MODERNA Eunyoung Hwang, B.A., M.F.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2000 APPROVED: Scott Montgomery, Major Professor Larry Gleeson, Committee Member Don Schol, Committee Member and Associate Dean William McCarter, Chair of Art History and Art Education Jack Davis, Dean of the School of Visual Art C. Neal Tate, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Hwang, Eunyoung, Reinterpreting Hieronymus Bosch's Table Top of the Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things through the Seven Day Prayers of the Devotio Moderna. Master of Arts (Art History), August 2000, 140 pp., 35 illustrations, references, 105 titles. This thesis examines Hieronymus Bosch's Table Top of the Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things. Instead of using an iconographical analysis, the thesis investigates the relationship between Bosch's art and the Devotio Moderna, which has been speculated by many Bosch scholars. For this reason, a close study was done to examine the Devotio Moderna and its influence on Bosch's painting. Particular interest is paid to the seven day prayers of the Devotio Moderna, the subjects depicted in Bosch's painting, how Bosch's painting blesses its viewer during the time of one's prayer, and how the use of gaze ties all of these ideas together. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS…………………………………………………………………………………………… iv Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Statement of the Problem Methodology Review of Literature 2.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of Hieronymus Bosch's Musical Instruments and Their Dissonant Revolution
    Bard College Bard Digital Commons Senior Projects Spring 2011 Bard Undergraduate Senior Projects Spring 2011 The Rise of the Sentient Musical Instrument: A Study of Hieronymus Bosch's Musical Instruments and their Dissonant Revolution Liza Young Bard College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2011 Part of the Art and Design Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Young, Liza, "The Rise of the Sentient Musical Instrument: A Study of Hieronymus Bosch's Musical Instruments and their Dissonant Revolution" (2011). Senior Projects Spring 2011. 229. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2011/229 This Open Access work is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been provided to you by Bard College's Stevenson Library with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this work in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 The Rise of the Sentient Musical Instrument A Study of Hieronymus Bosch’s Musical Instruments and their Dissonant Revolution Senior project submitted to The Division of the Arts Of Bard College By Liza Young Annandale-on-Hudson, NY May 2011 2 Acknowledgments This project could not have been completed without my family and friends’ support of my increasingly bizarre interests.
    [Show full text]
  • 14 CH14 P468-503.Qxp 9/10/09 11:40 Page 468 14 CH14 P468-503.Qxp 9/10/09 11:40 Page 469 CHAPTER 14 Artistic Innovations in Fifteenth-Century Northern Europe
    14_CH14_P468-503.qxp 9/10/09 11:40 Page 468 14_CH14_P468-503.qxp 9/10/09 11:40 Page 469 CHAPTER 14 Artistic Innovations in Fifteenth-Century Northern Europe HE GREAT CATHEDRALS OF EUROPE’S GOTHIC ERA—THE PRODUCTS of collaboration among church officials, rulers, and the laity—were mostly completed by 1400. As monuments of Christian faith, they T exemplify the medieval outlook. But cathedrals are also monuments of cities, where major social and economic changes would set the stage for the modern world. As the fourteenth century came to an end, the were emboldened to seek more autonomy from the traditional medieval agrarian economy was giving way to an economy based aristocracy, who sought to maintain the feudal status quo. on manufacturing and trade, activities that took place in urban Two of the most far-reaching changes concerned increased centers. A social shift accompanied this economic change. Many literacy and changes in religious expression. In the fourteenth city dwellers belonged to the middle classes, whose upper ranks century, the pope left Rome for Avignon, France, where his enjoyed literacy, leisure, and disposable income. With these successors resided until 1378. On the papacy’s return to Rome, advantages, the middle classes gained greater social and cultural however, a faction remained in France and elected their own pope. influence than they had wielded in the Middle Ages, when the This created a schism in the Church that only ended in 1417. But clergy and aristocracy had dominated. This transformation had a the damage to the integrity of the papacy had already been done.
    [Show full text]
  • Today Hieronymus Bosch Is Most Readily Associated with Images of Hell and Its
    CHAPTER 1 A NEW BOSCH EPIPHANY? ADORATION OF THE MAGI REASSEMBLED Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania For Yona Pinson, colleague and friend Today Hieronymus Bosch is most readily associated with images of Hell and its torments or with the temptation of isolated hermit saints by legions of demons. Among his Gospel subjects, however, Bosch’s most popular (and most copied) imagery features the scene of Epiphany. That event, associated with the twelfth night of Christmas season, occurred when the wise men or “Magi” from “the East” (traditionally three in number in visual art) came to Jerusalem, led by the star in the East, to view the King of the Jews, the new-born infant Jesus (Matthew 2:1–11). In tribute they brought luxury gifts, fit for a king: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Although pagans, these foreign kings were the first Gentiles to acknowledge the divinity and royal supremacy of the Christ Child. Their holy relics were later to enjoy special veneration in a magnificent golden shrine from the early thirteenth century created by Nicholas of Verdun, in Cologne Cathedral, the archdiocese of the Netherlands.1 During the period of Bosch’s early career, Netherlandish visual conventions of the late fifteenth century pictured the Three Magi as representatives of the three ages of mankind (youth, maturity, and old age) as well as the three Old World continents 1 Franz Günter Zehnder, Die Heiligen Drei Könige: Darstellung und Verehrung (Cologne: Wallraf- Richartz-Museum, 1982). (Africa, Asia, and Europe).2 Europe, the most senior by virtue of being the first to adopt Christianity, is usually shown as the oldest, white-haired Magus, given the most favorable position, kneeling closest to the Christ Child.
    [Show full text]
  • Hieronymus-Bosch.Pdf
    Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch, born Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken (c. 1450 – 9 August 1516) was an Early Netherlandish painter. His work is known for its use of fantastic imagery to illustrate moral and religious concepts and narratives. Bosch produced several triptychs. Among his most famous is The Garden of Earthly Delights. This painting, for which the original title has not survived, depicts paradise with Adam and Eve and many wondrous animals on the left panel, the earthly delights with numerous nude figures and tremendous fruit and birds on the middle panel, and hell with depictions of fantastic punishments of the various types of sinners on the right panel. When the exterior panels are closed the viewer can see, painted in grisaille, God creating the Earth. These paintings- especially the Hell panel—are painted in a comparatively sketchy manner which contrasts with the traditional Flemish style of paintings, where the smooth surface—achieved by the application of multiple transparent glazes—conceals the brushwork. In this painting, and more powerfully in works such as his Temptation of St. Anthony (Lisbon), Bosch draws with his brush. Not surprisingly, Bosch is also one of the most revolutionary draftsmen in the history of art, producing some of the first autonomous sketches in Northern Europe. Bosch never dated his paintings. But—unusual for the time—he seems to have signed several of them, although other signatures purporting to be his are certainly not. Fewer than 25 paintings remain today that can be attributed to him. In the late sixteenth-century, Philip II of Spain acquired many of Bosch's paintings, including some probably commissioned and collected by Spaniards active in Bosch's hometown; as a result, the Prado Museum in Madrid now owns The Garden of Earthly Delights, the circular tabletop of The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, the The Haywain Triptych and The Stone Operation.
    [Show full text]
  • Unfolding Evidence in Hieronymus Bosch's Mass of St.Gregory
    Chapter 14 Super-Entanglement: Unfolding Evidence in Hieronymus Bosch’s Mass of St. Gregory Reindert Falkenburg In a study of Hieronymus Bosch’s painting of the Mass of St Gregory published some years ago, I addressed a phenomenon that until then had hardly evoked any art historical comment—despite or because of the fact it is so utterly unique: the depiction of Golgotha atop the retable that decorates the altar of the saint [Fig. 14.1]. 1 Whereas Bosch’s work has produced an endless stream of commentaries and interpretations regarding his unconventional, phantasmal and bizarre imagery, the more traditional aspects of his style and iconography have largely failed to provoke serious attention. For this reason, perhaps, the easily recognizable representation of the Crucifixion at the apex of Gregory’s altar has been taken for granted. The mode of representation, however, is as extra-ordinary, not to say bizarre, as the phantasmal fruits, animated rocks and hybrid demons that populate his dream-like landscapes and scenes of hell. Its extraordinariness lies in its hyperbolic realism and fractured relationship with the rest of its physical environment. I want to return to this strange pictorial device, since it has prompted me to formulate a thesis about the status and identity of Bosch’s retable that goes beyond current thinking about this motif.2 * This paper is the result of my research as member of the ‘Kolleg-Forschergruppe Bildevidenz. Geschichte und Ästhetik’ at the Kunsthistorisches Institut of the Freie Universität Berlin, and participation in the colloquium ‘Incarnation Doctrine and Art Theory’, held at Emory University (April 2013).
    [Show full text]
  • Hieronymus Bosch. Complete Works Free
    FREE HIERONYMUS BOSCH. COMPLETE WORKS PDF Stefan Fischer | 300 pages | 09 Mar 2016 | Taschen GmbH | 9783836538350 | English | Cologne, Germany Hieronymus Bosch - artworks - painting Hieronymous Bosch The Complete Works. Hieronymus Bosch, born Jeroen Anthonissen van Aken c. Many of his works depict sin and human moral failings. Bosch used images of demons, half-human animals and machines to evoke fear and confusion to portray the evil of man. His works contain complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic figures and iconography, some of which was obscure even in his own time. From Wikipedia. Page 1 of 23 Paintings: The Garden of Earthly Delights panel 2. The Garden of Earthly Delights panel 3. The Garden of Earthly Delights panel 1. Report error on this page. Tondal's Vision. Order a Hand- Painted Hieronymus Bosch. Complete Works of this Painting. Hieronymus Bosch c. Click here for more. Popularity Alphabetical. Paradise- Hieronymus Bosch. Complete Works of the Blessed. The Wayfarer. Christ Carrying the Cross Last Judgement. The Temptation of St Anthony. The Concert in the Egg. The Magician. Beggars and Cripples. View all Works. Newsletter For exclusive news and discounts Submit Email. This website is licensed under a Creative Commons License. List of paintings by Hieronymus Bosch - Wikipedia Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want Hieronymus Bosch. Complete Works Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading Sample
    2 13 Art Mysteries Children Should Know Angela Wenzel PRESTEL Munich · London · New York Contents 4 Á Moses’ Ark of the Covenant 8 Á The Riddle of Apelles 10 Á What Did Jesus Really Look Like? 14 Á Jan van Eyck and Oil Painting 16 Á The World of Hieronymus Bosch 20 Á Why Is Mona Lisa Smiling? 22 Á How Did Caravaggio Die? 24 Á Was Jan Vermeer a Photographer? his book will introduce you to thirteen art mysteries, all with one thing in common: None has been solved, despite the best Technical terms T efforts of scholars, artists, and amateur 44 Á Glossary are explained sleuths to get to the bottom of them. Here you here can set out on their trail yourself. A timeline helps you place each mystery in its historical context. A glossary at the end of the book explains difficult terms, which are marked with an asterisk*. If you want to read more about these mysteries, we give you recommendations for interesting books and Internet 40 Á Who is Banksy? sites. And finally, there are quiz questions and tips for experiments that you can do yourself! 36 Á Surrealistic Picture Puzzles 34 Á To Whom Did van Gogh Give His Ear? 30 Á Goya and the Ugly Queen 26 Á The Missing Amber Room ca. 1000 B.C. the Ark of the Covenant may have arrived in Jerusalem 1200s B.C. Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt 1100 B.C. 1500 B.C. 1450 B.C. 1400 B.C. 1350 B.C. 1300 B.C.
    [Show full text]
  • Analyzing Hieronymus Bosch's Death and the Miser
    Student Publications Student Scholarship Fall 2018 To Save a Soul? Analyzing Hieronymus Bosch’s Death and the Miser Ryan Bilger Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship Part of the Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, Dutch Studies Commons, and the Painting Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Bilger, Ryan, "To Save a Soul? Analyzing Hieronymus Bosch’s Death and the Miser" (2018). Student Publications. 661. https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/661 This open access student research paper is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To Save a Soul? Analyzing Hieronymus Bosch’s Death and the Miser Abstract The Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch remains to this day one of the most famous artists of the Northern Renaissance. His unique style and fantastical images have made him an icon beyond his years. Bosch’s painting Death and the Miser, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., stands out as one of his most thematically complex paintings, packed with pertinent details and allusions to other works of his and those created by other artists. His inclusion of various demonic creatures, the figure of Death, and an angel and crucifix create a tense atmosphere surrounding the passing of the title miser, who faces an ultimate decision about how he will die. Bosch utilizes these various elements of composition and symbolism to create a moralizing image on the ever-present of death and proper and improper ways of dying, thereby presenting a didactic message to the viewer.
    [Show full text]