Flemish painting and De Jonckheere Gallery's old master paintings
Provenance: private collection
This painting is an example of the excellent works of this Antwerp artist. Marinus Van Reymerwael is working in collaboration with his studio for some details at...
read moreProvenance: private collection
This painting is an example of the excellent works of this Antwerp artist. Marinus Van Reymerwael is working in collaboration with his studio for some details at the back of the painting, such as the shelve. Van Reymerswael was so successful during his career that he was flooded with commissions, particularly for his depictions of money changers and handlers.
This theme was widely used in the artist’s day to represent economic activity. Economic life is meant here to convey the idea of a respectable profession. The majority of art historians have read the paintings of Reymerswael as moralizing satires, the money changers being the embodiment of greed. Others, however, have interpreted this composition as showing economic activity as a highly respectable pursuit.
Flanders was then the center of an explosion of industrial and commercial activity and was also the center for the trade in works of art. These two ideas would have supported a representation of the professional activity of money lender or changer as admirable and honorable pursuits.
Reymerswael’s accentuated mannerism emphasizes the construction of the space within this painting depicting the money changers. The realism it displays is among the best the artist ever achieved. The painter has built up this composition with precision and rigor.
Within this small space, only the open door leaves a void, suggesting the renouncement of material goods.
The figures have been portrayed with outstanding realism.
One is attentively counting the money, careful not to leave a single coin unaccounted for. Meanwhile, the man somewhat further back with his vicious and envious expression shows the way that money awakens greed.
The two figures’ expressive faces are exquisitely lined with wrinkles telling of a lifetime of good or bad sentiments. Both wear caps, which adds drama to their faces. Reymerswael’s rich and pure chromatic range is present in the clothing of the money changers, accentuating the drapes in the cloth. The life-like colors heighten the realism of these figures.
Furthermore, in the background, on the shelf, the painter has taken great pains to realistically re-create a jumble of books and parchments next to a candle. The artist has rendered the objects with intense care, varying the textures and colors of the papers and books and the effects of the candlelight. The candle shows the passage of time as the wax pools abundantly on the candle holder, while the expert goes about his work.
This composition can be compared to a painting at the Dresden Museum "The gold changer and his wife", as well as with two other paintings on the same theme at the museums of Munich and Florence in the Carrano collection.
This excellent quality painting is a fine example of the work of Reymerswael in which the refinement and precision of the brushwork are decisive proof of the artist’s talents.
Around 1495 - Reymeswael - after 1567
A genre painter, born between 1490 and 1495, Marinus van Reymerswael was enrolled as an apprentice in the workshop of Simon van Daele in Antwerp in 1509 and...
Around 1495 - Reymeswael - after 1567
A genre painter, born between 1490 and 1495, Marinus van Reymerswael was enrolled as an apprentice in the workshop of Simon van Daele in Antwerp in 1509 and became a Master in 1513. He is not mentioned, however, in any Antwerp archives after this date. His known works date from between 1521 and 1547.
Van Reymeswael’s style is both realist and vibrant. He brings an intense scrutiny to the physiognomy of his figures, and describes the setting a minute detail, thus affording the viewer a unique illusion of reality. His often tortured style applies very distinct contours with an accute, nervous, almost strained draftsmanship, in a decorative palette that tends to be richly contrasted.
Marinus van Reymerswael is a resolute mannerist and his entire œuvre has a special air about it. His active career appears to have been between 1521 and 1547.
For this artist, the subject matter is of only relative importance. His primary interest seems to be giving expression to his own state of mind: this is the key to the originality of his style.
His early work is inspired by Quentin Metsys. Van Reymerswael only included his signature after 1538, on depictions of tax collectors and money changers. Van Reymerswael took up this theme from 1538 onwards, definitively distinguishing himself from Metsys. At this point, he can no longer be considered a disciple of a Master as he interprets the same subjects as Quentin Metsys in a wholly different way. Delighted by his works and skillful interpretations of the themes, his contemporaries became his avid clientele.
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