Economic Activity as Reflected in Paintings
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 Web estan subrayadas]
1. Introduction The Moneychanger and his Wife is probably the picture most widely used to illustrate economic activity, and so it is (supposedly) well known by economists, managers, and accountants. The accounting book which appears in the picture is the origin of former AECA (Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration) logotype. It is a Flemish painting from the early 16th century. Not so many economists are, however, aware that there are two different versions of this picture: one by Quentin Massys, painted about 1514 (now in Paris, the Louvre), and another by Marinus (Claeszon) van Reymerswaele, painted in 1539 (now in Madrid, in the Prado).
There are significant changes between the two versions. This being the Scholastic period and also the epoch of the commercial revolution in Europe, we would expect this picture to have some sort of economic meaning, and for the changes in the pictures to reflect these changes in economic activity and economic thought. We will argue in this paper that there does exist such a meaning; and that also the very important changes between Massys’s and Reymerswaele’s pictures have much to do with the economic changes in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century.
Most art historians have seen in Massys ' and Reymerswaele 's paintings a satirical and moralising symbolism, The Money Changer and his Wife being the representation of greed. Others think that the picture shows economic activity in a respectable way. Flanders at that time was the centre of a flourishing industrial and commercial activity, and also was the centre of a mercantile trade in works of art. Both things led to a representation of the professional
THE CONTRASTING VIEWS OF ECONOMISTS AND ART HISTORIANS [1]
Manuel Santos-Redondo
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
[las diferencias con respecto al Documento de Trabajo disponible en la Web estan subrayadas]
1. Introduction The Moneychanger and his Wife is probably the picture most widely used to illustrate economic activity, and so it is (supposedly) well known by economists, managers, and accountants. The accounting book which appears in the picture is the origin of former AECA (Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration) logotype. It is a Flemish painting from the early 16th century. Not so many economists are, however, aware that there are two different versions of this picture: one by Quentin Massys, painted about 1514 (now in Paris, the Louvre), and another by Marinus (Claeszon) van Reymerswaele, painted in 1539 (now in Madrid, in the Prado).
There are significant changes between the two versions. This being the Scholastic period and also the epoch of the commercial revolution in Europe, we would expect this picture to have some sort of economic meaning, and for the changes in the pictures to reflect these changes in economic activity and economic thought. We will argue in this paper that there does exist such a meaning; and that also the very important changes between Massys’s and Reymerswaele’s pictures have much to do with the economic changes in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century.
Most art historians have seen in Massys ' and Reymerswaele 's paintings a satirical and moralising symbolism, The Money Changer and his Wife being the representation of greed. Others think that the picture shows economic activity in a respectable way. Flanders at that time was the centre of a flourishing industrial and commercial activity, and also was the centre of a mercantile trade in works of art. Both things led to a representation of the professional
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). Oil on panel, 120 x 150 cm. Prado Museum. Bosch is the name given to the Dutch painter Hierónimus van Aeken. [29] Jan Gossaert (c. 1478 - 1532), Portrait of a Merchant, c. 1530. Oil on panel, .636 x .475 m Washington, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. [30] National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA, Brief Guide, in . [31] Petrus Christus (fl.1444-c.1470), St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, 1449, oil on panel, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. [32] Smith (1976), I.x.b.18. [33] The Life of St. Eligius, 588-660, paragraph 5. The Life of Eligius, bishop and confessor, was written by Dado, bishop of Rouen (his friend and contemporary). Eligius lived from 588 to 660. The full text is in . [34] Quentin Massys, Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520/1525, oil on panel, 0 '432 x 0 '630 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 créé les premiers marchés publics consacrés à l’art en Occident”, Cassagness (2001), p. 264.