The Money Changers

The prototype, signed and dated 1542, 108 x 118 cm, is in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, XII, p.107, no.169, plate 95). As pointed out by Friedländer, op. cit., pp.40/3, Van Reymerswaele was a figure painter who specialised in a restricted range of themes and subjects, a not unusual characteristic in the Netherlands by the first half of the sixteenth Century. The theme of tax collectors, merchants and money-lenders was Van Reymerswaele's main specialisation and was probably inspired by Quentin Massys. His Banker and his wife of 1514 in the Louvre (M.J. Friedländer, op. cit., VII, p.66, no.53, plate 51) may well have been Van Reymerswaele's starting point. The existence of many old copies and studio repetitions is an indication of the popularity of Van Reymerswaele's satirical critique of his subject matter.