Smart Secrets of Great Paintings

The Moneylender And His Wife (1514) by Quentin Massys (1x1)

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16th century Antwerp was rather like 1950s New York. What was once a city of craftsmen and fishermen at the entrance to the North Sea became a leading finance hub. This work by Quentin Massys is a subtle criticism of that world and its era. The artist is warning about the flow of money when it is detached from all form of religious and moral considerations.