The Moneylender and His Wife
1514 · Oil on panel · Musée du Louvre, Paris
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About this work
- Artist
- Quentin Matsys (1466–1530)
- Year
- 1514
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Original size
- 70.5 × 67 cm
- Collection
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Movement
- Northern Renaissance
A man in a blue coat and fur hat weighs coins and pearls on a small balance at a green-covered table, while his wife beside him, in red, turns the pages of a book of hours open at an illustration of the Virgin and Child but glances at the money; a small convex mirror on the table reflects a window and a figure outside, and the shelves behind hold books, a pewter dish, papers and a glass. Quentin Massys painted the panel in Antwerp in 1514, when the port's international trade created demand for money-changers and lenders. The couple are dressed as prosperous burghers. Its original frame carried a biblical inscription from Leviticus, read in the seventeenth century, about just weights and measures, and the work is usually read as a reflection on worldly and spiritual values; the motif was taken up by his follower Marinus van Reymerswaele. It belonged to the Antwerp collector Cornelis van der Geest and to Pieter Stevens in the seventeenth century, and the Musée du Louvre bought it in 1806.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A moneylender and his wife at a green table of coins and pearls, deep red and blue before wooden shelves, warm and exact, for a study, home office or hallway at 16×24 in natural wood. A warm white, ochre or deep green wall; it pairs with Woman Holding a Balance.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Northern Renaissance painting
- Era
- 16th century (1514)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- hallway or entryway, study or library, home office, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — black suits the deep tones of this period; natural wood lightens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Moneylender and His Wife in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Moneylender and His Wife painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
