the calling of saint matthew in sixteenth-century flemish painting

The Calling of Saint Matthew in Sixteenth-Century Flemish PaintingAuthor(s): Grace A. H. VlamSource: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Dec., 1977), pp. 561-570Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049710 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 21:07

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The ArtBulletin.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 21:07:07 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=caa

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049710?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


The Calling of Saint Matthew in Sixteenth-Century Flemish Painting* Grace A. H. Vlam

In the history of art there are three ways in which the figure of Matthew has been represented: as a publican or tax collector, as an Apostle, and as an Evangelist. Within these three iconographies the subject of the Calling of Matthew is the pivotal episode; it represents Matthew's transition from a profane life as a tax collector to the sacred calling of Apostle and recorder of the life of Christ. This great conversion is recorded in one short verse of the Gospel of Matthew, occupying a seemingly insignificant place in the total Gospel narrative. Yet it had considerable impact on the art and literature of the Netherlands in the sixteenth century, a fact that is all the more striking since the subject of the Calling of Matthew had not been represented in Netherlandish art prior to that time.

It did occur in Florence and Venice, thriving centers of trade and commerce, factors that are related to the subject.' But not until the center of trade shifts from the Mediterranean to the North, and Antwerp becomes the mercantile and finance capital of Europe in the sixteenth century does the subject of the Calling begin to appear in Flemish painting. Until recently, however, it was thought that the Calling merely represented a profane genre subject, a pretext to paint a money changer's office. Yet much of the literary output of sixteenth-century Antwerp provides ample evidence that the Calling of Matthew had far greater significance for contem- poraries than mere genre related to trade and finance. A study of these works, particularly those of the Chambers of Rhetoric, sheds abundant light on the numerous forces and counter forces operative in the North that gave added and deeper meaning to the subject, meanings that were wholly lacking in Italy.

In addition to being a financial center, Antwerp was also a center of humanism, despite the lack of a court or a university. Because there was capital for investment there developed a flourishing book publishing business; many Bibles were printed and the entire range of Erasmus's writings was made available to the public.2 This literary combination was not accidental or arbitrary. Erasmus, partly educated by the Brothers of the

Common Life, strongly advocated a return to the teachings of Christ as contained in the Gospels. He propagated a biblical humanism, a practical Christianity in which the imitation of Christ was of utmost importance, pointing to the New Testament as the guide for man's moral conduct and at the same time denying the efficacy of the sacraments as the sole means to grace and salvation. Erasmus was no innovator in this respect, but expressed the general feelings of many people who were dissatisfied with the practices of the Church, and by so doing he (and the movement of the Devotio Moderna) prepared the way for the Reformation in the Netherlands.3 Although Luther's teachings were known in Antwerp, their influence was tempered by the Erasmian attitude toward reform. Both Luther and Erasmus, however, encouraged personal knowledge of the Bible among all levels of society. In part this was accomplished through sermons, drama, poetry, song, and painting, fostered by the especially close relationship that existed in Antwerp between the Rhetoricians and the painters. Beginning in 1480 the two groups belonged to the same guild.4 The Rhetoricians greatly contributed to the

popularization of Erasmus's ideas since they wrote their poetry and performed their plays in the vernacular; painters were constantly called upon to contribute painted tableaux, called togen, to these plays for added emphasis and visual embellish- ment. Sometimes the two professions were united in the same person, as for instance in the case of Quinten Metsys.5 Because of this mutual influence, it is important to examine a number of literary sources in order to come to a better understanding of the significance that the theme of the Calling of Matthew had in sixteenth-century Flemish painting.

The renewed interest in the Bible led to many new translations, the most important by Erasmus (1516) and Luther (1529). But individual sections were also published, such as Acts, and the Gospel of Matthew, the latter published in the vernacular by Doen Pieters in Amsterdam in 1522. Its Erasmian slant caused it to be banned by Imperial Edict in 1524,6 resulting in an immediate and lasting popularity.

* This article is a version of a paper prepared for a seminar given by Professor Clifton C. Olds at the University of Michigan, and was subsequently presented to the Graduate Student Seminar of the Mid-West Art History Conference, held at Chicago, 20 April 1974. The research conducted in Antwerp was supported by a Plantin-Moretus Research Grant.

N. B.: A bibliography of sources will be found at the end of this article. 1 For instance, in Florence, the Retable of Saint Matthew by Andrea Orcagna and Jacopo di Cione, which includes the Calling (Uffizi); in Venice, paintings by Carpaccio of 1502 in the Scuola degli Schiavoni. 2 For Bible production in Antwerp in the early part of the 16th century see Nijhoff and Kronenberg, 126-41; Roose, 14. For the publication of Erasmus's oeuvre in Antwerp see Van Gerlo, 4-21. 3 Van Gelder, 1959, 15f. 4 In the medieval processions at Antwerp, called Ommegangen, theater and painting were combined as early as 1398. The people who produced the

Ommegangen became in 1480 the Rhetorician Chamber of "De Violieren," joining the painters' Guild of St. Luke at the same time. That poetry and painting were considered as one in the 16th century is brought out in one of the plays produced at the Landjuweel (drama and poetry contest) of Antwerp in 1561, where the figure of Fame says:

Want een schilder een swijghende Poete es En oock is een Poete verstaghet expres Een sprekende schilder met luyder faconden Met Rhetorica syn sy verbonden.

See Silvius, 1562, 476. For the strong influence the Rhetoricians exercised on the painters, see Brom, 47-55.

s A Rhetorician play has survived by the painter Ariaen Jacobs: see Van Hummelen, 1968, 32. 6 Kronenberg, 18.



562 THE ART BULLETIN

The teachings and parables found in the Gospel of Matthew were frequently adapted or referred to in the Rhetorician plays and in moralizing prose. But since the biblical references were often linked to current events, many of these publications no longer represented the traditional or orthodox Catholic point of view; instead, they expressed reformatory trends in the spirit of Erasmus's biblical humanism. In books of moralizing prose the Christian way of life is emphasized and supported by citations from Paul and Matthew, especially with regard to the worldly life of money and possessions, which the Erasmian Christian is called upon to renounce in order to obtain salvation.' Similar concepts are expressed in the Rhetorician plays. In the two most famous collections of plays, those of the

Landjuwelens of Ghent (1539) and Rotterdam (1561), there resounds the constantly repeated message that capital sinners, such as the Prodigal Son, Mary Magdalen, and Matthew, have been forgiven without the sacraments of the Catholic Church. The latter were no longer considered necessary for salvation.9

The Rhetoricians also composed moralizing and biblical poems treating subjects similar to those of the plays; these "refrains" were also recited from the stage. The ideological impact of all these stage presentations was immediate, forceful, and lasting, since a large segment of the population took part in the Landjuwelen, and because the plays, songs, and poems were printed at once, making it possible for everyone to become familiar with their often reformatory contents. 10

From these literary sources we discover various levels of meaning imposed upon the figure of Matthew. In general, Matthew stands as a type, the sinful man who will be forgiven. But the Rhetorician plays stress that forgiveness cannot be bought, or achieved through the sacraments; it can be obtained only through faith in Christ. 11 Accepting the call to follow Christ is the one way to salvation.

More particular meanings are discovered when the sin of Matthew is considered. The historical Matthew was a toll and tax collector. He was rich, although he was not an aristocrat but a commoner. In the spirit of the New Testament and of the sikcteenth century such a man could become rich only through usury, which was considered a sinful way of life. Bourgeois Antwerp easily identified with the historical Matthew, for the town had its share of toll collectors, usurers, and money changers; their profession was often satirized in literature and in painting (Fig. 1). Beginning in early medieval times, the love of money had been equated with the Deadly Sin of Avarice or was symbolized by it. Hence Matthew stands for Avarice, an equation made for the first time in the Speculum Sacerdotale, a fifteenth-century collection of sermons. 12

Avarice was considered a sickness that needed healing. Even the tax collector of New Testament times was despised as if he were a leprous man. Both ideas were expressed in contemporary literature;13 at the same time the subject of healing, particularly of blindness, was frequently treated in painting. 14

In Een profitelic en troostelic boexken ..., printed by Adriaen van Berghen in Antwerp in 1534, the following lines appear in a poem on page 44:

Adieu werelt met al u begheerte. Ick was verdwaelt als ic u sochte; Ick was bedroghen als ick u vandt. Ic was verblint als ic u lief hadde

.. Ic was van God verscheyden als ick u diende ... Och u wysheyt is sotheit voor God

.. U loon is die doot.

This is followed by some prose:

Als Christus yemant tot hem gheroepen heeft, so heeft hi die ghetogen uut die stricken en periculen des werelts, ghelijck Matheus, Zacheus, Maria die sondige vrouwe.

8 A Landjuweel was an inter-municipal contest organized by the Rhetorician chambers, in which plays and refrains were performed and recited for a price or juweel. The earliest recorded Landjuweel was held in Antwerp in 1496, in which 28 chambers participated. Such contests contributed to the rapid dissemination of thoughts and ideas.

9 In the play from Meesene, performed in Ghent in 1539, one of the characters, called Getuige des Geests says:

Mattheus Zacheus vercreghen oock vrede Ja alle sondaers die begheren te loone sijn milde gracie.

See Bac, 106. In the play from Leyden, performed in Rotterdam in 1561, among the sinners who have been forgiven are:

Paulus, Petrus, Magdalena, Zacheus, Mattheus vol misdaden, ghewortelt in sonden Vercreech troost, oock tvroucken in overspel ghevonden.

See Silvius, 1564, 106. 10 The plays of the Ghent Landjuweel of 1539 were printed in several editions, the first one being published in Ghent in August 1539. Two other editions were published in Antwerp, on 15 October 1539 and 25 October 1539. The plays were considered so heretical that they were placed on the

Indexes of 1540, 1546, 1550, 1559, 1564 (Index of Trent), 1570, 1581, 1590, and 1596: see Van Dis, 25, 31. 11 The following dialogue between Man and Getuige des Geests is found in the play of Meesene (Ghent, 1539):

Man: Ic wille wel coopen, maer ic en hebbe niet Daer ic mede soude mogen doen payment Ware 't rycdom van haven in mi present So mocht ic brieven van pardoenen coopen Utvaerden, iaergetyden stichten by hoopen Om daer dore te sine ut purgacie.

Getuige: Neen mensche, dat ware God defamacie Mocht ghi door eygsten invencie syn salich So en hadde Christus niet ghesyn betalich Voor 't menschelike geslachte ... Wat Gods gaven en zyn niet te coopen om gelt Ghelijc Peeter int Werck der Apostelen leert.

Man: Al myn wercken heb ic ghedaen verkeert. Getuige: Sonder gheloove ten is niet mueghelic

God te behaghene so Paulus schrijft Dus hebt ghi tgheloove in Christo ghi blijft In der eewicheyt salich uselven beproeft.

See Bac, 102-03. 12 In this collection three kinds of sin are mentioned: pride, lechery, and avarice, and equated with three biblical exemplars, respectively Saul, David, and Matthew. See Morton, 212. A miserly old man or a skinflint is called in French a "fesse-Matthieu." See R6au, III, Pt. 2, 928.

13 See Willem Gnapheus's Een troost ende spiegel der siecken as published in Cramer and Pijper, I, 220-33. The work was first published in 1531, but because of its reformatory nature it was placed on the Index of 1550. In the anonymous Rhetorician play Troost der sondaren, which treats the life story of Matthew, there are these lines:

Ghenade met Matheum laet mij gebueren Geneest mijn leproosheyt die seer groot is.

See Van Hummelen, 1958, 22. 14 Painters like Jan Matsys and Jan van Hemessen frequently painted the Healing of the Blind Tobias, and Jan van Scorel depicted the Healing of the Blind Man of Jericho.



THE CALLING OF MATTHEW 563

Eyeglasses often occur in paintings of money changers as well as in some Callings of Matthew. The glasses symbolize shortsightedness, being blinded by money and self-deceit, or existing in spiritual darkness. Christ's calling of Matthew is a call to health,15is and Matthew's faith in following Christ is considered sufficient for the healing of his sickness, which requires no assistance from the Church (cf. Mark 10:52).

Avarice is also the sin of the world. Since Matthew exists in the world of avaricious materialism, he is of the world which is death, but by accepting the call, he is rescued out of the world of dead possessions and is introduced into a life of spiritual and everlasting values.16 In the reformatory literature of the time this significant act is made into an analogy between the dead works of the Catholic Church and the lifegiving faith in Christ that should replace them. 17

Another sinful aspect of the unregenerate Matthew was hypocrisy. In the First Gospel Christ sharply denounces the tax collectors and Pharisees as hypocrites. As a tax collector, Matthew can therefore be understood as a symbol of hypocrisy and deceit. This idea finds visual expression in the many paintings of tax collectors and bankers by Marinus van Reymerswael, where these figures frequently wear a weird headdress, a caricature of a fashionable fifteenth-century hat, which in the sixteenth century had been turned into a vehicle of satire. The Rhetorician plays referred to it as a "pharisaic bonnet," a widely understood symbol of hypocrisy. 18

Of course, the sins of Matthew were not peculiar to his profession alone, but must be seen as a reflection of the afflictions of mankind in general. But besides these general connotations, the figure of Matthew carried others that were even more specific and pointed. In the sixteenth century the tax collector was equated with the pagan nations. This is expressed in a woodcut by Cornelis Anthonisz, entitled The Good Shepherd as Friend of Sinners (Fig. 2), where Christ is flanked by the Prodigal Son and King David on the left, and the tax collector on the right; the latter is wearing a turban, symbol of the Infidel. If Matthew is pagan, his following of Christ may represent a conversion to Christianity. But in sixteenth-century Antwerp this would definitely not mean a conversion to traditional Catholicism, or even necessarily to Lutheranism. Most likely it would represent a conversion to

the Imitatio Christi, the rational, ethical way of life that Erasmus espoused.

In fact, a conversion to Catholicism never seems to be indicated. As the New Testament often mentions tax collectors and Pharisees in one breath, so sixteenth-century literature used the figure of the Pharisee as a symbol of the Catholic clergy, who were frequently satirized for their avaricious love of money and for using religion to make a living.19 Seen in this light, Matthew as a Pharisee is a Catholic, and in order for him to follow Christ, he must give up his material wealth and avaricious concerns. In other words, he must first "seek the kingdom of God." In terms of the biblical humanism of Erasmus, Sebastian Franck, and others, seeking the kingdom of God did not mean going into a monastery; instead, it meant a change from old to new, a cleansing of the profane and debased, a conversion to a new faith.20 The Calling of Matthew, then, is a call to the Reformation.

This idea is further emphasized by a realistic, visual detail. In many paintings of the tax collector's or money changer's offices, as well as in those representing the Calling of Matthew, the shelves are seen bulging with reams of parchment and paper (Figs.1, 3), which may be a veiled reference to the buying and selling of indulgences. If Matthew can be equated with a tax collector, a hypocritical pharisee, and an avaricious Catholic priest, one of his major occupa- tions would be the sale of indulgences. This practice brought Luther to the questioning of his own faith and led him to denounce vehemently the idea that salvation can be bought. Instead, he taught that it is a grace of God, a principle frequently echoed in the Rhetorician plays and poems, which stress that one cannot have a mercantile relationship with the Lord.21

Luther attached great importance to the idea of a calling, which is related to his doctrine of predestination. God bestows his grace on whom he will, regardless of personal merit. Seen through Protestant eyes, then, Matthew's sinful life as a tax collector and usurer was no deterrent to his calling, as arbitrary and undeserved as the choice might seem. On the contrary, his calling is indicative of God's grace, which, in turn, might be reflected in Matthew's prosperity.

is In the play De boom der schriftueren, printed in Antwerp in 1539, the figure representing Christ is called Medecijn der zielen. See Prims, XII, 86. For the symbolic meaning of glasses see Stridbeck, 52. 16 See note 7.

17 The theme of the Rhetorician plays, performed in Ghent in 1539, dealt with the art of dying: "welck den mensche stervende meesten troost is." In answering this question most plays never mentioned the sacraments of the Church, but constantly directed the soul to Christ and his teachings as found in the New Testament. The Antwerp chamber "De Violieren" won the first prize; in their play the dying man finds deep consolation in the fact that he finally has obtained "het Evangelisch verstant." See Bac, 8. 18 In the Apostle play Een spel van sinnen op tderde, tvierde ende tvijfde capittel van Dwerck der Apostelen, dealing with the third, fourth, and fifth chapters of Acts, the two figures Vals Profeet and Schoon Ypocriet represent the Pharisees, Vals Profeet being dressed in sheepskins and "een phariseus bonet." See Van Hummelen, 1958, 46.

19 The collection of refrains, called the Dordtse Bundel, contains a poem with these lines:

Ghy vyperen gheslachte antechristische papisten Ghierighe Pharizeen die op Godts woort twisten. ..

See Roose, 259. In the play Een schoon tafelspel van drie personagien . . . a comparison is made between the 16th-century clergy and the scribes and Pharisees who persecuted Christ. See De Vooys, 15; also Van Elslander, 174, and Wieder, 79. 20 Stridbeck, 45-47. 21 Cramer and Pijper, I, 174, and note 11. The Rhetorician Cornelis Crul, active between 1530 and 1545, wrote the poem Mont toe, borze toe, in which he satirizes man's love for money:

O gelt, gelt, oudt beminlick fenijn Ja bederffnisse van 't menslick geslacht . Ghy waert, die den Heer ter dootwaerts brachte Die om soo luttel gelts was verraden . Woeckeraers, moorders, crygers end' dieven Die Godt versaken, end' 'tgelt gelieven.

See Kruyskamp, Heynken de Luyere, 52-53.




1 Marinus van Reymerswael, Two Tax Collectors. London, National Gallery (photo: National Gallery)

There was an even closer connection between Luther and Matthew, at least in Germany. Luther's New Testament translation, published in 1529, carried a woodcut frontispiece by Lucas Cranach, representing the Evangelist Matthew writing the Gospel under angelic and divine inspiration (Fig. 4). By giving Matthew the features of Luther, Cranach indicated that Luther's Bible translation was as inspired as Matthew's Gospel writing, an idea that made Luther and Matthew interchangeable in the sixteenth-century mind.22 There is an intricate meshing of ideas here, for as the Evangelist, Matthew can also be seen to embody a variation of the theme of the scholar in his studio, which relates him to Saint Jerome.23 The popularity that the theme of the scholarly Saint Jerome enjoyed may be due to Erasmus, who, like Jerome and Luther, translated the Bible, of which Matthew actually wrote a part. Matthew's popularity was also due to Erasmus (and Luther) because the publication of his Gospel in 1522 was a vernacular translation after Erasmus. Clearly the figure of Matthew, as scholarly and divinely inspired Gospel writer, also became a connotative carrier of the new reformatory and humanistic ideas prevalent in the first half of the sixteenth century.

A Flemish proverb links the Evangelist Matthew to the tax

2 Cornelis Anthonisz, The Good Shepherd as Friend of Sinners, 1540. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum (photo: Ashmolean Museum)

3 Marinus van Reymerswael, Tax Collector's Office. Munich, Alte Pinakothek (photo: Alte Pinakothek)

4 Lucas Cranach, the Elder, Luther as Saint Matthew, 1529 (from H. van de Waal, Oud Holland, 1964)

22 Cf. H. van de Waal, 136. 23 For more about the connection between Matthew and Saint Jerome, see Lavin, 64.




5 Cornelis Anthonisz, The Prodigal Son. Amsterdam, Rijksprenten kabinet (photo: Rijksprenten kabinet)

6 Quinten Metsys, The Banker and His Wife, 1514. Paris, Louvre (photo: Vizzavona)

7 Marinus van Reymerswael, The Banker and His Wife, 1538. Munich, Alte Pinakothek (photo: Alte Pinakothek)

8 Marinus van Reymerswael, The Calling of Matthew, 1536. Ghent, Musee des Beaux-Arts (photo: Musee des Beaux-Arts)

collector Matthew: "Een woekeraar, een molenaar, een wisselaar en een tollenaar, zijn de vier evangelisten van Lucifaar" (A usurer, a miller, a money changer, and a tax collector, are the four evangelists of Lucifer).

As a tax collector, Matthew was an evangelist of the Devil, but he changed his ways to become an Evangelist of Christ. The comparison is apt, since in paintings of the money changer's or tax collector's office there is always a man present writing in the account books; the Evangelist is always seen

writing too. Pen, inkwell, and books are attributes of both. With these ideas in mind, some specific paintings should

now be considered. Iconographically, the Calling of Matthew grew out of two other themes: that of moneylenders and bankers, and that of the Prodigal Son wasting his patrimony, the former symbolic of Avaritia, the latter of Luxuria. In both sins money plays an important part. Matthew obtains it unlawfully through usury,24 whereas the Prodigal Son wastes it foolishly in satisfying his lusts. Moreover, both Matthew and

24 The prime preoccupation with money in 16th-century Antwerp must be understood in the light of that city's rise as a capital of trade and finance, at a time when finance had a power to which even ruling houses were subject. Finance had grown into an independent business, having little to do with

manufacture or labor. The latter was still considered the honorable way of earning money; therefore finance as business in its own right was frowned upon and was still seen as the rule of Avarice.




the Prodigal Son are beneficiaries of forgiveness, and in this

respect represent mankind in general.25 The relationship between them was widely understood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,26 as was the corresponding relationship between Avaritia and Luxuria. A print attributed to Cornelis Anthonisz, representing the Prodigal Son feasting, makes that clear (Fig. 5). At a sumptuous banquet held in a palatial hall, the Prodigal Son sits at table with his worldly friends Mundus, Caro or Luxuria, and Avaritia, while Conscientia is trampled underfoot.27

One of the earliest sixteenth-century paintings on the theme of money is Quinten Metsys's Banker and His Wife of 1514 (Fig. 6), which descends from an Eyckian prototype. Already there is a clear juxtaposition of objects carrying a moral: jewelry scale versus prayerbook, Mammon versus God, or avarice versus concern for salvation. Although these elements (and ideas) are fairly equally balanced in Quinten's painting,28 Avarice is winning out in a similar composition by Marinus van Reymerswael (Fig. 7), the prayerbook being obscured by the grasping gesture of the woman's hand. In the Two Bankers (Windsor Castle), attributed to Quinten, objects symbolizing Avarice have multiplied; there are scales, moneybags, heaps of coins, and glasses; the pale, thin, old, and rather grotesque faces tell us that Avarice is the sin of old

age. In a very similar painting (Paris, Cailleux Collection), the scribe is seen writing the following: "L'Avaricieux n'est

jamais rempli d'argent. . . . N'ayez point souci des richesses

injustes, car elles ne vous profiteront en rien au jour de la visitation et de la vengeance. Soyez donc sans avarice.29

This text appears to be a paraphrase of Luke 12:15, 31, and the fact that the scribe is basically writing down a biblical text

might even lead us to see in him the person of Matthew in the dual role of tax collector-financier and Evangelist.30

Although Marinus van Reymerswael based his compositions of money changers on those of Quinten Metsys, he is probably the first Northern artist to treat the subject of the Calling of

Matthew, which he painted a number of times. 3 The earliest work is dated 14 May 1536 (Fig. 8). In spite of the crowded scene, Christ is physically separated from Matthew and the world of money by the counter. At the same time, a more subtle distinction between the two men is made by means of costume: that of Matthew is elaborate and fashionable, that of Christ is simple and timeless. Matthew's wrinkled, care-worn face is contrasted with the smooth features of Christ, spelling out the difference between the worried, anxious mind occupied with financial matters and the peaceful serenity of the spirit, freed from material concerns. In another version of the subject (Fig. 9), Marinus depicted a later moment in the story. The accountant and the customers have gone and there is only a closed money coffer left on the counter. Matthew has finished his business, the books are closed, and he is removing the badge of his profession, a conical, turban-like hat: we witness the very moment of conversion. 32

In the work of Jan van Hemessen, aspects of the Prodigal Son theme are introduced into that of the Calling of Matthew. Van Hemessen's earliest Calling also dates to 1536 (Fig. 10).xx In the closed office interior a frenzied atmosphere prevails, people and objects are cramped together, the obliquely placed table is laden with a moneybag, coins, goldweights, inkwells, and many pens. One man is writing uninterruptedly, while another has one hand buried in a pile of coins, displaying his greedy nature, as he points with the other to Jesus, who has just entered from the right. On the back wall a piece of paper carries Christ's message: SEQUERE ME, footnoted by the scriptural reference for the scene. Matthew is seated across from a girl weighing coins. She is a carry-over from the wife in the Banker-and-his-wife paintings, where, however, the man did the weighing. She will remain a permanent fixture of the subject, appearing as Matthew's mistress in other paintings of the Calling by Van Hemessen, thus tying Matthew to the theme of the Prodigal Son. In fact, Van Hemessen also painted a Prodigal Son in the year 1536

25 The examples are legion, and several have already been given with regard to Matthew (see note 9). As to the Prodigal Son, a toog or tableau displayed in the play of Kortrijk, performed at Ghent in 1539, represented the Prodigal Son being forgiven by his father (see Bac, 65). In 1540 Willem Vorsterman printed in Antwerp a play of De verloren sone, in which the entire parable has been dramatized, culminating in the forgiveness of the son by the father: see Van Hummelen, 1968, 272. 26 Barent Fabritius (active 1650-1672) painted three panels for an organ parapet for a church in Leyden (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum). They depict a trilogy of parables: Lazarus and the Rich Man, the Prodigal Son, Tax Collector and Pharisee. 27 Anthonisz's print recalls an earlier representation of an allegorical banquet, found in the 15th-century chiroxylographic blockbook Exercitium super pater noster, where frater inobediens is dining with Superbia, Gula, and Avaritia. A literary parallel is found in Jan van den Berghe's play De wellustige mensch, performed by "De Violieren" in Antwerp in 1551, where the protagonist spends his time in the tavern with Luxurie, Overdaet, Eergiericheid, and the tavern-keeper Mundus. See Kruyskamp, Dichten en Spelen, xxi-xxii. In the Exercitium, Death captures the victim and the Devil takes his soul (the orthodox Catholic point of view); in Van den Berghe's play there is no punishment: the soul is saved by God's grace (the reformatory attitude). 28 Originally there was a painted Latin text on the frame that said: "Just

balances, just weights shall ye have" (Leviticus 19:36). The scales symbolized justice and the Last Judgment. See Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Erasmus en zijn tijd, n.p., under "The Banker and His Wife." The stress on salvation is further indicated by the Lamb depicted in an initial letter on one of the pages of the prayerbook, the Agnus Dei, qui tollit peccata mundi. See Bergstrom, 346. 29 Van Puyvelde, 5.

30 Such a combination of a biblical role and a contemporary 16th-century one in one image also occurred in the literature: Gnapheus, in Troost der siecken, has Tobias say:

O wisselbank, o jaergelt . . hoe rechtsinnich wordt ghy doch daghelicks ghepractiseert van onsen nieuwen Scriben ende Phariseen, die als bemaalde graven bedrieghen den onverstandighen en simpelen .

See Cramer en Pijper, 1, 248.

31 Friedlinder, XII, 106. 32 The scarf twisted around Matthew's hat in this painting makes it resemble the turban worn by the tax collector in Cornelis Anthonisz's print of The Good Shepherd (Fig. 2). As has been pointed out, the turban is a symbol of the Infidel.

33 For other versions by Van Hemessen see Friedlinder, xII, 109.




9 Marinus van Reymerswael, The Calling of Matthew. Castagnola, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection (photo: Thyssen-Bornemisza)

10 Jan van Hemessen, The Calling of Matthew, 1536. Munich, Alte Pinakothek (photo: Alte Pinakothek)




11 Jan van Hemessen, The Prodigal Son, 1536. Brussels, Musee des Beaux-Arts (photo: A.C.L., Brussels)

12 Jan van Hemessen, The Calling of Matthew. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, 1871 (photo: Museum)

13 Jan van Hemessen, The Temptation. Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle (photo: Staatliche Kunsthalle)

(Fig. 11), in which the protagonist looks very much like the figure of Matthew in the Munich Calling (Fig. 10). In the latter a distinction is again made between the rich, fashionable clothes worn by Matthew and the girl, and the timeless robes of Christ, revealing the respective states of being of and not of the world (cf. Matthew 6:19, 33). The customers shown at the rear of the office make gestures of distress borrowed from the grieving Magdalen, almost the archetype of the forgiven sinner. These customers are still sinning, however, by patronizing the usurer's office.

The overloaded composition and the busy drapery folds of the costumes contribute to a sense of tension in the Munich painting that is lacking in Van Hemessen's Calling in the Metropolitan Museum (Fig. 12). In an open, outdoor setting two men are writing busily in account books, totally ignoring Christ. They are representative of unregenerate mankind, whereas Matthew is preparing to heed the call: he is taking off his hat and at the same time he drops the moneybag. The young girl who tries to hold him back is obviously a character from a scene of the Prodigal Son. In Van Hemessen's painting called The Temptation (Fig. 13), the same young girl, in almost identical pose, is trying to seduce a haggard old man, who wears an old-fashioned banker's hat of the Quinten Metsys type and carries the same large bag and knife on his belt as does Matthew in the New York Calling. There is, however, no sign of money. Is he Matthew-Avaritia, reluctant even to spend money in a brothel? Or is he the Prodigal Son come to his senses?

Whatever the case, contemporary philosophy, as expressed in the writings of Franck, Erasmus, and Coornhert, taught that relinquishing material and ephemeral things was a necessary prerequisite for a life of lasting happiness.34 Those who are willing to give up materialistic concerns and those who cannot or refuse to do so are juxtaposed in Van Hemessen's Calling in Vienna (Fig. 14). Matthew, who seems to be the same beardless person as the haggard man in the Karlsruhe Temptation, is looking up to Christ issuing the call. His companions around the table, especially the women, register their disapproval of Christ's action by their emphatic gestures and averted heads. But Matthew accepts the call, as indicated by the background scene. Behind Christ, through the monumental portal of Matthew's office, preparations are being made for a banquet to be held in the palatial hall of the tax collector's abode. Still dressed in his rich finery, Matthew is met and received by Christ on the steps of the spacious hall. Acting as host and surrounded by disciples previously called, Christ welcomes Matthew as one of his followers, one who, as the wine jar standing nearby seems to indicate, has put new wine into new bottles (cf. Matthew 9:17). It is precisely this scene of welcome and acceptance that Matthew's former mistress, in the foreground, so totally rejects, her hands seemingly pushing away that very episode which is placed with

34 Van Gelder, 1955, 228, 231; idem, 1959, 118-24.




14 Jan van Hemessen, The Calling of Matthew. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum (photo: Kunsthistorisches Museum)

pointed centrality in the composition.3" Still committed to the (sinful) ways of the past, she cannot accept the new era of grace that Matthew has so willingly embraced. This action on his part of changing an old life into a new one is also central to the meaning of the painting: it is the new key to salvation.

This message, embodied in paintings of the Calling and in much of the literary output of the day, was clearly understood by Antwerp's diversified and cosmopolitan populace. Since Matthew was a man of the people, people were able to identify with him. He was universal and democratic: he stood for the Heathen, the Catholic, the Lutheran, the Erasmian Chris-

tian, the miser, the sinner. His example told all people that they also could leave the world of materialism and the flesh-which is death-and follow Christ to gain salvation.

Although the subject of the Calling grew partially out of the social and economic conditions prevalent in sixteenth-century Antwerp, as well as out of the satirizing of Avaritia and Luxuria, it became primarily a tool for the expression of reformatory ideas. It is a telling fact that mainly "reformed" artists treated the subject, for it is known that both Marinus van Reymerswael and Jan van Hemessen had Protestant leanings. 36 The paintings by these artists are not mere genre

3 Van Hemessen's use of emphatic and theatrical gestures throughout his oeuvre not only reveals his connection with the Rhetoricians but, I think, also makes him one. The intricate and somewhat ambiguous overlapping of his figures and their hands finds a very close parallel in the equally intricate and complex verse and rhyme forms the Rhetoricians employed. Some of the unsympathetic characters acting in Van Hemessen's paintings are analogous to the sinnekens in the Rhetorician drama, where they have the same function, that of seducing the protagonist and keeping him from finding the

right path. The repetition of facial types, costumes, and accessories for certain characters in Van Hemessen's paintings may also have been borrowed from the stage. In 1548 Van Hemessen was Deacon of the Antwerp St. Luke's guild, to which the Rhetoricians also belonged. Cf. Brom, 47-55.

36 Marinus participated in the iconoclasm of 1566. See Cohen, 154. Around 1550 Van Hemessen moved to Haarlem, apparently for religious reasons. See Snyder, 3, and Bergmans, 141.




scenes, devoid of religious content. On the contrary, they are very much like New Testament parables, which were also taken from everyday life, depicting familiar scenes and dealing with common people. And as the art of the Middle Ages constantly built typologies between the Old Testament and the New, the eras of Law and Grace, Synagogue and Ecclesia, so the Antwerp "Reformation" drew the same analogies between the old Catholic faith and the biblical humanism of Erasmus and the teaching of Luther. Moreover, the rediscovery of the Bible, especially of the New Testament, by people on all levels of society under the influence of Erasmus and Luther, resulted in an extensive knowledge of its contents among the population. This rediscovery accounts for the sudden appearance of new subject matter in painting during the early part of the sixteenth century, and it opened up themes and ideas that went far beyond the traditional salvation cycle of the Church. The stress placed on forgiveness of sins through the grace of God, instead of through the sacraments, and on a true conversion based on a change from an old to a new life, made New Testament figures like Paul and Matthew heroes in the eyes of the people. At the same time, many sixteenth-century scholars and popular writers expressed the idea that the biblical stories were still taking place or were being newly reenacted in their own era,37 a contemporary identification with biblical times that was constantly visualized by the Rhetoricians and the painters.38 Because New Testament people were mostly commoners, the figures appearing on stage and in paintings were unaristocratic and unrefined, appealing to the masses, plainly and clearly speaking their moral and religious message; the moral message dealing with the old vice of Avarice, the religious message sounding the way of the Reformation.

State University of New York, Buffalo

Bibliography Bac, G., Spelen van sinnen bij de 19 geconfirmeerde cameren van Rhetorijcken, Ghent, 1539

Bergmans, S., "Le probleme Jan van Hemessen, Monogrammiste de Brunswick. Le collaborateur de Jan van Hemessen. L'Indentite du Monogrammiste," Revue belge d'archdologie et d'histoire de l'art, xxiv, 1955, 133-57

Bergstrom, I., "Disguised Symbolism in 'Madonna' Pictures and Still Life," Burlington Magazine, xcvii, 1955, 303-308, 342-49

Bloomfield, M., The Seven Deadly Sins, Ann Arbor, 1952

Brom, G., "Humanisten en Romanisten," Miscellanea Prof. Dr. D. Roggen, Antwerp, 1957, 47-55

Cohen, W., "Marinus van Roymerswaele," Les Arts anciens de Flandre, II, 190-, 153-164

Cramer, S., and Pijper, E, Bibliotheca Reformatoria Neerlandica, The Hague, 1903-1914

De Vooys, C.G.N., "Apostelspelen in de Rederijkerstijd," Verzamelde letterkundige opstellen, Antwerp, 1947, 9-36

Een profitelic en troostelic boexken van de Gheloove en Hoope, wat dat oprechte gheloove is, Antwerp, 1534

Friedlinder, M.J., Early Netherlandish Painting, New York, 1975

Kronenberg, M.E., Verboden boeken en opstandigen drukkers in de hervormingstijd, Amsterdam, 1948

Kruyskamp, C., Dichten en spelen van Jan van den Berghe, Antwerp, 1950

, Heynken de Luyere en andere gedichten van Cornelis Crul, Antwerp, 1950

Lavin, I., "Divine Inspiration in Caravaggio's Two St. Matthews, " Art Bulletin, 56, 1974, 59-81

Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Erasmus en zijn tijd, Rotterdam, 1969

Nijhoff, W., and Kronenberg, M. E., Nederlandsche bibliographie van 1500-1540, The Hague, 1923

Prims, E, Antwerpiensia, Antwerp, 1928-1947

Reau, L., Iconographie de l'art chretien, Paris, 1958

Roose, L., Anna Byns, een rederijkster uit de hervormingstijd, Ghent, 1963

Silvius, W., Spelen van sinne, Brussels, 1562

S, pelen van sinne vol schoone allegatien, loflijcke leeringhen ende

schriftuurlijcke onderwijsinghen, Antwerp, 1564

Snyder, J., "The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant Painted by Jan Sanders van Hemessen," University of Michigan Museum of Art Bulletin, I, 1965, 3-13

Stridbeck, C.G., Bruegel Studien, Stockholm, 1956

Van de Waal, H., "Rembrandt's Faust Etching: A Socinian Document, and the Iconography of the Inspired Scholar," Steps Towards Rembrandt; Collected Articles 1937-1972, Amsterdam, 1974, 133-81

Van Dis, L.M., Reformatorische rederijkerspelen uit de eerste helft van de zestiende eeuw, Haarlem, 1937

Van Elslander, A., Het Refrein in de Nederlanden tot 1600, Ghent, 1953

Van Gelder, H.A.E., "De grote en de kleine reformatie der zestiende eeuw," Mededelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandsche Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeling Letterkunde, xvIIi, 1955, 219-34

, Erasmus, schilders en rederijkers, Groningen, 1959

Van Gerlo, A., Erasmus en BelgiE, Brussels, 1969

Van Hummelen, W.M.H., De sinnekens in het rederijkersdrama, Groningen, 1958

, Repertorium van het rederijkersdrama, 1500-ca. 1620, Assen, 1968

Van Puyvelde, L., "Un Portrait de marchand par Quentin Metsys et les percepteurs d'imp8ts par Marin van Reymerswale," Revue belge d'archologie et d'histoire de l'art, xxvI, 1957, 3-23

Wieder, E C., De schriftuurlijke liedekens, The Hague, 1900

37 See notes 21, 28; and Stridbeck, 246. 38 Van Hummelen, 1968, 40, 71-74, 272, lists at least five plays that are dramatizations of New Testament parables. Painters like Jan van Hemessen, Pieter Aertsen, and Joachim Beuckelaer frequently treated parables and other moralizing teaching events in the life of Christ.



the calling of saint matthew in sixteenth-century flemish painting

Documents