The Tribute Money. Peter Finding the Silver Coin in the Mouth of the Fish. Also called "The Ferry Boat to Antwerp"

Jordaens combined two subjects in this unusual work around 1616–20: the Gospel story of Peter finding a coin in a fish's mouth (Matthew 17) and a contemporary scene of the Antwerp ferry crossing the Scheldt. This double narrative — sacred event overlaid onto quotidian Flemish life — reflects the Antwerp tradition of placing biblical events in contemporary settings, a device with roots in Bruegel and the Flemish primitives. Jordaens treats the large group with characteristic physicality: the fishermen hauling nets, the passengers waiting, the river light diffusing across the scene. The painting demonstrates his ability to fuse sacred narrative with vivid social observation, a synthesis that made his religious works distinctively approachable for Antwerp's bourgeois patrons.

The composition blends sacred narrative with genre realism in Jordaens' characteristic manner. The bold modeling of figures and the warm, earthy palette create a scene of physical immediacy that brings the biblical event into the viewer's world.