The Moneylender and his Wife

This 1514 painting is among the earliest genre scenes in Netherlandish art and became one of the most copied and imitated compositions of the sixteenth century. The moneylender and his wife sit at their counting table while a convex mirror and open book of hours introduce moral commentary on the tension between worldly wealth and spiritual duty. Metsys drew on Jan van Eyck's use of symbolic objects while creating a new type of painting that would define Antwerp's emerging market for secular subjects.

Meticulous still-life detail — coins, scales, the convex mirror reflecting a window — displays the virtuoso oil technique inherited from the Van Eyck tradition. Warm interior lighting unifies the densely packed composition while directing attention to the central moral contrast.