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The Money Changers By Marinus Van Reymerswaele: Painting Analysis

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This essay will formally analyze The Money Changers (ca. 1540) by Marinus van Reymerswaele. It is a portrait painting that depicts two men counting money in a room. The painting is created using oil on panel. This work is just over 4ft tall and 3ft wide; the actual dimensions are 49 3/4 x 38 1/8 inches. The frame in which the this work is displayed in what looks to be wood painted a dull gold and black. the frame is not completely flat, it has some dimension, and I would estimate the sides of the frame to be about 6 inches wide. In the RISD Museum the painting is placed at eye level, which allowed me to view it closely. Reymerswaele’s The Money Changers is inn good condition, which better allowed me to analyze the work. There are a few horizontal lines in the work that direct the viewer’s eye left and right. One of the stronger horizontal lines is the front of the table the two men are seated, located at the bottom of the painting. The white banner/piece of paper on the wall, behind the man on the left is another. Others are the shelf at the top left of the work, as well as bottom of the shadow it casts. the final horizontal line that caught my attention is the wooden border on the wall at the top of the image. There are two vertical lines that direct the eye in this work. The first vertical line is the edge of the …show more content…

The light in this scene enters from beyond the right of the painting. This is shown throughout the use of highlights, reflections, and shadows. Both the table in front of the men and the men themselves are illuminated by the light. To the left of the men and each object on the table, shadows can be seen. Shadows are cast when light is blocked from the surface behind an object, so this lets us know somewhere beyond the frame of the picture, there is a light source. Due to the brightness of light and the lack of other man-made light sources, my guess would be that this is

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