Hmmmm……haven’t been in my studio much these last few days. Why? Well, I’m late, I’m late for a very important date….and that would be 30th April – the taxes are due date! So we’ve had our heads down, madly getting accounts in order.

 

 

In ‘honour’ of tax time, I thought it might be interesting to have a look at a few paintings depicting the tax collector!

 

First off is this painting full of activity, papers (reminds me of our place at the moment!), and paraphernalia. I love the way everyone is paying with the fruits of their labours – eggs, some sort of veg, poultry. The chap behind the door looks as if he want to remain hidden – perhaps he has nothing in hand? And are those small sacks of money hanging all over the place?

 

The next painting is by Dutch painter, Marinus van Reymerswale (c1493-c1567). There exist two identical versions – one in the Louvre and one in the National Gallery, London (this image). The London painting is now believed to have been copied from the one at the Louvre. I have included both paintings for comparison. You can see that the Louvre painting is more delicate, more elegant, more naturalistic while the London painting seems harsh and more like a caricature.

 

According to the National Gallery website, “The man on the left is writing out a list of taxes on items such as wine, beer and fish, which have been farmed out to private individuals to collect, as was common in this period. It is one of the numerous versions of this composition [if you check for this painting on the internet, you’ll find this is true!], probably painted as a satire on covetousness, which evidently found a ready market in second quarter of the 16th century.” Certainly, the man on the left looks rather calm and approachable, but the tax collector, well he’s rather unsavory don’t you think? (And what do you think of those headdresses??) For some fascinating and detailed reading about the paintings from the National Gallery, click here.

 

 

 

Next up is this work by Russian painter Konstantin Makovsky (1839-1915). This tax collector looks straight out at the viewer as if to say, Well? This is what I do. Have a problem with that? Look at the texture of the clothing, the used look of the leather satchel and shoes, the beautifully painted face and hands, the broad description of the background. How interesting that the artist has used an extremely vertical format, placing the dwarf so that there is quite a bit of space above his head thereby accentuating the imbalance of his proportions.

 

 

The apostle Matthew was a tax collector before he was called by Jesus to join him. Seems fitting therefore to include a couple of paintings of this momentous occasion. Compare the dramatic painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) with the softer, more naturally lit interpretation by Hendrick ter Brugghen (1528-1629).

 

In Caravaggio’s painting, Jesus and companion (St Peter?) are hidden in the shadows on the right. The beam of light and Jesus’s hand (which, by the way, in its languidness certainly seems to me to be almost a copy of Michelangelo’s rendering of Adam’s hand in his painting of The Creation of Adam for the Sistine Chapel) lead us to the figures on the left. And who is Matthew – the bearded man pointing to himself or is he pointing at the younger man slumped over the table handling the coins?

 

 

Ter Brugghen comes in much closer to the scene with Jesus and company in shadow barely shown on the left, Jesus’s hand pointing into the picture. This time it does look as if the bearded man, pointing to himself, is Matthew. The dark drama of Caravaggio has been replaced by a lighter painting with the figures surrounding Matthew clearly illuminated by daylight. Who are all these characters and why are all those hands pointing into the centre so necessary to the painting?

 

 

And finally, to show the fiendishness of the tax collector, here’s a piece from a Russian manuscript. The tax collectors club a man as onlookers seem to applaud the brutish act. Ahh the good old days. Kinda makes our tax system seem not so bad after all.

 

 

So before the tax collector comes knocking at our door, I’ll return to sorting out the accounts…..

 

For your amusement at this trying time of year, I’ll leave you with a couple of tax-related quotes:

 

The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to get the most feathers with the least hissing. 

~ attributed to Jean Baptist Colbert (1619-1683)

 

Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today. 

~Herman Wouk (b. 1915)

 

A person doesn’t know how much he has to be thankful for until he has to pay taxes on it. 

~Author Unknown

 

Be wary of strong drink.  It can make you shoot at tax collectors… and miss. 

~Robert Heinlein (1907-1988)

 

Thanks for joining me!!

 

~ Gail