16th february 2006 Your task as an art critic: to discuss this picture without reference to the moral aspects of moneylending in 16th century Flanders. From what you read, you'd think it couldn't be done; but what a waste of ink. The 'elongated curved fingers suggestive of avarice' (yet see any contemporary works involving saints, with the same hands); in particular the 'woman's gaze having strayed from her book - with its depiction of the Virgin and Child - and fixed itself upon the gold in the hands of her husband.'
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