Daily Dose of Art #22: Jan Gossaert – Portrait of a Merchant (c. 1530)

This Dutch merchant is surrounded by all the tools of his trade. He’s well off and living in a time where wealth and greed were so excessive that it led Erasmus to ask “When did avarice ( = extreme greed) reign more largely and less punished?”. Well, we know the answer to that question… Like yesterdays painting of the Moneylender, there are a lot of details to examine. Please do so.