Circle of Marinus van Reymerswaele

The panel is flat, stable, cradled, and beveled on the right and left side. To the naked eye the coloration is vibrant and well preserved, no major losses to the paint surface. Under UV, a repaired crack in the panel runs horizontally across the length of the panel, about halfway down (this may be a horizontal panel join though the line is not straight). Another repaired crack in the panel runs about ten inches from the top left edge, through the forehead of the figure at left. These repairs are applied well and do not extend far from the physical cracks themselves. Otherwise, the paint is well preserved. Only a few scattered retouches are visible throughout, most of which are located in the white drapery of the figure at right. In a carved and painted gilded frame.
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This satirical painting is based on the work of Marinus van Reymerswaele, who often focused on the depiction of greed and avarice in his work.  Reymerswaele was one of, if not the, first artist in the Southern Netherlands to depict The Calling of Saint Matthew, a version of which can be found in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (inv. no. 332).  As with most of his works, the artist repeated the composition in many variants and also used it as a point of departure for secular depictions of tax collectors, usurers, lawyers and other figures, which became extremely popular with his contemporaries.

The artist who has created this scene has clearly used Reymerswaele's Calling as inspiration; however, he seems to have moved even further from the biblical source.  For example, in both the Calling of Saint Matthew in Madrid and the version in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, the figure of Christ is depicted in a simple cassock, not in the worldly attire of the gentleman on the left.  Additionally, Reymerswaele typically depicted Saint Matthew as a middle-aged man with his traditional beard, as opposed to the humorous hook-nosed, clean shaven and much older figure seen here.