A Centuries-Old Painting Reveals New Truths in a Student-Curated Exhibition
When seniors Anna Cooper, Andrea Hu, Ingrid Kindel, Kelsey Popeo, Nicole Clarke, and Riva Mikhlin enrolled in art history Professor Blake de Maria’s senior capstone class, they had no idea they would have the opportunity to research a little-known variation of the 17th century painting “The Tax Collectors” and develop both a physical and digital exhibition of their work.
“The painting has been in my family for several generations, but I didn’t know much about its origin,” shared SCU associate professor of art Ryan Reynolds. “Several of my colleagues recommended I show it to Blake since she’s an expert in Renaissance art. The idea for the class project quickly developed from that discussion. It’s great that the students can have a full curatorial experience as undergraduates.”
The Research
To fully understand this lesser-known variation of the painting and better recreate a traditional Renaissance study, the students read extensively on a range of topics related to northern European visual culture, economics, and collecting practices. They sought out individuals who have studied this genre of painting, corresponded with experts on the 16th-century European coins depicted in the painting, and exchanged messages with members of “Wat Staat Daer?”, a web platform dedicated to translating old manuscripts. They explored issues of authorship, attribution, and the movement of art across time, war, and empire, and through careful study and meticulous provenance research, the students unearthed a trail that spanned centuries and continents.
The Silicon Valley “Tax Collectors,” which depicts scenes of an individual receiving coins and recording them in a parchment journal while others look on, is one of approximately 50 known variants along this theme. Popularized by Northern Renaissance artists, these variants are often attributed to Quentin Massys and Marinus van Reymerswaele, two renowned Flemish painters known for their depictions of financial transactions and moralistic themes during the 15th and 16th centuries.
A thorough study of the ledger depicted revealed that the central figures in this version are not tax collectors, as previously believed and as the title would indicate, but rather, moneylenders—a distinction made clear through multilingual currency conversions visible in the ledger on the table.“The words in the ledger are in different languages,” explained de Maria. “They’re converting currencies—Dutch, Venetian, English, Spanish, and French.” This discovery resonated with the students who had uncovered variants referred to as “The Misers,” “The Money Lender and His Wife,” and similar titles.
Careful examination of each coin depicted in the painting helped narrow down, for what they believe to be the first time, a more precise date for its creation. By identifying each coin and researching known production and circulation dates, the students believe the Silicon Valley “Tax Collectors” could date between 1684, the earliest possible date for the existence of the Dutch 7 stuiver coin, and the early 1730s, when the painting was known to be acquired for Augustus III’s collection in Dresden.
The Extraordinary Journey
A significant part of the capstone project was provenance research– the process by which art historians and curators identify the origin of a piece and trace its path to the present. In this instance, the students developed a deeper understanding of the painting’s 500-year journey, which spans royalty, war, and exile, through analysis of ancestral data provided by Reynolds and information gleaned from archival documents.
The students were able to verify that, after its acquisition in the 1730s, this variant remained part of the royal collection under Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, for more than a century. A prominent Jewish banking family purchased it at auction in 1861. As Nazi persecution escalated in the 1930s, the family took dramatic steps to protect the painting—shipping it to northern Europe, where it was hidden in a warehouse during World War II. The family fled Germany on Christmas Eve under the cover of night, crossing a river to safety. Reynolds’ grandmother, who had concealed her Jewish identity after the war, eventually brought the painting to the United States in the late 1940s, where it remained out of public view for generations until Reynolds loaned it to de Maria’s class.
“I’m so proud of what these students were able to accomplish from research to exhibition in just one quarter,” said de Maria. “Their research not only challenges long-held art historical assumptions, but also adds new context to a rarely seen masterpiece.”
The Faculty-Driven Exhibitions series invites SCU faculty from diverse disciplines to use the de Saisset's collection as a pedagogical tool providing students the opportunity to engage critically with objects and to reimagine their fields of study differently.
