The Calling of Saint Matthew

Jan Sanders van Hemessen's Calling of Saint Matthew, though dated to the early seventeenth century in some records, likely reflects his earlier sixteenth-century manner when he was developing the large-figure genre style for which he is known. Hemessen was a pioneering figure in Antwerp painting, introducing large foreground figures set in genre interiors — taverns, money changers' tables, brothels — that combined religious narrative with close observation of contemporary Netherlandish life. His Matthew, the tax collector called from his counting table, would have been depicted among the trappings of mercantile activity that Antwerp's commercial culture knew intimately. The painting belongs to the tradition of moralizing genre painting that culminated in Bruegel's Follower's work and ultimately in the Dutch genre masters of the seventeenth century.

The oil-on-wood panel demonstrates the Hemessen school's characteristic combination of monumental, sculptural figures with detailed interior settings. The strong lighting and the varied expressions of the figures at the tax table reflect the narrative drama of the calling scene.