The Prodigal Son

Around 1520 Antwerp was the busiest port in northern Europe, its merchants newly rich, and its painters had found a subject that let them show fashionable pleasure while seeming to preach against it: the parable of the prodigal son from the Gospel of Luke. This is the scene before the fall. The younger son, who has demanded his inheritance early, sits squandering it in a brothel among wine, music and hired company. Jan de Beer worked in the ornate Antwerp fashion for crowded, richly dressed figures, and he gives the gathering the warmth of a real party rather than the chill of a warning. Of the four scenes from the story that survive here, this is the only one where the young man is still enjoying himself.