The Prodigal Son Driven from the Brothel

These are small round paintings on cloth, the kind of light, inexpensive work that rarely survives 500 years, yet four of them hang together in Basel telling one story. This scene is its hinge. The prodigal son has run through his money, and the house that welcomed him while his purse was full now drives him out of doors. Jan de Beer painted the set in Antwerp around 1520, and it once ran longer, following the young man's whole downfall from the parable in the Gospel of Luke. What survives catches him scene by scene as his fortunes collapse, and here he is being turned out with nothing left to spend.