Christ driving the Traders from the Temple

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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Angry to find that the Temple of Jerusalem was like a market because of the money-changers and dove-sellers trading, Christ drove them out using a whip. Here he is poised in the centre, right arm raised above his head, about to strike a money-changer who has fallen on one knee. His table has tipped over, scattering the tools of its owner’s profession: coins spill out of a blue bag, and an inkpot, quill pen and papers have been knocked to the ground. Sometimes called the Purification of the Temple, this subject took on great significance in the sixteenth century, when the Catholic Church initiated a series of self-imposed reforms in response to the Protestant Reformation.

The drama and subtle colouring of the painting are typical of Bernardino Cavallino, the most individual and poetic painter active in Naples in the first half of the seventeenth century.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Christ driving the Traders from the Temple

Date

about 1645-50

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 101 x W 127.6 cm

Accession number

NG4778

Acquisition method

Presented by Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi, 1935

Work type

Painting

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