A small coin held up between two fingers.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Tribute Money
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
J. Gauchard engraved this plate and signed it at the lower right. It is a street scene in sunlight: whitewashed houses, a palm tree and a tall wall close the space, and the halo is the brightest spot on the sheet.
Jesus stands among a ring of bearded men in turbans and mantles. An old man in a white robe holds up a small coin between two fingers, and another hand reaches toward it. Jesus looks at it and gestures; at the right a man in a turban stands apart, eyes lowered.
From the text
- The Pharisees sent their disciples “along with the Herodians” (Matthew 22:16)
- “Show Me the coin used for the tax” (Matthew 22:19)
- “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21)
The artist’s own
- A sunny street with houses and a palm instead of a fixed place; the text does not say where it happened
- Turbans and striped mantles of the East as Doré’s century pictured it
- The tiny coin made the center of the picture by the hands around it
Details
The coin
Jesus
He looks toward the coin, a halo behind his head.
The questioner
An old bearded man in a white robe and turban.
The palm
A palm tree rises above the rooftops.
Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 2, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1874 (acc. 75.267 A) · Wood engraving after Gustave Doré’s design · National Library of Poland (Polona): the record of the volume gives the licence «Domena Publiczna» (Public Domain), «copyrightProtected»: false; the scan was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the library itself («Polona Upload», GLAM-Wiki partnership: “This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of a GLAM-Wiki partnership between the National Library of Poland and Wikimedia Polska”), linking its Polona record.