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Notes

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According to the biblical story, Christ has been teaching at the Temple of Jerusalem and the Pharisees ask him whether it is right to pay taxes to Rome. He points to a coin and replies, 'Render to God the things that are God's.' Christ is seen here in the interior of the temple surrounded by figures: Jews, including a characterful Levite with spectacles, and those with Roman allegiance, who wish to trick him into an answer that will lay him open to accusation.

The interest in the depiction of this subject may have been related to contemporary frictions between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope.

The artist of this picture is unknown, but it looks as if he may have been aware of the treatment of the same subject by Rubens, once owned by William of Orange but now in the Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco.