Prison Overcrowding Essay - 2352 Words

In the 1970s and 1980s, a massive amount of inmates began fillin up the United States prison systems. This huge rate of growth in this short amount of time, has greatly contributed to the prison overcrowding that the United States faces today. In fact, the prisons are still filled to the seams. This enormous flood of inmates has made it practically impossible for prison officials to keep up with their facilities and supervise their inmates. One of the main reasons why many prisons have become overcrowded is because of states’ harsh criminal laws and parole practices (Cohen). â€Å"One in every 100 American adults is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate in the world† (Cohen). The amount of inmates in corrections systems, throughout the†¦show more content†¦One major problem of prison overcrowding is the effect it has on prison organizational stability. The more prisoners and people put in jail have made it harder for prison guards and staff to monitor and control them. The entire prison system must make enormous changes in order to accommodate for the number of inmates versus the number of prison guards (O’Leary). This often results in a misclassification of offenders. Many who come through the system are classified based on the amount of space available instead of on the security level and programs that would be most suitable for them (Howard). â€Å"It is not uncommon to find inmates, classified as medium security, incarcerated in maximum security institutions, while other inmates are in medium security who were previously considered candidates for maximum security† (Howard). Misclassifying offenders often leads to â€Å"slow progress through the corrections system as well as a slow exit† (Howard). This in turn only prolongs and increases the overcrowding problem (Howard). The corrections programs should be reformed to meet the needs of the inmates rather than the inmates having to adjust to meet the requireme nts of the system. Offenders need to be on specific rehabilitation programs that are customized to fit their needs, such as alcohol and drug abuse programs and so forth. While the inmates have to suffer the effects of overcrowding, so do theShow MoreRelatedPrison Overcrowding1187 Words   |  5 PagesAbstract This paper will discuss prison overcrowding and what type of numbers have come about over the years when it comes to inmates being imprisoned. It will discuss the cost of a prisoner annually as well as the decision to add verses build when it comes to new facilities. The overcrowding in one particular prison will be touched on as well as whose responsibility it is for upkeep. It will discuss how funding plays a role in overcrowding as well as the â€Å"three strikes† rule in California andRead MorePrison Overcrowding2966 Words   |  12 Pagesâ€Å"Prison Overcrowding: Using Proposals from Nevada and California to Recommend an Alternative Answer† By: Casey Apao For: Dr. Sarri CSN Fall 2010 Dedication: â€Å"I, the undersigned, Casey Apao hereby certify that without the assistance of Henry Apao this Critical Thinking Scientific Paper wouldn’t be done.† Signed , Casey Apao Disclaimer: â€Å"I, Casey Apao hereby certify that this Critical Thinking Scientific Paper is the result of my sole intellectualRead MoreOvercrowding Prisons And The Prisons Essay1785 Words   |  8 PagesAlma Gonzalez Professor Shaw SOC 474OL 11 August 2016 Overcrowding Prisons Prisons were essentially built to accommodate a number of prisoners, but over the years, it has reached over capacity. Today in the United States, there are approximately 193,468 federal inmates that consist of the Bureau of Prisons Custody, private managed facilities and other facilities. The inmates ages range from 18- 65 with the median age being in their late 30’s. This number is counting both male and female populationRead MoreArticle Report On Overcrowding Of Prison Overcrowding1074 Words   |  5 Pages Clark, Charles S. Prison Overcrowding. CQ Researcher 4 Feb. 1994: 97-120. Web. 26 Mar. 2016. This article discusses overcrowding in the United States prison system, due in part to mandatory prison sentences. Additionally, this article also discusses the challenges in managing the overpopulation of prisons and gives an objective look at solutions, to include building more prisons, to combat overcrowding. While the author does not include information about himself and his qualifications, hisRead MoreThe Problem Of Prison Overcrowding1572 Words   |  7 Pagesthe past 30 odd years, California’s prison population has grown by 750 percent (â€Å"California’s Perpetuating Prison Crisis†). As this percentage perpetuates to make substantial gains, inmates are suffering in confinement cells, officials are negotiating over the issue, and the public is protesting to make their opinions count. The prison crisis has continued to grow over the years, causing a great uproar among all of California’s 32 state prisons. Prison overcrowding has been an increasingly vital issueRead MoreThe Overcrowding Of Prison And Massachusetts1261 Words   |  6 PagesAfter exploring options of which states had the most overcrowding in prisons, the best option to go with was California because states like Alabama and Massachusetts did not have current statistics. If anything, their statistics were from 2016 or 2013, making data harder to collect. Therefore, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation website, the most recent report they have of the total population is as of midnight February 8, 2017. The total population is 180,885Read MoreThe Problem Of Prison Overcrowding1166 Words   |  5 PagesBlackboard #1: Realignment Prison overcrowding has always been a problem in California prisons. It has been growing over the year and has now lead the United States Supreme Court to take part in trying to find a solution to this problem. Because of this issue, Plata litigation came through and had a significant impact on the way we see community corrections. The ruling in the Plata litigation in turn lead to AB 109 or The Public Safety Realignment Act to be implemented as a solution to California’sRead MorePrison Overcrowding Essay1184 Words   |  5 Pages Prison Overcrowding Nicole Neal American Intercontinental University Abstract This research paper is to explore the impact of prison overcrowding. The United States has a, what seems to be everlasting, prison overcrowding problem. Not only does the United States have this dilemma, but also many other countries have overcrowded prisons as well. Many issues need to be addressed; ways to reduce the prison populations and how to effectively reduce prison cost withoutRead MorePrison Overcrowding And Its Effects934 Words   |  4 Pagesassignment is to take a look at an existing issue within the American criminal justice system which is prison overcrowding and its effects. Imprisonment is the primary means of punishment in American society for crimes (Ross, 2010; Verro, 2010). In fact, the incarceration rate in America surpasses several other developed nations, due to having over two million inmates presently serving time in prison (Brazell, Crayton, Mukamal, Solomon, and Lindahl, 2009; Vacca, 2004). The American criminal justiceRead MoreThe Problem Of Prison Overc rowding1395 Words   |  6 Pagesthe criminal justice system is prison overcrowding. To examine a nation’s soul, all one has to do is look inside of its prisons. Even though we have 5 percent of the world’s population we have 25 percent of the world’s prison population. The makeup of our prison population range from first time drug offenders to serial killers. Prisons serve a necessary function in society if used properly to keep the worst of the worst of the streets. In the last 40 years prisons has become a hammer where every

Emergency nursing Free Essays

Speaking about the Emergency nursing, we should take into account the role of the emergency nurse in the modern hospital and to take into account the most widespread mistakes, done by the nurses in the emergency department. Also, to analyze the causes of these mistakes. To begin with, emergency nurse is usually the first person, meeting the patient in the hospital. We will write a custom essay sample on Emergency nursing or any similar topic only for you Order Now Due to the triage system it is the nurse, who decide, according to the type of the injury, to what kind of doctor the patient should be sent. Sometimes nurses in the emergency department do play a role of the doctor as well –they can prescribe some kind of medicines and to give them to the patient. The kind of mistake in this case can be like this: 1.    Wrong diagnose. 2.    Non –well-organized work of the staff. As to the second one, here can be shown the episode from one of the hospitals, where the mistake was done according to the miscommunication of two nurses. A 50-year-old man with new atrial fibrillation was placed on a diltiazem drip in the emergency department for rate control. After arriving at the cardiac care unit (CCU), he was noted to be hypotensive and a saline bolus was ordered. The nurse asked a coworker to get her a bag of saline and went to check on another patient. When she returned to the first patient’s bedside, she noticed that an intravenous (IV) bag was already hanging from the IV pole, and thought that her coworker must have placed the saline bag there. Believing the patient required a rapid saline infusion, she opened the IV up, and the solution infused in rapidly. At that moment, her coworker arrived with the 500 cc saline bag, which caused the patient’s nurse to realize, in horror, that she had given the patient an IV bolus of more than 300 mg of diltiazem. The patient suffered severe bradycardia, which required temporary transvenous pacemaker placement and calcium infusion. Luckily, there was no permanent harm. The commentary to this case was given by Mary Caldwell, RN, PhD, MBA, and Kathleen A. Dracup, RN, DNSc. This case study raises several troubling issues. A patient was given an inadvertent overdose of diltiazem during a hypotensive episode due to a miscommunication involving two nurses. Intravenous diltiazem can cause bradycardia, hypotension, and reduced myocardial oxygen consumption, all serious side effects in an already unstable patient.Reported error rates for the administration phase of medication procedures are significant, ranging from 26% to 36%. With respect to intravenous medication preparation and administration, the possibilities for error are magnified compared with oral agents. In one large study, the investigators reported an overall error rate of 49% for intravenous medications, with 73% of those errors involving bolus injections. Providers are likely to encounter at least four complications specific to intravenous drug administration. First, the drug can be infused too quickly or too slowly, unlike oral agents, which have only one rate of administration. Second, IV pumps used to control the rate of administration can fail to operate properly or can be set up incorrectly by a nurse. Third, preparation of the drug can lead to error, as when the drug is added to an incompatible solution or mixed using the wrong ratio of drug-to-IV solution. And finally, the medication can be given through the wrong port, such as into the right atrium rather than into a peripheral vein. Intuitively, one might guess that the critical care environment would be the site of more medication-related errors than less acute units. In one study that compared intensive care unit (ICU) with non-ICU medication-related errors, preventable adverse drug events were twice as common in ICUs as in non-ICUs. However, when these data were adjusted for the number of drugs used or ordered , there were no differences between the settings. The fact that the patient-to-nurse ratio in the ICU is usually less than or equal to 2:1, while a single nurse on a medical-surgical unit may be responsible for 5 to 10 patients, may mitigate the risk of drug errors in the critical care setting. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices cites the â€Å"five rights† of medication use (right patient, drug, time, dose, and route) as touchstones to aid in the prevention of errors. In this case, following the five rights may have prevented the overdose. However, one must also recognize that many processes used to prevent errors are more difficult to design and implement in critical care units because of the rapidity with which nurses and physicians must act. Therefore, the basics of safe drug administration practice take on even greater importance. Building in manual redundancies (such as verbal read-backs, similar to those used when administering blood transfusions) may help when there are variances to standard protocol, such as an IV bolus. The high error level documented in IV bolus infusions provides important support for reviewing hospital policies related to their administration. System failures also contributed to the error in this case. If the patient was unstable enough to require a 500 cc bolus of saline, why did the nurse leave the room to check on another patient? Was the staffing inadequate? Workforce issues have been an enormous concern in recent years as nursing shortages reach crisis proportions. Nurses are stretched thin, and the shortage is felt most acutely among specialty nurses. The clinical impact of staffing shortages on increased mortality and ‘failure-to-rescue’ have been noted. A survey conducted by NurseWeek/A-ONE found that 65% of RNs felt the shortage impeded their ability to maintain patient safety. Although specific figures regarding the extent of shortages in critical care are not available, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses states that requests for registry and traveling nurses have increased substantially across the country, with a 45% increase for adult critical care, 50% for Pediatric/Neonatal ICUs, and 140% for Emergency Departments. In the past, most ICUs accepted only experienced nurses (with more than 2 years clinical post-graduate experience) as staff. However, this requirement of previous experience is often waived in times of staff shortages. Although new graduates usually participate in hospital ICU training programs, the learning curves are steep and new nurses may become overwhelmed, leading to errors in communication and execution. A recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report listed a number of human factors associated with medication errors. Performance deficit (as opposed to knowledge deficit), such as seen in this case, was the human factor listed most commonly (30%). Poor communications contributed another 16% to total errors. Thus, this case illustrates a common source of error—a problem of performance related to poor communication. This case study also provides an opportunity to evaluate mistakes on the personal level. A serious, commonly identified shortcoming of the current medical system is the fear of disclosing errors. When errors occur, the responsible staff member should be an active participant in an evaluative process aimed at preventing similar errors from reoccurring. Results of the evaluation on an individual, unit, and hospital level should be shared with the entire hospital so that similar errors might be prevented in the future. The tradition of morbidity and mortality conferences, used commonly by physicians, has not been adopted by nursing staff and might be an appropriate strategy if it provided a blame-free environment in which mistakes and system level issues could be discussed openly. Specific measures to prevent errors in situations similar to this case might include: Standard policy typically dictates the use of IV pumps on all vasoactive drips. (Because it was not specifically noted in this case study, we are compelled to state the obvious.) Standard policy usually dictates that vasoactive drugs be infused through a site dedicated to only that drug. Therefore, at least one other separate IV site should be used for other fluids and medications. This practice eliminates the need to use the high risk IV and the potential for an inadvertent overdose. More obvious labeling of ‘high risk’ IV drips (eg, bigger, brighter labels; duplicate labeling on IV   Ã‚  bag, pump, monitor). Independent double-checks of bolus fluids by nurses prior to administration. Reevaluation of staffing requirements if a patient becomes unstable so that the patient–nurse ratio can be appropriately adjusted. Participation of nurses as well as physicians in morbidity and mortality conferences. Sometimes the mistakes occur because of inattentiveness of the nurse. By the way, the documents, fulfilled by the nurse, have to be readable and clear not only for the nurse herself, but for the other well-educated staff as well (I mean, the doctors, etc. ). The data’s have to be collected precisely and correctly. But let’s have a look at one of the patients cards, taken from the Hospital. (Pict.1) The information is just not readable, and it is rather difficult to understand, what were the results. This patient’s card look likes an album of the child, but not as a professionally made card of the well-qualified staff.   Speaking about this case of the 72 years old woman, it is possible to suggest, that the wrong diagnoses have been done, what approximately lead to the death of the patient. As to the medicines given, it is seen, that not all the medicines needed were given to the patient (at the age of 70 there have to be given some medicines for blood –Heparin and as well some medicines for keeping the heart activity. In this case it looks like that on the base of the cough (probably pneumonia) there was a kind of heart attack (probably cardiac infarction) with the complications as pulmonary edema(or edema of lungs). 1. Bates DW, Cullen DJ, Laird N, et al. Incidence of adverse drug events and potential adverse drug events. Implications for prevention. ADE Prevention Study Group. JAMA. 1995;274:29-34. [ go to pubmed]2. Taxis K, Barber N. Ethnographic study of incidence and severity of intravenous drug errors. BMJ. 2003;326:684. 3. Cullen DJ, Sweitzer BJ, Bates DW, Burdick E, Edmondson A, Leape LL. Preventable adverse drug events in hospitalized patients: a comparative study of intensive care and general care units. Crit Care Med. 1997;25:1289-1297. ]4. Aiken LH, Clarke SP, Sloane DM, Sochalski J, Silber JH. Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction. JAMA. 2002;288:1987-1993. 5. NurseWeek. NurseWeek/A-ONE National Survey of Registered Nurses: NurseWeek/A-ONE; 2002. ]6. Critical Care Nursing Fact Sheet. American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. ]7. Phillips J, Beam S, Brinker A, et al. Retrospective analysis of mortalities associated with medication errors. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2001;58:1835-1841. How to cite Emergency nursing, Essay examples

Economic Activity as Reflected in Paintings Essay Example For Students

Economic Activity as Reflected in Paintings Essay It is a Earners painting from the early 16th century. Not so many economists are, however, aware that there are two different versions Of this picture: one by Question Mammys, painted about 1514 (now in Paris, the Louvre), and another by Marinas (Cleanses) van Reimbursable, painted in 1539 (now in Madrid, in the Prod). There are significant changes between the two versions. This being the Scholastic period and also the epoch of the commercial revolution in Europe, we would expect this picture to have some sort tot economic meaning, and for the changes in the pictures to reflect these changes in economic activity and economic thought. We will argue in this paper that there does exist such a meaning; and that also the very important changes between Massy and Remorselessly pictures have much to do with the economic changes in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century. Most art historians have seen in Massy and Remorselessly paintings a satirical and normalizing symbolism, The Money Changer and his Wife being the representation of greed. Others think that the picture shows economic activity in a respectable way. Flanders at that time was the centre of a flourishing industrial and commercial activity, and also was the centre Of a mercantile trade n works of art. 80th things led to a representation of the professional activity Of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable professions. The second view is the one implicitly shared by economists when choosing this picture to illustrate many books on economics or business. Some scholars have proposed more subtle interpretations. Marjorie Grace- Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first aroused the interest of economists in the Spanish Scholastics of School of Salesmans, considers Massy painting to be an illustration of the intention of Scholastics to make imputable the commercial customs Of the time with Church doctrine on usury. According to her interpretation, Massy painting would mean the money lender working and, at the same time, discussing With his Wife the fairness Of a particular commercial deal, helped by the religious book his wife is reading. It is important to notice that, 25 years on, the book in Reimbursable painting is no longer a religious work but an accounting book. But art historians claim that there is still some symbolism in the painting which gives it a normalizing and satirical intent. According to them, this symbolism was clear to contemporaries UT not to us; or sometimes would have been intentionally difficult to notice for those contemporaries who were not in the same religious group as the painter or his client, For instance, the long, curved fingers of the bourgeois couple allegedly represented avarice. But Reimbursable painted the fingers tot Saint Jerome in the same way , so it must have an aesthetic intention and not a symbolic one. In the process of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art historians of this picture and other similar ones, we shall see that they are consistent with the that most art historians share about the economy as Hayes points out in his chapter of The fatal conceit, 1988, The Mysterious World of Trade and Money) rather than based on any objective interpretation of the painting and history. Thus, while the picture shows commercial and financial activity to be a normal, respectable occupation, most art historians see a normalizing and satirical intention. My view is that art historians prejudice towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a wrong interpretation Of the paintings. When the painters wanted to be satirical and normalizing, they did it in a way that is clearly recognizable by us today. And that this is not the case with the The Moneychangers and his Wife, in either the version of Massy or that of Reimbursable. . Question Massy Let us start with Question The Moneychangers and his Wife, dated 1514. . It is probably derided from a lost work by Jan van Check, c. 1440. 13] On the table are placed coins, a set of scales, and various other tools of their trade. (various other tokens of their wealth, says the art historian Jean-Claude Freer, 1997, p. 186, This is our first difference in interpretation), The man is weighing gold coins with great care. At that time, coins with the same face value aired in the amount of gold they contained (and therefore in their real exchange value), because it was a normal practice to file them down, clip them, or to shake them together in a bag in order to collect the gold dust they produced, So, the moneychangers is simply going about his business, not counting his money as a miser would du And, if you look at his face, it is not the face off miser, but the face of a concentrating working man, carefully carrying out his job. His wife is looking at the coins and scales too; but she has a book in her hands, The book is a religious one, an illustrated book of hours. Marjorie Grace- Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first brought economists attention to the Spanish Scholastics of the School of Salesmans, considers Massy painting an illustration Of the intention Of the Scholastics to make compatible the commercial practices of their time with the Churchs doctrine on usury _ According to her interpretation, Massy painting portrays the money lender at work and, at the same time, discussing with his wife the fairness of a particular commercial deal, helped by consulting the religious book his Wife is reading. 41 Many other interpretations of Missys work consider this picture as to be a realizing one, in a much stronger sense than that of Grace. Hutchinson view. The Incarnate Encyclopedia says: In The Moneychangers and his Wife, the subtly hinted conflict between avarice and prayer represented in the couple illustrates a new satirical quality in his (It is curious that the Web Gallery of Art, together with the Incarnate article, provides this contradictory explanation: The painting remains in the Flemish tradition of van Check, with the addition off profane sense of beauty, sign of a new Another scholar says this about Massy: Painters also began to treat new subjects. Men like Question Massy, for example, played an active role in the intellectual life of their cities and began to mirror the ethical concerns expressed by humanist thinkers with new paintings that used secular scenes to impart normalizing messages. Vivid tableaux warned against gambling, lust, and other At the bottom Of the painting there is a circular mirror; we can see the tiny figure of a man wearing a turban. For some reason, the following is the explanation Of the art historian Jean-Claude Freer: a side Window, under which we can just make out the tiny figure of a thief. He would seem to be spying on the couple as they count their gold, While they would seem to be Oblivious to his presence, blinded by their greed . 18] Let us leave aside the greed and concentrate on the tiny man. Is he a thief? Dont know. But Im sure he is not spying on the couple as they count their gold: I am not an art historian, but it seems clear to me that the man is inside the room, he is reading a book and looking out of the window to the street. In think that this is not a casual mistake: it is consistent with art historians interpretation. Symbolism, a source of moralistic interpretation My view is that art historians explanation of The Moneychangers and his Wife as a satirical work containing symbolic allusions hidden tromp contemporary observers, is merely a reflection of their own prejudices concerning certain economic activities. Let us consider the serious arguments supporting the symbolic explanations of paintings of the Flemish Renaissance, in order to be able to judge when a painting has this meaning and when has not. The famous art historian Erwin Pompanos held that the Early Hemi painters had to reconcile the new naturalism with a thousand years of Christian tradition. Based on SST. Atoms Aquinas, who thought that physical objects oeuvre corporeal metaphors for spiritual things, Pompanos (Early Netherlands Painting, 1953) maintains that in early Elements painting the method Of disguised symbolism was applied to each and every object, man made or There are other historical sources that point to a symbolic meaning in the painting Of Question Massy. In his painting Portrait Of a Merchant and his [Figure 31 there is a clearly legible inscription, in French: L avaricious nest Jamaica rumple dragnet Nays point couch des richness injustices, car less e Voss profiterole en rein AU sour De la visitation et De la vengeance. Soys don sans avarice. This is a paraphrase of the Gospel of SST Luke, Chi. XII, 15, 21-34; Saint Matthew, Chi. VI, 19-21 -Jean Calicles says that the main character in the painting est. osmium la parole  ©van ©liqueur. II est. fragment fide ©lee Dana less richness injustices, II en cede pas a la solicitation du Tentative quiz, derriere LU, lee visage tutor par lavaliere et la soot du lucre, LU propose des compete fantasies painting and Economic Activity at Handers We can expect the Flemish painters to be familiar with market oriented economic activity and the money world, because of the society in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the center of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade of works of art. A Look at Georgia O'Keeffe's Painting Black Cross EssayBut there is no bible in Marinas painting. Instead, there is a hand-vitiated book, with no illustrations, Which seems to be an accounting book. The characters in Reimbursable painting are most elegant, With luxurious clothes, and long, delicate fingers. This is also thought by some scholars to be satirical: Long, curved fingers were, in WI century, a sign of greed or avarice, so an apparently domestic subject can also be full of moral Long, curved fingers and noses use to represent Jews and, by extension, greed or avarice in Christian iconography. It may be important to notice that Jews played an important role in Nonvoters economic activity. The money market was controlled by the Italian Lombardi, and Jews could only act as minor money- lenders. The Jews lent mainly small amounts tot money tort shorter periods of time to less wealthy people such as butchers and bakers, Scarcity was an excellent situation tort Jewish money-lenders. As a consequence, they had many clients among the common people who probably had great difficulties in paying them back. This fact may have reinforced the strong anti-Semitism prevalent at that mime, There were a massacre of Jews in Antwerp in 1350, and then many Spanish and Portuguese maroons came to settle there after 1492 and 1437, expelled from Spain and Portugal] I havent fully explored yet the possibility of the satirical portraits being racist or anti-Semitic). But the long fingers can imply other things: they can be an esthetics technique to make people appear more mystical, materialistic, attractive. We could interpret thus the fingers of Reimbursable Saint Jerome, in 1521. And Saint Jerome transmits you the idea of ascetic sanctity, the antithesis of greed. (Although, again, mom scholar says that Remorsefully painting Of Saint Jerome is stressing the crabbedness of scholarship. Even if that is correct, it would not be the crabbedness Of greed). TO me, the long, curved fingers Of the moneychangers and his beautiful wife imply simply elegance. This is my personal impression. If then kick at Other paintings by Reimbursable, for instance, the two Tax Gatherers (also The Misers), described by the same scholar as exceedingly ugly and covetous, I dont need to be his contemporary to notice the satirical meaning. 1251 After comparing their clever interpretations with what a spectator sees in Hess pictures, would recommend that the meaning of a painting, as given by art historians, not be accepted uncritically: their judgments appear to be based upon certain prejudices, in this case concerning commercial and financial practices, rather than any objective analysis of the painting. . Other Flemish occupational portraits If you look at other paintings of the same school, it is easy to find examples of good, non critical or satirical, representation of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers. Adrian Scenarist Man Weighing Gold (c. is described in this way by Jean E. Wilson: This sensitive portrait of a banker or, perhaps, a moneychangers reveals the sitters evident pride in his occupation. The portrait also Serves as an example of the Widening interest in portraiture, which had gradually extended to members of the business sector In Hieronymus Poochs The Table of the Deadly 1480, avarice is shown as a judge who is being bribed. This is completely different from the activity of the banker: what Busch shows us is not a profit-seeking commercial practice which is therefore sinful, but an act of corruption which would be taken to be immoral equally in a commercially oriented society or in an ideal world described by Scholastic theologians. Another example of an occupational portrait is the portrait of a Merchant by Jean Grossest (c. Thought to be a portrait tot Ceremonious Candelas, a real merchant from Zealand, in Handers. There is nothing satirical about it: it is a purely occupational portrait. But the National Gallery of Art Brief Guide says this: the sitters furtive glance and prim mouth are enough to inform us of the insecurity and apprehension that haunted bankers in the sass, when the prevailing moral attitude was summed up by the Dutch humanist Erasmus, who asked, When did avarice reign more largely and less punished? 130] SST Eely (Elegies) in His Shop, 1449, by Peters is the clear representation of a goldsmith working in his shop and attending two clients: a rich, well-born bridal couple. It seems to be a representation of the goldsmiths trade, with the excuse of the portrait of a saint (hardly a subtle ploy, since SST. Eely is the patron Of goldsmiths guild). The goldsmith sits behind a Window sill extended to form a table, a pair of jewelers scales in one hand, a ring in the Other _ Only his halo suggests that the painting deals With legend. On the right is a display of examples of the goldsmiths craft. The picture may very well have been painted for a goldsmiths guild (the one in Antwerp). SST. Elegies is the Patron of metalworkers. As a maker of reliquaries he has become one of the most popular saints of the Christian West. Elegies (also known as Eely) was born around 590 near Lingoes in France. He became an extremely skillful metabolism and was appointed master of the mint under King Cloth of the Franks. Elegies developed a close friendship with the King and his reputation as an outstanding metabolism became widespread. It is important to notice that most prominent features in the elite tot SST. Elegies can be seen both as indications of sanctity and the best professional characteristics of a good goldsmith. In the goldsmiths trade, skills were as important as reliability, as Adam Smith notices in Wealth of Nations: *The wages of goldsmiths and jewelers are every- where superior to those of many other workmen, not only of equal, but of much period ingenuity; on account of the precious materials with they are entrusted 132] Elegies is praised for both qualities. From his biography, we can see how important this reliability of his goldsmith was, for the king to become Elegies protector: The king gave Elegies a great weight of gold. Elegies began the work immediately and from that which he had taken for a single piece of work, he was able to make two. Incredibly, he could do it all from the same weight for he had accomplished the work commissioned from him Without any fraud or mixture Of cliques, or any other fraudulence. Not claiming fragments bitten off by the file or using the devouring flame Of the furnace for an The portrait Saint Elegies by Peters Christ is a fine example of the occupational portrait, describing a goldsmiths shop, the only religious connection being the halo and the fact than the saint is the patron of the guild. The true normalizing pictures of the Flemish School Look at the painting The Ill-Matched Lovers, c, 1520, again you dont need to be a contemporary of his to notice the satirical intention, (It is important to notice that the theme of love between he old and the young was extremely popular in sixteenth century, and we can agree that both the popularity and the moral view has changed on this subject in modern times. The meaning of the painting, however, hasnt changed at all, because the artist doesnt paint the old man with tenderness and love and mature elegance, but as undignified uncontrolled, despicable desire). There are other paintings by Marinas which shows a clearly satirical approach, or at least an ugly expression which does not imply pride in the profession: see The Lawyers Office, 1545, and The Misers (also known, in different erosion, as The Tax Gatherers or The tax gatherer and his guarantor). This one shows devout tax collectors, or rather a treasurer, or an administrator With his clerk, the collector with a winking grimace. The treasurer enters in a book the sums received for the taxes With his right hand counts and weighs the Both of them look clearly satirical for a modern observer. 5. Conclusion This paper has compared the rival interpretations provided by economists and art historians of the painting The Moneychangers and his Wife. The painting is seen as an occupational portrait, showing a banker in his office, carefully sighing coins simply because this is one of most prominent features of his trade. It is a clearly secular subject, much more so in Remembrances version: the religious hooks in the womans hands has been turned into an accounting book. We could expect Hemi painters to be familiar with market oriented lived. Handers at that time was the center off flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade in works of Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of respectable ones. In the process Of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art Astoria about this picture and other similar ones, we have seen that they are consistent With the views that art historians share about the economic activity, rather than based on any objective interpretation of the painting and history.