Hieronymus Bosch: Homo viator at a Crossroads: A New Reading of

Hieronymus Bosch: Homo viator at a Crossroads: A New Reading of the Rotterdam tondo
Author(s): Yona Pinson
Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 26, No. 52 (2005), pp. 57-84
Published by: IRSA s.c.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20067097
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YONA PINSON
? Homo viator at a Crossroads:
Hieronymus Bosch
A New Reading of the Rotterdam tondo
The Rotterdam fondo [Fig. 1] has attracted the attention of
scholars since its discovery at the beginning of the last centu
ry. One of Hieronymus Bosch's most intriguing and puzzling
its composition
raises many questions and is open
paintings,
to various readings.1 It is not my intention to present an ulti
mate interpretation for this enigmatic work, whose
complex
iconography remains inmany respects sealed for me as for
it from a different
many others. Nevertheless,
by examining
some
new
I
to
to its
perspective,
hope
suggest
approaches
and was adopted
later in Humanistic circles as well. Ina Ger
man woodcut,
A Youth Choosing
Between
Good and Evil,
c. 1470-1480
[Fig. 2] a young dandy stands hesitantly on
diverging branches of a Y-shaped tree. One of the branches
decipherment.
In the Rotterdam
tondo,2 Bosch offers a multi-layered
reading, creating his own version of the homo viator motif.
Ishall attempt to clarify the meaning of this figure of a vagrant
wayfarer as not only related to sin, especially of the flesh, but
also in association with decay and transience, thereby trans
forming the image into a memento mor?, enriching Bosch's
didactic purpose.3
Inmedieval
as a journey upon
times life was conceived
the earth, and man himself as a traveler, a stranger in search of
his lost spiritual homeland. This idea served as a framework
The Y motif that symbolizes
human choice between good
and evil7 is adapted and further developed
in Bosch's compo
sition (the forked path recalls the Y motif and alludes to the
metaphor of the choice of two roads through life). The motif of
in the parable of Hercules at
splitting roads, which originated
the crossroads,
became very influential throughout the Middle
in Northern
and was particularly
elaborated
upon
Ages
Renaissance
and the
art.8 The theme of the crossroads,
choice between the paths leading to bliss or destruction/was
an important motif in the Digulleville's parable of pilgrimage.9
While Bosch appears to have adopted
the metaphor of the
as a framework for his moral
at the crossroads
wanderer
for Guillaume de Digulleville's Pilgrimage of Man's Life and
was still influential in Bosch's time.4
The notion of an ethical choice between virtue and vice,
salvation and perdition was well rooted in medieval
thought
leads towards the Lord and the other towards perdition.5 Set
between an angel and a devil, the youth seems
rather to be
a
him
who
box
the
latter
full
offers
of
tempted by
gold. Below,
a skeleton
as a wayfarer and a demon holding
disguised
a staff are awaiting him.6
instruction, he, as I intend to show, ironically inverts the para
ble's original meaning,
effectively parodying the idea of the
choice.
pilgrim's
57
YONAPINSON
1) Hieronymus
58
Bosch,
?The Wayfarer?, c. 1494 or later, Museum Boijmans
Photo: Museum Boijmans van Beuningen.
van Beuningen,
Rotterdam.
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
HIERONYMUS
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
OF THEROTTERDAM
TONDO
3) ?Stultitia?
13th century.
Between
2) Unknown German artist, ?A Youth Choosing
c. 1470-1480, Albertina, Vienna.
Good and Evil?, woodcut,
Photo: Albertina.
in rags and carrying a long staff
The vagrant, dressed
an
offers
effective
-club,
analogy with the errant-fool.10 He is
portrayed walking through a symbolic
landscape, brimming
with earthly temptations,
but also warnings.
This itinerant
seems
to
have
the
crossroads,
although
vagrant
just passed
in fact he is not progressing
straight along the road, but rather
to de Bruyn, look
looking back over his shoulder. According
over
means
back
one's
shoulders
ing
reflecting on one's earli
er sins and leading a virtuous life, especially when approach
ing death (which would explain the gray hair of the personage
on both the Madrid and Rotterdam versions).
In his recent
seminal essay, Vandenbroeck
adopts this view, interpreting
this gesture of looking back as a metaphor of repentance of
(Folly), Amiens Cathedral,
Photo: CNMHS, Paris.
Western
facade,
the wicked sinner who contemplates
the long road that he has
been traveling.11
Iwould like to suggest a different interpretation of the way
Ina contemporary Middle Dutch adaptation of
farer's gesture.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux's Sermons
(Sermones Bernardi in
Zwolle, 1480 and 1495) the act of looking back
duytssche,
over one's shoulder
is rather imbued with negative connota
to this sermon the Homo Viator, a pilgrim in
tions. According
this wicked world, should walk straight on the highway, ignor
ing the places of sin and temptations. The preacher warns his
audience against "those who love and cherish this world" and
still are attracted by earthly pleasures;
those wicked Chris
tians might meet the worse and risk being sent to the gallows
or the wheel. This view apparently held an important place in
the moralistic
in another
ideology in Bosch's time. A passage
treatise, the Boek des gulden throens of den
contemporary
xxiiij ouden (Book of the Golden Throne of the xxiiii Ancients,
Utrecht 1480) comments on the act of looking back as a sinful
act: "Do not look back / To contemplate
the wicked sin / In the
59
YONAPINSON
pleasure you have left behind / So that God's wrath will not
descend
/ Upon you and damn you instantly."12
The ambiguous
facial expression and contradictory move
ment of the figure denotes his wavering. While his attention is
turned back toward the house filled with the temptations of
carnal pleasure, his legs lead him in the opposite direction.
Turning one's gaze to the opposite direction was considered
a sign of instability and irrational conduct and, in the Middle
Ages, an opposing movement was considered a sign of insan
ity and folly.13 The figure of Stultitia from Amiens Cathedral
in some
(west portal, thirteenth century, Fig. 3) precedes
inone direction, his
respects Bosch's homo viator: advancing
head is turned in the opposite one.14 According to Gamier this
posture reflects the fool's instability and imbalance, marking
the deportment of the insane. The posture was always related
to vice and improper behavior,15 and especially
designated
the vice of folly and the figure of the villain insipiens.
The vagrant's posture denotes his hesitation as he hovers
between vices and his deviation
from the path of evil and
This
is
further
reflected
perdition.
through his footwear: a shoe
on one foot and a slipper on the other, another external sign of
footwear, different shoes or one shoed foot
folly. Asymmetrical
since the Middle Ages as
and the other bare, was considered
an external manifestation
of insanity, like the inability to walk
a straight path.17 Instability and discord were considered
the
fool's essential
the
traits, manifested
negative
through
medieval and Renaissance
fool's costume. The medieval
idio
ta often wore an asymmetrically
cut costume, while the later
wore a definitive outfit.
professional-fool
in his irresolute posture
The wayfarer's hesitation, echoed
and bewildered expression,
is further reflected through his hair
(yet another mani
wildly escaping through his torn headdress
festation of disorder, sin and folly). He is holding his hat hesi
tantly in his hand,18 which is pointing to the "right" path, and
which, according to some interpretations, might be leading him
towards salvation, an interpretation that was first suggested
by
the wayfarer as the prodigal son on his
Tolnay, who conceived
way back to his father's fields.19 Although Gibson does not
believe that the picture is related to the parable of the prodigal
son, and that Bosch deliberately "does not make the moral alter
natives quite so explicit,"20 he nonetheless
thinks that the gate
could be leading the wayfarer towards salvation, referring to
John 10:9, where Christ speaks of himself as a door through
which those who enter "shall be saved, and shall go in and out
and find pasture." The idea of salvation was also adopted by
the vagrant with the motif of pilgrimage
Zupnick, who associates
of mankind and the idea of salvation.21 However itmay seem
that we have little reason to believe that the figure on the Rotter
dam tondo represents either the penitent son on his way back to
60
from Sebastian
Brant,
4) ?Of Reward for Wisdom?, woodcut
The Ship of Fools, Basel, 1494. Photo: author [from The
Ship of Fools by Sebastian Brant, New York 1961 ;with
permission].
the father's fields or the virtuous pilgrim choosing the right road
leading him towards the "door of salvation" since we cannot
ignore the fact that the freestanding gate remains closed.22
The motif of free will and virtuous choice, deriving from
the parable of Hercules's
choice, takes a particularly central
in
Brant's
Of
Reward
for Wisdom (ch. 107; Fig. 4),
poem
place
with the reward being the crown of salvation,23 while at the
end of the other path awaits only the fool's cap. Since the
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
HIERONYMUS
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
OF THEROTTERDAM
TONDO
immaymi
5) ?Dixit Insipiens? (Fool and Devil),
Bibl. Munc. MS. 3.
Avranches,
13th century,
fool's path leads towards sin and perdition,
audience not to hesitate in their choice:
Brant warns
his
Some think they have the proper way
But lose the path and go astray.
And miss the life that's true and rare.
Blest he who'd never stray or err.24
In addition
to his unkempt appearance
and strange
closer
observation
reveals additional
footwear,
signs and
attributes establishing
the association
between
this errant
wayfarer and folly. A wooden spoon is attached to his basket.
a necessary
this is undoubtedly
Although
implement for
a vagrant, the spoon, symbolizing
immoderacy and extrava
gance, was also an attribute of the fool, appearing already in
the thirteenth century in an illustration for Dixit Insipiens [Fig.
5].25 Later, inBosch's time, itbecame an attribute of the urban
the carnival fool.
festivity buffoon, and especially
own artistic vocabulary, wooden
In Bosch's
spoons or
large ladles are associated with carnival revelers and fools.26
In an attractive garden of love by Bosch's contemporary
and
follower, the architect and engraver Allart Duhameel, the fool is
seen in the company of a Pair of Lovers by a Fountain (Lon
don, British Museum).27 He sits on the ground (here associat
ed with the folly of love); his strange posture is reminiscent of
the twisted posture of certain figures of folly, as are the wood
m
Die l<>fiaytj?mamgfalt
XDct ttympt ?inwy^t>mb g?t t>nbs?fc
TSi?tfriutinan lojfcljc?e
tPcrbo mcmtcr fy fcbei?
lD?*i" fcciri(row nfc farcit lo?
T&at/vnb )t%
vcvUfft nit
?obocb ttit t cittadt nit <tyc
>
^Dct:fclb?nl?flfitem?p tcb ladbett
j)ct)mbocbl^tanmcuUnmad)cn
*X)nb
glotibt wa* jmba*wyb glo J?ert
6ojyitibvbcrti4fcfiftcrt
botegcfcbfcfc
?>cr tf?juloffcl
?obalb cmwybtttombltctt
?oMcr5lyc^Riiir4J?tto*riiw
c ftQ
from Thomas Murner,
6) The ?Loeffel Schnyden?, woodcut
Bodleian
1512,
Narrenbesw?rung,
Strasbourg
Library,
Oxford, Douce MM. 480, Sig. Ciiii r. Photo: Bodleian Library.
en spoon
and dry twigs stuck in his headdress.
Urban jesters
festivity buffoons were often also equipped with large
to hold the money
with their large
purses
they collected
spoons or ladles during the feast.28 Bosch and his followers
however, adopted the spoon as an emblem of folly. Ina paint
and Lent, (c. 1550,
ing by a follower of Bosch, Shrovetide
Noordbrabants Museum), we can see a fool
s'Hertogenbosch,
armed with a large wooden
spoon atop of which perches an
and
61
YONAPINSON
tmrttfws
?uni
the wayfarer
passes,
landscape
through which
to have evolved
inmedieval
patristic literature. The
in Saint Bernard's
"First Commentary"
image occurs
(PL.
on the parable of the prodigal son). Here the
183: 756-776,
gorical
appears
confrfn
^
foolish boy is wandering
"among the mountains of pride, the
of
the
fields
of licentiousness,
the woods of
valleys
curiosity,
the
waters of
of
carnal
and
the
desires,
swamps
lechery,
out
As
the
idea
of an alle
cares."30
Wenzel,
by
worldly
pointed
which
the
alienated
gorical landscape through
wayfarer wan
ders, was highly influential on medieval preachers and poets
and inspired the later medieval and northern Renaissance
pil
grimage literature.31 It is not surprising, therefore that, Bosch
adopts the imagery of symbolic
landscape for both his ver
7) Marginal illumination from the ?Luttrel Psalter?,
14th century, British Library, London, Add Ms. 42130
70v. Photo: British Library.
fol.
between the spoon and the fool's
owl. The clear association
bauble ismade even more obvious through the figure of a fool
A woodcut
illustration for
the fools' scepters.
fabricating
1512 [Fig.
Thomas Murner's Narrenbesw?rung,
Strasbourg,
6], entitled the Loeffel Schnyder, depicts a fool in his "work
The fools' scepters are com
shop", carving spoons\baubles.
posed of a spoon topped with the traditional fool's head.
A knife, a possibly self-referential motif, typical of Bosch's
creative method, pierces the Rotterdam wayfarer's purse. This
image, another metaphor of folly, may be discerned also in his
Temptation of Saint Anthony (Lisbon, Museo Nacional de Arte
is clearly
Antiga, c. 1500), inwhich a hybrid vagrant minstrel
with folly: an owl is perched on his head and
associated
a small dog, wearing a red fool's cap with bells, accompanies
him. A large purse pierced by a knife is attached to his girdle
as a hint that he is a wastrel ? another sign of his folly.29
A marginal
illumination from the Luttrel Psalter
(Fig. 7,
London, Brit. Lib. Add. MS 42130, fol. 70v, fourteenth century),
in some
depicts a vagrant wayfarer holding a stick, who,
that of Bosch. The wayfarer, while attract
respects, precedes
in the presence
of
ed by carnal temptations
embodied
a seductive siren, is bitten by a menacing
dog (perhaps the
?
devil). He also has a large bellows (follis) stuck in his basket
another sign of folly and sinful conduct.
The vagrant in the Rotterdam panel iswalking through an
landscape that offers a view imbued with metaphor
allegorical
ical hints of decay, transience and death. The motif of an alle
62
sions of
The
ence to
be seen
the theme of alienation and wandering.
house of ill-fame, the inn of the swan, is a clear refer
lust and prostitution.32 An overturned pot on a pole can
above. For Bosch's audience, an overturned pitcher
would be conceived as a sign of sexual promiscuity and intem
perance,33 but it could also convey the idea of a topsy-turvy
world, another allusion to folly. This metaphor was already illus
trated inBosch's Ship of Fools (Paris, Mus?e du Louvre, c. 1494
or later),where itdesignates both the licentious, unruly conduct
of its passengers
and their folly. This metaphor
is further
echoed through the uncorked barrel seen against the tavern's
wall, its contents spilling out.34 Like the overturned pitcher, it too
can be considered as carrying a double meaning, alluding both
to unrestrained,
illicit conduct and to folly and vanity.
The decaying condition of the inn of the swan might also
have dual significance, alluding to the state of declining morals,
as well as symbolizing the ephemeral nature of pleasure, and
conveying the notion of transience. The roof of the inn appears
to require repair, possibly alluding to a popular folk saying in
Bosch's time, warning his audience to "mend their houses."35 In
one of Bruegel's
later works, The Blue Cloak, better known as
1559
Netherlandish
Proverbs,
(Berlin, Gem?ldegalerie,
Staatliche Museen, Preussischer
Kulturbesitz), the roof of the
inn is full of holes and clearly in poor condition. According to
Sullivan, itprobably illustrates the popular saying: Desen dach is
inn symbol
bedozuen
("The roof is unsound").36 The decaying
ism is further elaborated inBruegel's work. The idiomatic image
is illustrated in his contemporary versions of a village kermis. In
The Kermis of Hoboken37 and the Fair of St.
both compositions,
George's Day,38 the inns are in bad shape and the roofs are in
disrepair, with pigeons pecking through the thatch.39
In Bosch's vocabulary decaying buildings symbolize
sin
in
is explicitly articulated
and spiritual danger. This metaphor
The Temptations of Saint Anthony (Lisbon, Museo Nacional de
in the right mid
Arte Antiga, c. 1501). The calabash-structure
a brothel, where
dle ground of the central panel houses
_HIERONYMUS
BOSCH ?
HOMO VIATORAT A CROSSROADS:
of easy virtue and a monk are feasting together. An
the emblemati
unsealed barrel topped with a pitcher echoes
cal objects designating
sin and vanity in the Rotterdam tondo.
This symbolical weave
is further elaborated through the bare,
the
balanced on the tent's curtain.
branch
and
bellows
dry
calabash-brothel
motif
echoes
Bosch's earlier criticism
(The
in his Ship of
of the corrupted monastic
orders expressed
in the city of
be
discerned
Fools). Crumbling buildings may
evil in the background of both the central and right panels of
this triptych. In Bosch's visualized
texts, decaying buildings
refer to sin and spiritual dangers as in the left middle back
of Saint Christopher
Van
(Rotterdam,
Boymans
ground
Beuningen Museum, c. 1496) where the crumbling structure is
ruled by a devilish, menacing dragon. Note also the analogous
state of the tavern in the background of Iraand Avaritia topped
as well with dovecotes,
in the Tabletop of Seven Deadly Sins
Museo
Nacional
del Prado, c. 1500 or later).
(Madrid,
The motif of a decaying
house as a sign of corruption,
evanescence
later as well in some north
and
appears
vanity
ern examples of paysage moralis?e
from the late sixteenth and
A NEW READING OF THE ROTTERDAM TONDO
a woman
land
centuries.40 Some of these symbolic
early seventeenth
are
as
a
for
conceived
moral
lesson
and
call
scapes
explicitly
penance, and are clearly related to memento mor? imagery.
In a drawing by Jacques
de Gheyn
II, Landscape with
Dilapidated Farmhouse
[Fig. 8], the motif of a ruined house is
here too, the
further elaborated. As in Bosch's composition,
roof tiles are falling off and the door is coming off its hinges.
The overall impression
is one of neglect; the smoke rising
from the chimney might translate the idea of vanity as well.41
became meaningful
Decaying houses together with dovecotes
attributes in landscapes, when they were related to the para
ble of the tares in the fields (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-40), as we
can learn from the compositions
by Abraham Bloemaert.42
to memento
and
references
moral
admonition
Hence,
mor? imagery were made much more explicit in Bosch's
first
version of the Wayfarer on the rear of the Haywain triptych
[Fig. 9]. As pointed out by Zupnick, the figure "is obviously
meant to convey a warning to us."43 The skull and bones of an
animal in the foreground, stripped of flesh by carrion birds, are
clearly conceived as a kind of memento mor?. The gallows' hill
in the distance contributes
to the sense of anxiety and rest
lessness aroused by this menacing
landscape. The ugly dog
snapping at his heels might indicate the devil. Set between
physical danger and carnal temptations, devil and death, the
wanderer
is about to step onto a very fragile footbridge,
indeed a path that appears to be leading to his perdition.44
In the later Rotterdam version, the emblematic
language is
much more elaborate, and the weave of metaphors more sub
tle. Bosch veils his lesson and makes the figure more ambigu
8) Jacques de Gheyn
Farmhouse?, drawing,
Photo: Rijksmuseum.
II, ?Landscape with Dilapidated
Amsterdam.
1603, Rijksmuseum,
ous.
Menaced
the wayfarer
by a sinister
snarling
dog,
a closed gate that is not part of a fence; it is effec
approaches
structure blocking
the path.45 What
tively an independent
I suggest
does the shut gate symbolize?
that we read this
offered by
object as part of the complex weave of metaphors
Bosch. Bax has suggested
that the gate's intended meaning
is
that there is no way out and considers
that Bosch might have
been visualizing a popular saying: "The gate is closed" (Dat
hek gestolen),46 which was further elaborated
upon by Roe
mer Visscher
in his Sinnepoppen
(Amsterdam, 1614), where
the shut gate symbolizes
the gate of death.47 The metaphor of
the shut gate also began to appear in some Northern moral
ized landscapes
toward the end of the sixteenth and into the
seventeenth
century, where itexpressed explicitly the idea that
for the sinner the gate would remain shut for ever.
The gate symbolism was related in medieval
and late
medieval
thought to the Y-sign, as pointed out by Falken
burg,48 elaborating the biblical concept of the broad way with
as opposed
the wide gate leading toward destruction,
to the
narrow way and the strait gate leading the believer toward sal
vation (Matthew 7:13). However, by elaborating
the shut-gate
in
to
relation
Bosch
could
also
refer to the
metaphor
perdition,
in
of
the
shut
door
medieval
and
late
medieval
inter
symbol
of
the
of
the
wise
and
foolish
pretations
parable
virgins
(Matthew 25:1-13). The idea of chosen and damned was often
visualized
of the wise virgins being
through the depiction
63
YONAPINSON
9) Hieronymus
64
Bosch,
?The Wayfarer?,
outer wings of the ?Haywain? Triptych, c. 1516, Museo
Photo: Museo Nacional del Prado.
Nacional
del Prado, Madrid.
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
TONDO
OF THEROTTERDAM
HIERONYMUS
&?\?*
&&*&?
EOE???
10) Lucas Gassel,
?The Parable
of the Wheat and the Tares?, 1540, Johnny
Photo: Johnny van Haeften.
to the foolish vir
at the gate of heaven as opposed
on
in
the
shut
vain
gate.
gins knocking
In a later paysage
moralis?e,
inspired by
apparently
in Bosch's oeuvre, the Brus
metaphorical
imagery evolved
sels' landscape painter Lucas Gassel (c. 1480/1500 - c. 1570),
received
van Haeften Gallery,
London.
elaborates some motifs that could already be seen in the Rot
of the Parable of
terdam tondo. In his elaborate composition
the Wheat and Tares, 1540 (Matthew 13: 24-30 and 36-43; Fig.
to the open gate. The
10)49 the shut-gate motif is now opposed
in the left foreground, set between a row
shut gate, discernible
65
YONAPINSON
of willow trees and bordered by two tree stumps, symbolizes
death and eternal punishment.50 A "house of pleasures" set in
the water is visible behind the row of trees. Similar to Bosch's
Wayfarer, here too, a woman of ill-repute leans out of a win
rest atop its roof and swans swim in the
dow. Glay dovecotes
water below. This might have an analogical emblematic mean
through the sign of the swan on the inn in
ing to that conveyed
Bosch's composition. A broken bridge is visible to the right of
the tavern. A second gate set in the middle ground of the com
and leads to a well.
is opened before the blessed,
position
NEMO DOLENS
PATET
LIBIDINI.
the two gates, associating
them
Gassel deliberately opposes
with the eschatological
signification of the parable (Matthew
13:36-43), and the idea of reward and punishment on the Day
In this context the shut gate can symbolize death
of Judgment.
and the departure from life (Psalms 9:13), but also the gates of
Hell; while the open gate, in contrast, denotes the entrance of
the righteous to paradise
(Psalms 24:7), leading apparently
toward Ghrist and his disciples who are greeting two arrivals in
the middle background.
the dualistic language that
The painter further elaborates
this emblematic
characterizes
landscape. Two constructions
are equally opposed
in the background: a windmill on the sand
to the left, denoting sin, folly and frivolity;51 and a bastion on the
rock to the right, which might allude to Christian steadfastness
(in this context a rock usually signifies Christ and the Church).
The condensed
iconography also appears to hint at the
is
theme of pilgrimage of life. The emblematical
landscape
as a kind of theatrical stage in the fore
curiously composed
ground, set against a very delicate view in the background,
both of which are imbued with metaphorical
images. Situated
between the "stage" and the landscape "curtain", we discern
the figure of the wayfarer or pilgrim. Unlike Bosch's example,
in Gassel's
invention, he clearly appears to be turning away
from earthly temptations.
Ifwe examine
the illustration of Jacob Cats's emblem
Nemo dolens patet libidini ("Nobody would suffer longer from
lust," Fig. 11) we can see that its author has adopted and elab
orated certain pictorial images already found in Bosch's mor
alized landscape. Behind the dying man in the foreground
we observe a decaying
in
cottage,
(already decomposing),
almost complete
ruin, and willow trees. Here, an analogous
shut gate symbolizes death.52
interlaced metaphors,
Bosch
his intriguing
Through
that
the
idea
to
be
lust, will
sin, especially
appears
conveying
lead the wanderer to his end. Behind the shut gate, only death
the path
and perdition await him since, as we can observe,
behind the gate, leads towards a gallows' hill, indicating finality.
Its
Behind the shut gate we can also discern a magpie.
unclear emblematical meaning appears to be deliberately con
66
OviD*
M?
habetmute pmmp?nfert?isf?fc?t mwem*
Se N.
^TUwtafff?ment?^bUmdtu?tqmammical?P
O c T. V
K^m$re8jmt??ggmtm'tl*Ji?,0ti0i
hmay
N*trit*rmterLufirt***
?*emfifivert?tq*e
?Urediffi?s^c?dit y
Mrtviqut vires Permtex??8mfu4t%
^
?Kfmttri
11) ?Nemo dolens patet libidini?, emblem from Jacob Cats,
Sinne-en minebeeiden,
engraving, c. 1618. Photo: Oxford,
Bodleian Library.
ceived as a double entendre, possibly
interpreted in conjunc
tion with folly and death. In the Netherlands,
magpies were
to
related
and
gossiping
(another magpie
proverbially
gossips
is seen in a cage hanging at the entrance of the tavern, a sign
of a bawdy-tavern; and, together with the cock and the doves
on the roof, it refers to lust). Nevertheless,
in northern popular
culture a magpie could also allude to death. As pointed out by
Bax, the bird also has diabolic qualities and was seen in the
Netherlands
too, as a sign of misfortune.53
TONDO
OF THEROTTERDAM
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
HIERONYMUS
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
dual meaning,
the magpies'
Bruegel,
symbolic
through
might be referring to the frivolity
inspired by his predecessor,
and folly of the carousing
revelers, while simultaneously
that death is already present.
reminding his spectators
the weave
of moralistic
clarified
somewhat
Having
now take a closer look at
we
in
shall
the background
emblems
the tree behind the vagrant-wayfarer. Bosch further elaborates
its symbolic meaning,
turning the tree into a complex moral
lesson. A hideous owl perches on a dry branch, exactly above
idiomatic language
the wayfarer's head. Dry twigs in Bosch's
The
owl
fixes its gaze on
to
and
refer
sin, folly
usually
vanity.55
on a twig, an apparently
a small bird perched upside-down
easy prey.56 As noted by Bax, Bosch intended to indicate that
the wanderer too, is easy prey for evil, "that he is ready to suc
cumb to sin."57 While the owl ensnaring other birds might also
symbolize Satan, it is related to death as well.58
One of the most fascinating aspects of Bosch's art is the
upon his own intertwined
way he elaborates
images. The
in
metaphor of the owl fixed on its prey appears previously
is
saint
in
which
the
isolated
in
Saint Jerome
Prayer [Fig. 12],
fantastic landscape, a view that is
set within an apparently
imbued with hints of carnal temptation, decay and
effectively
death,59 together with diabolic threat. On the right, we can see
an owl-devil-hunter
staring at a bird perched upside-down.60
Both birds are depicted on dry branches, a motif he quotes
and elaborates upon further in the Rotterdam tondo.6^
Bosch elaborates upon the motif of an owl perched on a dry
branch in two other compositions:
first, in his drawing of Tree
Man (pen and bistre, Vienna, Albertina; anticipating the main
motif in the Hell panel of the Garden of Earthly Delights). Here
an owl perches atop the dry "tree of Death." This is later quoted
in a Mussel Shell (engraved by Pieter Van
in the Merrymakers
Bosch, detail from ?Saint Jerome in
12) Hieronymus
Prayer?, c. 1482 or later, Schone K?nsten Museum, Ghent.
Photo: IRPA-KIT, Brussels.
on the Gallows
In Bruegel's
1568 Magpie
(Darmstadt,
is
of
the
the
Hessische
meaning
magpies
Landesmuseum),54
is perched on the huge
nevertheless
enigmatic. One magpie
gallows and another one on a tree-stump (indicating death).
Under the gallows, peasants are dancing,
ignoring the pres
ence of death (near the gallows we can discern a wooden
that
a burial place).
It is thus possible
cross, designating
Heyden, after Bosch, published by Hieronymus Cock, 1562).
Here the owl is a reference to the folly of revelers, but can be
read at the same time as alluding to memento mor?.62 This in
turn is quoted in a contemporary Triumph of Time and Death
[Fig. 13]. Following the Petrarchian tradition, the chariot, drawn
by two oxen, is conducted by death and time. Dead and dying
are crushed under itswheels. The three fates are seen cutting
trion
the thread of life. However, in this seemingly Renaissance
fo, we can discern a juxtaposition of some northern allusions of
death: the mourning pleurant and the Boschian motif, the owl
perched on a dry tree. This original elaboration might shed new
imagery and its interpretation as a symbol of
light on Bosch's
death. The way it is cited and elaborated upon in the Triumph of
Time and Death permits us to read this complex
image as an
emblematic reference tomemento mor?.63
in the tree in
The juxtaposition of dead and living branches
the Rotterdam tondo also appears to further convey the idea
67
YONAPINSON
r^Bf?u
C3>roJtn*is
ve
in mofo
terne
curas H
mem?rtr
13) Unknown
vie
?tnymd?
Master,
Torre,
Semai:
omet*
See T?mjmr
?Triumph of Time and Death?, engraving,
Photo: Paris, Biblioth?que
Nationale.
of human choice. Such coupling of foliated tree and defoliated
the idea of choice
branches
could emblematically
express
between
good and evil (already expressed
through the Y
motif),
illustrating the saying: "Choice brings anxiety" (Keur
this expression
is known to us only
baert angst). Although
from a late source, quoted by the Dutch poet Roemer Visscher
in his emblem book, Sinnepoppen
(Amsterdam, 1614, p. 11), it
to
familiar
Bosch's contemporaries.
have
been
already
might
68
Mere
totjorn Joma-*
re?yunt ^jxon?*
k, Stc
emv?^
Antwerp,
c.
eeum
Cmsu
Vetuf&.
1562.
illustration in Visscher's
emblem book depicting
two
trees, one in full foliage and the other rotting, attempts to pro
mote anxious thoughts about life's choices, an idea that was
in some
late sixteenthand early
already
expressed
The
Bosch deliber
moralis?es.64
paysages
seventeenth-century
ately refers to this emblematical
imagery in the background of
the Rotterdam Wayfarer. Careful examination of the right back
ground reveals two trees just below the gallows' hill: the one
TONDO
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
OF THEROTTERDAM
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
HIERONYMUS
DATE
MOBIS
DE, OLEO VfcST?O.QVLl
14) Pieter Bruegel
LAMPAD?i
NOSTRA.
EXTINGVN?
NEQVAQVAAt,
the Elder (Philippe Galle after), ?The Parable of the Wise
Rotterdam. Photo: Museum
Boijmans Van Beuningen,
on the left is in full foliage while that on the right is completely
bare. However, the idea of a choice between virtue and vice,
life and death can also be related to the tree-of-life motif.65 In
an early fifteenth-century German woodcut, a young dandy is
standing on a "Tree of Life" whose trunk is being partly sawn
through by devils. (The two parts of the tree allude to the Y
hifiQVXtfDO
NDH
SVFriCTAT
aOBtf
BT VO?K
and the Foolish Virgins?, c. 1560-1563,
Boijmans Van Beuningen.
y
m*rj*f.*
Museum
life and death is further
motif). The idea of a choice between
two
the
of the tree: one is foli
parts
expressed
contrasting
by
ated and green while the other is bare and dry.66
Yet, the emblematic opposition between foliated branches
set against bare ones, occurs as well on the left inner wing of
the "missing triptych". On the left bottom of the panel (the Yale
69
YONAPINSON
fragment), a small tree is split into two branches
(denoting the
one
the
while
is
foliated
other
is
This
dry.
image is fur
Y-sign);
in the upper part of the composition
ther echoed
(Ship of
Fools, Paris, Louvre), where a foliated branch is opposed with
a withered one serving as a seat for the fool. Nonetheless,
the
is further
idea of a bad choice
leading toward perdition
on the right panel with the miser's
unfortunate
expressed
choice.
between
emblematic
opposition
dry and foliated
and the idea of a choice between good and evil,
in Bosch's
redemption and perdition, held a central place
in
It became a leitmotif that may be discerned
vocabulary.
to
in
of
his
and
also
relation
the
appears
many
compositions
hermits torn between evil and their final virtuous choice. (It is
clearly reflected in the Hermit Saints Triptych, Venice, Palazzo
Rotterdam,
Ducale, c. 1493 and the later Saint Christopher,
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, c. 1496 or later.)
This metaphor was later adopted and ingeniously elabo
The
branches,
rated by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, in the Parable of the Wise
and Foolish Virgins (c. 1560-1563, Fig. 14), where the central
is constituted with an angel (recalling
axis of the composition
the role of Saint Michael in the Last Judgment) and a tree split
the idea of
in two parts, echoing the Y motif and conveying
a choice between virtues and vices, salvation and perdition.
While it's foliated branch points toward the virtuous, wise vir
gins and to the open door where Christ is receiving them, its
toward perdition, where the
withered branch points conversely
foolish virgins approach the closed door.
The metaphor of a tree losing its leaves can be found in
tran
imagery as well, and may symbolize
sixteenth-century
van
An
Karel
emblematic composition
sience.
Mander, The
by
Transience of Life, 1599, [Fig. 15]67 might help to shed light on
the Rotterdam
tondo, furthering our efforts to elucidate
Bosch's
imagery. Van Mander points out the nature of earthly
in this didactic composition,
life and, inevitably, of death
an
us
to
through
(known
engraving by Jacob Matham after
Van Mander). He reminds the beholder of the urgent need for
renunciation of worldly pleasures. The emblematic engraving
is an overt call for moral correction and penitence. Van Man
further on the medieval metaphor of homo via
der elaborates
tor, as we can learn from the inscription: "Oman you are only
a wandering
stranger on the earth"68 (an idea illustrated
through the figure of a pilgrim on the left). A nearly defoliated
to a tree in full foliage on the left.
tree on the right is opposed
The inscription referring to the tree losing its leaves conveys
the idea of transience: "This world is like a tree, you men are
like the leaf that grows and falls and vanishes."69 The pres
ence of a skeleton clasping
its arrows just beneath the tree
a
no
held by Death, the moral of
On
slate
needs
explanation.
70
this emblematical
instruction becomes explicit: "Mend the roof
of your house for the sake of virtue."70
This brings us back to the decaying state of the house of
ill-repute in the Rotterdam tondo, which might not only allude
to declining moral values but also convey the idea of tran
sience. The ruined inn and the tree with its dry branches are set
inmiddle distance, just in front of a bare hill topped with a pole
in the deeper background.
Through the subtle weave of all
to be referring to tran
these components
Bosch appears
sience, thus transforming the image into that of a memento
mor?.
This kind of combination of metaphorical
images was later
in
northern
sixteenthand
land
adopted
seventeenth-century
scapes,
symbolizing moral defects, corruption and death. It
appears, as already noted, in certain paysages moralis?es
by
II and Abraham
in which
de Gheyn
Bloemaert,
Jacques
a decaying
farmhouse
is juxtaposed with dovecotes
and wil
lows. As pointed out by Bruyn, these were not arbitrary depic
tions, but rather "a quite literal illustration of a well-known
maxim."71
The wayfarer, on both the Madrid and Rotterdam panels
[Figs. 1 and 9], is a man of advanced age.72 Iwould suggest,
in the role of the
rather, that the choice of an elderly personage
in the context of
wanderer
is intended and thus meaningful
this moralistic allegory. Through this depiction Bosch might be
in the pil
image already evolved
alluding to the metaphorical
P?leri
grimage of life literature, notably in de Digulleville's
nage de la vie humaine, where towards the end of his journey
the pilgrim is older and Death follows closely behind him.73
Bosch thus may hint at the end of the wanderer's
journey. He
behind
which
death
and perdi
the
shut
gate
approaches
only
tion await him.
as a circular
Bosch deliberately shapes his composition
to
the
world.
The visual
landscape alluding metaphorically
in the sixteenth
device of the tondo was apparently common
the universal application of the image.74
century, symbolizing
and that of his followers as well, the
For Bosch's audience
device of a circular landscape mirroring the world was appar
ently familiar.75 A tapestry from a series of tapestries after
the theme of the hay wagon
Bosch, elaborates
(ordered by
Francis I,King of France, before 1542, for the Royal Collection).
the central panel of Bosch's Madrid
Its composition
echoes
triptych, The Haywain.76 Here the scene is literally framed in the
world; a tilting globe, turned on its side to mark the instability
and folly of the world menaced
by the power of evil.
The image of the wayfarer in the Rotterdam tondo is con
ceived as a reflection in a mirror. With the later-added frame
removed, we may observe that Bosch deliberately shaped his
as a mirror, tracing
its circular frame. (The
composition
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
HIERONYMUS
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
OF THEROTTERDAM
TONDO
15) Jacob Matham
after Karel van Mander,
?The Transience of Human Life?, engraving,
Photo: The Fitzwilliam Museum.
Cambridge.
1599, The Fitzwilliam Museum,
71
YONAPINSON
painter's efforts to create an illusion of a wooden edge can be
in the infrared reflectogram
better observed
assembly).77
Bosch had already adopted the mirror symbolism for his moral
In turning the
lesson in the Tabletop of Seven Deadly Sins.
in the mirror,
picture of a traveler into an image reflected
Bosch was certainly aware of the traditional meaning of the
in medieval
as deliberately
and late
expressed
Speculum
it
like to suggest,
medieval
treatises. However, as Iwould
would also seem that he employed the complex imagery of the
mirror to refer to folly, while concomitantly
alluding to death
and
evanescence.
was already expressed
The idea of a mirror of conscience
influential treatise, Pilgrimage of
inGuillaume de Digulleville's
Man's Life (1355).79 In this moralistic
instruction, the homo via
reflec
his own abominable
tor is called upon to contemplate
northern human
tion and to mend his ways. In contemporary
the right path through life
ist circles, the allegory of choosing
was also related to the mirror symbolism. This link is reflected
in
in an elaboration of a classical allegory "Tabula Cebetis"
which a mirror is held before the reader in the form of an
ekphrasis of a painting depicting an arduous path of life that
a man should follow avoiding sin and folly, till he will reach the
true bliss. As pointed out by Falkenburg, the ancient allegory
on in relation to the pilgrim
was discussed
and commented
the
end
of the fifteenth century.80
toward
age of lifemetaphor,
man's
life as a pilgrimage
of
The allegorized
image
time. In a late
and influential in Bosch's
became widespread
Mirror
of
The
Understand
German
woodcut,
fifteenth-century
on
the
surface
of a mirror,
is
the
reflected
ing [Fig. 16],
pilgrim
making his way along the thorny and dangerous path of life.81
first version of the Wanderer [Fig.
As in Bosch's contemporary
to cross a bridge that, as an
too
is
about
this
pilgrim
9],
of the perilous path of life, could be leading him
embodiment
is tugged at from behind by
toward perdition. The wanderer
a devil, while death lurks at the far end of the bridge, and
above, an angel points to the path leading towards salvation.
An open grave yawns beneath the bridge on which the wan
derer's feet tread. In the outer ring the flames of Hell are seen,
reminding him of the unfortunate results of an eventual wrong
choice, while angels point to the alternative: the kingdom of
Heaven
above.
is clearly pronounced
lesson of the Speculum
in
the mirror frame,82 call
contained
the
inscriptions
through
own
reflection and thus,
to
his
wanderer
the
contemplate
ing
to recognize the perilous state of his soul. It is finally the wan
derer's own choice that will determine his fate, with one, per
ilous path leading towards death, followed by eternal damna
to the heavenly
tion, and the other bringing him closer
fountain of life.
The
72
16) Unknown German Artist, ?The Mirror of Understanding?,
c. 1488. Photo: Staatliche Graphische
woodcut,
Sammlung,
Munich.
and the
The concept of the homo viator at a crossroads
were
an
the
mirror
of
naturally
integral part of
symbolism
Bosch's world. However, in his own enigmatic version of the
homo viator as an image reflected on the surface of a mirror,
he appears to be stressing the notion that the traveler has lost
In both versions
the freedom of choice.
(the Rotterdam and
the later,Madrid panel, Fig. 9), the path trodden by the wayfar
er seems
to go only in one direction, and that direction
is
imbued with hints of decay, transience and death, transform
ing it into an emblematic memento mor?.
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
HIERONYMUS
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
OF THEROTTERDAM
TONDO
18) Pieter Bruegel the Elder, detail from ?Elck?, drawing,
1558, British Museum, London. Photo: British Museum.
in Hell?
Bosch, ?The Damned Punished
17) Hieronymous
(detail of the ?Tabletop of Seven Deadly Sins and the Four
Last Things?), c. 1480, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.
Photo: Museo Nacional del Prado.
Bosch's audience would have been familiar with the mir
ror symbolism as associated
with sin and evanescence,
but
also with death. By the end of the fifteenth century, a new
emblematical
type of memento mor? had emerged, elaborating
the mirror symbolism, which now directly reflected the image
it became an
of death. Once turned towards the beholder,
of
self-contemplation.
object
A circular engraving pasted into a Book of Hours (c. 1480)
it
reflects a skull. The inscriptions framing the mirror make
a direct tool of moral instruction. The beholder
is effectively
the wrong path, that of sin (In diesen
warned not to choose
Spiegel soe mach ik lehren, hoe ikmij sal van Sondenkeren;
"In this mirror, so may I learn, how from sin Iought to turn.")83
The association
between mirror and death was apparently cur
rent in northern Renaissance
iconography, as we can also
learn from the inventory of Ren? of Anjou (Roi Ren? le Bon),
circular panels, mirrors of death
who had in his collections
(Deux mirouers de mort).84 However, in a later didactic wood
cut by a German artist, Kacheloffen
(Leipzig, 1496), an angel is
a
a
mirror
skull
toward three
turning
reflecting
simultaneously
bourgeois
figures and to the viewer, calling upon them to
avoid sin and vanity.85
The idea of turning the mirror toward the viewer fascinated
Bosch and his contemporaries ? a metaphorical
device that
was further elaborated
in the North. In this type of mirror of
sometimes
conscience,
reflecting a skull along with other van
itas metaphors,
the viewer
is called to self-correction
and
in
his
earlier
Tabletop of Seven Deadly
repentance.86 Already
Sins and the Last Four Things, Bosch had conceived
his circu
lar composition as a mirrored reflection in the Lord's watching
eye. By turning the reflection toward the viewer, Bosch uses
the mirror device as a didactic vehicle. As can be observed,
in
the damned punished
notably in the medallion
depicting
Hell (Fig. 17; also conceived as a mirror), a she-devil (wearing
a nun's kerchief) is holding a mirror before a couple repre
senting the sin of pride (Superbia). But by turning the mirror
slightly towards the viewer, Bosch alters the symbolic mean
ing of pride's attribute, using it instead for didactic purposes.
to contemplate
Bosch apparently
invites his audience
the
results of sin. Turned toward the beholder, the mirror confronts
him with the picture of Hell.87 Bosch appears to be intentional
73
YONAPINSON
ly playing with the idea of mirroring and reflecting in a series of
circular images, conceived as mirrors.
sense of the mirror was
The metaphorical
later evoked
and elaborated
in Jacob Cats' Nemo dolens patet libidini [Fig.
the emblematic
11] where
print is conceived
explicitly as
a spiegel,
emblems
of
evanescence
and
reflecting
decay
in the background
through a paysage moralis?e
juxtaposed
with a decomposed
transi in the foreground.88
Inevoking the complex mirror metaphor, Bosch might also
be referring to its association with folly. The image of the mirror
of folly (Speculum Stultorum) would appear to have already
been conveyed by the end of the twelfth century by Nigellus
Wireker, a Canterbury monk and one of Sebastian Brant's pre
Inhis satirical treatise (addressed only to the cler
decessors.89
and
gy
directly applying to monastic
life), the author conceives
the mirror according
to the medieval
tradition, as a means of
moral correction, stating that "foolish men may observe as in
a mirror the foolishness
of others and may then correct their
own folly",90 an idea that might later have influenced Sebastian
Brant, who evoked and elaborated upon this image with a hint
of irony in the Ship of Fools. In Bosch's
time the mirror itself
became one of the fool's attributes. The fool's mirror (Das Nar
renspiegel) could indicate his narcissism and vanity, but also
his self-ignorance,
since "no one knows himself" (Niemant en
kent hem selven), noted in a contemporary proverb [Fig. 18].91
Bosch employs
the mirror imagery ironically, turning it
towards the viewer, enabling him to recognize his own reflec
tion in the fool-wayfarer. Indoing so, Bosch appears to be fol
in the Prologue
lowing Brant, who calls for self-contemplation
to his Ship of Fools. Conceiving
his moralistic
treatise as
a kind of secular Speculum, Brant designates
it for the whole
society of fools.
For fool's a mirror shall itbe
Where each his counterfeit may see
His proper value each would know
The glass of fools the truth may show.92
Thus, according to Brant, each might find his own image
an idea well rooted in the con
reflected in the Narrenspiegel,
An
northern
culture.
illustration for Dixit insipiens
temporary
from the Breviary of Fredricus of Rheno, c. 1437-1439 [Fig. 19]
fool holding a mirror, which he turns
depicts a professional
towards the viewer for self-contemplation.93
Elaborating upon
this idea, Bosch confronts the viewer with an image apparent
ly of another individual, the fool-wayfarer. However, once the
mirror is turned towards the beholder,
the image is trans
formed to reflect collective mankind as well as the individual
viewer who must recognize his own image.
74
19) Breviary of Fridericus de Rheno, ?Dixit Insipiens?,
c. 1437-39, ?ffentliche
Bibliothek der Universit?t, Basel,
A N VIII 29, pars estivalis,
fol. 31. Photo: ?BU, Basel.
the peculiarity and moral
Thus, the fool's mirror denotes
defects of not knowing oneself, while at the same time, the
facial expression
relates him paradoxical
vagrant wayfarer's
to
the
Bax
ly precisely
opposite
category, of the wise-fool.
out
that
his
is
tinted
with
self
wistfulness,
points
expression
a complexity perhaps
-ridicule and self-knowledge,
intended
the
The
is
imbued
with
universal
moralistic
painter.
by
figure
on the image of the homo viator, or
projected
meanings
TONDO
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
OF THEROTTERDAM
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
HIERONYMUS
the road of life, "capable one moment of
in some
resisting temptation but the very next floundering
other evil."94 However, Ibelieve that the vagrant's conflicting
allude to his folly as ironical
posture and hesitant expression
Everyman
traversing
with
ly contrasted
his
apparent
shrewdness
and
self
-knowledge.
this fool-wayfarer is not really
Not lacking self-awareness,
blind to the dangers of sin. In his apparently paradoxical pre
sentation Bosch effectively conveys a puzzling and complex
lesson. Looking back towards the inn, our wayfarer would
the wrong path, leading him towards
appear to be choosing
seems to be crucial. But the lesson
a
that
choice
perdition,
turns out to be perplexing, since the alternative too cannot, in
It is not without signifi
fact, lead him truly towards salvation.
cance that behind the shut gate, an allusion to death itself, the
path seems to be leading towards a place of execution, con
veying the idea of the disastrous end that awaits the sinner.95
As already observed by Zupnick, "the freestanding gate can
but only if the traveler strays from the path on
be by-passed
which he is treading."96
Appendix
The representation of the itinerant homo viator on the Rot
terdam tondo seems even more perplexing when compared to
the earlier analogous
figure on the outer wings of the Haywain
[Fig. 9]. The traveler on the Madrid outer shutters is journeying
path of sin towards the broken
straight along the dangerous
bridge leading him to Hell. On the Rotterdam tondo, however,
is reflected
because
the wayfarer
through a mirror, he
own
and thus embodies
becomes
the viewer's
self-reflection
beholder
and
the
universal
both the individual
wanderer,
rep
temporal
resenting the whole society of human wanderers,
in this world.
passengers
Following a long tradition of didactic mirrors of morals,
Bosch warns his viewers not to follow the hesitant fool-wayfar
er if he really wishes
to avoid perdition. Although the work is
and con
of
composed
apparently paradoxical contradictions
remark that it is precisely
flicting values, Iagree with Gibson's
the spiri
the Rotterdam Wayfarer's ambiguity that exemplifies
and the doubt (also
tual crises of the human condition;97
expressed
previously by Brant) regarding the possibility of
a
wise
choice.
making
I
Beggars, peddlers and itinerants were equated from the
in
Middle Ages with instability and sin.98 The motif occurs
in didactic prints illustrat
northern Renaissance
Art, especially
life of vagrants (including the prodigal son).
ing the dissolute
In the Large Garden of Love by the Master E. S. (engraving,
Staatliche Museen Preussischer
Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett,
the wanderer, seen at the gate,
Kulturbesitz, c. 1460-1461),
to
enter
the
Garden
of
Sin
and Folly, might also be relat
about
fooled by
ed to the fool in the center of the same composition,
a woman, and exposing himself to the spectator.
A later engraving after Bosch's Merrymakers [Fig. 20] depicts
the debauchery and folly of carnival revelers, hinting at the motif
through a picture-within-a-picture. A print hanging above the fire
side depicts an owl in the guise of a mendicant-pilgrim. The bird,
symbolizing blindness and unwise conduct, alludes to the revel
ers' folly and sinful behavior and might also hint, as suggested by
Bax, at the wayfarer's vagrancy and instability.99
The figure of an owl-pilgrim or an owl-vagrant also occurs
inGerman engravings, and might be conceived as an elabora
imagery, as illustrated in two examples by the
M.
H. (first half of the sixteenth century): The
monogrammist
first depicts a sinister "pilgrim-owl" whose
hat is decorated
with a cock's feather ? emblem of instability and folly; while
the second owl-wayfarer has a wooden
spoon stuck in his
headdress which, together with a feather "decorating" his cap,
tion of Bosch's
denotes
the wayfarer's
folly.100
75
YONAPINSON
m*?ttk*?f
'
Afja?
20) Pieter van Heyden
76
'
Sy-'
ft%f
e?t??tmrf
ma&m?rcn
tan.
IfmAnf^Men
(after Hieronymus Bosch), ?Merrymakers?
(Carnival Revelers),
engraving,
Nationale Estampes,
Paris. Photo: Paris, Biblioth?que
Nationale.
C&ere?
1567, Biblioth?que
TONDO
OF THEROTTERDAM
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
HIERONYMUS
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
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-$
32.6
4h?
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70.6
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A
a) Left wing
Appendix
in cm):
of the "New Triptych" outer shutters (measurements
21) Reconstruction
reconstruction
(open): ?The Ship of Fools?, Paris; ?Allegory of Gluttony?, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven;
right wing, ?Death of the Miser?, National Gallery of Art, Washington
Rotterdam
b) Closed shutters, The ?Pedlar?, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,
II
constituted
The Rotterdam tondo, as already discussed,
the reverse of a triptych that was recently reconstructed
(how
The
ever, without the central panel that remains mysterious).
Fools
of
of the Ship
ensemble
(Paris, Louvre),
consisting
together with the Yale fragment, on the left wing of the pre
Death of the Miser,
sumed
triptych, and the Washington
sins, mainly lust, gluttony and avarice. The group
some analogies with Bosch's other outwardly semi
secular triptychs, employed as well by the painter in order to
express a moral lesson and to instruct his audience by reveal
the differences between these
ing folly and sin. Nonetheless,
some
raise
patterns
intriguing questions. The seemingly anal
The
Garden of Earthly Delights and notably
ogous triptychs,
the Haywain, depict the first and the last things; beginning with
embodies
ing shows
77
YONAPINSON
of Eden and the creation of Eve, on the left
the depiction
it
the appearance of sin and evil in the world. The
shows
panel,
central panel is devoted to the illustration of sin and folly in the
world that is unavoidably
leading to the right panel with the
of
Hell.101
Though we do not have any clue what
depiction
could have been the theme of the central part of this new trip
tych, what is revealed to our eyes actually is a very unusual
in this ensemble we do find
and audacious
pattern. Although
an illustration of sins of corrupted human society as in the
other analogous works, the results of this sinful conduct are
not made explicit. We might say that for the first time, the
structure was not respected and there is no vis
eschatological
ible punishment
(unless we will find out in the future that the
was
central panel
intriguingly devoted to the Last Judgment).
Bosch adopts for his illustrations of sin and folly on the right
that characterizes
his
depictions
panel, satirical genre-like
as expressed
in the Tabletop of Seven
unusual approach
Deadly Sins (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, c. 1500 or
is
the theme of right and wrong choice
later). Nevertheless,
I
in
of
the
both
think,
parts
presumed triptych,
clearly stressed,
mainly on the reverse, and on the right wing with the wrong
is confront
choice of the man on his deathbed. The beholder
ed with the human dilemma as he faces the closed triptych,
where as Iassume, the painter is already subtly alluding to the
results of the homo viator's choice. Elaborating this idea, the
painter confronts his audience once more with the theme of
a play of associa
choice in the Death of the Miser, suggesting
tions that were familiar to the urban elite circles (from the Ars
to the various versions of the morality play, Every
moriendi
the miser's
man). However, as the beholder could assume,
choice will lead to his damnation.
trip
Interestingly, the parts of this partially reconstructed
notably with the Haywain triptych.
tych show some analogies,
Inboth edifying works, the reading of the moral lesson begins
with the allegory of homo viator, on the outer panels, and the
idea of human choice, alluding to the wrong choice and its
results. As already pointed out, the wayfarer walking through
a menacing
the presence of sin and tran
landscape denotes
is leading toward
sience. The path taken by the wayfarer
The
Science
was
from The
for this essay
by grants
supported
and Humani
the Israel Academy
for Sciences
Foundation;
and the Department
Research
Foundation
Tel Aviv University
research
ties; The
the Yolanda
of Art History,
long-term
part of my
study
78
and
David
Katz
of the theme
Faculty
of folly
it forms
of the Arts;
Art.
in Northern
a rickety bridge leading him toward perdition. Through this
metaphor, Bosch alludes to the results of the sinner's journey
upon the earth, which will end inHell. In the reconstructed
trip
tych Bosch offers, as it seems, an odd and much more auda
Even though the idea of
cious
program.
iconographical
a divine judgment ismissing here, nonetheless,
Bosch stress
es the notion that for the homo viator, the wrong choice will
lead forcibly toward perdition, a thought conveyed as well on
the right panel, alluding to the wrong choice of the dying man.
In the remaining parts of the triptych, one can discern the
artist's tendency to offer his viewers an interlaced metaphoric
visualization. The allegory of the human choice, as we already
pointed out, is echoed on the outer panels with the juxtaposi
tion of foliated and dry branches,
(alluding also to death). It is
as
we
on
the
left panel, on both the Yale
may observe,
rhymed,
and the Louvre fragments. We may note as well the meaning
ful menacing
image of the owl that takes a prominent place in
in the form of
the Rotterdam
tondo, and appears
again
a hideous owl lurking in the foliage at the top of the ship of
fools' mast, alluding to its passengers'
folly but also to death.
the
the
of
depiction
wayfarer on both multifac
Through
it seems,
creates
eted triptychs discussed
above, Bosch,
an
a rather pessimistic
to
his
moralistic
admo
lesson,
prelude
nition against the choice of the path of folly, evil and sin lead
ing toward perdition.
for the
Bosch could have placed the tondo, designated
outer part of this edifying triptych, in the center of the reverse,
as I assume,
[Fig. 21 ].102 This circular format, a meaningful
is also adopted for the exterior
pattern in Bosch's vocabulary,
of the Garden of Earthly Delights, where itstands for the world
(The Third Day of Creation) that is already corrupted from its
As Jacobs
very beginning.103
recently pointed out,104 the
on the outer part of a triptych is
rounded form, especially
invention that gives the exterior a special
Bosch's
unique
its universalistic
interest, underlining however
signifi
The circular form, placed just in the center of the outer
for its
part of the triptych, serving as a kind of a prologue
as
a
functions
world/mirror
however,
reading,
reflecting the
visual
cance.
beholders'
I am
draft
sins.
to Professor
Walter
S. Gibson
grateful
comments.
and offering
many
helpful
1
review of the various
For an extensive
for reading
this paper
in
and contradictory
inter
see:
R. H. Marijnissen
and P. Ruyeffelare,
Hieronymus
pretations,
Van Eyck to
The Complete
Bosch.
Works, Antwerp
1987, pp. 410-415;
OF THEROTTERDAM
TONDO
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
HIERONYMUS
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
Bruegel 1400-1550, Dutch and Flemish Painting in the Collection of
his Triumph of Death, c. 1562-1564
exh. cat., Museum
Van Beuningen,
Boy mans
Boy mans
Friso Lammer
van Beuningen,
Rotterdam
1994, cat. no. 16, pp. 91-95.
was
of the entry, suggests
that the painting
ste, the author
originally
on the rear of the Hay
on the reverse
like the Wanderer
of a triptych,
Prado);
the Museum
del Prado.
Nacional
Madrid, Museo
and dendrochronological
wain,
tions
The
examinations
that The Wayfarer
years confirm
um was
of a triptych
the exterior
(The Pedlar),
comprising,
technological
on
the
inside
muse
The Ship
of
Fools (Louvre)with the Allegory of Gluttony (New Haven) on the left,
c.
D. C.) on the right, and dated
of the Miser
(Washington,
Bosch:
Painter, Workshop
See, B. Vermet,
"Hieronymus
P. Vandenbroeck
and B. Vermet
in Jos Koldeweij,
(eds.),
and Drawings,
Rotterdam
The Complete
Bosch.
Paintings
the Death
and
1491-1494.
or Style?"
Hieronymus
of
See also P. Klein,
2001,
pp. 86-88.
Analysis
"Dendrochronological
B.
in J. Koldeweij,
and his Followers,"
Bosch
Works
by Hieronymus
into
New
Vermet
and B. van Kooij (eds.), Hieronymus
Bosch,
Insights
For the new triptych,
His Life and Work, Rotterdam,
2001, pp. 121-122.
see
J. Hartau,
"Sauch
Rekonstrukion
nach Gl?ck
Bosch,"
Hieronymus
and
"Bosch
idem,
Frankfurter
the
ment(s),"
2
sion
on
3
"Ein
2001;
neu
discus
op. cit. (note 1), p. 413. See below
Marijnissen,
form.
the meaning
of the circular
In a recent study, Eric de Bruyn,
the figure of the way
interprets
versions,
that of
the Rotterdam
tondo
and
the exterior
of
as a repentant
in Madrid,
sinner, who overcame
triptych
and carnal
temptations
(see E. de Bruyn,
"Hieronymus
So-called
Son Tondo: The Pedlar as a Repentant,"
Prodigal
the Haywain
the diabolic
Bosch's
in
van Kooij (eds.), Hierony
Vermet
Bernard
and Barbara
Koldeweij,
mus Bosch,
into His Life and Work, op. cit. (note 1), pp.
New
Insights
with con
of the peddler
The author associates
the allegory
133-143).
is
where
the image of the peddler
and later literary sources,
temporary
Jos
rather
imbued
sonage
who
with
plays
4
The moral
a per
the good
hence,
peddler,
positive
meanings,
a didactic
and moralizing
role (idem, 135).
was written
de la vie humaine,
P?lerinage
allegory,
by Guillaume de Digulleville in 1330-1331 and then reworked in 1355.
The
idea of human
play Everyman
Delft ca. 1496.
Medieval
journey
Moderna
study,
period.
the oldest
op. cit.
"The Pilgrimage
of Life as a late Medieval
Genre,"
the parable
of
of pilgrimage
35 (1973), pp. 370-388),
the Late
influenced
the choice
of the right path
greatly
in the Low Countries.
viator's
The motif of the homo
thought
in the writings
of the Devotio
life is further echoed
through
(see Marijnissen,
zel (S. Wenzel,
Medieval
Studies,
life and
as a pilgrimage
is also echoed
in the
in
Dutch
edition was
published
later Antwerp
editions
from 1501 and 1525
to Wen
(note 1), p. 58 and n. 116). According
life conceived
(Elckerlijc);
are
There
leaders.
As
spiritual
was already
the metaphor
of
(For an elaboration
noted
well
in his
by Falkenburg
in the Netherlands
rooted
the motif
Interrupted
(Madrid, Museo Nacional del
Banquet
in Bruegel's
Triumph
the human
choice
between
good and
symbolizing
as two
to Pythagoras
who
the y (Upsilon)
imagined
or paths of human
between
the choice
branches
life, imposing
good
for the para
later as a central motif
and evil. This
image was adopted
Itwas
the Middle Ages
and was
influential
throughout
et Sym
Attributs
later adopted
See: G. de Tervarent,
by the Humanists.
I
S. C.
Art
Geneva
bols dans
1958, cols. 412-14;
Profane,
1450-1600,
The Pilgrimage
of Life, Port Washington
and London
1973, pp.
Chew,
ble of Hercules.
174-181.
8 See
am Scheidewege,
E. Panofsky,
Studien
der Bib
Hercules
R. Pigeaud,
See
18, Leipzig
also,
1930, pp. 64-68.
Warburg,
in the 15th Century,"
in Saints
Urban Morality
"Woman as Temptress.
L.
in the 15th and
and She-devils.
of Women
16th Centuries,
Images
See
DiesenCoenders
1987, pp. 39-58,
esp. pp. 53-55.
(ed.), London
liothek
op. cit. (note 4), p. 87.
op. cit. (note 4), p. 380. See Falkenberg,
The
idea of choice
See Wenzel,
op. cit.
(note 4), p. 380.
and elaborated
between
the paths of virtue and sin is further echoed
van de menscheliker
crea
in the later Dutch
adaptation,
Pilgrimage
See:
in both
farer
idem,
Jews",
(forthcoming);
von Hieronymus
Bosch",
"The
2, pp. 303-314.
7
The Y motif,
evil, was attributed
Wenzel,
von
For
(forthcoming).
Triptychon
Bosch
and the Judg
review, see L. Silver, "God in the Details:
Art Bulletin,
83 (2001), pp. 630 and 634-635.
erschlossenes
a recent
Sinnelust
Untergang
erschlossenen
Triptychons
8 Aug.
Zeitung,
Allgemeine
und
bei nahem
neu
eines
Habgier:
Y. Pinson,
of Death (c. 1562-1564)," The Profane Arts of theMiddle Ages, (1997),
investiga
in the last
completed
of the Rotterdam
see:
seminal
at that
time, see: R. L.
Image of the Pilgrim
1988, esp. pp.
in Bosch's
9
turen.
See Falkenburg,
op. cit. (note 4), p. 87.
10
For Tuttle (see V. G. Turtle, "Bosch's
image of poverty," Art Bul
in rags and pursued
the wanderer,
dressed
letin, 63 (1981), pp. 88-95),
on the theme of the wanderer,
in both of Bosch's
versions
by a dog
to Tuttle,
rather contradictory
values.
the per
represents
According
on the outer wings
as
of the Haywain
sonage
(see Fig. 9) is conceived
a personification
in the Franciscan
of poverty,
incarnated
ideal of
virtue
fathers of the Devotio
(an ideal that was adopted
by the spiritual
in the Rotterdam
the wayfarer
incarnates
tondo
However,
Moderna).
and is related
rather to sin and heresy
values
(Tuttle identifies
negative
him as a leper; see idem, pp. 93-95).
For the meaning
of a staff club,
see: Brant,
illustrations
for chaps.
3, 11, 27 and 33. (See Sebastian
trans, and commented
New
Brant, The Ship of Fools,
by E. H. Zeydel,
with a long staff or
York 1962.) The fools are errant-fools
equipped
serve as a kind of hobby-horse
in
club. Later the long staff-club
would
Holbein's
illustration
for
bolizes
rather
the
"true
Veteris
Testementi,
(Historiarum
kiiiv). See Y. Pinson,
"Folly and
in the History
of Art, 22
Source.
Notes
the stick sym
view, on the contrary,
Insipiens
fol.
1543,
Icones,
Frellons,
Lyons,
in Hand,"
Childishness
Go Hand
3, pp. 1-7. In de Bruyn's
(2003),
faith and
trust
to de
(note 3), p. 140). According
Madrid
and the Rotterdam
versions
and wards
off
the dog
(the devil)
in God,"
Bruyn,
the
personifies
with his stick
see
de Bruyn, op. cit.
in both
the
peddler
the repentant
sinner,
a weapon
becoming
diabolic
against
temptations.
11
De Bruyn, op. cit. (note
the figures
interpreted
formerly
Paul Vandenbroeck
3), pp. 140-141.
on both the Madrid
of the wayfarers
as allegorical
in negative
refer
and the Rotterdam
versions
terms,
ences
men who
to avaricious,
to acquire
deceitful
seek
earthly goods
en
P. Vandenbroeck,
Bosch
Tussen
Volksleven
Jheronimus
(see:
Berchen
recent
for Vandenbroeck's
1987, pp. 62-68);
Staadsculture,
The woodcut
see idem "Hieronymus
Bosch.
The Wisdom
of the Rid
interpretation,
P. Vandenbroeck
and B. Vermet
dle," in Jos Koldeweij,
(eds.), Hierony
mus Bosch.
The Complete
and Drawings,
op. cit. (note 1),
Paintings
A similar positive
of the meaning
of the figure of
pp. 183-187.
reading
is proposed
the traveler
and his
Bosch
by Koldeweij,
"Hieronymus
further
City,"
Falkenburg,
of Life,
age
87-92).
5
London
S. Gibson,
Bosch,
1973, p. 105.
Hieronymus
an allusion
to the Y motif. This motif
is
contains
already
in the later didactic
Mirror
of Human
elaborated
woodcut,
Walter
(see Fig. 16).
idea of a disguised
The
Dance
of Death.
Understanding
6
The
German
as an
Patinir,
Landscape
M. Hoyle, Amsterdam-Philadelphia,
Joachim
trans.
in the
especially
figure of death occurs
in
later adopted
motif was
by Bruegel
pp. 62-64.
as quoted
Bernard
of Clairvaux,
by Marijnissen,
for the passage
from the Boek
des
(note
1), pp. 414-415;
see ibidem,
throens,
p. 414.
ibidem,
12
Saint
op.
cit.
gulden
79
YONA
PINSON_
13 F.
Garnier,
de l'image au Moyen
Le Langage
Age. Signification
et Symbolique,
1982, p. 152.
14 For the
see: E. M?le,
to prudence
of folly as opposed
depiction
Thirteenth
France
of
the
in
Art
Century,
The Gothic
Image. Religious
New York and London
1958, p. 120; M?le points
trans, by D. Nussey,
of Amiens
of folly on the cathedral
out that the personification
porches
of Paris and Aux
in both cathedrals
and Paris and the rose windows
resemblances.
erre, show some
15
lan
visual
sin inmedieval
Unstable
designates
usually
posture
such as acrobats,
to through
is alluded
and
jugglers
figures
guage,
F, G (10)
females.
and also dancing
Ibidem,
especially
pp. 120-123,
the unbalanced
confronts
and H (9). A late 11th-century
manuscript
Bibl. Munc.
fool in perfect
with God's
fool-sinner
(Le Mans,
equilibrium
Le Folie au Moyen
see M. Laharie,
fol. 211),
MS 214,
Age. Xle-Xllle
out by Gamier
(see F.
Paris 1991, p. 87 and fig. 25. As pointed
si?cles,
m?di?vale
de la folie d'apr?s
"La Conception
l'iconographie
Gamier,
des
National
du 102e Congr?s
in Actes
'Dixit insipiens',"
du Psaum
in
Paris
pp. 217-218),
esp.
1979,
Soci?t?s
pp. 215-222,
Savantes,
and
unstable
folly,
medieval
deformity
designated
posture
imagery,
were
and
violence
frequently
insane comportment,
impurity, and thus
Paris
attributed to the fool of Dixit Insipiens. This unsteady posture might
also
designate
frenzy and
as a fool whose
insanity.
head
The
man
frenetic
cursed
as we
by Moses
can see
is turned backwards,
(Vienna,
?see, from the first half of the 13th century
fol. 30B).
2554
Codex
?NB,
16 Illustrated
13th century,
initial of Dixit
Psalter,
Insipiens,
initial of Dixit Insipi
illustrated
fol. 84v;
Bibl. Munc. MS 2689,
Orl?ans,
MS 7, fol. 301. The
Bibl. Munc.
13th century,
Orl?ans,
ens,
Psalter,
the fool
with
in analogy
also
was
sometimes
depicted
possessed
in the Book
as for example
in the same
posture,
contradictory
-heretic,
end of the 12th century
of Bingen,
of Saint Hildegarde
of Prayer
fol. 31v). The
MS Clm. 935,
Staatsbibliothek,
Bayerisches
(Munich,
in a con
is depicted
God
fool opposing
explicitly
figure of a revolving
his legs turned to the left and
with
almost
dancing,
posture,
tradictory
is imagined
in a Bible Moral
his head and arms turned to the right; Bible, 13th century (Le Mans,
me
fac (for
Salvum
MS 262
IV, fol. 14), initial of psalm
cit.
see:
3).
Gamier,
13),
fig.
op.
(note
reproduction,
17 Bax
for the dissimilar
a different
interpretation
proposes
and destitution
of poverty
here signs
(see D.
He rather sees
footwear.
N. A.
trans.
His
Bosch:
Deciphered,
Picture-Writing
Bax, Hieronymus
or a torn shoe,
footwear
Rotterdam
Bax Botha,
1979, p. 299). Different
in some
visible
is clearly
of the fools,
the other attributes
along with
see Brant,
Master
op. cit.
woodcuts
(D?rer?);
by the Ship of Fools
are
and poverty
7 and 11 ;asymmetry
for chaps.
(note 10), illustrations
that is torn,
or one shoe
of
different
shoes,
types
through
expressed
in the
foot and one bare one, as we can see
as well as by one shod
this in his
further elaborated
14. Holbein
woodcut
chap.
illustrating
Veteris
Testementi.
Icones,
in Historiarum
for Insipiens
illustration
be
white
fol. kiiiv. A prominent
may
bandage
1543,
Frellons,
Lyons,
a wound
caused
on the wayfarer's
left leg that likely covers
discerned
Bibl.
Munc.
cit. (note 3), p. 139,
by the dog (devil). As pointed out by de Bruyn, op.
sinful behavior.
literature a wound
symbolizes
edifying
remarks
in Vandenbroeck's
reflected
concerning
is further
in late medieval
This
view
evil
shrine
in a glass
is contained
leg wound
11), p.
Vandenbroeck,
op. cit. (note
Vandenbroeck,
of the Rotterdam
Peddler,
(see
analysis
the wound.
18
According
his head,
usually
also
80
in Bruegel's
to Bax,
the
designates
As
oeuvre.
"empty
sinners
sackcap"
in Bosch's
for the meaning
a relic of
if itwere
as
157.
in his
However,
ignores
apparently,
the wayfarer
own works
wears
on
and
later
of the hat he holds
if the traveler
but only
strays
freestanding
gate can be passed,
the image
he is treading."
however,
the path on which
Recently,
relat
of the Haywain
on the shutters
of the wayfarer
triptych has been
"the
from
ed to the image by Fray Vincent Mazuelo of The Pilgrim on the Path of
Mankind (Toulouse, 1490: a work inspired by Guillaume de
Digulleville's
Isabel Mateo
Le P?lerinage
and Vines
la vie humaine).
According
"El Pergrino
Mateo
(see:
del Arte, 70 (1997),
Espagnol
de
Julian
to Gomez
de
la vida
Archivo
29, pp. 297
del Bosco,"
that
that all the tribulations
states
moralistic
message
302), Bosch's
for anyone
setting
the pilgrim on his path serve as a precaution
beset
out on this journey.
22 The
to death and perdition
of the shut gate as related
meaning
humana
will
be further elaborated.
23 A crown
symbolizes
related
to the
"moralized
reward
the
Y" and
for virtue.
the choice
This
between
be
image might
virtue and vice.
Tervarent,
op. cit. (note 7), col. 126, VII and fig. 84.
24
Brant, op. cit. (note 10), p. 346.
25 Here
is seen
as his attribute,
a large spoon
the fool, holding
for Beg
and studies
own sketches
In
Bosch's
a
with
devil.
arguing
into
stuck
have spoons
some
of the figures
and Fools,
gars, Cripples
and Fools,
Brussels,
See: Beggars,
their hat or headdress.
Cripples
and Beggars,
des Estampes,
Albert
1er, Cabinet
Royale
Biblioth?que
Albertina.
and Fools, Vienna,
Cripples
26 See:
in
buffoon
The
Bax,
17), pp. 212-217.
op. cit.
(note
del
Nacional
Sins
from Seven Deadly
Luxuria
Bosch's
(Madrid, Museo
as his
and has a large purse
a large spoon
c. 1480)
holds
Prado,
c. 1485),
du
Mus?e
Fools
of
Louvre,
In Bosch's
attributes.
(Paris,
Ship
the folly of
oar symbolizes
as a steering
a large wooden
serving
spoon
the ship's
17), pp. 216 and 353).
(see Bax, op. cit. (note
passenger
See: Y Pin
with a large spoon.
figure of folly ladles money
Bruegel's
Dulle Griet: Proverbial
in Bruegel's
Metaphors
son,
"Folly and Vanity
in Iconography,
to Bosch's
and their Relationship
Imagery," Studies
pp. 185-213.
20(1999),
27
See Gibson,
op. cit. (note 5), fig. 67.
See
28 As
pointed out by Fr?chet (see G. Fr?chet "Iconographie du
the figure of evil (Antichrist?) on Bosch's Prado Adoration, where the
man's
to Bax, that he is buten hoed
itvisualizes,
(i. e., with
hands,
according
has taken no pre
"that a person
out a hat), an expression
indicating
himself
no
therefore
sin and
cautions
longer
safeguards
against
main
evil
or
behavior
his
of
itself,"
the
against
consequences
against
Bax's
see Bax, op. cit. (note
17) p. 297. Rejecting
ly drunkenness,
indi
the
of
a
de
hat,
reading
positive
suggests
Bruyn
interpretation,
behavior
of the peddler
the prudent
on the contrary
(see de
cating
and
sinners
Bosch
designates
op. cit. (note 3), pp. 141-142).
Bruyn,
hair
of
the
external
of
God
the
pro
sign
through
betrayer
especially
of Bosch,
Follower
a torn headdress.
See for example,
truding through
Real Monsterio).
c. 1533 (Escorial,
with Thorns,
Christ Crowned
19 See Ch. de
New York 1966, pp. 43
Bosch,
Tolnay, Hieronymus
44, 282, and 369-370.
20
10:9.
refers to John
Gibson,
op. cit. (note 5), pp. 104-106,
21
and Pil
of Acedia
"Bosch's
I. L. Zupnick,
See
Representation
19
Kunsthistorisch
Nederlands
Jaarboeck,
of
Everyman,"
grimage
in
that
notes
Zupnick
126-144,
p. 143. However,
esp.
pp.
(1968),
is not granted,
salvation
the wayfarer's
Rotterdam
Bosch's
painting
in his
fou dans
l'art et dans
la vie,"
in S?bastien
Brant
500
anniversaire
de
la
and Strasbourg,
Karlsruhe
Basel,
1494-1994,
Basel
esp. p. 124), the origin of this attribute might
1994, pp. 117-127,
to his disciples
be Christ's
carrying with them purs
against
injunction
the etymological
or gold. Fr?chet
further indicates
meaning
es, money
in Latin it is also follis (empty bag).
to folly, since
of the word as related
after
of Fools
The Feast
In Bruegel's
(Pieter van Heyden
engraving,
des
raisonn?
see:
L. Lebeer,
for reproduction
Catalogue
Bruegel;
Nef
de
Folz
exh.
cat.,
ATA CROSSROADS:A NEWREADING
TONDO
OF THEROTTERDAM
BOSCH? HOMOVIATOR
HIERONYMUS
de
Estampes
serve
purses
29
Bax, op. cit. (note
folly, see also Bosch's
and
Jean
de
(Way of Valor, c.
the knight dreamer
Vaillence
de Couercy),
of Vainglory"
(note 44).
32 The motif of the
no.
29),
inn is further
don
4), p. 372.
moralistic
(idem,
1424-1426,
is conducted
associated
37
larger
of purse,
knife
17), p. 64. For the association
of Folly,
of the Stone
panel, The Extraction
c. 1494 or later. See also, Pinson,
del Prado,
Nacional
Madrid, Museo
op. cit. (note 26).
30 As
op. cit. (note
quoted
by Wenzel,
31
In Digulleville's
Idem, pp. 372-375.
the "forest of vices"
grim passes
through
Chemin
cat.
Brussels
?Ancien,
1969),
Bruegel
as attributes
of the urban fools.
treatise
the pil
In the later
p. 377).
a didactic
poem
by
to the "Mountains
with
the choice
of the
or the pilgrim
in Bosch's
and moral
contemporaries'
writings
a play performed
op. cit. (note 4), p. 7, mentions
ity plays.
Falkenburg,
at the Ghent
the
of Caprijke
festival of 1539, where
by the rhetoricians
toward
is faced with the alternative
of the smooth
road (leading
pilgrim
wanderer
L. M?nz,
Bruegel
Drawings.
no. 141, pi. 138.
See
The
Complete
Edition,
Lon
cat.
1961,
38 See H. Arthur
Klein, Graphic Worlds of Peter Bruegel the Elder,
New
York 1963, pi. 22.
39
can be seen
in bad shape
Roofs
in Bruegel's
respectively
of Seven
in Desidia,
series
Sins, especially
Avaritia,
Gula, and
Deadly
Ira. See M?nz,
127, 128 and
133,
131; The
op. cit.
(note 39), pis.
inn symbolism
in some
of carousing
is repeated
versions
decaying
in Bruegel's
to us mostly
known
See
work,
peasants
copies.
through
P. Bianconi,
for example,
Tout
1963, no. 63.
40
For the notion, paysage
8), p. 47 ff. and idem, Studies
l'oeuvre
peint
de Bruegel
l'Ancien,
Paris
see Panofsky,
moralis?e,
op. cit. (note
in Iconology.
Humanistic
Themes
in the
Art of the Renaissance,
New York, Hagerstown,
Lon
San Francisco,
don 1972, pp. 64-65 and 150. See also, Josua
"Toward a Scrip
Bruyn,
tural Reading
of Seventeenth
Dutch
in
Landscape
Century
Painting,"
to Hugh of Fouilloy,
"The
sin. According
the snowy
but black skin. Allegorically,
color
the effect of the pretense
the black
by which
et al., Masters
of 17th Century
Dutch
Sutton
Landscape
Painting,
Boston
and Philadelphia
cat., Amsterdam,
1987, pp. 84-102.
41
See Tervarent,
op. cit. (note 7), col. 399.
42
an engraving
Jacob
after Abraham
Matham,
Bloemaert,
Parable
of the Tares,
with
the
1605; Abraham
Bloemaert,
Landscape
of the Tares of the Field,
Parable
Art Gallery,
Walters
1624, Baltimore,
a sin of the flesh
is veiled
because
by pretense."See
of Fouilloy's
Aviarium.
The Medieval
Book
of
Folieto, Hugh
trans, and com
Medieval
and Renaissance
Texts and Studies,
was
This meaning
1992, pp. 241-243.
mentary W. B. Clark, Binghamton
in Bosch's
still familiar
time and
later as well.
See Bax, op. cit. (note
see Sutton
For reproductions,
op. cit. (note 42), pi. 14,
(Inv. 37.2705).
and cat. no. 12, fig. 1.
43
out that the vagrant
op. cit. (note 21), p. 131, points
Zupnick,
moves
in the same
as the hay wagon,
direction
Hell.
i.e., towards
to Tuttle, op. cit. (note 10), the figure on the Madrid
shutters
According
the former path,
and the long and winding
path. He chooses
perdition)
which
inn. From the Middle Ages,
the swan was
leads him to a sinful
especially
swan has
of
related
snowy
the plumage
is hidden,
with
carnal
plumage
denotes
flesh
Hugo
Birds.
de
to Bax,
120. According
and houses
of
in the Middle Ages
and
later in Bosch's
a sign of the
often
ill-repute
displayed
out further by Bax, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 124, 295 and
As pointed
a dovecote
on
in the 16th century
and especially
"to keep doves
319,
a brothel.
meant
the loft" (duiven op zolderhuden),
The dove,
keeping
17), p.
time,
swan.
taverns
an attribute
an attribute
of Venus,
became
of lust from the 14th century
on. See: Tervarent,
104-106.
op. cit. (note 7), cols.
33 For the sexual
see: Mar
connotations
of an overturned
pitcher,
in the North
Peasants.
Art and Audience
garet A. Sullivan,
Bruegel's
ern Renaissance,
1994, pp. 61-62 and fig. 41.
Cambridge
34
or a keg of
For Bosch's
audience
the contents
of a pitcher
wine
onto the floor meant
uncontrolled
behavior.
The unsealed
spilled
occurs
oeuvre
as a sign of vanity and unre
in Bosch's
emblem
or illicit behavior,
as in the scene
strained
of a brothel on the right part
of the central
of the Lisbon
of Saint Anthony,
panel
Temptations
(c.
barrel
1501). This metaphor
some
of his depictions
in the
discerned
where
it is rimmed
was
later adopted
the Elder
in
by Pieter Bruegel
an unsealed
barrel may be
revelers;
left foreground
of the Kermis
of Hoboken
(1559),
with the children's
the fool leads two
play, nearby
of festival
to the folly of those
revelers.
The same
alluding
in Bruegel's
be read
Festival
of Saint George
as well folly and vanity. Empty barrels
it could designate
(1559), where
are related
to sin, vanity and folly in an engraving
by Pieter Huys after
on Laziness,
c. 1562, Amsterdam,
in Nine Proverbs
Cornelis
Massys
youths
metaphor
by
the hand
also
can
Rijksprentenkabinet.
35 It
echo
might
the moral
of Ecclesiastes
10:18:
"By much
sloth
fulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the
this imagery Bosch
be call
droppeth
through."
Through
might
to mend
the roof of his own house
for the sake of
ing upon his viewer
on Jacob
inscribed
virtue, a call we find later, at the end of the century,
house
Matham's
emblematic
after Van Mander's
The Transience
of
engraving
Human
Life, 1599 [Fig. 15].
36 M.
Proverbs:
Art and Audience
in the
Sullivan,
"Bruegel's
Northern
Art Bulletin,
73 (1991), 3, p. 455.
Renaissance,"
Peter
exh.
is rather
44
with positive
values.
a bridge
idea of crossing
occurs
in the fifteenth-century
of life imagery. As pointed
out by Wenzel,
op. cit. (note 4),
pilgrimage
the knight-wayfarer
in the Chemin
and his companion,
de Vail
p. 375),
a didactic
lance
poem
(Way of Valor), c. 1424-1425,
by Jean de Cour
on their way,
the first obstacle
the bridge
of
cy, (note 31) encounter
which
is guarded
weakness,
by the flesh, one of the three enemies
as
the interpretation
of the bridge
Apparently
was
in turn by Falkenburg
who
temptations
adopted
over which
that "the rickety bridge
the path
leads could
sym
the trials and temptations
which
beset
the pilgrim"
constantly
awaiting
a symbol
thinks
bolize
imbued
The
the
pilgrim.
of
or pilgrim
is set
op. cit. (note 4), p. 88). The wanderer
(see Falkenburg,
as in Figs.
between
the devil and death
in didactic
German
woodcuts,
2 and 16.
45
the
Tolnay, op. cit. (note 19), pp. 43-44 and 369-370,
interprets
as the prodigal
son who
is approaching
salva
figure of the wayfarer
his "steps are already
him to the entrance
of his
tion, since
leading
father's
fields."
46
Bax, op. cit. (note 17), p. 302.
47
L. Brand Philip,
"The Pedlar
A Study of
Bosch.
by Hieronymus
Nederlands
Kunsthistorisch
9 (1958),
Detection,"
Jaarboek,
pp. 71-72
and figs. 45, 46. Brand Philip sees
in disguise
in both Bosch's
gallows
illustrated
emblem.
gate as well as later in Visscher's
48
See Falkenburg,
op. cit. (note 4), pp. 78-79.
49
See J. van Haeften,
Dutch
and Flemish
Old Master
Paintings,
at Christie's,
Sale Catalogue
16
11, London
1999, no. 6; auctioned
December 1998, lot26), followed with an entry by Astrid Smeets. The
offers
the beholder
the theme of the
points out that the painting
between
the right and the wrong
to
path of life. I am grateful
Sharon
student
and assistant,
for attracting
Assaf,
my doctoral
my
attention
to highly
relevant
in this composition.
details
50 In
sixteenth
and seventeenth
northern
culture, willows
century
mean
transience
and death,
hence
the emblematic
symbolize
vanity,
author
choice
ing of willows
rooted
in swamp
soil
growing
too easily
and
too
fast
to
81
YONA
PINSON_
were
audience
willows
however,
contemporary
P. Vinken
and evanescence.
and L. Sch
See,
en de mens
die di dood
Nestrover
l?ter, "Pieter Bruegel
tegemoet
47 (1996),
Kunsthistorisch
Jaarboek,
treedt," Nederlands
pp. 66-67.
see also H. Mielke,
For the willow
"Review of K. G. Boon,
symbolism,
fruit.
bear
the
For
with
associated
Netherlandish
frivolity
Drawings
the Fifteenth
of
the Sixteenth
and
Centuries
tares,
In the
we can discern
the burning
ground,
in Hell.
"furnace of fire" (Matthew
13:42)
the drawing
sixteenth-century
by an unknown
the
the
with
Landscape
of
left middle
prefiguring
52
See also
the Parable
of
the
Tares,
artist,
to Bol,
attributed
falsely
[signed and dated H. Bol (1573 (?)], Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet,
Inv. A 3353
see, Sutton,
op. cit.
(for reproduction
in the
the image of a decaying
farmhouse
2), where
shut gate, set precisely
with the emblematic
posed
a willow
For the
death.
and a dead
tree, connotes
op. cit.
ter, see Mielke's
interpretation
(see Mielke,
idem.
by Sutton
53 Bax notes
that the magpie
Bax, op. cit.
could
also
(note
40),
513,
fig.
background
juxta
two trees,
between
identity of the mas
(note
50),
followed
with
be associated
death
(note 17), p. 396, and idem, Hierony
trans.
mus Bosch
and Lucas Cranach
Two Last Judgement
triptychs,
M. A. Bax-Botha,
and New York 1983, p. 396; Bax
Oxford
Amsterdam,
the gate as a "part
beyond
(idem, p. 367) tends to interpret the magpie
and misfortune.
See:
of figures
However,
inebriety or the alcoholic."
symbolizing
Bosch
Vienna
Last Judgment,
of
the
left outer
depicts
panel
a land
as a pilgrim who walks
across
James
of Compostella
Saint
and diabolic
full of menaces
connotations
(Bax, 1983, pp. 287
scape
in the left middle
there is a dry
the saint-pilgrim,
distance,
299). Behind
on a branch.
tree with a magpie
Likewise,
(or a pied crow)
perched
cross.
a grave with a wooden
behind
the dry tree we can discern
of a series
in the
(Later
in Bruegel's
tree next
we find an analogical
on the Gallows,
with another
is paralleled
this metaphor
we can
In the right background
and death.
on a dry branch
from a foliated
protruding
1568 Magpie
Nonetheless,
juxtaposition).
to evil, diabolism
allusion
raven perched
see a black
cross.
who
wooden
Vandenbroeck,
as having
a redemptive
meaning,
as a reference
its black and white
plumage
to another
the Rotterdam
tondo
with
magpie,
between
good and evil
54 Karl van
Mander,
recently
read
the
interprets
to the choice
op. cit. (note 1), p. 186).
(see Vandenbroeck,
on the Gallows,
Magpie
referring to Bruegel's
whom
he would
"meant the gossips
wrote
that by the magpie
Bruegel
deliver to the gallows"
op. cit. (note 5), p. 193); see
(as quoted
by Gibson,
The Franklin D. Murphy
the Elder. Two Studies.
also idem, Pieter Bruegel
as
of the magpie
for the meaning
Lectures
1991, pp. 45-46;
XI, Kansas
related
see
lax self-control,
of Order and Enterprise,
to
Ethan
Matt
Kavaler,
Pieter
tombs,
Bruegel.
Parables
1999, pp. 229-233.
Cambridge
55 See
Bax, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 16 and 123.
56
the bird as
identified
p. 142,
op. cit.
21),
(note
Zupnick,
as a tit
a woodpecker
and Bax, op. cit. (note 17) p. 302, and others
mouse.
57
In an engraving
Bax, op. cit.
by Martin
17), p. 302.
(note
an
c.
Bibl. Nat.
with
1480-90
Ornament
Owl,
(Paris,
Sch?ngauer,
in a spiraling
Ec. N. 303), small birds are interwoven
plant.
in the lower branch
is seen
owl, hunter of souls,
already
later composi
its prey, a little bird, in its beak
(as in Bosch's
holding
The motif
is further
the small
bird
is depicted
tions,
upside-down).
en
a more
Cats'
Sinne
in Jacob
with
humorous
tone,
elaborated,
Estampes,
A menacing
of the emblem,
the illustration
1618), where
(originally
is followed
of an owl as a bird-catcher,
by the inscription:
oiseaux
chouette
des outres
("who has an owl, catch
prend
Amsterdam
1643, chap.
birds"). See J. Cats, Alle de werken,
208-213,
a satanic,
itmight
hunter of birds
also have been
(i.e. souls)
interpret
to sin, or person
of temptation
"as a decoy-bird,
that is the symbol
to Bax,
to
to sin." However,
the bird alludes
also
enticed
according
as related
The owl symbolism
to stulti
folly, lechery and drunkenness.
tia was
in Northern
visual
culture
(idem, pp.
already well crystallized
see also Marijnissen,
164, and 211); for the owl symbolism,
op. cit. (as
note
While we may
learn from Bosch's
idiomatic
lan
1), pp. 465-466.
not seem
to me,
that the owl can designate
that
guage
folly, it does
to the image discussed
in relationship
above.
this meaning
is relevant
59
Tolnay, op. cit. (note 19), p. 366.
60 A
also allude
to the idea of
bird perched
upside-down
might
a topsy-turvy
to folly and sin.
another
reference
world,
61
on a dry twig contrast
of a lurking owl perched
The metaphor
in the central
bush already
ed with a fully foliaged
appears
panel of the
To the right of the lovers on top of the hay cart we can dis
Haywain.
cern a blue owl awaiting
its prey, a little sparrow
flying above.
62 For a
see: Ch. Van
of the Albertina
drawing,
reproduction
of Hieronymus
London
The Complete
Bosch,
Drawings
Beuningen,
see Bax, op. cit.
cat. no. 7; for Van den Heyden's
engraving,
Last Judgment
trip
17), fig. 106. In the Eden panel of the Vienna
on a dry branch
an analogous
owl perched
pro
tych, we can discern
in juxtaposi
from a green
tree, set in the middle
truding
background
1973,
(note
of Eve and
the
the Temptation
the Creation
tion with
(set between
with
birds and ani
The
populated
landscape,
symbolic
Expulsion).
menaces.
is imbued with allusions
to sin, evil and diabolic
mals,
(See
This
of emblematical
Bax, op. cit. (note 56), pp. 62-68).
juxtaposition
with
of Eve, might
refer not
and birds,
the Creation
animals
notably
to death
and
"Fall of the Angels
(see: Y Pinson,
only to sin but also
in Bosch's
and
Eden:
Creation
of Eve
Iconographical
Meaning
Illumina
in a European
Flanders
Sources,"
Manuscript
Perspective,
and Bert
and Abroad,
Maurits
1400 in Flanders
tion around
Smeyers
1995, pp. 693-707.
Cardon,
(eds.), Leuven
63 The
to a series
of Time and Death
by an
Triumph
belongs
to Williams
itmight
and Jacquot,
reflect or
unknown
artist. According
to
that was
the 1562 Antwerp
dedicated
Ommegang,
reproduce
time and eternity
and J. Jacquot,
the ages
of man,
(see S. Williams
et de Van Heemsker
du Temps
de Bruegel
Anversois
"Ommegangs
au Temps
II: F?tes et C?r?monies
ck," in Les F?tes de la Renaissances
even
de Charles
Quint, Paris 1960,
64 The
dry tree metaphor
in a seventeenth-century
well
82
an owl,
illustration
appears
in Jacob
later as
Cats's
is
tree topped with an owl
in a garden
of love.
of this kind of emblematic
the many
examples
juxtapo
Among
with
the
I note
the drawing
artist, Landscape
by an unknown
Inv. A 3353,
of the Tares, Amsterdam,
Rijksprentenkabinet,
(Eros/Thanatos
with
opposed
65
sition
172-173.
emblematic
in den
besloten
midden,
trouw-ringh
(Amster
eynde,
beggin,
illustration
dam 1643). The
for the poem, De liefde en de doot
("Love
in monogram
and Death"),
engraved
by C. Van Quebboren
(signed
the realm of death,
the realm of love with
confronts
CvQ,
p. 709),
Parable
14, pp.
pp. 374-377.
topped with
Werelts
a depiction
Qui a une
other
(is) always
Book
ed
Minne-beelden
es
in caves."
Isidor of Seville,
See also:
tarrying
P. K. Marshall,
trans.
Paris
II, ed. and
1983,
see
the owl symbolism,
further Bax
(as in note
17), pp.
as
while
be conceived
the idea that the owl might
accepting
and
Ethymologies,
For
12.7.39.
(The Hague 1978)," Simiolus, 11 (1980), p. 46.
51
58
and Symbols
in Christian
See G. Ferguson,
Art, Oxford
Signs
de Folieto,
Isi
cites
1974, p. 22. Hugo
op. cit. (note 32), pp. 216-219,
"The owl (bubo) has a name adapted
from the sound
dore of Seville:
bird...
of its call; a funeral
The owl dwells
the
day and night among
motif).
Amor's
Here
rose
the defoliated
bush
on each
two trees are seen
side of a closed
cit. (note 52). Here
a felled dry tree.
one
the other
willow
and
is a fully foliaged
gate:
to us in a seventeenth
is offered
Another
very
example
interesting
op.
HIERONYMUS BOSCH ?
in
de Heer, Resting
Family
Gypsy
Dutch Prints of Daily
Stone-Ferrier,
exh. cat., Lawrence,
of Life or Masks
of Morals?,
Kansas,
no. 38).
cat.
The
theme
of
Museum
of Art,
1983,
by Gerrit Adriaensz
Inn (see Linda A.
-century
etching
Front of a Ruined
Life: Mirrors
The
Spencer
vagabondage
De Heer's
A
HOMO VIATORAT A CROSSROADS:
for
of the flesh. The setting
with a dovecote.
inn juxtaposed
the idea of choice
through
symbolizes
on the same
tree, elabo
living branches
is associated
here with
is a ruined country
festival
tree
sins
in the right foreground
of dry and
juxtaposition
first expressed
by Bosch.
rating the symbolism
66
and
See
op. cit.
(note 4), pp. 75-76
Falkenburg,
Another
elaboration
of the Y motif
and choice
between
the
can
vice/death
self who
be seen
in a Flemish
illumination.
note
304.
virtue/life
it is death him
Here
is sawing
the tree. But, unlike
the woodcut,
the tree remains
In analogy
to the mentioned
the elegant
woodcut,
green.
young man
an angel and a devil offering
is set between
him a chest
full of gold
(as
see Fig. 2). For the Flemish
see
in the Albertina
woodcut,
miniature,
Bax, op. cit. (note 17), p. 322 and fig. 144. Bare trees next to leafy wil
are
lows
also seen
in Bruegel's
the
where
Nazionale),
For indications
of death
Museo
death.
Parable
of the Blind,
1568
(Naples,
to
is imbued with allusions
landscape
and vanity,
and Schl?ter,
see, Vinken
cit.
67
(note 50), pp. 63-64.
See Bruyn, op. cit. (note 40), pp. 86-87.
68
an ear
Bruyn, op. cit. (note 40), pp. 87-88 and fig. 4, mentions
a defoliated
to
lier Netherlandish
tree is clearly
related
painting where
In a Double
death.
Portrait
dated
1541 by an unknown
painter
(Ams
op.
terdam,
we can
69
Bruyn,
apparently
the bare
attribute
ism, see
70
71
Inv. A 8h),
in a view through
Museum,
a skull beneath
a partly defoliated
tree.
text of the
op. cit. (note 40), p. 87. The
Historical
discern
paraphrasing
tree one can
of vanity
Tervarent,
Bruyn, op.
Ibidem.
the verses
the window,
is
inscription
14:18-19.
Beside
of Ecclesiaticus
also see a vase
smoke
(a well-known
emitting
a skull (for the vase symbol
transience)
against
op. cit. (note 7), col. 399).
cit. (note 40), p. 87.
and
72
scholars
have viewed
the figure as a self-portrait
of the
Some
See Tolnay, op.
painter, an idea that has been occasionally
supported.
cit.
op. cit.
(note
19), p. 369, Marijnissen,
(note
1), p. 412 and A.
Boczkowska
and A. Wiercihski,
Bosch's
Self-Portraits,"
"Hieronymus
auro prior, Warszawa
1981, pp. 193-199.
73
See Wenzel,
for de Bruyn,
op. cit. (note 4), p. 378. However,
as a repentant
is conceived
(op. cit. (note 3), p. 143), the old peddler
sinner who, when
turns back,
his sinful,
death,
approaching
regretting
Ars
life. De Bruyn then again,
not raise the question
does
of a plausi
or opposition
of the missing
between
the reverse
relationship
trip
on his
the miser's
fatal choice
sinful,
tych and the right wing depicting
deathbed.
One might
read this relationship
between
the two parts of
as apparently
the triptych
the perdition
of
analogous,
announcing
vain
ble
on his deathbed
both the man
and the wayfarer,
repentance
refusing
as meaningful
and opposed
A homo
via
or, on the contrary
allegories.
like Everyman,
to repent and avoid
is about
tor, approaching
death,
as contrasting
even
with the figure of a man who
is attracted
perdition,
in the face of death,
to worldly
goods.
74
See M. A. Sullivan,
Renaissance
Art
"Bruegel's
Misanthrope:
for a Humanist
Artibus
26 (1992), pp. 143-162;
Audience,"
etHistoriae,
and n. 121. The form of a tondo was
chosen
later by Pieter
151-152,
the Elder
Bruegel
de Capodimonte,
ures
twice,
through
for his emblematic
(Museo Nazionale
to the world
fig
itself and through
the
Misanthrope,
where
the allusion
Naples,
1568),
form of the panel
the circular
symbolic figure framed ina globe. As pointed out by Sullivan (ibidem,
p. 154)
without
the misanthrope
any fixed home.
is represented
as a wanderer
(vagabundus)
A NEW READING OF THE ROTTERDAM TONDO
75
to
Falken burg, op. cit. (note 4), pp. 89-90 and fig. 45, pointed
an analogous
to
circular
panel with an allegorical
landscape,
alluding
the homo
inscribed:
viator motif. A painting
painter,
by an unknown
Ipass
"Fain would
the World uprightly
F?rst zu
[...]" (Rhede,
through
c. 1525-1530),
as the
is composed
Collection;
Antwerp,
a moralistic
with a cross,
surmounted
contains
large globe
to the Y motif. On both sides we
with a forked path alluding
landscape
a farmhouse
can discern
and a gallows;
the homo
viator
is
(a tavern?)
a large staff.
the world,
passing
holding
through
76 The
woven
in Brussels
work
Hay Wagon
(unknown
tapestry,
Salm-Salm
A
world.
is now
in the Spanish
Palacio
Real
Madrid,
Royal Collection,
et al., Golden
See: Guy Delmarcel
(Cat. P. N. Series
36/111).
We?vings.
of the Spanish
Flemish
Munich
and Ams
Crown,
Malines,
Tapestries
terdam
16.
1993, exh. cat. no.
77
See Van Eyck to Bruegel,
1400-1550,
op. cit. (note 1), cat. no.
16, a.
78 W.
S. Gibson,
Bosch
and the Mirror of Man. The
"Hieronymus
shop),
and
of the Tabletop
of the Seven
Deadly
Authorship
Iconography
87 (1973), pp. 205-226.
Sins," Oud Holland,
79
See Falkenburg,
op. cit. (note 4), p. 79 and notes 333 and 334.
80
See also Lucy Free
op. cit. (note 4), pp. 218-219.
Falkenburg,
man Sandier,
'Jean Pucelle
and the Lost Miniatures
of the Belleville
66 (1984),
1, p. 89 and n. 67.
Breviary," Art Bulletin,
81 The
on a thorny
of the Vagabundus
metaphor
path occurs
in Bruegel's
later as well
where
the road is dotted with
Misanthrope,
op. cit. (note 74), pp. 153-154).
sharp,
(see Sullivan,
thorny objects
For the northern
thorns could
be associ
audience,
sixteenth-century
ated
with
evil and
Sin and Heresy
Renaissance
167 and
figs.
satanic
forces
(see:
Yona
Pinson,
of
"Connotations
in the Figure of the Black King in Some Northern
Artibus
Adorations,"
5b, 6 and 7; a biblical
et Historiae,
34 (1996),
to the thorns
reference
pp. 166
as a sym
bol of Satan: IICorinthians 12:7). As pointed out by Sullivan (ibidem
and
note
132), "The idea of
Wellevenskunste
Coornhert's
has
planted
these
sorrows
thorns
where
as
prickly
in a pathway
he writes:
thorns
is also
included
in
"God, accordingly,
in front of all our false
paths."
82
and n. 67.
Gibson,
op. cit. (note 78), pp. 225-226
"'In desen
J. H. Marrow,
A New Form
spiegell':
in Fifteenth-Century
Mori'
in Essays
Netherlandish
Art,"
Art Presented
to Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann
European
83
of
'Memento
in Northern
on His Sixti
:
eth Birthday,
1983, pp. 155-163,
esp. p. 156 and fig. 1 Mir
Doornspijk
ror of Death,
MS
Dublin, Trinity College,
103, fol. 167v. Marrow
points
out a later example
c.
from the Bruges-Ghent
center
of illumination,
1500 (Ibidem, p. 157 and fig. 2): Book of Hours of Juana
la Loca, Lon
a skull, the
fol. 15. The mirror
reflects
don, Brit. Lib. Add. MS
18852,
as we
moralization
is explicit,
read in the frame: Speculum
conscien
ce
intended
for self-examination.
(mirror of conscience),
84 A.
"Les comptes
du Roi Ren?
Angel
(inv)" as quoted
by O.
et les Van Eycks," Cahiers
de l'Association
inter
I presume
8 (1956),
that the
p. 42.
fran?aises,
were
as "mirrors,"
mentioned
circular.
paintings
shaped
apparently
The image of death haunted
the king as we can learn from his portrait
as a royal corpse
in the Hours of Ren? d'Anjou
(London British Library,
a large painting
1070 fol. 53r). Ren?
also ordered
Egerton
d'Anjou
Pacht,
n?ronle
"Ren?
des
d'Anjou
?tudes
to be placed
the royal tomb in the Angers
Cathedral,
against
as an enthroned
the king was portrayed
crowned
royal corpse,
and clad
in his majestic
robe.
after the tomb, see E.
(For a drawing
Its Changing
Tomb Sculpture.
from Ancient
Panofsky,
Aspects
Egypt
intended
where
to Bernini,
New York, n. d, fig. 267).
85
See E. Levy, "Miroir de l'Orgueil. Contribution
des sept p?ch?s
dans
la peinture
graphique
capitaux
a
l'?tude
flamande
icono
? la fin
83
YONAPINSON
du XVe si?cle",
fleuve
des Arch?ologues
vain, 9 (1976),
p. 134 and fig. 7.
86 The
of memento
mor?,
metaphor
tion of a skull
in the mirror, sometimes
et d'Historiens
d'Art de
Lou
the reflec
expressed
through
with an extinguished
together
can be seen
emblem
of vanity
and transience,
in sixteenth
candle,
and seventeenth-century
Vanitas
and Vanitas
still-life paint
allegories
was adopted
and further elaborated
ings. This symbolism
by Georges
in his versions
of The Repentant
at the Mirror,
Magdalene
D. C, National
of Art, Alisa
(for example,
Washington,
Gallery
Bruce
J. Biatostocki
in Painting,"
in
Fund).
("Man and Mirror
in Late Medieval
and Renaissance
in Honor
of Millard
Painting
de
La Tour
c.
1635
Mellon
Studies
I. Lavin
Meiss,
and
fig. 10), mentions
um of Fine Arts,
a vanitas
still-life
J. Plummer
and
(eds.), New York 1977, pp. 71-72
Dutch
framed mirror
Muse
(Boston,
At the bottom
of the mirror's
surface
a 17th-century
1971.396).
is painted,
containing
No.
a skull together
with an extin
and other symbols
candle
of transience,
the princi
guished
reflecting
the beholder
for self-reflection
and self
ple of turning a mirror towards
it cannot
before
avoid
his
contemplation.
Anyone
standing
effectively
or her own
87 See
reflection.
Gibson,
in his commentary
that the panel
(in the bed
and
(note 78).
on Bosch's
S. Ger?nimo,
didactic
as pointed
century
function
chamber
self-observation
of
de Sing?enza
already
of Seven
Sins,
Deadly
was
for con
intended
so
own
Jacob
the
op. cit. (note
(in Tolnay,
19),
the mirror
for one's
self-observation
pp.
401-2).
occurs,
of the fifteenth
seems
illustrator
Cats
himself
to be
conceived
the author's
following
as
his emblem
books
a Speculum,
some
van". The
idea was
and entitled
of them "Spiegel
as we can
in early seventeenth-century
Dutch
learn
current
culture,
1. Mors
an emblem
from some
sceptra
aequat,
examples:
ligonibus
from Gabriel
Nucleus
emblematum...
I,
1611),
Rollenhagen,
(Arnhem,
mirrors,
a paysage
framed
vitae
(Arnhem,
with
initium
1611),
didactic
from
21.
Joachim
Both
Nucleus
Camerarius,
are conceived
as
emblems
surfaces
Their
inscriptions.
with a memento
mor? still-life.
reflect
juxtaposed
(See E.
exh. cat, Auckland,
de Jong h et al., S?/7/ Life in the Age of Rembrandt,
1982, figs. 39b and 41 b).
City Art Gallery,
89 See
op. cit. (note 10), pp. 9-10 and 12, note 15.
Zeydel,
90
Gibson,
op. cit. (note 78), p. 219 and n. 43.
84
moralis?e
his own
London,
van den
image
British
A contemporary
play entitled,
t'spiel
Spiegel
is intended
for two characters,
Sot and Jonck
(The Play of the Mirror)
See W M. H?sken,
"The Fool as Social
Critic: The
(fool and youth).
Case
of Dutch Rhetoricians
in Clifford
Drama,"
Davidson,
(ed.), Fools
and Folly, Kalamazoo
1996, p. 136.
92
See Brant, op. cit. (note 10), pp. 58 and 60; the mirror was also
as an attribute
conceived
of Veritas. See Tervarent,
op. cit. (note 7) col.
Museum.
273,
II.
93 Friedrich
zu Rhein,
of Basel.
The style of the illumina
Bishop
the influence
of the Franco-Flemish
reflects
school.
94
Bax, op. cit. (note 17), p. 303.
95 There
are
of a place
of execution,
indications
and
gallows
in the background
wheels
of some
other works
The Cure of
by Bosch:
Nacional
del Prado),
and on the outer
Folly, c. 1485 (Madrid, Museo
tion
shutters
followed
of the Haywain,
just above
Netherlandish
by Bruegel,
Gem?ldegalerie);
Nacional
(Madrid, Museo
1568
lows,
(Darmstadt,
adopted
in his
graphic
the wanderer's
Proverbs,
The
del Prado)
Hessisches
work;
head
1565
of
Triumph
and the later, Magpie
see
[Fig. 9]. He
Staatliche
(Berlin,
c.
Death,
is
1562-1564
on
the Gal
This was
also
Landesmuseum).
for example:
of Avarice,
Allegory
to Bax,
Uffizi). However
(Florence,
according
(op. cit. (note
it is not a pole topped with a wheel
where
the corpse
of
are exposed,
but rather a mast
topped with a wooden
bird, a kind of target used on festival days.
96
op. cit. (note 21), p. 143.
Zupnick,
97
Gibson,
op. cit. (note 5), p. 106.
98
See M. Camille,
The Margins
of Medieval
Image on the Edge.
parte
by Tolnay
not befit us."
88 In
doing
(nobody)
contemplating
the Elder, Elck,
1558,
Bruegel
Dutch
know
in the writings
(ibidem,
370),
states
Jean Gerson,
who
that, "the first
theologian,
is that in itwe
of the mirror
what
befits us or does
recognize
2. Mors
48;
emblematum
Nemo
1556 (London, British Museum); Gula 1557 (Paris, F. Lught Coll.) and
a mirror
painted
[Bosch]
Y P.).
himself
(my emphasis,
de la Historia
de la Orden
de
French
instruction.
Pieter
"for he
1605
Madrid
function
out
Fray Jos?
Tabletop
of the King)
the Christian
may better
whereby
See F. Jos? de Sing?enza,
Tercera
The
below
Museen,
cit.
op.
states
templation
91
Inscribed
in the mirror. See
Ira, 1558
17), p. 303),
the executed
of the City", and especially,
Art, London
1992, ch. 5: "The Margins
pp.
to the vagrant-beggars'
136-137
sin of mobilitas.
pointing
99
In a later version
Bax, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 208-213.
by Jaspar
Isaac from the Marr?les
Collection
(Paris, Bibl. Nat. Tf 2 r?s, fol. 61),
an
inscription
is now called
100 For
was
added
a "voleur
illustrations,
a print." The owl-vagrant
to the "print within
de nuit" (night-thief).
see: G. Calmann,
An
"The Picture
of Nobody.
Journal
of the Warburg
and Courtauld
Insti
Iconographical
Study,"
tutes, 23 (1960), pi. 86.
101
See Pinson,
op. cit. (note 62).
102 Iam
to my friend, architect
Avner Drori for this design.
grateful
103
and note 30.
Pinson,
op. cit. (note 62), pp. 699-700
104 L. F.
"The Triptych
Bosch's
Garden
of
Jacobs,
Unhinged:
in J. Koldeweij,
B. Vermet
and B. van Kooij
Earthly Delights,"
(eds.),
Hieronymus
Bosch,
Insights,
op.
cit.
(note
1), pp. 71-72.