The Triptychs of Hieronymus Bosch

Transcription

Author(s): Lynn F. Jacobs
Source: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Winter, 2000), pp. 1009-1041
Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2671185
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SixteenthCenturyJournal
XXXI/4 (2000)
Lynn F Jacobs
UniversityofArkansas
The sixteenth-century painter Hieronymus Bosch, though steeped in the traditions
and conventions of the Netherlandish triptych, inverted and subverted that format.
As is particularly manifest in three of his most famous triptychs (the Prado Epiphany,
Temptationof Saint Anthony, and Garden of Earthly Delights), Bosch supplanted traditional religious iconography with more secular themes, he increased the importance
of the exteriors, thereby rejecting the standard hierarchical structure, and he unified
the various panels to an unprecedented degree, thus departing from the additive
conception of the triptych. Bosch's innovations, far from representing the dissolution
of the triptych, served to inject new life and expand the possibilities of this traditional type.
paintings often juxtapose
heaven
and
beauty and ugliness, all
hell,
saints
and
a
sinners,
within single work
rendered in a style that sets up tensions between depth and flatness, and between
sketchy and detailed renderings of forms. Perhaps one of the most intriguing
aspects of Bosch's dualism is the combination of retrospection and modernity that
links his works to pre- and early Eyckian art on one side and to Bruegel on the
other.1 The way in which Bosch simultaneously draws on older traditions while
developing radically new ones is particularly striking in connection with Bosch's
handling of the triptych format. Beginning in the late fourteenth century and
over the course of the fifteenth (when it was the most popular format within
Netherlandish painting), the Netherlandish triptych grounded its function and
meaning on three key features.2 First, it was devoted to religious subject matter
and thereby suitable for use as an altarpiece to be seen and used in the context of
liturgy. Second, it was hierarchically structured, with the exterior having less significance than the interior and the interior differentiating its primary scene in the
HIERONYMUS BOSCH's ART IS PROFOUNDLY DUALISTIC: his
iOn pre- and early Eyckian sources for Bosch, see especially Ludwig von Baldass, Hieronymus
Bosch (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1960), 69-73, and Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, Hieronymnus
Bosch: Eine historische Interpretation seiner Gestaltungsprinzipien (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1981). On
Bosch's relation to Bruegel, see, for example, Jacques Combe, "J6rome Bosch dans lart de Pierre
Bruegel," Les arts plastiques 11-12 (1948): 435-36, and Fritz Grossman, "Notes on Some Sources of
Bruegel's Art," in Album AmicorumJ. G. van Gelder, ed. J. Bruyn, J. A. Emmens, E. de Jongh, and D. P.
Snoep (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973), 147-54.
2These features are emphasized in the main studies on triptychs: Klaus Lankheit, Das Triptychon
(Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1959); Shirley Neilsen Blum, Early NetherlandishTriptychs:A
als Pathosformnel
Study in Patronage (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969);Wolfgang Pilz, Das Triptychonals
Kompositions- und Erzdhlform in der deutschenTafelmalereivon den Anfdngen bis zur Duirerzeit (Munich:
Wilhelm Fink, 1970); and Antje Neuner, Das Triptychon in derfrthen altniederldndischen Malerei:
BildspracheundAussagekrafteiner Kompositionsform(Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1995).
1009
1010
Sixteenth CenturyJournal XXXI/4 (2000)
center from subsidiary, complementary scenes in the wings. Lastly, the triptych
was conceived additively, that is, as consisting of a three units, the center panel
and the two wing,joined to form the whole.
Bosch was often involved in the production of triptychs; he is known to have
made at least sixteen, of which eight survive in their entirety, five others in fragments, and three are lost but documented.3 Bosch's triptychs have never been
studied as a group nor has their place within the traditions of Netherlandish triptychs been evaluated. The triptychs-which for the most part date from the first
two decades of the sixteenth century-evince that Bosch was distinctly aware of
the nature and conventions of the format. In theVienna LastJudgment(fig. 1), for
14:
..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Wi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
.
..
..
Fig. 1. LastJudgmenttriptych.Vienna,Gemrldegalerieder Akademie
der bildendenKunste (Photo:Gemaldegalerie).
3The eight surviving triptychs are: LastJudgment (Vienna, Gemildegalerie der Akademie der
bildenden Kiinste), LasiJudgment (Bruges, Groeninge Museum), Triptychof the Cruafrd Martyr (Venice,
Palazzo Ducale), Hermit Saints (Venice, Palazzo Ducale), Hay Wain (Madrid, Museo del Prado), Garden
of Earthly Delights (Madrid, Museo del Prado), Adoration of the Magi (Madrid, Museo del Prado),
Temptationof Saint Anthony (Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Aniga). The five fragments believed to
come from triptychs include: Christ Canying the Cross (Vienna, Kunshistorisches Museum), SaintJohn
on Patmos (Berlin, Gemildegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Flood (Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen), Ship of Fools/Death of Miser/Allegory of Intemperance(Paris, Musee du Louvre;
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; and Yale University Art Gallery), The Blessed and The
Damned (Venice, Palazzo Ducale). The three documented lost works are Creation of the World (on the
main altar of the Cathedral of Saint John, 's-Hertogenbosch), Story ofthe Siege and Reief of Bethulia (on
the Saint Michael altar in the Cathedral of Saint John, 's-Hertogenbosch), and Christ's Entry into
Jerusalm (purchased for Bonn Cathedral in 1585); these are listed in Roger H. Marijnissen, Hieronymiss
Bosch:The CompleteWorks(Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1987), 270. Unless noted, reproductions of works
not illustrated in this article can be found in MaxJ. Friedlhnder, Eary .Nehrlandish Painting (New York:
Praeger, 1967-76).
Jacobs / Triptychsof HieronymusBosch 1011
example, Bosch exploits the additive nature of the triptych to depict three separate moments in world history on the three panels of the interior;4 he establishes
a hierarchy within this triptych, placing the main scene of the Last Judgment in
the prominent central panel of the interior and subordinating the exterior (fig. 2)
1~~~~~.
.
.S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
........
Fig. 2. Bosch. LIstJudgment
triptychouter wmgp.Vienna,GemIldegalerie
derAkademieder bildendenKiinste (Photo:Gemildegalerie).
4Despite questions about the authenticity of theVienna work, strong arguments for attribution to
Bosch are offered by Margarethe Poch-Kalous, -Randbemerkungen rum 'Wekgenrchts-Triptychon'
von Hieronymus Bosch," in 1(X)Jahm Hodhdzustatut, 280Jahm Akademie der bildenden Kiinste in We,
ed Albert Massiczek (Vienna: Akademie der bildenden Kdnste in Wien, 1972), 200-203.
1012
by portraying two saints there (who have lower sacred status than the divine judge
of the interior) and rendering them in the traditional grisaille (rather than in the
full color of the opened view). Indeed in some ways theVienna triptych is so traditional as to be distinctly old-fashioned, for Bosch constructs this triptych using
a simple rectangular shape, avoiding the curving profiles that were the new fashion within triptychs of the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Even as he incorporated retrospective features within his triptychs, however,
Bosch introduced features that deliberately inverted or subverted the traditions of
the format. Bosch's innovations affected all three aspects of the triptych. He
brought more secular themes into the triptych, creating a shift away from the
triptych's traditional religious iconography and concomitantly from its church
function. He also broke down the standard hierarchy of the triptych by making
the exterior as important as the interior-a result accomplished largely by giving
the exteriors more complex themes, more lively color, and greater visual and thematic impact. Finally, Bosch challenged the additive nature of the triptych by
imposing greater unity on the whole, often linking the panels of the exterior
more closely together compositionally and thematically, and creating more intimate connections between the interiors and exteriors.This unification helped to
further break down the hierarchical ordering of the triptych.
Paradoxically, though Bosch seemingly contravened the basic logic of the
triptych, he did not destroy the format but injected new life into it and greatly
expanded its possibilities.This essay aims to explain these developments by considering first the ways in which Bosch's triptychs as a group violate the three key
traditions of the triptych, then examining the impact of these innovations more
specifically within three of Bosch's most famous triptychs: the Prado Epiphany,
the Temptationof Saint Anthony, and the Garden of Earthly Delights. One result of
this study is that the features usually associated with the fifteenth-century triptych were not in fact essential to the format. Even more importantly, this study
reveals that around the year 1500 the triptych was not, as many have thought, a
dying form. Shirley Blum has argued that at the end of the fifteenth century the
triptych went into a state of dissolution because the push toward rationalized
space encouraged artists to ignore its symbolic structure.5 Rather than ignore the
symbolic character of the triptych, Bosch instead played with and against it to add
deeper meanings and new formal constructions. Precisely because Bosch discovered that the triptych could illustrate more complex thoughts than earlier artists
realized, he used the format so frequently and, for the most part, his themes are
so new.6
5Blum, NetherlandishTriptychs,114.
6Patrik Reuterswdrd, Hieronymus Bosch (Uppsala: University of Uppsala, 1970), 128. Marijnissen,
Complete Works,50, argues that the selection of the triptych format had nothing to do with the artist,
but resulted from tradition and/or the patron's requirements. However, Reuterswdrd's claim finds
support in the overall idiosyncratic character of Bosch's works, which is indicative of his artistic
independence.
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of Saint Anthony,Hermit Saints, and CruaifiedMartyr).Nevertheless, a good number
of Bosch's triptychs are less traditional in that they emphasize moral, or more
often immoral, behavior 'in the earthly realm instead of salvation 'in the afterlife.
These triptychs--though they usually contain some religious content or biblical
narratives-are secular in the most basic sense of the term because their focus is
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worldly, not spiritual.7 Such a focus was largely unprecedented within the triptych format, and it paved the way for the nonreligious, humanistic triptychs of
the later sixteenth century.
The most famous example of Bosch's inclusion of secular subject matter
within the triptych format is found in his Hay Wain triptych (figs. 5-6). The central panel of this work (fig. 5) does not depict a standard religious theme, but
rather the sinfulness of man, conveyed through an image of crowds swarming
around a hay wagon, struggling to grab hay, which is associated especially with
transient material wealth but also with other unworthy earthly pleasures such as
gluttony, waste, folly, and lewdness.8 The scene not only illustrates the avarice and
sin of those around the hay wagon, but also shows the lust of the wooing couple
Fig. 5. Bosch. Hay Waintriptych.Madrid,Museo del Prado
(Photo:Alinari/ArtResource,NewYork).
7The Oxford English Diaionaiy defines -secular" first as meaning "of or pertaining to the world"
and gives its etymology from the Latin "seculum,$ meaning generation or age, which in Christian Latin
was understood as the world, as opposed to the church. The use of the term secular to mean
completely nonreligious is a secondary, indeed a derogatory meaning, none of Bosch's triptychs are
secular in this way.
80n the Hay Wain, see Charles de Tolnay, Hieronymus Bosch (New York: Reynal and William
enkele bijkomende
Morrow, 1966), 24; Paul Vandenbroeck, "Jheronimus Bosch''Hooiwagen':
gegevens, Jaarboek tun het Koninklijk Museum toor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (1987): 107-42; idem,
Jherimus Bosch:Tussenvolkslewn en stadsacur (Berchem, 1987), 95-96; and Joseph Koerner, "Bosch's
Contingencyv? in Kontingenz, edLGerhard von Graevenitz and Odo Marquard (Munich: Wilhelm Fink,
1997),264-68.
1016
seated atop the haystack, the gluttony of the fat monk drinking at the front right,
and the pride of the wealthy aristocrats who ride behind the hay wagon. One
likely source for the imagery in this panel, as a number of scholars have noted, is
the Dutch proverb "all the world is a haystack and each man plucks from it what
he can," but Bosch could have also drawn from a variety of associations with the
hay wagon motif within his cultural milieu.
This triptych certainly has distinct religious content, since the acts of sin are
set within a religious framework: the left inner panel shows the Fall, that is, the
introduction of sin into the world by Adam and Eve; the right one depicts hell,
the ultimate punishment for human sin; and the center panel includes Christ as
the Man of Sorrows in the sky above the pile of hay. Christ, however, has so little
prominence within the central scene that he stands unnoticed-a
clear sign of
how Bosch has shifted the thematic focus of his triptych from a traditional depiction of divine figures in a heavenly setting to a portrayal of the world of man,
where the enticements of sin make everyone forget about God.9 The lack of concern with God in this triptych is evident as well on the work's exterior panels
(fig. 6), which depict a wayfarer making his way through a desolate, godforsaken
landscape with bandits on one side and lusty dancers on the other. The primary
goal of the Hay Wain, then, is to launch a moral invective against man and his
activities in the world rather than to portray holy figures and holy history; this
approach makes this work pictorially analogous to the moralizing, humanistic literature of Bosch's day.10As a result, the Hay Wain is one of the first triptychs to
make this world, and not the next, the real subject of the work.11
The Hay Wain was not the only triptych within Bosch's oeuvre to focus on
the secular realm, for the panel of the Death of the Miser and the fragments of the
Ship of Fools and the Allegory of Intemperanceprobably form pieces of a lost triptych that depicted the seven deadly sins.12 The Gardenof Earthly Delights (figs. 78) also has significant secular content within its central panel: whether interpreted as a scene of sin or of the paradisiacal state of man before the Fall, the
center focuses on earthly pleasures.13 There is strong reason to believe that the
9Vandenbroeck, "Hooiwagen," 112. Koerner, "Contingency," 266, similarly notes that the next
moment of the time sequence created within this work (when the hay wain continues its inexorable
movement toward hell) will leave Christ abandoned in the center panel.
?0SeeVandenbroeck, Volkslevenen stadscultuur,esp. 116ff.
"See Lotte Brand Philip, HieronymusBosch (NewYork: Harry N. Abrams, 1970), 6.
12See Anne M. Morganstern, "The Rest of Bosch's 'Ship of Fools;". Art Bulletin 66 (1984): 300302; and John Oliver Hand and Martha Wolff, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic
Catalogue:Early NetherlandishPainting (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1986), 19-21.
Examination of the many interpretations of the Gardenof Earthly Delights is beyond the scope of
this paper. Briefly, the proponents of a positive interpretation of the central scene include Wilhelm
Fraenger, Hieronymus Bosch (NewYork: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1983); and Reutersward, Bosch. Among
the proponents of a negative interpretation are Dirk Bax, Beschriving en poging tot verklaringvan het Tuin
der OnkuisheiddrieluikvanJeroen Bosch,gevoldg door kritiek op Fraenger(Amsterdam: N.V Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1956); Paul Vandenbroeck, "Jheronimus Bosch' zogenaamde 'Tuin der
Lusten' J,"Jaarboekvan het Koninklyk Museum voor Schone KunstenAntuwerpen(1989): 9-210, and idem,
"'Jheronimus Bosch' zogenaamde 'Tuin der Lusten' II: De graal of het valse liefdesparadijs," in Jaarboek
Jacobs/ Tnptychs
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Fig. 7. Bosch. Gardenof EarthlyDefiuts triptych.Maid, Museo del Prado (Photo:Prado)
Fig. 8. Bosch. Gardenof EarthlyDelightstriptych outer
(Photo:Prado)
Madrid,Musco del Prado
Gardenof Earthly Delights was intended for a secular rather than ecclesiastical location, since in 1517 (not long after its creation) a traveler mentioned seeing this
work in the palace of the dukes of Nassau in Brussels.14 The triptych evidently
was not placed in the chapel, since Albrecht Diirer's diary entry during his 1520
visit to the palace discusses a Hugo van der Goes painting in the chapel, but
makes no mention of the Bosch triptych.15 Although we have no information
about the original function of the Hay Wain, its subject matter suggests that, like
the Gardenof Earthly Delights, it would not have decorated an altar in a church or
formed a backdrop to the celebration of the Mass. The introduction of more secular themes in Bosch's triptychs thus appears to go hand in hand with the development of new, nonreligious functions for the triptych.While Bosch's triptychs
are not the first secularizing ones,16 they stand at the beginning of a significant
shift in the meaning and function of the triptych that took place around the year
1500.This shift-though to some degree alienating the triptych from its traditional religious roles17-had positive implications in that it dramatically increased
the thematic potential of the format.
THEBREAKDOWN
OFTHEHIERARCHY
OFTHETRIPTYCH
Another important innovation introduced by Bosch was a remarkable emphasis
on the exteriors of triptychs.Typically Netherlandish triptychs focus on the interior and treat the exterior more programmatically: most frequently, the exteriors
van het KoninklijkMuseum voor Schone KunstenAntwerpen (1990): 9-192.
14See Ernst H. Gombrich, "The Earliest Description of the Triptych,"Journal of the Warburgand
CourtauldInstitutes 30 (1967): 403-4; andJ. K. Steppe, "Jheronimus Bosch: Bijdrage tot de historische
en de ikonografische studie van zijn werk," inJheronimus Bosch bydragenbygelegenheid van de herdenkingstentoonstellingte s-Hertogenbosch1967 (Eindhoven: Drukkerij en Uitgeversbedrijf Lecturis, 1967), 8-11.
15On Diirer's diary, see Jane Campbell Hutchison, Albrecht Darer: A Biography (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1990), 141-42; one must presume that Diirer would have mentioned
seeing the Gardenof Earthly Delights in the chapel had he seen it, given the remarkable character of the
work. Other authors who argue that the Garden of Earthly Delights did not serve an altarpiece function
include Bax, Tuin der Onkuisheiddrieluik,131-34; Walter Gibson, "The Garden of Earthly Delights by
Hieronymus Bosch: The Iconography of the Central Panel," Nederlands KunsthistorischJaarboek 24
(1973): 21; and Hans Belting, Die Erfindung des Gemdlde:Das ersteJahrhundertder niederldndischenMalerei
(Munich: HirmerVerlag, 1994), 123. However, Marijnissen, Complete Works, 50-51, argues for the
altarpiece function of this and other triptychs; his position that late medieval sensibilities could have
tolerated a wider range of subject matter on the altar than more modern ones is supported by Pater
Gerlach, "Le Jardin des D6lices, un essai d'interprktation," in Jheronimus Bosch, ed. Roger H. Marijnissen (Brussels:Arcade, 1972), 134. Indeed the record of a 1615 visit to the Cathedral of Saint John in 'sHertogenbosch notes that viewers were scandalized by the nudes in paintings of the Creation and Last
Judgment; see Pater Gerlach, "De bronnen voor het leven en het werk van Jeroen Bosch," Brabantia16
(1967): 100.
16A few triptychs with portraits and with humanistic or erotic themes existed before the time of
Bosch; on these, see Paul Vandenbroeck, "Bij het 'Schuttersfeest' (1493) en het 'Dubbelportret' (1496)
van de Meester van Frankfurt,"Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen
(1983): 24-29, and idem,"Tuin der Lusten I," 10, n. 3.
t7Lankheit, Triptychon,20-26.
1020
Sixteenth CenturyJournal XXXI/4
(2000)
contain grisaille depictions of the Annunciation or portray standing saints (also in
grisaille). In such works, the exterior serves as a preface to the interior and is distinctly subordinate to it, because of the more limited nature (compared to the
interior) of the exterior's narrative content, complexity of design, and color
range. The exterior of Hugo van der Goes's Portinari Altarpiece, for example,
portrays two monochrome figures-theVirgin and the Angel Gabriel-in a shallow niche and thereby has less visual and thematic intricacy than the interior,
where large numbers of figures appear in glowing color within a broad landscape. Such a contrast between exterior and interior was standard within triptychs because it distinguished the everyday, closed view of the triptych from the
opened view, the latter usually reserved for Sundays and special feast days.18The
subordination of the exterior not only helped make the triptych appear even
more splendid when it was opened on festive days;it also made the exterior more
appropriate for display during Lent, when altarpieces were kept closed in keeping with the penitential nature of the season.19 The subordinate character of the
exterior was so well established that in some cases the exterior was relegated to
the hand of an assistant instead of that of the master himself. Bosch, however,
broke away from this established hierarchy and made the exteriors of his triptychs virtually equal in importance to the interiors.
He did this first by avoiding the standard iconic depictions of the Annunciation or saints, instead using the exterior field as a setting for more elaborate, often
narrative scenes. The exterior of the Temptationof Saint Anthony triptych (fig. 9,
with the interior of this work in fig. 10) depicts two narrative scenes of the Passion (the Arrest of Christ and the Carrying of the Cross) and these scenes contain large crowds of figures set into a vast landscape. Another work with an
elaborate narrative on its exterior is the Hay Wain (fig. 6). Although its exact
meaning is a matter of debate,20 the scene of a man traveling through a landscape
with a number of incidents occurring behind him presents much more complicated imagery than does, for example, the Annunciation on the exterior ofVan
der Goes's Portinari Altarpiece. Other Bosch triptychs with complicated exteriors include The Flood, with its four narrative roundels (of uncertain subject); the
Gardenof Earthly Delights (fig. 8), with its view of the cosmos on the third day of
creation; and the Bruges LastJudgment, with its depiction of Christ Crowned
with Thorns. Sometimes Bosch combined iconic elements with his narratives, as
on the exterior of the Epiphany (fig. 4), which juxtaposes the iconic vision of
Saint Gregory with narratives of the Passion in the arch above the Man of Sor-
18Evidence concerning the opening and closing of altarpieces is examined in Lynn F.Jacobs,
Early NetlherlandislhCarved Altarpieces: Medieval Tastes and Mass Marketing (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998), 17-18.
19See Molly Teasdale Smith, "The Use of Grisaille as a Lenten Observance," Marsyas 8 (1957-59):
43-54.
20Questions that surround the interpretation of the exterior of the Hay Wain are considered in
Virginia G. Tuttle, "Bosch's Image of Poverty,"Art Bulletin 58 (1981): 88-95.
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Sixteenth CenturyJournal XXXI/4
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rows. Bosch did venture onto more traditional iconographic ground when he
portrayed two saints on the exterior of his LastJudgmentinVienna (fig. 2),21 but
rather than show saints within a niche in the standard manner, Bosch depicts his
saints engaged in activities in the world. Saint James walks through a spacious
landscape (while behind him cripples make their way down the road and bandits
attack another traveler); and Saint Bavo, shown in an interior space that opens
into a townscape behind, gives alms to the poor who surround him.22
Bosch increased the importance of his exteriors not just by filling them with
more complex narratives, but also by enlivening the color schemes of his exteriors. None of Bosch's triptychs follows the fifteenth-century formula in which
stony gray monochromatic exteriors contrast strongly with brilliant polychromatic interiors. In such triptychs-as in manuscripts of the Speculumhumanaesalvationisthat depict Old Testament subjects in grisaille and New Testament ones in
color23-grisaille serves to mark off areas and scenes of lower status. Bosch's triptychs, on the other hand, include a variety of approaches designed to reduce
color contrasts (and thereby contrasts in level of importance) between the two
areas of the triptych. One such approach is found in the Hay Wain (figs. 5-6),
where Bosch painted the exterior in a full range of colors, close to those used on
the interior. There are a number of precedents for polychrome exteriors (e.g.,
Hugo van der Goes's Bonkil shutters in Edinburgh) and some roughly contemporaneous examples (e.g., Jan Gossart's Malvagna Triptych), so Bosch's use of color
on the exterior of the Hay Wain,though it gives greater importance to the exterior, was not especially innovative.
Bosch's oeuvre as a whole, however, is innovative in the subtlety and variety
of chromatic relations between the exteriors and interiors of the triptychs. In
addition to using full color on his exteriors, Bosch sometimes painted the outer
shutters in reduced color, that is, using paler colors and/or a more limited color
scheme, but not eliminating color altogether. Some examples include the scene of
the Christ Child Walking (fig. 11) on the reverse of the Vienna Christ Carryingthe
Cross (fig. 12)-where the color scheme is limited to the flesh tones of the child,
the gray tones of the setting, and the red that surrounds the scene. Another work
that probably formed a shutter exterior, the Peddler in Rotterdam, is rendered
entirely in pale colors.24
21See Dirk Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas CranachTwo Last Judgment Triptychs:Description and
Exposition (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing, 1983), 317-23, on how patronage circumstances
might explain the presence of the saints on the exterior.
22A similar emphasis on narrative complexity on the exteriors of the shutters can be found in
some other early-sixteenth-century northern Netherlandish triptychs and in many southern Netherlandish carved altarpieces of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
23An example of such a work is cited in James H. Marrow, "Art and Experience in Dutch
Manuscript Illumination around 1400: Transcending the Boundaries,"Journal of the WaltersArt Gallery
54 (1996): 111.
24Arguments that this panel originally was on the exterior of a triptych are offered in VanEyck to
Bruegel 1400 to 1550: Dutch and Flemish Painting in the Collection of the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen
(Rotterdam: Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, 1994), 94.
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Most commonly, though, Bosch used grisaille, not full or reduced colors, on
his exteriors, but still achieved coloristic effects. This is often accomplished by
adding small touches of strong color into the grisailles.Within the Arrest of Christ
(fig. 9) on the exterior of the Temptationof Saint Anthony triptych, the gray color
scheme is interrupted by the orange flame of a torch carried by a soldier. The
Passion scenes (fig. 13) on the exterior of the SaintJohn on Patmos (fig. 14)-a
work generally believed to have once formed the right wing of a triptych25include several orange and yellow flames: one in the center of the rock on which
the pelican sits, another in a torch carried by a soldier at the Betrayal, and one in
a torch amidst the soldiers in the Agony in the Garden.The exterior of the Epiphany triptych in the Prado (fig. 4) also renders several flames in color (within two
scenes in the arch over Christ). This triptych's exterior has other areas of color,
specifically the two donor figures that are painted in a full range of colors and
inserted amidst the grisaille imagery of the Mass of Saint Gregory and the Passion.26 In this case, Bosch drew on established practices of contrasting colored
images of donors with grisaille images of holy figures, as first developed in Jan
van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece.
Another way in which Bosch brought colorism into his grisailles was by
adding warm tones into the grays.27The exterior of the Gardenof EarthlyDelights
(fig. 8) includes highlights of pale pink and creamy white, and the exteriors of the
Temptationof Saint Anthony (fig. 9), the LastJudgment (fig. 2), and the Epiphany
(fig. 4) radiate warm brown undertones; prior to this time, most grisailles were
rendered predominantly in cool, gray hues. Though there are some parallels
between Bosch's treatment of grisaille and the so-called demigrisailles,28 these
latter have only limited areas of warm color, whereas Bosch's grisailles have warm
tones suffused throughout.29 The coloristic effect of Bosch's grisailles is enhanced
by his loose, painterly brush strokes, which (unlike the tight strokes of earlier grisailles) create shimmering highlights that give the images energy and life. As a
result, Bosch's grisailles, unlike those of his predecessors, abandon all references to
stone sculpture and become fully pictorial.
for Wilhelm Fraenger, "Hieronymus Bosch: Johannes auf Patmos, eine
25Most scholars-except
Umwendtafel fur den Meditationsgebrauch," Zeitschrftffir Religions-und Geistesgeschichte2 (1949-50)consider this work to be a shutter from a triptych: see Marijnissen, CotnpleteWorks,286.
26A number of scholars believe that the donors in color were later additions to the work: see, for
example, Baldass, Bosch,58, and Marijnissen, CompleteWorks,238.
7This aspect of Bosch's style is also noted by Carl Linfert, Hieronymus Bosch (NewYork: Harry
N. Abrams, 1989), 22.
28Demigrisalles consist of grisaille figures that have naturalistically colored flesh and hair; they
first appeared within the works of later fifteenth-century painters, most notably Memling and David.
On demigrisailles, see Paul Philippot, "Les grisailles et les 'degr&s de ralit&' de l'image dans la peinture
flamande des XVe et XVIe sikcles," Musees Royaux des Beauxx-Artsde Belgique Bulletin 15 (1966): 23142.
29A greater degree of coloristic warmth and a less stony quality is evident as well in some full
grisaille renderings of the second half of the fifteenth century. For a fuller consideration of the relation
between grisaille and stone sculptures, see Rudolf Preimesberger, "Zu Jan van Eycks Diptychon der
Sammiung Thyssen-Bornemisza," ZeitschrffifiirKunstgeschichte4 (1991): 459-66.
1026
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Museen zu Berlin Kukurbesitz, Gem~1degalenie
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The sources of Bosch's grisaille technique have been traced to manuscript
illumination. The delicate tonal nuances and refined colorism of Bosch's grisailles, as Suzanne Sulzberger has argued, may have drawn on the grisailles of the
1470s by the Master of Mary of Burgundy, with their use of salmon and violet
colors in the shadows and their astonishingly atmospheric backgrounds.30 Bosch
also uses the manuscript illuminators' technique of placing unblended strokes of
different colors side by side instead of blending them together as was standard for
most fifteenth-century panel painting.31 This aspect of Bosch's technique creates
the flickering, immaterial quality of his works, which Daniela HammerTugendhat relates to the works of the Utrecht illuminator, the Master of Zweden
von Coulemborg.32
The introduction of the miniaturist's approach into panel painting helped
Bosch create grisailles on the exteriors of his triptychs that could match, if not
surpass, the visual power of his polychrome interiors. In the Rotterdam Flood
panels, Bosch took the radical step of bringing grisaille into the interior of the
triptych, thereby eliminating color distinctions between interior and exterior.
Bosch may have chosen to render the Flood scenes of the opened view in grisaille to emphasize the sinfulness of man that occasioned the Flood or to capture
the gloominess of this catastrophic moment in world history.33 Regardless of the
specific reasons, Bosch's use of grisaille on both sides of the Rotterdam panels
provides compelling evidence that Bosch did not consider grisaille to be subordinate to color, and more importantly, that he saw the exteriors and interiors of his
triptychs as equally important within the overall structure.
A final way in which Bosch created greater emphasis on the outside of his
triptychs was by developing a more powerful design format for many of his triptych exteriors. He often organized the exterior fields of his triptychs in the form
of a roundel or a series of separate roundels with scenes placed within them.
Bosch created two roundels on the backs of each of the two Flood panels in Rotterdam, and used a single roundel on the back side of triptych fragments in
Vienna (fig. 11) and Berlin (fig. 13).The exterior of the Gardenof Earthly Delights
(fig. 8) is conceived as a roundel, with the sphere of the cosmos forming a circle
that extends across the two shutters. Bosch also used the roundel format within
several of his single-panel paintings, including the Escorial Christ Crowned with
30See Suzanne Sulzberger, "Notes sur la grisaille," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6 ser., 59 (1962): 11920, and idem, "Jer6me Bosch et les maitres de lenluminure," Scriptorium16 (1962): 46-49.
3tMaryan W Ainsworth, "New Observations on the Working Technique in Simon Marmion's
Panel Paintings," in Margaret of York, Simon Marmnion,and "The Visions of Tondal," ed. Thomas Kren
(Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1992), 248, and idem, Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges
(NewYork: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), 33-35.
32Hammer-Tugendhat, Bosch, 66. The impact of manuscript illumination on Bosch may account
for the miniaturization of motifs found throughout Bosch's works, even within the monumentally
scaled Garden of Earthly Delights; see Belting, Erfinduqgdes Gemdlde,125.
33Reuterswdrd, Bosch, 19, argues that the all-gray coloration of the Flood panels emphasizes
pessimism.
Thorns, the Cure of Folly, and most prominently, the famous Tabletopof the Seven
Deadly Sins. Bosch may have derived the roundel formula from sources in stained
glass, manuscript illumination, prints, or embroidery, since this format was not
especially common in the paintings of his time.34 Within triptychs in particular,
Bosch's use of roundels seems to be unique, for no other painted triptychs (either
from the northern or the southern Netherlands) and no carved altarpieces known
to me have this compositional element on either their exteriors or their interiors.
The roundel creates a strong visual impact because of the powerful graphic
quality of its circular shape. By using roundels on the exteriors, Bosch invested
the closed triptych with new formal significance, making it different from, but as
visually engaging as, the interior; the roundels on the exteriors present a clearer,
bolder design compared to the interiors, especially when viewed from a distance.
The circular format gives added iconographic significance to the exteriors of
Bosch's triptychs because it alludes to the terrestrial globe and thereby brings out
the universal implications of the scenes depicted within it: in placing the scene of
the Cure of Folly within a roundel, Bosch makes the scene not just a depiction of
one man's stupidity, but an illustration of how folly is "an essential trait of the universe as a whole."35 Similarly, the use of the circular format in the Escorial Christ
Crownedwith Thornshelps express the notion that Christ's suffering serves perpetually to redeem all of mankind. Bosch's use of the circular format to convey universalistic meaning may have been inspired by the traditions of the mappaemundi
(world maps in a circular format, which were prevalent during the Middle Ages),
particularly the famous version by Jan van Eyck.36
The roundel also alludes to the traditional circular form of mirrors, making
the roundel relate directly to the viewers as a mirror that reflects their sins.37 Such
a function may be relevant to the meanings of the Peddlerin Rotterdam, the exterior of the Rotterdam Flood panels, and the single-panel Cure of Folly. Conversely, some of the roundel images provide an image of God to be mirrored by
the viewer, as for example, the exterior of the Garden of Earthly Delights (fig. 8)
34A. E. Popham, "Die Josefslegende," Berliner Museen: Berichte aus den staatlichen Mnseen 52
(1931): 75, comments that the roundel format is rare in painting but common in stained glass.The use
of the roundel in embroideries and manuscript illumination is discussed in Margaret B. Freeman, The
Saint Martin Embroideries:
A Fifteenth-CenturySeries Illustratingthe Life and Legend of Saint Martin of Tours
(NewYork: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1968), 65.The roundel-form in a variety of media,
including woodcuts, is discussed in Walter S. Gibson, "Hieronymus Bosch and the Mirror of Man: The
Authorship and Iconography of the Tabletopof the Seven Deadly Sins," Oud Holland 87 (1973): 210-26.
35Tolnay, Bosch, 15. Koerner, "Contingency," 274, extends this point in his argument that when
Bosch imposed an artificial geometric form on his scenes he evoked a fixed and necessary framework
governing the operations of the natural world.
36The more specific question of the relationship between the exterior of the Garden of Earthly
Delights and medieval mappaernundiis considered below.
37This concept of the use of the mirror in Bosch is discussed in Gibson, "Tabletop,"220. On the
mirror as establishing a direct relation between the image and the viewer, see James H. Marrow, "'In
desen speigell': A New Form of 'Memento Mori' in Fifteenth-Century Netherlandish Art, in Essays in
Northern European Art Presented to Egbert Haverkarnp-Begemann on his Sixtieth Birthday (Doornspijk:
Davaco, 1983), 154-63.
1030
and the roundel of the Christ Child Walking(fig. 11).38 Similarly, on the reverse of
theVienna SaintJohn on Patmos (fig. 13) the roundel functions as a spiritual mirror
in which the viewer is invited to contemplate-in
the narrative imagery of the
Passion and the symbolism of the pelican-salvation through Christ's sacrifice.39
Bosch extends the meaning of the roundel in theVienna panel by creating a
roundel within a roundel, which is suggestive of an eye beholding the viewer. As
a result, theVienna roundel is transformed into the eye of a suffering God, looking out at the sinners before him, a theme that is even more clearly expressed in
the Tabletopof the Seven Deadly Sins.40
Bosch's use of the roundel format only on the outside-and never on the
inside-of his triptychs established the exterior as the area in which he deliberately emphasized more universal content and related it directly to the viewer. The
universal overtones of Bosch's roundel exteriors are highly appropriate given the
exteriors' function as the everyday, more commonly displayed part of the triptych. In some of Bosch's triptychs, the broader implications of the roundel exteriors are reinforced by the use of a larger scale on the exterior. In the Garden of
Earthly Delights (figs. 7-8), for example, the change from the vast scale of the
globe on the exterior to the more miniaturized scale of the interior generates a
transition from the level of the macrocosm to that of the microcosm.The more
monumental scale of the exterior makes the closed view of this altarpiece, though
only half the size of the opened one, take on an extraordinary visual presence.
Even in the absence of a larger scale, though,4t the roundel gives the exterior
thematic significances not found within earlier Netherlandish triptychs and, as a
result, helps the exterior play a role equal to that of the interior in the overall
iconographic program of the triptych.
THEUNIFICATION
OFTHETRIPTYCH
The use of the roundel within Bosch's triptychs introduces a strong design contrast between the circular composition on the exterior and the noncircular format
on the interior, playing up the inherent divisions within the triptych structure.
Another design format, the unified exterior (in which one scene is painted across
the two shutters), plays down divisions. Bosch used this format in several of his
works, notably the Prado Epiphany (fig. 4), the Hay Wain (fig. 6), and the Bruges
Christ Crownedwith Thorns(on the outside of the LastJudgment).Unlike the roun38MOst scholarsidentify the child here as the Christ Child:see Tolnay,Bosch,26-27, andWalterS.
Gibson,"Bosch'sBoy with aWhirligig:Some IconographicalSpeculations,"Simiolus8 (1975-76): 915. Dirk Bax, Hieronymus
Bosch:His PictureWritingDeciphered
(Rotterdam:A. A. Balkema,1979), 168,
however,interpretsthis child as an image of folly;if this latterinterpretationis valid,then the painting
would form anotherexampleof a mirrorof sins.
39Gibson,"Tabletop,"
223.
209-26.
40Gibson,"Tabletop,"
41see, for example,SaintJohnon Patmosshutter (figs. 13-14), where the figureson the exterior
aresignificantlysmallerthan those on the interior.
del, unified exteriors appear relatively frequently within both southern and
northern Netherlandish triptychs, especially those dating in the early sixteenth
century, such as Jan Gossart's Malvagna Triptych of 1512 and Mostaert's Deposition triptych of the 1520s. The exteriors of carved altarpieces of this period also
frequently unite scenes across panels, as in the Passion retable of Melbourne,
where the Mass of Saint Gregory scene spans the two central panels.42 Bosch's
unified exteriors, however, break down the divisions between the panels to an
extent never before seen.
In the Hay Wain (fig. 6), for example, Bosch extends the main figure of the
wayfarer across the two shutters, ignoring the crack that comes through the man's
basket, his right arm, and the top of his right leg; the link between the two sides
of the exterior is emphasized by the placement of the traveler's walking stick
diagonally across the seam and by the way that the man's head, which appears on
the right panel, is directed back to the threatening dog, shown on the left. The
two panels are further united by the left-to-right movement of the figure and the
unification of the landscape: the hills of the background and the path in the foreground flow smoothly together across the central divide, while the two trees in
each shutter parallel one another. A more thematic link is created here in the
depiction (on the right panel) of an empty gallows, which suggests the penal consequences of the robbery shown on the left. Bosch may be deliberately opposing
the visual unification of the exterior field of the Hay Wain and its obviously
divided nature in order to convey the theme of spiritual conflict: the central motif
of the peddler walking forward while looking backwards expresses a sense of
inner conflict, whether or not it specifically alludes to repentance from sin as has
been suggested.43 Bosch's construction of the exterior creates a tension that
heightens this sense of conflict by creating a unity that will be broken when the
wings of the triptych are opened and the body of the wayfarer splits in two.
The daring nature of Bosch's unification of his exteriors is evident in the
Mass of Saint Gregory on the exterior of the Prado Epiphany altarpiece (fig. 4).
Here Bosch paints the figure of Christ right over the molding of the frame and
places the body directly across the split between the panels. Most artists hesitated
to assert unity so boldly, as is manifest in the Mass of Saint Gregoryof the Melbourne carved Passion retable, where the molding is left unpainted and Christ is
moved to the left so as to avoid placing him over the crack.44 Bosch's interest in
unifying the exterior even affected triptychs whose closed views depict different
scenes, such as the Temptationof Saint Anthony triptych (fig. 9).This exterior contains two distinct scenes (the Arrest of Christ at the left and Christ Carrying the
Cross at the right), which are nevertheless integrated in two main ways: first, a
42An illustration of this work is in The Antwerp Altarpiece:National Gallery of Victoria (Antwerp:
Karel Engelen, 1983), 43.
43See Marijnissen, CompleteWorks,58.
44Bosch similarly paints the body of Christ across the split between the panels of the Christ
Crownedwith Thorns on the exterior of the LastJudgment triptych in Bruges.
1032
continuous landscape runs between them, and second, the movement in each is
directed into the center so that the figures on each side appear to move toward
each other. In the exterior of the Flood, which is constructed as four separate
roundels, Bosch similarly makes the horse at the bottom left and the battle at the
top right move inward to link the four scenes into a compositional whole. Bosch
combined his two methods of exterior design-the roundel and the unified exterior formats-in the ThirdDay of Creationon the exterior of the Gardenof Earthly
Delights (fig. 8), where the roundel-like form of the earth and the firmament
extends in a unified composition across the two panels. This work best exemplifies how in Bosch's conception of the triptych the unified format functions like
the roundel to give the closed view greater visual strength and thereby further
challenge the established hierarchies of the triptych.
The most significant and innovative way in which Bosch both eliminated
traditional hierarchies and created greater unity in the triptych was by forging
complex interrelationships between the exteriors and interiors of his works. Most
fifteenth-century Flemish triptychs have rather straightforward relationships
between their exteriors and interiors.45 A typical example is Hugo van der Goes's
Portinari Altarpiece, which places different scenes from the life of the Virgin in
the two sections of the triptych. Memling's Donne Triptych shows even looser
connections between exterior and interior, with the exterior depictions of Saints
Christopher and Anthony bearing no direct relation to the image of the Virgin
and Child with angels, saints, and donors on the interior of the work. By contrast, the exterior and interior zones of Bosch's triptychs are far more densely
interlinked in their iconographic content and even at times in their formal structures.
The iconographic connections can take on various forms.TheVienna shutter, which has the Christ Child Walking (fig. 11) on one side and Christ Carrying
the Cross (fig. 12) on the other sets up a temporal relationship between Christ's
first steps as a infant and his last steps on the way to his death.There may also be a
deliberate parallel between the form of the toy windmill in the child's hand and
the cross held by the adult.46 In the Hay Wain, the exterior scene of the wayfarer
(fig. 6) provides a summary of the sins that are explored on the interior (fig. 5):
the avarice of the bandits robbing a man on the left of the exterior shutter is reiterated on the interior in the people grabbing at the hay; and the lustiness of the
dancing couple on the right exterior shutter relates to the amorous singing
couple on top of the haystack. Moreover, both the exterior and the interior of
45Thus Blum, Netherlandish Triptychs, 11, and Neuner, Triptychon, 6, respectively, note specific
instances of and general tendencies toward triptychs in which the exterior and interior have no
significant relationship.
46The theme of Christ's first and last steps is proposed by Tolnay, Bosch, 26-27; the connection
between the windmill and the cross is raised by Gibson, "Boy with Whirligig," 12. However, Bax,
Picture-Writing,168, who argues that the child is not Christ but rather a symbol of folly, proposes that
the inner and outer wings relate in that the outer wing represents the unwisdom of those who do not
comprehend the suffering of Christ shown on the interior.
of the course of lifethe Hay Wain have a direction of movement-suggestive
that goes from left to right as the wayfarer walks on and the hay wagon rolls
toward hell.47 In both cases the left-to-right movement evokes the structure and
meaning of Last Judgment scenes, where the saved appear at the left (Christ's
dexter side) and the damned at the right (Christ's sinister side). The traveler on
the exterior, then, parallels the movement from Eden to hell that is shown on the
interior.
Bosch's triptychs do not always create such strong links between exterior and
interior: in one example, the Vienna LastJudgment (fig. 2), Bosch followed tradition and devoted the exterior to a depiction of saints that has no significant thematic connection to the interior. In his other LastJudgment triptych in Bruges,
though, Bosch painted Christ Crownedwith Thorns on the exterior, thereby creating a thematic contrast between Christ's humanity in the Passion on the exterior
and Christ's divinity as judge on the interior. This juxtaposition again pairs the
sins of mankind, evident in the figures tormenting Christ on the exterior, with
the ultimate punishment for sin, which Christ himself metes out at the end of
time on the inside. Some of the most complex connections between interior and
exterior are found in Bosch's triptychs of the Epiphany,Temptationof SaintAnthony,
and Gardenof Earthly Delights.These works also show a breakdown of the hierarchy of the triptych, and in the last two instances at least, the introduction of secular subject matter. As a result, these three paintings, to which we now turn,
constitute key statements of Bosch's new approach to the triptych.
PRADOEPIPHANY
The Prado Epiphany at first glance looks surprisingly traditional in its conception. The work combines a depiction of the Adoration of the Magi on the interior (fig. 3)-a very common religious theme among Netherlandish fifteenthcentury triptychs-with a portrayal of the Mass of Saint Gregory on the exterior
(fig. 4).This latter theme is frequently found on the exteriors of Netherlandish
carved altarpieces, presumably to allow the retable to refer to the Eucharist even
when closed after Mass. Bosch may well have depicted the Mass of Saint Gregory on the exterior of this triptych, as Craig Harbison has argued, so that he
could exploit the traditional character of this theme to offer an orthodox response
to questions about the nature of the Sacrament that were prevalent in the early
sixteenth century.48 Bosch, however, did not treat this orthodox theme in a traditional fashion, but introduced new features into the iconography. Most significantly, Bosch surrounded the figure of Christ, who appears miraculously on the
altar,with the unique motif of an arched structure containing narrative scenes of
47Koerner, "Contingency,' 266, distinguishes the exterior of this work as representing a lifetime
whereas the interior represents world time, and notes that both are about to run out.
48Craig Harbison, "Some Artistic Anticipations of Theological Thought," Art Quarterly,n.s. 2
(1979): 74.
1034
the Passion. The compositional and thematic importance of these Passion scenes
is underlined by the echoing of the shape of the arch-which incorporates the
rise of the Mount of Calvary-in the profile of the triptych. Given that the imagery of the interior has no particular relation to the altarpiece's shape, the exterior
imagery evidently formed a determining factor for the overall shape of the triptych. The arch thus helped Bosch achieve within the Epiphany the same emphasis
on the exterior found in most of his other triptychs.
The Prado Epiphany stands as one of the most striking examples of how
Bosch sought to unify the exteriors of his triptychs. Bosch's desire to unify the
exterior was so strong here that he not only painted Christ's body directly over
the moldings and crack between the two panels, but also violated other traditions
to achieve unity. In particular, he organized the chronology of Passion scenes
within the arch to read horizontally across the two panels rather than move
around the arch.49 Even more daringly, he maintained the central placement of
the Crucifixion scene at the top of the Passion arch, with the startling result that
the image of Christ on the Cross literally disappears into the crack, with only the
crossbar remaining at the sides. Bosch's willingness to accept this seemingly unacceptable by-product of unification actually strengthens the impact of his imagery,
creating a dramatic tension between the missing Christ on the Cross and Christ's
miraculous appearance on the altar below. 50 The unification of the exterior carries additional iconographic import in that Bosch used the raised central molding
to highlight certain elements-the body of Christ, the chalice, and the praying
hands of Saint Gregory-thereby visually reinforcing the theological notion of
the direct relation between the celebration of the Mass, the elements of the Mass,
and the body of Christ.51 This notion was further emphasized by the placement
of the Christ of Saint Gregory's vision right across the seam, which ensured that
Christ's body literally would be fractured when the triptych was opened, just as it
was during the fraction of the host within the Mass ceremony.
The Mass of Saint Gregory on the exterior of the Prado Epiphany is very
tightly interlinked with the interior, since both the exterior and interior focus on
the theme of the Eucharist.52 Whereas the exterior depicts the moment when
Christ appears on the altar as Gregory officiates at Mass-a miracle that affirms
the real presence of Christ's body in the bread and wine of the Mass-the inte49Tolnay,Bosch,372, first pointed out this chronological abnormality.
50Originally, the missing Christ on the Cross may have been "replaced" by an actual crucifix on
top of the triptych, since crucifixes were frequently placed atop altarpieces to fulfill the liturgical
requirement that a crucifix appear on the altar during the celebration of the Mass: see John B.
O'Connell, Church Building and Furnishing: The Church's Way-A Study in Liturgical Law (London:
Burns and Oates, 1955), 201-3.
51Fraenger, Bosch,311.
52The eucharistic significance of this triptych is emphasized by a number of scholars, particularly
Jacques Combe,Jerome Bosch (Paris: Pierre Tisn6, 1946), 42; Ursula Nilgen, "The Epiphany and the
Eucharist: On the Interpretation of Eucharistic Motifs in Mediaeval Epiphany Scenes," Art Bulletin 49
(1967): 311-14; and Barbara Lane, The Altar and the Altarpiece:SacramentalThemes in Early Netherlandish
Painting (NewYork: Harper & Row, 1984), 60-68.
rior depicts the three Magi bringing gifts to the Christ child, a scene that has
strong liturgical overtones because this act was associated with the offertory when
gifts of bread and wine were placed on the altar.53The connections between the
Epiphany and the Mass are especially emphasized in this rendition of the event,
since one of the gifts of the Magi is a statue of the Sacrifice of Isaac, the standard
prototype for the Crucifixion and by extension for the Mass sacrifice.54 The
notion of the real presence illustrated on the exterior is reaffirmed by the depiction of the newly incarnate Christ child on the interior; in this context, as Barbara Lane has argued, the Virgin Mary of the Epiphany, who holds the Christ
child on a cloth on her lap, forms an analogue to the altar bearing the body of
Christ on the exterior.55 Because both the exterior and interior fields of the triptych illustrate different aspects of the meaning of the Mass, the eucharistic theme
reverberatesthroughout the work.
The two main fields of Bosch's Epiphany triptych are even more closely
linked, however, thanks to the imagery of the arch on the exterior of the work.
The arch allows Bosch to include on the outside a narrative of the Passion that
complements the narrative of the Infancy on the inside. It also allows Bosch to
inject narrative into the predominately iconic imagery of the exterior, just as he
injected an iconic feature-the
isolated, devotional image of the Virgin and
Child56 within the narrative context of the interior. The scenes of the Passion
in the arch, as Lotte Brand Philip has noted, emphasize evil, even to the point of
replacing the bad thief in the Crucifixion scene with the epitome of evil,Judas
shown hanging on the gallows.57 The exterior thereby places Christ as the Man
of Sorrows within a frame of evil. Similarly, Christ is surrounded by evil in the
interior of this altarpiece. Some scholars have suggested that the shepherd on the
roof and even the Magi themselves have a diabolical character, but most commonly the figures in the stable, especially the half-naked figure at the front, have
been identified as forces of evil.58 The rickety stable with its unsavory denizens
53Nilgen, "Epiphany and Eucharist," 312-13.
540n the relation between the sacrifice of the Mass and Christ's sacrifice on the cross, see M.
Lepin, L'idee du sacrificede la messe d'apres les theologiensdepuis l'originejusqu'a nosjours (Paris: Gabriel
Beauchesne, 1926). Another eucharistic reference in this work is noted by James Snyder, introduction
to Bosch in Perspective,ed. James Snyder (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1973), 13-14, that is, that
the collar of Melchior contains a depiction of the Sacrifice of Manoah.
55Lane,Altar andAltarpiece,68.
56The isolation of the Virgin and Child in this scene is noted by a number of commentators,
notably Lotte Brand Philip,"The Prado 'Epiphany' byJerome Bosch,"Art Bulletin 35 (1953): 277-78.
7Philip, "The Prado 'Epiphany,"' 288-89. A different interpretation of Judas's presence is
advanced by Walter S. Gibson, Hieronymus Bosch (NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1973), 120, who
argues that the motif ofJudas hanging relates to the conflict between Church and Synagogue.
58Among the negative interpretations of the half-naked figure are those of Philip, "The Prado
'Epiphany,"' 58, 267-75, who identifies the half-naked figure as the Jewish Messiah, symbolic of the
Synagogue and the Antichrist, and of Ernst H. Gombrich, "The Evidence of Images," Interpretation:
Theory and Practice,ed. Charles S. Singleton (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1969), 79-89,
who identifies this figure as Herod. More positive interpretations of this figure are provided by
Fraenger, Bosch, 315-17, who identifies the figure as Adam, and Tolnay, Bosch, 372-73, who argues
1036
thus provides an architectural environment that surrounds and threatens Christ in
the same way that the arch structure does on the exterior.The Prado Epiphany,
then, clearly illustrates how Bosch was able to escape traditional hierarchies and
integrate exterior and interior so that the thematic and formal structures of the
opened and closed views could meaningfully reinforce each other on a number of
levels.
TEMPTATION OF SAINT ANTHONY
Bosch's Temptationof Saint Anthony in Lisbon goes even further than the Epiphany
in implementing Bosch's innovative approach to the triptych. Here the subject
matter of the interior (fig. 10) moves into the realm of secular art insofar as it
depicts not holy figures in a heavenly setting, but a world taken over by sin. The
figure of Saint Anthony, who struggles heroically to ward off various torments
and temptations, is distinctly subordinate to the demonic figures swarming
throughout the triptych. The viewer indeed must exert significant effort to locate
Saint Anthony and Christ in the central panel amidst the environment of evil in
which they are placed. Compared to the Epiphany,the Temptationof Saint Anthony
has a vaster, panoramic viewpoint, as well as a reduced figure scale and an
increased number of figures. This contributes to the work's character as a worldview and as world history. The Temptationof Saint Anthony thus is similar to the
Hay Wain in that it is focused on the theme of moral and immoral life in this
world with very little reference to any world beyond this one.
The Temptationof Saint Anthony is also notable for its emphasis on the exterior through the use of very elaborate narrative. Bosch constructs the two Passion scenes of the outside of the wings (fig. 9), using more extensive crowd scenes
and landscapes than he does in any of his other surviving triptychs. He makes the
narrative even more complex by employing an inverted composition-a format,
originating in the early sixteenth century, which is characterized by the placement of the main narrative event behind subsidiary scenes in the foreground.59 In
the Arrest,the scene of Peter cutting off the ear of Malchus appears at the front,
with the moment when the soldiers actually take Christ relegated to the middle
ground. Similarly, in the Carryingof the Cross,the confession of the two thieves is
shown in the foreground, clearly separated from the crowd grouped around
Christ further back. This use of the inverted composition helps create a greater
breadth of incident as well as a greater sweep of space within the two scenes.
5ll
that the figures representedthe Messiah as described by Isaiah,standingas a prefigurationof Christ
and his Passion.
590n the inverted compositional type in Lucas van Leyden, see Peter Parshall,"Lucas van
Leyden'sNarrativeStyle,"Nederlands
29 (1978):211ff.; the use of this technique
Kunsthistorischjaarboek
in Bosch is discussedby AugustVermeylen,Hieronymus
Bosch(Amsterdam:
H.J.WBecht, 1938-39), 40.
Jacobs / Triptychsof HieronyrnusBosch 1037
The conception of the two scenes of the exterior is rendered even more
complex by the subtle play between unity and division that Bosch establishes
between the two panels. Bosch creates unity by giving both scenes a similar compositional structure (with a subsidiary group in the front, the main crowd in the
center, and a dominating rock behind) and by making the direction of movement in each panel converge toward the center. At the same time, though, Bosch
sets up an opposition between the two sides, showing Christ confronting a
depraved mocker at the left, whereas he confronts the virtuous Veronica at the
right; also reverse the grisaille tones (which shift from light to dark at the left and
from dark to light at the right) to indicate a change from night to day.60The unifying features thus give the exterior an overall thematic and emotional unity,
while the opposition between the panels creates an almost deterministic sense of
the unfolding of time as Christ moves closer to the moment of his death.
The triptych of the Temptationof Saint Anthony sets up a complex interaction
not just between the two panels of the exterior, but also between the panels of
the exterior and the interior. By pairing scenes of the Passion of Christ on the
exterior with scenes from the life of Saint Anthony on the interior, Bosch establishes a direct parallel between the life of Anthony and that of Christ, equating
Anthony's temptation with Christ's Passion and capturing the notion of the imitation of Christ.61 The themes of exterior and interior are further related by the
juxtaposition of the temptations of sin on the interior with the salvation of Christ
on the exterior, and by the depiction in both areas of Christ supporting the battle
against sin. 62 Bosch strengthens the thematic connections through visual parallels
between the figures of Anthony and Christ. First, in the center panel of the interior, Christ and Anthony make the same benedictional gesture.63 Second, on the
left wing at the front,Anthony falls over in a position similar to that of Christ in
the scene of his Arrest on the reverse of the same panel. The similarities in the
postures here are particularly notable, given that Christ normally stands upright in
scenes of the Arrest. Finally, the right panel shows each of the protagonists
coming face to face with females, Christ on the outside and Anthony on the
inside. In this shutter Bosch sets up a contrast, since Christ turns to face the virtuous Veronica, but Anthony averts his gaze from the naked temptress. This contrast ultimately serves to unite the two men as embodiments of sanctity and as
exemplars of the proper manner in which holy men should relate to women.
These parallels between Anthony and Christ elevate Anthony to a status virtually equal to that of Christ. The iconographic arrangement of this triptych
600n the reversal from night to day, see Koerner, "Contingency;" 275.
61The importance of the notion of"inlitatio Christi" in Bosch's works, including the Temnptation.
of Saint Anthony triptych, is discussed in Walter S. Gibson, "'Imitatio Christi': The Passion Scenes of
Hieron mus Bosch," Sitniolus 6 (1972-73): 83-93.
6 Tolnay, Bosch,357, and Bax, Picture-Writing,169.
63Charles D. Cuttler, "The Lisbon 'Temptation of Saint Anthony' by Jer6me Bosch," Art Bulletin
39 (1957): 124.
1038
(though similar to that found in Griinewald's Isenheim Altarpiece) reverses the
typical Netherlandish format in which scenes of Christ and Mary normally
appear on the inside and saints are relegated to the outside.64 This reversal makes
the triptych center on the life of Anthony, and reveals that (as in the Hay Wain
and in other works) Bosch is more interested in humanity than in divinity. The
thematic reversal in addition allows the triptych to offer a response to the question that, according to accounts of his life, Anthony posed after he was tortured
by demons. He asked "Where were you, 0 good Jesus, where were you?"65 The
triptych demonstrates that Christ was there at all times, since his presence is
shown or evoked in every panel.66
GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS
Bosch's innovative approach to the triptych reaches a high point in his most
famous work, the Garden of Earthly Delights (figs. 7-8). This work numbers
among Bosch's more secular triptychs because its main scene (though set between
images of paradise and hell) focuses on naked figures indulging in various earthly
pleasures; as in the Hay Wain (fig. 5) and the Temptationof SaintAnthony (fig. 10)
the sinful world of man takes center stage in this triptych. The Garden of Earthly
Delights presents an unfolding of world history, beginning with the third day of
creation on the exterior, through the beginnings of human history in the garden
of Eden at the left, the sinning of man after the expulsion from the garden in the
center, and the final punishment for these transgressions in hell at the right.67 The
theme of world history is emphasized at the outset, since the use of the roundel
within the exterior view of the cosmos on the third day of creation, is based on
the tradition of medieval world maps (mappaemundi).68During the Middle Ages
mappaemundiwere often placed in monastic schools, libraries, or scriptoria where
they were associated with the secular liberal arts, particularly with geography,
which was considered a branch of history.69 The context of the Gardenof Earthly
64Cuttler, "Lisbon 'Temptation,"' 124, argues that Bosch does not merely elevate Anthony to the
status of Christ, but unwittingly elevates him above Christ.
Readingson theSaints,trans.William Granger Ryan
65See Jacobus de Voragine, The GoldenLegend:
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 1:94.
66Cuttler, "Lisbon 'Temptation,"' 124, also sees the work as relating to Anthony's question to
Christ; but he argues slightly differently that the appearance of Christ in Anthony's cell in the central
scene shows Christ responding even before Anthony asks.
67On whether the central panel might depict mankind in the days of Noah, before the Flood, see
Vandenbroeck, "'Tuin der Lusten' II," 72-91.
68The relation between the exterior of the Gardenof Earthly Delights and mappaemundiis discussed
in Koerner, "Contingency," 269, and Karl Clausberg, "Scheibe, Rad, Zifferblatt: Grenziibergang zwi-
Weltkarte
Interdisziplindres
schenWeltkartenundWeltbildern,"in Ein Weltbild
vorColumbus:
Die Ebstorfer
Colloquium 1988, ed. Hartmut Kugler (Weinheim:VCH, 1991), 280-81; and Elisabeth Dhanens,
Hubert andJan van Eyck (NewYork:Tabard Press, 1980), 173. On medieval mappaemundi,see Marcia
Kupfer, "Medieval World Maps: Embedded Images, Interpretive Frames," Wordand Image 10 (1994):
262-88.
69Kupfer, "World Maps," esp. 264.
Delights suggests that its exterior indeed was meant to explicate secular history, for
the Gardenof EarthlyDelights most likely was originally made for one of the dukes
of Nassau,70 and the holdings of the Nassau library during the time when the
triptych was painted show a distinct emphasis on the subject of history. Hence
the worldly focus of the exterior may be directly related to the patron's special
interest in secular history.71
Bosch's Gardenof Earthly Delights not only makes new strides in the secularization of the triptych, but also is particularly effective in breaking down the hierarchy of the triptych by increasing the importance of the exterior.The image of
the cosmos in grisaille on the outer shutters is the most monumental and imposing of all of Bosch's exteriors, and the visual power of the exterior is enhanced by
the way in which Bosch, for the only time in his surviving works, structures the
exterior in a roundel format that extends in a unified composition over both panels. Bosch exploits the dual possibilities of the roundel and unified formats to
create a highly nuanced play between unity and division in the scene.While
Bosch unites the orb across the two panels, he also establishes a contrast between
the two sides, showing the right side in shadow, with no fruits growing, whereas
the left side has trees glowing in light and fruits beginning to sprout. In this way
Bosch delineates a sequence of unfolding time and a progression in the stages of
creation from the right to the left panel of the exterior, similar to the progression
of time suggested in the Passion scenes of the exterior of the Temptationof Saint
Anthony triptych (fig. 9). In Garden of Earthly Delights, then, as in his other triptychs, Bosch simultaneously worked with and against the additive nature of the
triptych to deepen the visual and thematic potential of the format.
Bosch's Gardenof Earthly Delights achieves connections between the exterior
and interior of the triptych that are both intriguing and laden with meaning, formally and iconographically. One connection forged in this work is a correspondence between the dark side of the orb on the right panel of the exterior and the
scene of hell on the interior. There is a parallel correspondence between the
70The work presumably was made for either Engelbrecht II of Nassau or, more likely, his
successor,Hendrik III of Nassau.On the identificationof the patronof the Gardenof EarthlyDelights,
see especiallyPaterGerlach,"HendrikIII van Nassau:Heer van Breda,veldheer,diplomaaten mecenas," Brabantia20 (1971): 48-52, 87-94, and Steppe, "Bosch bijdragen," 11-12. The claim of
"'Tuinder Lusten'II,"163-66, that the Gardenof EarthlyDelightswas commissionedon
Vandenbroeck,
the occasion of Hendrik'sfirst marriagein 1503 or his second in 1511 is not convincing, since the
imageryseemsfar too censoriousfor such happycelebrations.
7 The bulk of Engelbrechtand Hendrik'smanuscriptsare historicaltexts,and included Le roman
Jean de
du Saint Graalet de la tableronde;
Tristande LUonois,
the Histoiredu chevalier
de Gironle Courtois;
de Flandres;
Titus Livius,HistoireRomaine(in French);the Chronique
d'Angleterre;
Warrin,Leschroniques
Baudoin d'Avesnes,Le tresordes Histoires,Histoireanciennejusqu'l Cesar;Xenophon, Cyropedie(in
Library:
Orange-Nassau
See TheSeventeenth-Century
French);andVincentof Beauvais,Le miroirhistorial.
and OtherContemporary
The CatalogueCompiledbyAnthonieSmetsin 1686, the 1749 AuctionCatalogue,
Sources,ed. A. D. Renting and J. T. C. Renting-Kuijpers (Utrecht: HES, 1993). On book and art
collecting in the northern Netherlandsafter the time of Bosch, see JeremyB. Bangs,"Book and Art
Collection of the Low Countriesin the LaterSixteenthCentury:Evidence from Leidenr"TheSixteenth
Journal13 (1982):25-39.
Century
1040
lighter side of the orb at the left and the paradise scene on the reverse. The division of light and dark on the exterior therefore reflects the division of paradise
and hell on the interior. Bosch further links the exterior and interior panels by
repeating certain motifs on the two sides of the panels.The cherries on curving
stalks and the pearlike vegetal forms at the bottom of the left exterior reappear at
the top of the inside of that very panel, and the spiky rock formations of the
lower right exterior wing have analogies in the forms of the burning buildings at
the top of the hell scene on the reverse.72
Bosch also interrelates the exterior and interior of this triptych by using the
same oscillation between unity and division found on the exterior within the
interior as well. Just as the exterior presents a unified orb divided into light and
dark halves, the interior is unified overall by the landscape horizon at the top that
extends continuously across all three panels, even the hell panel. At the same time
Bosch creates a division at the right, separating the scene of hell from the other
panels by the radical change from the bright ochers, pinks, and scarlets at the left
and center to the much darker, blacker palette dominating the hell panel. Bosch
in addition divides each of the three inner scenes horizontally into three zones,
creating a top and bottom separated by a central body of water. As on the exterior, the divisions within the scenes suggest a chronological unfolding and
thereby introduce a sense of continuous narration into each scene. Bosch used
this technique in the left panel of the Hay Wain (fig. 5), the paradise wing, where
he delineated three different narrative events (the Creation of Eve, theTemptation, and the Expulsion) within three zones, each with its own horizon line. Similarly,the left shutter of the Gardenof Earthly Delights can be seen as depicting two
moments within the Genesis story-the creation of animals at the top, and the
each of these sections has its
joining of man and woman at the bottom-since
own perspective and horizon.73
The movement between unity and division sets up a play between synchronic and diachronic action that relates directly to the work's iconographic
content. A main theme in the Garden of Earthly Delights is creation: this theme is
clearly expressed on the exterior (fig. 8), which not only depicts the third day of
creation,74 but at the top shows God the Father with a book, thereby evoking the
concept of creation by the word.The Creator's command to be fruitful and multiply is evident on the interior, which shows the joining of Adam and Eve at the
72Tolnay, Bosch,360, argues that the interior is conceived as a semicircle in perspective alluding to
the terrestrial globe; this could provide another compositional tie between interior and exterior, but I
find it difficult to conceive of the interior in this way.
73Vandenbroeck, "'Tuin der Lusten' I," 44, points out this dual-perspective construction, but
considers it an anomaly that he cannot explain.
74Though some have suggested that the scene includes allusions to the fourth day as well (see, for
example, Marijnissen, Complete Works,87), the heavenly bodies, which were created on day four, are
not shown. The argument raised by Ernst H. Gombrich, "Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights': A
Progress Report,"Journal of the Warburgand Courtauld Institutes 32 (1969): 162-63, that the exterior
reflects the earth after the Flood, not Creation, is unconvincing.
left and has many references to fertility and procreation in the center.75 One of
the questions about creation that concerned people throughout the Middle Ages
was whether God created things simultaneously, as Saint Augustine had argued, or
whether creation (as a literal reading of scripture seems to indicate) took place
over the course of six days.76 The ambiguities of simultaneous and continuous
action in the Gardenof Earthly Delights may well represent a deliberate attempt by
Bosch to express within one work dual interpretations, creation both in an instant
and over time. This would be consistent with the view prevailing in Bosch's time,
as expressed by the northern Netherlandish theologian Denis the Carthusian,
whose interpretation of creation straddles the two competing theories by designating some aspects of creation as occurring simultaneously, others over the
course of days;77 Denis's writings provide a context for the dualistic approach
present in Bosch's triptych.
In the Garden of Earthly Delights, Bosch pushed the possibilities of the triptych format to the limit. He expanded its thematic scope to include depictions of
human sexuality that previously were excluded. He established within the triptych different zones of equal levels of importance, and then exploited the possibilities for unity and division inherent in the triptych's structure to attain new
levels of thematic sophistication. Finally, he interrelated the interiors and exteriors of each triptych to a degree unparalleled within painted or carved altarpieces
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. As a result, Bosch was able to turn a traditional format-one seemingly on the verge of being outmoded-into
a structure that could interweave formal and iconographic elements to create an
intricate web of meanings, each reverberating against the other in ways that could
not be achieved within the single panel format. Bosch's approach to the triptych
hence is as unique as his approach to iconography itself. A number of scholars
have argued that Bosch's distinctive iconography resulted from his moving elements and motifs previously relegated to the margins of manuscript illumination
into the center of his panel paintings.78 Moxey has further proposed that in doing
this, Bosch inverted cultural hierarchies to create imagery of the world turned
upside down.79 Similarly, through his innovative approach to the format, Bosch
effectively turned the world of the triptych upside down.
75The themes of fertility, sexuality, and procreation in the Garden of Earthly Delights are
emphasized by Bax, Tuin der Onkuisheiddrieluik, and Vandenbroeck, "'Tuin der Lusten' I," and "'Tuin
der Lusten' II."
76See Frank Egleston Robbins, The Hexaemeral Literature: A Study of the Greek and Latin
Commentarieson Genesis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1912). The main Augustinian text on
creation is found in Saint Augustine, ThieLiteral Meaning of Genesis, trans.John Hammond Taylor (New
York: Newman Press, 1982).
77See Denis the Carthusian, "Enarratio in Genesim, in Doctoris Ecstatici D. Dionysii Cartusiani
Opera Omnia (Monstrohi:Typis Cartusiae S. M. de Pratis, 1896), 16.
780n the theme of margins in general, see Michael Camille, Images on the Edge: The Margins of
MedievalArt (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992).
79Keith P. F. Moxey, "Semiotics and the Social History of Art," New Literary History 22 (1991):
996-97.

The Triptychs of Hieronymus Bosch

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