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Iconology of the Wayfarer Triptych – Detail

Location of Visual Attribute

Interior Panels of the Wayfarer Triptych

#117

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

…normally, the half-moon stands for the Turkish world. Bosch’s use of the crescent moon in other paintings, such as Crowning with Thorns and Ecce Homo [Bosch, ca. 1510; Bosch, ca. 1494 (Ecce Homo); Marijnissen, 1987, 353, 369, 373 note 6; Cinotti, 1966, cin. 57, cin. 10], demonstrates his reference to the Jewish world, possibly meaning the threatening “otherness” of the heretic world as such. (pp.32-33)

Hartau, 2005 (Bosch and the Jews)

Bosch and the Jews

Keywords

Heresy; Jews; Ottoman Empire;

Category

Morality and immorality,Non-Christian religions,Social life, culture and activities

Interpretation Type

InfoSensorium Facet (Sum, 2022)
–
Layer of meaning (van Straten, 1994)	Conception of Information (Furner, 2004)	Level of knowledge (Nanetti, 2018)	View of reality (Popper, 1972, 1979; Gnoli, 2018)
Iconographical interpretation	Relevance (Iconographical)	Interpretations,Narratives	Second world (Mind)

Reference Source(s)

Bosch, ca. 1494 (Ecce Homo); Bosch, ca. 1510; Cinotti, 1966; Marijnissen, 1987

Symbolic Images

: Bosch, J. (ca. 1494). Ecce Homo [Oil on panel]. Städel Museum, Frankfurt. no. 1577.

: Bosch, J. (ca. 1510). The crowning with thorns [Oil on panel]. The National Gallery, London. NG4744.

#109

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

Certainly, the crescent moon could have been associated with Islam and thus with heresy and enemies of Christianity by Bosch… (p.647, note 20)

Silver, 2001

God in the Details: Bosch and Judgment(s)

#117

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

Hartau, 2005 (Bosch and the Jews)

Bosch and the Jews

#132

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

…pink oriflamme with the devils emblem (the crescent) (p. 31)

Delevoy, 1960

Bosch

#179

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

Hij komt, behalve aan de mast van het schip, bij pretmakers ook nog voor op de tekening van de boommens, waarvan bomen en plantengroei naar de Meimaand kunnen wijzen [Bax, 1949, 185-198], en op twee afbeeldingen uit het Schönbartbuch, die Vastenavondvierders laten zien [Bax, 1949, 148, note 23]. Uit de behandeling van het embleem der halve maan blijkt, dat dit teken een zinnebeeld van de losbandigheid kan zijn, hetwelk niet alleen tot het Carnaval beperkt bleef. (p. 193)

Bax, 1949

Ontcijfering van Jeroen Bosch

#185

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

Het wijnrode (?) kleed aan het touw wekt herinneringen aan de Vastenavond: de prins Carnaval van een 17de-eeuwse Franse gravure [Alexandre, 1892, 60] en een van zijn volgelingen op een prent van S. A. van Bolswert (1586—1659) hebben in de hand een bezem, waaraan een grote doek gebonden is [van de Venne, ca. 1625]. (p. 193)

Bax, 1949

Ontcijfering van Jeroen Bosch

#243

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

der Sichelmond auf der Fahneist Sinnbild des Abfalls vom wahren Glauben, so auch beim “Alchemistischen Menschen”(Wien) [Ryckaert, ca. 1649]. Im “Heuwagen” [Bosch, ca. 1512-1515, Lurker, 1960, 13] wird das flämische Sprichwort illustriert: “Die Welt ist ein Heuberg,jedermann rupft davon, was er bekommen kann” (p. 13)

Lurker, 1960

Der Baum in Glauben und Kunst: unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Werke des Hieronymus Bosch

#299

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

A pennant similar to that of the Ottoman Empire, with a yellow crescent on a red background, flutters above the chicken and below the top of the mast, which ends in the leafy crown of a tree or a maypole, with an owl peering out of its depths. (p. 191)

Fischer, 2016

Jheronimus Bosch

#410

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

Een groote wimpel wappert van den mast, waarop een liggend halvemaantje, het „schuitje van de maan, is geschilderd. (p. 29)

de Haas, 1942

De ommegang met het wagenschip

#438

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

Ook een ander schilderij van Brueghel, het bekende van de Vlaamsche Spreekwoorden in het Kaiser Friedrich-Museum te Berlijn [Bruegel, 1559 (Die niederländischen Sprichwörter)], bevat mogelijk een herinnering aan de Blauwe Schuit. Op het Parijsche schilderijtje van Bosch en op de eenige authentieke afbeelding van de Blauwe Schuit, in het zgn. Neurenberger Schönbartbuch, dat in de Universiteitsbibliotheek te Hamburg zich bevindt, voert het Carnavalsschip in top een rooden wimpel met een gouden halve maan [Enklaar, 1937, 67, 78; “Carrus Navalis in Schönbartbuch”, 16th century; “Carrus Navalis in Schönbartbuch”, 1908]. Op het Eerlij nsche schilderij van Brueghel ziet men die vlag uit een dakraam steken. (p. 117)

Enklaar, 1940

Uit Uilenspiegel’s kring

#50

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

And the pennant flying in the breeze carries the sign of the most threatening pagans of the day, the Turks. Their crescent insignia was frequently used by Bosch to indicate the enemies of Christian belief [Bosch, ca. 1494 (Ecce Homo); Bosch, ca. 1500 (Temptations of St. Anthony); Bosch, ca. 1510; Bosch, ca. 1498; Bosch, ca. 1505]. (p. 274)

Cuttler, 1969

Bosch and the Narrenschiff: a problem in relationships

#539

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

The fool with cap and bells sits in the tree. and above, the baleful owl and the flag of heresy (crescent moon) explain the nature of the boat. (p. 93)

Cinotti, 1966

The complete paintings of Bosch

#855

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

No one could view the Bosch panels without realizing that this indulgence is sinful. But the Louvre panel contains explicit labels that mark the scene as evil. For one thing, the banner fluttering from the tree-mast bears the crescent moon of Islam, no longer associated with turbaned figures in exotic dress but now atop a boat with Christian monastics in the midst of their pleasures. (p. 252)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#87

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

The element connecting The Ship of Fools with the representation of the carrus navalis in the Schönbartbuch is the sign of the moon, he moon, but so far the moon, on which both the theme and form of the painting are based, has been interpreted only superficially as a sign of disbelief and Satan [Adhémar, 1962, 21; Delevoy, 1960, 31; Cuttler, 1969, 274.]… (p.47)

Boczkowska, 1971

The Lunar Symbolism of The Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch

#92

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

In Bosch’s painting the moon is shown as the attribute of the tree of life in the boat because it was one of the most popular symbols of change and the passing of time, as well as of birth, life and approaching death [Quarles, 1962, 31, 168, fig. 122]. Like the tree of life, it represented the physical transitoriness, the mortality of man. It was, moreover, thought of as directing the organic functions that limit the human, plant and animal worlds; as the planet closest to Earth it governed the changes taking place in the material world which was, for this reason, called the ‘sublunar world’ [Quarles, 1962, 31, 168, fig. 122]. The tree of life, linking the two opposites, life and death, with the idea of change, was an archetypal moon tree [Hentze, 1932, 20; Neumann, 1950, 361]. (p.60)

Boczkowska, 1971

The Lunar Symbolism of The Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch

#93

Pennant with cresent symbol from Ship of Fools

…the moon which appears as the attribute of the tree of life in The Ship of Fools is a symbol of the curriculum vitae. It signifies the material sublunar existence of man, subject to the laws of nature and the drift towards death. The moon was, indeed, used as a symbol of death in secular European art at various other periods apart from the Middle Ages [Cumont, 1942, 182ff.; Kozàky, 171; Eliade, 1959, 155]. (p.61)

Boczkowska, 1971

The Lunar Symbolism of The Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch