Iconology of the Wayfarer Triptych – Detail

Wat in het gedicht uitgedrukt wordt door het beeld van den roodgekamden haan, verbeeldt ook wel het dier op het schilderij, dat daar bovenop den mesthoop prijkt [Bisschop & Verwijs, 1870, 173]. (p. 83)

…that the rooster, too, may be a detail which has some connection planet god Saturn. In the Rotterdam painting the rooster on occurs together with the swine feeding from the trough distinctly demarcated section of the picture plane, and it is detail in this area. In a fifteenth century illustration showing the of Saturn an oversized cock is depicted on the roof of the hut which the swine are fed [Saturn (in Schermermar manuscript), 15th century]. It is therefore possible that like the swine, was thought to be an animal belonging to Saturn [Philip, 1958, 69:note 146] (p. 6)

The rooster which occurs near the inn in Bosch’s painting [Philip, 1958, 6: note 14] is a symbol of lust and unchastity and is also connected with the procuring activities of the peddler. The rooster originally signified fertility and was therefore an attribute of the god Mercury. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the cock frequently appears on the caps of fools in representations in which the fool is the entertainer and procurer. Cf., for instance, the fool as the maître de plaisir in the woodcut by Cornelis Teunissen, repr. in Hampe [Anthonisz, 1541]. There are innumerable examples of fools, prostitutes, procures, go-betweens and match-makers with the rooster [Bax, 1949]. (p. 69:note 146)