Iconology of the Wayfarer Triptych – Detail

The miser is shown a second time, in the foreground of a parallel scene, leaning on his stick and holding his rosary, but at the same time filling a money bag being held open by a devil crouching inside a chest. (p. 192)

Another figure, possibly the old man’s alter ego, stands at the foot of the bed. With one hand he puts coins into a chest, where a rat-faced creature collects them in a large pot; in the other hand he holds a rosary. Here, too, the scene seems to revolve around religious faith versus material possessions. (p. 298)

…the issue of the struggle is far from certain. An opened money chest can be seen at the foot of the bed, where an elderly man, perhaps the miser shown a second time, places a gold piece into a bag held by a demon. He seems little concerned with the rosary hanging from his waist. In representing the money chest so prominently, Bosch may have been thinking of the passage in Matthew 6:21, ‘For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also’ [English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Matthew, 6:21], and of the quaint’ but edifying legend, common in medieval sermons, of the miser who dies unrepentant and whose heart is found buried in his strong-box. (p. 47)

The figure at the foot of the bed has been identified by some authors as the dying man himself in an earlier manifestation, as in the kind of “simultaneous narrative” found in medieval art [Baldass, 1943; Elst, 1944; Reuterswärd, 1970] Whether intentional or not, the figure seems to function as a personification of the dying man. There is virtual agreement that the standing figure is presented as evil and hypocritical; with one hand he puts coins into the strongbox where they are collected by a rat-faced demon and with the other he fingers a rosary, attempting to serve God and Mammon at the same time, so to speak. The lid of the chest is held open with a knife, a symbol of anger, another of the Seven Deadly Sins. (p. 18)

…the issue of the struggle is far from certain. An opened money chest can be seen at the foot of the bed, where an elderly man, perhaps the miser shown a second time, places a gold piece into a bag held by a demon. He seems little concerned with the rosary hanging from his waist. (p. 32)

…the dying man and the one rummaging in his strongbox are one and the same person, in either guise, oscillates between sanctimoniousness and avarice without noticing the bloated monsters lurking in every corner (pp. 18-19)

And what is going on with the money chest at the foot of the bed? Is this not the same man, but at that earlier age when he told his beads with one hand and with the other stowed away his gold in a chest propped open by a dagger? (p. 64)

The scene of the inner struggle between good and evil is repeated at the foot of the bed. where the miser (according to Tolnay, the, figure embodies indecision [de Tolnay, 1937]) tells his beads with one hand while with the other he throws coins into a bag held by a devil inside the coffer. (no. 92)

…the treasure chest into which a gaunt, housebound old man, leaning on his stick and smiling a wornout smile, drops the guilder he has managed to save. This touching figure might have stepped straight from the pages of Jacob Grimm’s Rede über das Alter where Grimm, then an old man of seventy-five himself expatiates soberly on the vexations of avaritia senilis, the avarice of old age [Grimm, 1911, 137]. Despite its austere economy the figure is boldly drawn; all the signs of decrepitude have been intimately experienced: the sunken temples, the toothless mouth and the already Hippocratic nose the exaggeratedly careful movement of the hand, and the shuffling, crooked stance. This old man is a pictorial rendering of the “vain show” of the Psalmist: “Surely every man walketh in a vain show; surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them” [English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Psalm, 39:6]. (pp. 298-299)

This old man is a pictorial rendering of the “vain show” of the Psalmist: “Surely every man walketh in a vain show; surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them” [English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Psalm, 39:6]… On his belt the old man wears the finely chased key to the treasure chest, along with a rosary, which is wound around the stick handle and held in his left hand . With his right hand he reaches into the chest, without even noticing the ratlike creatures lurking inside and underneath it. Even in the penultimate hour of his life he thus reveals his heart-divided between God and mammon. Once again the little crucifix on the rosary is conspicuously turned toward the viewer… This unquiet specter of an old man will end up like the dying man… (p. 299)

Almaengien’s theological conception emerges readily from the three fields of concentration… The field of most intense concentration, the vault, gives visual form to a text from Colossians -“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” [English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Colossians, 3:2] – by contrasting the clumsy chest with the light window framing the crucified Christ as the hope of the beyond. Not only is the whole perspective designed to draw the eye up to the vertex of the vault, but the text is even illustrated pantomimically. Two equally expansive arm movements, emphasized by the outstretched palms of the hands, catch and hold the eye through their striking parallelism: the old man’s arm reaching down into the treasure chest and that of the angel pointing upward to the crucifix. (p. 300)

The elderly man we see there leans on a walking stick as he drops money into a sack. The moneybag and the chest in which it is kept are surrounded by three demons. Although the man wears a rosary, his money is not blessed. We cannot say for certain whether this is the same man who is also shown dying in his bed; he might also be a more emblematic image of avarice, intended to emphasize that too strong a desire for earthly goods helps pave the road to hell. Whatever the case, the figure in green serves to amplify the tension evoked by the dilemma facing the man in the bed. We find a similar composition in an amusing illuminated page in the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, in the margin of which a young man is depicted rummaging in a money-chest [”Deathbed, from The Hours of Catherine of Cleves”, ca. 1440]. The same youth appears in the main miniature at the deathbed of what is probably his father. He seems to be allowing his finely-dressed friend to talk him into taking an advance on his inheritance. The combination of the money-chest in the margin and its relationship to the principal scene has a striking, though somewhat enigmatic similarity to Bosch’s Death and the Miser; it is hardly likely, after all, that Bosch ever saw this exclusive manuscript, which was made for the Duchess of Guelders, probably in Utrecht, over half a century before he produced his painting. On the other hand, this is not a common juxtaposition of motifs [Koldeweij, vandenbroeck & Vermet, 2001, 137]. (pp. 328-330)

The old man with a cane at the foot of the bed, generally thought to be the miser in an earlier moment, confirms the devilish nature of his activities, as he drops coins into a bag held by a demon. (p. 33)

…in the trunk beside the devil with the moneybag, are a metal vessel or vessels [Reuterswärd, 1970, 266; Eisler, 1977, 66], a sea- led note, and a weight, while a dagger props up the lid of the chest. A second note or letter is held up by a demon who scrambles out from under the chest on the left. Except for the sealed notes and the weight, all of these articles were among those commonly pawned by people in need of cash in the late Middle Ages [Morganstern, 1982, 39:note 9]… clothing, kitchenware, and even bedding were commonly pawned by the poor [Bigwood, 1921, 479-506; de Roover, 1948, 114, 121; Cartellieri, 1929, 90]. (p. 33)

The notes and the weight are easily understood in this context. The notes are no doubt to be associated with property: bonds, deeds, titles, and the like, while the weight is a characteristic attribute of the changer or lender. (p. 39:note 9)

…like the Rouen canon, his activities were clandestine… suggested by the behavior of the figure at the foot of the bed, if he was actually meant to represent the miser himself, as is generally thought, or perhaps his partner [Baldass, 1943, 236; Baldass, 1968, 41; Combe, 1957, 24; Reuterswärd, 1970, 266; Gibson, 1983, 47; Fraenger, 1975, 297; Eisler, 1977, 66]. This old man fingers a rosary as he drops coins into a money bag in the chest, the supposed key to which dangles from his belt. The prayer beads suggest that his activities were overlaid with a veneer of piety, a degree of hypocrisy hardly to be expected from the lombards, who were excommunicated, denied the sacraments and Christian burial, and lived in the eyes of the church, with few exceptions, as notorious public sinners [de Roover, 1948, 151; Laenen, 1904; Morganstern, 1982, 40:note 24]. (p. 36)

Bosch has conflated items of both pride and avarice, for besides tile riches held at the fingertips of the dying man in his very deathbed, at the foot of the bed a second figure (either a companion or the same old man at an earlier moment) inspects a wooden chest containing more possessions, ranging from more money bags to sealed legal documents, all surrounded by bestial winged demons. (p. 240)