Iconology of the Wayfarer Triptych – Detail

…profligate drinking, as manifested by the barrel-rider… (p.31)

The barrel-rider also belongs to this context of gluttony as a parody of Bacchus. But since he wears a funnel, a Jewish allusion is possible: Jews are depicted with a pointed hat. There could be an allusion to the “avarus” too, who, according to the ancients, was seen as a dropsy sufferer: the more he drank, the thirstier he became. In other words, the more money he has, the more he wants [Newhauser, 1986, 320 ff..]. (p. 36)

The Jews were considered lazy, and, as the reproach went, rather than earning their bread “by the sweat of their brows” like the Christians, they preferred to let their money work for them. Jews quite simply epitomised “avarus”. Later on, in the 17th century, Jews were often depicted as “Weinjuden” riding on a barrel [Hooffacker, 1988, 43, 54f., 152]. In Aesop’s fables, in the newly revised version by by Sebastian Brant, one comes across the illustrated tale, “De Judeo qui cacando invenit pecuniam” [Aesop, ca. 1501, 320r] (pp. 37-38)

A fragment of a painting presents a somewhat similar picture of night revelry (p. 34)

A curious Gambrinus, god of beer, comes swimming along on a full barrel and a duck pie tries to catch a fugitive carp. (p. 34)

In its warm, light, rose and golden tones, standing out against a deep honey brown and greenish blue, the little painting is like a prelude to the revelries of Peter Bruegel [Bruegel, 1559 (The Fight between Carnival and Lent); Bruegel, 1567] (p. 34)

…it may be a fragment of an episode in the story of the Prodigal Son [Hannema, 1936, 32, no. 51; de Tolnay, 1937, 90, no.9; Bosch, ca. 1500, “The Pedlar”] (p. 207)

…more likely a fragment of a representation of two of the Deadly Sins, Lust and Intemperance, and thinks it might have belonged to a painting cited in the inventory of the collection of Marghareta Boge in Antwerp in 1574 [Baldass, 1943, 22, 235; Baldass, 1959, 26, 229; de Tolnay, 1937, 90, no. 9; Bosch, ca. 1505-1510, “The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things”] (p.207)

In the upper left corner the representation of Gluttony and Folly continues wich the four almost naked figures in the water, clinging wich obvious intent to a barrel that is evidently very full. Sitting astride che floating barrel is a scout buisine player, carrying over his right shoulder a maypole with a ball hanging from it, and wearing on his head a hood and an inverted funnel. He represents Prodigality. Nearer the foreground another figure swims about aimlessly; in place of a hat he wears a poultry pie served on a plate or circular tray and with the head of a small spoonbill sticking out of it. (p. 192)

Various material analyses have proved that this small oak panel, depicting allegories of the deadly sins of Gluttony (gula) and Lust (luxuria) (p. 256)

Bosch endorsed the ideology of an urban middle class of craftsmen and small producers, for whom ‘economy’ was also a moral issue. This was certainly not a capitalist vision, although the emphasis on reason and work (expressed inversely by Bosch – the rejection of laziness and wastefulness) and the denial of prodigality and other forms of impulsive behaviour were helping to prepare the way for capitalist discourse. Bosch’s moderate view is manifest in his depictions of the pedlar on the outer wings of The Haywain [Bosch, ca. 1512-1515, “The Haywain Triptych”] and in another, dismembered triptych [Hartau, 2005, 305-338] on the front side of which were The Ship of Fools and The Allegory of Intemperance on the left and The Death of the Miser on the right, and the exterior of which was the Rotterdam Pedlar. (p. 99)

In the upper part of the New Haven panel, a man is seated on a Floating barrel, which is being pushed along by several men. The dish on a swimmer’s head holds a meat pie decorated wiith a bird’s head. The bathers have left their clothes on the shore. These figures demonstrate an interest not only in singing, eating and drinking but also in love, as is evident from the couple in the tent, seated snugly at the table. (p. 298)

“Whereas the left wing seems to depict mainly the sins of gluttony (gula) and lust (luxuria)… (p. 298)”

… the sinful behaviour of the merrymakers… (p. 299)

The rejection of enjoyment and lust is expressed in Bosch’s work in themes like the Allegory of Gluttony (and Lechery) and the Ship of Fools (originally together on one panel); Shrove Tuesday, Singers in an Egg [Follower of Jheronimus Bosch, ca. 1561, “Concert in the egg”], Mock Tournament on the Ice [Follower of Pieter Huys, ca. 1560, “Grotesque Duel on the Ice”] and Tavern Scene – all of which only survive in the form of copies; the drawings of the Tree-Man [Bosch, ca. 1505, “The Tree man”] and the Witches [Bosch, 15th century, “Sorcières et monstres (Witches and monsters)”] (who may also represent people celebrating Shrove Tuesday); and the Blue Ship [van der Heyden, 1559, “Die Blau Schuyte (Ship of Fools)”] and Merrymakers Sailing in a Mussel Shell [van der Heyden, 1562, “Merrymakers in a mussel shell”], which survive in the form of prints… They tell us how human beings fall into such misbehaviour when they fail to resist the blandishments of their senses [Badius, 1502; Follower of Jheronimus Bosch, ca. 1555-1575, “Shrovetide and Lent”]. (p. 123ff)

… the pendant of Death and the Usurer as a panel that was sawn in two – the Ship of Fools and the Allegory of Gluttony. Together, the two scenes must have constituted a satire of licentious merrymakers, in which Bosch attacked the opposite of avarice – the intoxication of prodigality. (p. 139)

The intimate association between Gluttony and Lust in the medieval moral system was expressed by Bosch… (p. 44)

Gluttony is personified by the swimmers at the upper left who have gathered around a large wine barrel straddled by a pot-bellied peasant. Another man swims closer to shore, his vision obscured by the meat pie balanced on his head. (pp. 44-46)

…on the right, by a pair of lovers in a tent, another motif reminiscent of the Lust scene in the Prado Tabletop [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510, “The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things”]. That they should be engaged in drinking wine is entirely appropriate: Sine Cerere et Liberto friget Venue (Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus freezes); this tag from Terence was well known to the Middle Ages, and that Gluttony and Drunkenness lead to Lust was a lesson that the moralizers never tired of driving home to their audiences. (p. 46)

The intimate association between Gluttony and Lust in the medieval moral system was expressed by Bosch… (p. 32)

Gluttony is personified by the swimmers at the upper left who have gathered around a large wine barrel straddled by a pot-bellied peasant. Another man swims closer to shore, his vision obscured by the meat pie balanced on his head. (p. 32)

…on the right, by a pair of lovers in a tent, another motif reminiscent of the Lust scene in the Prado Tabletop [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510, “The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things”]. That they should be engaged in drinking wine is entirely appropriate: Sine Cerere et Liberto friget Venue (Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus freezes); this tag from Terene was well known to the Middle Ages, and that Gluttony and Drunkenness lead to Lust was a lesson that the moralizers never tired of driving home to their audiences. (p. 32)

Allegory of pleasures (p. 93)

… was first published by Tolnay [de Tolnay, 1937], who suggested it might depict an episode concerning the Prodigal Son… Adhémar… believed it to have been a whole symbolising May or Spring) [Adhémar, 1962; Bosch, ca. 1475-1500, “La Nef des fous (The Ship of Fools)”]… Baldass believed it, instead, to be part of a panel illustrating the Deadly Sins [Baldass, 1959]. Bax (1949) viewed it as the summer feast of a merry party, and interpreted the various objects as symbols of forbidden love. The fragment depicts in a lively style akin to that of The Ship of Fools [Bosch, ca. 1475-1500, “La Nef des fous (The Ship of Fools)”] and with a delightful lightness of touch, Lust (a couple of lovers under a tent) and Gluttony, in the shape of a sort of Flemish Silenus [Seymour, 1961] bestriding a floating cask from which wine spills: this figure inspired the ‘Carnival’ of Bruegel’s Carnival and Lent in Vienna [Bruegel, 1559, “The Fight between Carnival and Lent”]. (p. 93)

Although not a real ship, the barrel adrift at sea may refer to the ship of fools portrayed by Brant in the Prologue [Brant, 1498 (Frontispiece)] (p.18)

In Bosch’s painting, the vessel appears far too small partly because of the obesity of the seafarer [Brant, 1962, 58]. The barrel has room only for the Man sitting on top while his skinny companions push him along. The very image of gluttony, he seems as full as the barrel with his puffed-out cheeks and round paunch. Both the glutton and his round wine cask have reached the bursting point, for he spews music from a long trumpet just as the barrel spews wine. With eyes nearly popping out of his head and his stomach stretching tight the strings of his vest, he epitomizes the greedy, obese Christian. (p.18)

The figure that is a both an apt translation of the text and a subtle tribute to Brant’s supplementary woodcut is Bosch’s image of the gluttonous man. This man reflects the qualities Brant describes in his chapter “Gluttony and Feasting,” where he addresses the issue of consuming wine in excess [Brant, 2011, 97]… The resulting character is not simply a glutton, but is commonly understood as an allegory of Gluttony itself [Morganstern, 1984, 300]. Here, Gluttony appears as an overweight man who is observably “round and staunch,” yet must be deduced to be one who “neglects his friends” through his expressed ignorance to those swimming beneath him. In a subtle dissonance of word against image, Gluttony recalls the “silly swine” through his pink garments and pig-like facial structure, yet fails to embody the literal visual translation for Brant’s line of text as he is not an actual swine [Brant, 2011, 97]. In further referential detail, Gluttony rides aboard a leaking barrel in a sea of wine, honoring Brant’s earlier description of the “wise man” Noah. Conversely to the sober Noah, this gluttonous man is entirely obedient to wine’s wiles, and is slowly sinking to his death in the very thing he desires, unable to navigate the wine-filled “ocean deep” [ [Brant, 2011, 97]]. In the hands of Bosch as mediator, Gluttony is at the complex intersection of a well-divined metaphor and a veritably human fool, the latter expected by the viewer, having read Brant. (pp. 29-30)

The smooth, generalized surface of his round face and stomach form an odd contrast with his delicate, insect-like hands and his spindly legs, which barely seem capable of supporting the huge burden above. Brant warns of the folly of gluttony.[Brant, 1962, 98] (p.20)

As the counterpart to the allegory of Avarice [Bosch, ca. 1485-1490], Bosch’s inclusion of The Ship of Fools [Bosch, ca. 1475-1500] places final emphasis on the allegory of Gluttony represented by the overweight barrel-rider. (p. 36)

By his mere physical size he seems about to topple over into the sea. But he remains oblivious to the danger and unaware that his companions may pose a threat to his security. His fine and sleek paunch may incur the envy and jealousy of his retinue, whose partially hidden faces suggest a note of conspiracy. He appears unaware that they are already sneaking wine from the cask, right from under his nose [Brant, 1962, 283]. (p.20)

The glutton’s strange paraphernalia may signify another aspect of his corruption. He sports curious head-gear, an inverted funnel that often alludes to man’s madness or mere folly [Cuttler, 1957, 122]. The funnel signifies a make-shift fool’s cap as Brant suggests [Brant, 1962, 314]. (p.20)

Despite his position and propriety, the glutton must wear a funnel as if he, too, lacks the cloth for a cap. Using the same image, Brant attacks those who do not revere one true God while Bosch satirizes the selfish gluttony of all Christians [Brant, 1962, 314]. (p.20)

An image like the trumpet protuding from his mouthless, pneumatic face further parodies the glutton’s pomposity. A long, slender pipe appears frequently in Bosch’s art, usually connected with folly [Cuttler, 1957, 122]. The Man seems so preoccupied with his pipe that he fails to see where they are headed… His eyes bulging out from blowing, he cannot see past the end of his trumpet. His preoccupation leaves him oblivious to the men around him or the leak in the barrel. His folly represents that of all Christians who ignore the possibility of their own destruction while pursuing a vain and frivolous purpose [Brant, 1962, 187]. (pp.20-21)

The narrow pipe and the slender stick held delicately in his hand are as tooth- picks compared to his inflated face and body. Striking his formal pose, he carries the branch like a proper banner, recalling another fool from Brant’s poem… [Brant, 1962, 187] Unable to play a harp and evoke heavenly music, the man instead must play with toys such as pipe and branch. Supporting a ball (perhaps an apple) on a string, the branch may signify a distant relative of the Tree of Life which led to the fall of man; the ball hangs above the noses of the swimmers as if alluding to the first temptation. (p.21)

The relation of the fully-dressed Man to the naked skinny men pushing him suggests a proverbial contrast between the lesser and the greater in size, dress, and occupation. The glutton rides along while they toil away much like the peasants Brant describes [Brant, 1962, 242]. (p.21)

Though certainly no priest, the glutton appears to be the lazy leader of the crew. Flourishing wand and pipe, he seems content to play the lord, but never work while his minions strain to push him. But despite his lordly manner, the glutton is in a precarious position. He tempts fate by sitting fully clothed and balanced only by his spindly legs. His foolishness recalls Brant’s comment [Brant, 1962, 122, 273]. (p.21)

…Ship of Fools is a companion piece to the Miser; it could have covered two additional sins, gluttony and lust [Benesch, 1957, 33f.; Baldass, 1943, 235; Baldass, 1968, 621; Gerlach, 1979, 14; Morganstern, 1982, 41:note 41-42]. (p. 38)

Whether he symbolizes a lord or a priest, he remains unprotected from the possible treachery of those accompanying him. Already his victimized crew seems on the verge of mutiny with their eyes on the wine spilling out and the ball dangling above them. The imagery illustrates Brant’s message that man can trust his fellow man only so far [Brant, 1962, 58]. (p.22)

Otto Benesch suggested that the Ship of Fools could have been part of a series of the Seven Deadly Sins and signify Gluttony [Benesch, 1957, 33f]. Baldass [Baldass, 1943, 235; Baldass, 1968, 621] has suggested that the Yale panel, represents Lust and Gluttony from a similar series, and this idea has been recently endorsed by Gerlach [Gerlach, 1979, 14]. (p. 41:note 41)

In 1958 Lotte Brand Philip [Philip, 1958] associated a small panel in the Rabinowitz Collection, Intemperance by Hieronymus Bosch [Bosch, ca. 1495-1490], with the Louvre’s famous Ship of Fools by the same painter by suggesting that they probably originally belonged to the same altarpiece. (p. 295)

The Louvre Ship [Bosch, ca. 1475-1500], decked with greenery, filled with tipplers and barrels, and trailed by thirsty swimmers, is matched in the Rabinowitz panel by a burly trumpeter astride a barrel. He holds a branch of the same greenery and is escorted by swimmers who resemble those who follow the Louvre bark. Moreover, the hint of amorous relations between the two central figures in the Ship, a lute-playing nun and a monk bobbing for a pancake on either side of a board that bears a plate of cherries, is made more explicit in the Rabinowitz painting by a couple drinking within a tent [Cuttler, 1969, 272-276]. Previous scholars had remarked the striking stylistic similarities between the two paintings [Hannema, 1936, 32f. de Tolnay, 1937, 90; Baldass, 1938, 68-69; Baldass, 1943, 235; Venturi, 1945, 63-64; Combe, 1946, 82; Eisler, 1961, 46], and after the Rabinowitz panel was given to Yale in 1959, Charles Seymour advanced a concrete reconstruction [”Reconstruction of Ship of Fools after Seymour”, 1984]. He suggested that the Yale panel had originally formed the lower part of the Ship of Fools, and that since the dimensions resulting from such a combination matched almost exactly those of Bosch’s Death and the Miser in the National Gallery in Washington [Bosch, ca. 1485-1490], this panel was probably originally a pendant to it [Seymour, 1961, 36].(p. 295) (p. 295)

The glutton allows the men to direct the rudderless ship wherever they please. He overlooks the possibility that his wealth or wine or position may arouse the envy of the others, a fatal oversight, according to Brant [Brant, 1962, 333]… The companions glance up at the Anti-christ with almost conspiratorial intent while one sneaks a bowl of wine from the barrel. But the glutton is unaware of their antics; even if he could see past the end of his trumpet, he could not distinguish between real friendship and deceit. (p.22)

The panels appear to depict allegories of three of the Seven Deadly Sins [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510]. Both the Louvre and the Yale paintings have often been associated with Gluttony and Lust [Morganstern, 1984, 300:note 30; Benesch, 1957, 33-34; Adhémar, 1962, 28-29; de Mirimonde, 1971, 34-35; Cuttler, 1969, 274-275], and the reconstruction of these panels strengthens that association. (p. 300)

The glutton appears oblivious to the intentions of his skinny friends, a dubious-looking crew at best. One untrustworthy type wears only a hood, perhaps that of an acrobat or jongleur. Another catches the leaking wine, while his companion chases an unseen object through the water. The latter merits particular attention, for he wears on his head a covered dish with a duck or goose underneath. Although he seems to be blinded by the hat and unable to see where he is, the man pursues his object with arms outstretched and groping, recalling Brant’s portrait of those who act like geese [Brant, 1962, 141]. (p.22)

By wearing odd and cumbersome headgear, the man seems as brainless as the bird on his head. Like him, all the other characters in the picture act blind and fail to realize where they are headed. Except for the glutton-who cannot see past the end of his trumpet anyway-their eyes remain dim brown shadows. They fail to recognize any possible danger, disregarding Brant’s warning in The Schluraffen Ship (Ship of Apes). (p.22)

Apart from the moral threat of damnation, Bosch creates a mute, uneasy feeling that man’s well-being is threatened. More subtle than Brant, he blurs the boundary between animate and inanimate forms. The similarity of the glutton’s sphere-like form to the round barrel almost dissolves the distinction between human and non-human. The glutton himself, with his expansive paunch and rigid, twig-like fingers, suggests not a human figure but some strange insect. The three men leaning against the barrel produce only a tiny wave, as if no human force attached to their actions. They seem to be mere shadows, their faces blurred and indistinct and their eyes unable to focus. Their lack of expression or muscular force deprives their actions of meaning or vitality. While they act their rôles, the figures threaten to drift away from each other like separate and unrelated marionettes. (p.22)

…lively nudes (and clothed figures) indulging their appetites for food and luxury with the implication of sex) also appear in a divided wing, shared by the Ship of Fools (Musee du Louvre, Paris) [Bosch, ca. 1475-1500] and Allegory of Gluttony (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven) from a dismembered triptych [Morganstern, 1984, 295-302]. (p. 28)

The Allegory of Gluttony… might well carry a humorous critique of folly along with a sterner moral indictment… (p. 29)

… the Death and the Usurer, unambiguously evokes the late medieval Ars moriendi (Art of Dying [Well) [van Os, 1488] by placing a skeletal figure of Death at the door while an angel and a demon contend for the soul of the expiring old man. In the Prado tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510], luxuria not only is labeled clearly on the panel but also appears among the other deadly sins, enframed by the Four Last Things: Death (echoing the Washington Usurer panel), Last Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. (p. 29)

Certainly images of courtly love bowers figure prominently within calendar page illustrations, particularly for the lusty spring months of April and May. Half a century after Bosch, Pieter Bruegel’s drawing design for a print of Spring [Bruegel, 1565 (Der Frühling)] still features not only the preparation of a formal garden under a matron’s careful supervision in the foreground but also, at its vanishing point, a love bower, where feasting, drinking, and music as well as boating provide conducive conditions for lovemaking. [Silver, 2006, 400:note 37; van der Heyden, 1570; Bening, ca. 1515; Orenstein, 2001, 236-238: no. 105-106; Wieck, 1988, 45-54]… Once more, it should be recalled that these are precisely the kinds of activities condemned elsewhere by Bosch as the sin of luxuria in his Prado table tabletop [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510] and in his wing panel of… an Allegory of Gluttony. Indeed, such activities mark gardens of love (sometimes with added ascetic figures to be discovered) in later Flemish and Dutch painting, from Pieter Pourbus, Allegory of True Love [Pourbus, c. 1547] to a nascent seventeenth-century genre of “merry companies,’ where well-dressed young aristocrats feast and flirt in outdoor garden settings [Silver, 2006, 400:note 38; Huvenne, 1979; Nevitt, 2003, 21-98; de Bruyn, 1604; de Bruyn, 1601; Hellerstedt, 1986, 42-44, no. 16; Renger, 1976, 190-203; Nichols, 1992, 32-42]. (pp. 52-53)