Iconology of the Wayfarer Triptych – Detail

The domain of approaching Death begins only under the vaulted ceiling, which is divided into four regular panels by five hanging thyrsus-pinecones and four bare ribs. Another striking feature is the neatly drawn series of fourteen parallel lines between molding and vertex on the left side of the vault, symmetrically repeated on the right side. (p. 299)

The thyrsus-pinecones, symbolizing vegetative life, and those multiple dividing lines, which recall the sunrays of The Table of Wisdom [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510], point to the deeper meaning of the vault. This meaning eludes the old man, greedily intent upon his earthly possessions and therefore never looking up to Heaven, and the dying man, who cannot see what is above because the bed canopy blocks his view. But Death is well aware of what this division of the sphere of life into four sections means. (p. 299)

Solomon the Preacher begins his sermon on the vanity of earthly things by reverently acknowledging the dual course followed by the sun and the wind as the primal forces governing earthly rise and fall: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits” [English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Ecclesiastes, 1:4-6]. In the same way the four-part division of the vault symbolizes time running its neverending course through spring, summer, fall, and winter; through morning, noontime, evening, and night; through childhood, youth, manhood, and old age, yet tirelessly leading each man to his individual end, the hour of death shown in the picture. (p. 299)

This geometric construction is grounded in sciences more exalted than the late Gothic theory of perspective. The two sets of fourteen parallel axes involve the same divinely perfect numbers, four times seven, through which, according to the speculation of Philo of Alexandria already quoted, the moon returns again and again to fullness in a cycle of four-times-seven days. And indeed at the heart of that dark recess to which the four-section vault leads is a disk, symbol of the full moon, marking the transition from earthly transitoriness to eternity. The use of Philo’s law of numbers to express the Mosaic “as long as the earth remaineth” [English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Genesis, 8:22] gives evidence that Jacob van Almaengien commissioned and designed the program for The Hour of Death, which once served as a didactic painting for meditational use but never was what it has hitherto been assumed to be: the left panel of a medium-size triptych. (p. 300)

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)