Iconology of the Wayfarer Triptych – Detail

The great expanse of land and water that recedes from Patmos in the Berlin St John [Bosch, ca. 1500 (Johannes auf Patmos)], for example, may bring to mind the panoramas of Jacob van Ruisdael, and in the monochromatic veil which he drew across the background of the Rotterdam Wayfarer, Bosch hit upon a way to render the damp Dutch atmosphere which remarkably anticipates Jan van Goyen. In this, Bosch was inspired, perhaps, by his own landscapes in grisaille, such as the one in the Vienna Last Judgment [Bosch, ca. 1504-1508]. (p. 159)

she identifies the background figures with signs of the Zodiac [Philip, 1958]. (p. 112)

… the gallows on the hill behind the gate… warns us that the pilgrim will suffer spiritual death if his desires lead to his rebirth in the physical world. (p. 165)

The mood of the landscape is most aptly described as “dun”-a melancholy, lackluster mood such as pervades much of Walther von der Vogelweide’s poetry [von der Vogelweide, ca. 12-13th century]. (p. 258)

In addition, Pigler [Pigler, 1950, 132] compared two other elements which the two works of art [Baldini, ca. 1464] have in common, the gallows and the swine [Panofsky-Panofsky, Giehlow & Saxl, 1923, 23, 132, note 2]. (p. 3)

Pigler [Pigler, 1950, 132] takes the pole in the background of the Bosch painting for a pillory and as such he compares it to the gallows in the print [Baldini, ca. 1464]. The gallows, too, is a traditional Saturnian element showing the disastrous effects of the planet whose “children” can be thieves and murderers [Panofsky-Panofsky, Giehlow & Saxl, 1923, 27]. (p. 4, note 10)

Bosch’s background setting mixes a characteristic Dutch dune landscape with cultivation in the form of trees. One wonders whether it could be intended to evoke a wilderness akin to that sought by his saints in retreat [Altdorfer , ca. 1515-1516; Silver, 1983, 34-35] (p. 259)