Iconology of the Wayfarer Triptych

Man on his deathbed with a chest from Death and the Miser

#474

The consensus among critics is that the painting represents the death of a miser. Further, most authors have agreed with de Tolnay’s initial assessment that the subject is based on the text and images of the Ars moriendi [Ars moriendi, ca. 1415-1450]. There is, however, no agreement on the overall iconographie program of the painting, its exact relationship to the Ars moriendi, or the interpretation of various details… Bosch’s awareness of the visual tradition of the Ars moriendi [Ars moriendi, ca. 1415-1450] can be seen, first, in the roundel showing Death as one of the Four Last Things in the Tabletop in the Prado, Madrid [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510; de Tolnay, 1966, 15-16]. (p. 17)

Figure with arrow behind door from Death and the Miser

#476

There are many points of correspondence between Bosch’s painting and Ars moriendi images, such as the figure of Death as a shrouded skeleton, the juxtaposition of angel and devil on the headboard of the bed, and the oblique angle of the bed [Ars moriendi, ca. 1415-1450]. (pp. 17-18)

Winged figure behind man of his deathbed from Death and the Miser

#477

Figure above bedboard from Death and the Miser

#478

Man on his deathbed with a chest from Death and the Miser

#479

The relationship of Death and the Miser to the Ars moriendi is less direct than that of the Prado Tabletop [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510, “The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things”]. In place of discrete, opposing images Bosch seems to have conflated scenes of the temptation by and triumph over avarice and introduced an element of suspense. The miser seems to ignore both the guardian angel who offers salvation and the toadlike demon who pops through the bed-curtain with a sack that almost certainly contains either money or gold. Instead, the dying man is transfixed by the figure of Death who, as in the Prado Tabletop, is represented as a shrouded skeleton holding an arrow. As with the Ars moriendi images [Ars moriendi, ca. 1415-1450], demons scurry under the furniture or peer down at the dying man from the bed canopy. While the outcome of the struggle may not be immediately apparent, other elements in the scene show the dying man to be guilty of the sin of avarice, the last temptation mentioned in the Ars moriendi. (p. 18)

Man on his deathbed with a chest from Death and the Miser

#509

Bosing, 1987

Hieronymus Bosch c.1450-1516

#667

Man on his deathbed with a chest from Death and the Miser

The combination of the well-filled money-chest and the approach of death does not feature in what was probably another important source for Bosch in this case, namely the illustrations in the Ars moriendi, a treatise on the ‘Art of Dying’. The book was printed frequently in the Low Countries and the neighbouring regions at the end of the fifteenth century, and was available in both Latin and vernacular editions [”Ars moriendi (Cologne)”, 1474; van Os, 1488; Snellaert, 1488; Leeu, 1492]. Its purpose was to help people prepare for a ‘virtuous death’, to which end it included eleven full-page woodcut illustrations, each showing a man on his deathbed. (p. 330)

Ilsink et al., 2016

Hieronymus Bosch. Painter and Draughtsman

#811

Man on a barrel with five skinny men in the waters from An Allegory of Intemperance

… 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)

Man on his deathbed with a chest from Death and the Miser

#819

…this combination of riches and demons derives from me fifteen century pictorial tradition of me Ars moriendi (The Art of Dying [Well]), an advice treatise – particularly popular in both Latin and the vernacular during the early decades of printed books – that presents a series of temptations to sin at the deathbed of an individual [O’Connor, 1942; Tenenti, 1952, 98-108; Mâle, 1908, 348-355; Ariès, 1981, 107-110, 128-130; Binski, 1996, 39-43]. Significantly, this text is addressed to an individual layman and suggests the value of a deathbed conversion and personal reform. Altogether the text progresses through a series of five temptations – unbelief, despair, impatience, pride and avarice – with five Christian responses to combat them, followed by a final set piece of the good death and its promise of ultimate salvation. (pp. 239-240)

Crucifix on window from Death and the Miser

#824

Bosch also includes the angelic component of the Ars moriendi. Behind the back of the old man in the bed kneels a guardian angel, whose hand rests upon his shoulder. The angel gazes upward and gestures with his right hand toward the upper left corner of the chamber. There a small, lone window admits a bean of light from heaven, which passes downward through the narrow opening and past a crucifix to fall upon the old man in the bed. However, the sudden appearance of Death at his door has transfixed the old man’s own gaze directly across from him and absorbs his full attention, thus preventing him from beholding either the light or the crucifix above. (p. 242)

Man on his deathbed with a chest from Death and the Miser

#830

… the presence of demons in Bosch’s deathbed setting underscores the possibility of eternal damnation for the sin of avarice… Bosch formed a turning point in the invention of pictorial genres, since he elevated the moral concerns of the Ars moriendi temptation series to the full-scale painted subject, excerpting the temptation by avarice to an independent image, even within a larger triptych structure traditionally reserved for church or chapel altarpieces in Netherlandish art of the fifteenth century. (pp, 242-243)