Iconology of the Wayfarer Triptych

God in the Details: Bosch and Judgment(s)

One is reminded of the proverb in the lower center of Pieter Bruegel’s enormous Berlin panel Netherlandish Proverbs [Bruegel, 1559 (Die niederländischen Sprichwörter); Meadow, 1992, 147], of 1560, which shows a similar poor man, like the Rotterdam Pedlar in mismatched footwear, ragged clothing, and bandaged leg… (p.634)

Silver, 2001

#119

Hanging amulet on the tent with a stick from An Allegory of Intemperance

…it is a pig’s trotter, which can be explained by the image of the pig as a symbol of gluttony. Jews are often depicted in a disreputable way by being linked to the pig [Shachar, 1974, 5; Fabre-Vassas, 1997]. Pigs’ trotters always crop up in Bosch’s work wherever gluttony or impending poverty are concerned [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510; Cinotti, 1966, cin. 2, cin. 43; Follower of Pieter Bruegel, ca. 1550-1575; Bosch, ca. 1520-1545″; Lugt, 1968, 25; Koldeweij, Kooij & Vermet, 2001, 160], since it is this small residue of the pig that could be given away to the poor. (pp. 34-35)

Hartau, 2005 (Bosch and the Jews)

Bosch and the Jews

#170

Boat with ten people onboard from Ship of Fools

Oat ook deze zotten volgens onze voorouders de armoede leren kennen, blijkt uit een Zuidnederlands gezegde: den hazelaren op zijn, d.i. verarmd zijn [Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal IV, 1916, 163]. (p. 192)

Bax, 1949

Ontcijfering van Jeroen Bosch

#177

Two men in the waters from Ship of Fools

Zeer zeker traden in de 15de en 16de eeuw in de Nederlanden mannen en vrouwen naakt voor het pubhek op, ook met Vastenavond [Bax, 1949, 116], maar van naakte zwemmers bij het Carnavalsfeest schijnt nergens sprake te zijn. Men kan ook deze figuren, waarvan één een drinkschaal opheft — het was in de 16de eeuw niets ongewoons, dat men de wijn uit een schaal dronk — symbolisch verklaren. Op een schilderij met pretmakers duwen naakte mannen over het water een wijn- of bierton voort [Bosch, ca. 1495–1500]. Nu betekenen de 16de-eeuwse uitdrukkingen „gheerne int natte sijn [Meyling, 1946, 45:344] en „gaeren bijden watere sijn, evenals de 17de-eeuwse gezegden „wel te Waater willen, „wel onder Waater willen, „gaarn met sijn neus in het nat sijn [Stoett, 1932, 10:202, 107] een liefhebber zijn van de drank. Dat „zwemmen ook in onkuise zin voor kan komen, is reeds aangetoond [Bax, 1949, 102]. Bij de naaktheid der dranklustigen kan men denken aan „naakt en „bloot in de betekenis van berooid [Bax, 1949, 116]. (p. 193)

Bax, 1949

Ontcijfering van Jeroen Bosch

#240

Hieronymus Bosch and the thinking of the late Middle Ages.

…in the Prodigal Son in the Museum Boymans in Rotterdam (p. 108)

Benesch, 1957

#277

Tout, et même le site, y park d’une profonde desolation. C’est la premiere fois que celui qui étudie le maître pourrait soupconner que dans sa vie il y eut de la souffrance. Mais c’est la seule fois qu’il resta dans les bornes de la vie de douleur, de misères, et de désespoir de I’homme stir notre terre. On ne lui apprendra plus rien, void toute la charge que l’expérience pent accumuler sur les épaules du penseur rustique, au long de la route qui chemine entre le Diable ef Dieu. L’Éiglise, ses dogmes et ses Évangiles, les découvertes de la larve qui ronge le coeur de chaque fleur et qui erapoisonne chaque plaisir, la joie de peindre en tirant de I’inconnu des ombres où il gît, tout cela est en marge de la souffrance de notre pélerin et peut-être de Jerome lui-même. Void sur la route une modeste victime du bien et du mal qui, dans leurs batailles, déséquilibrent I’existence humaine; voici du démoniaque authentique. Dans ses croyances chancelantes, voilées par les sarcasmes et les doutes qui naissent alors dans sa foi, qu’il convenait de situer outre terre pour lui évite les souillures des sophistes et des négateurs, dans le désert qui s’étend dans son esprit, il a vu ce fils des hommes affreusement seul, et qui n’en pent plus appeler à aucune puissance. II marchera, sans compagnon, jusqu’à la mort. Le masque de I’Enfant prodigue, décharné, usé sous quelques mèches de cheveux blancs, porte I’empreinte de tous les déchirements. Bosch, cette fois, essaie de traduire le spirituel dans les apparences plastiques qu’il croit s’accorder avec la douleur irremissible. Dans la contemplation quotidienne, sur les routes cruelles aux portes closes, ce masque se grave dans nos sentiments de pitié. II est incomparable parmi les oeuvres émouvantes que nous a leguees le passé. On peut regretter que Jerome ait altéré, légèrement il est vfai, la position des sourcils et des paupières pour donner au visage I’expression d’une crainte passagère. Mais cette erreur n’empêche pas de lire sur ces traits dépouillés, toutes les craintes les terreurs, les maladies, les famines que cet errant a traversées pendant son pèlerinage douloureux,, ses errances dedestitué sur le globe terrestre. (pp. 4-5)

de Boschère, 1947

Jérôme Bosch

#280

Dans I’encadrement de la porte, Scène décevante de frivolité, un soldat de passage, un traînard isolé lutine une pauvre servante de I’Auberge du Cygne. Par le monde entier, l’Enfant a vu l’horrible séduction, I’innocence toujours condamnée. Si au cours de ses voyages pédestres il est devenu poète et philosophe, Bosch nous montre qu’il n’y a pas perdu les sentiments qui se groupent entre et avec la pitié et la charité. Peut-être le soudard aura-t-il moins de scrupules parce que la maison est pauvre, ou qu’elle est de celles où depuis Iongtemps l’innocence est inconnue. Le toit est défoncé, les carreaux cassés, un volet détaché de ses gonds. Un homme, qui connaît le désordre de la place, s’est à peine éloigné pour satisfaire un besoin naturel. A deux pas de la porte, une truie et ses porcelets vident une auge, ‘ deux poules picorent sur un tas d’ordures. (p. 5)

de Boschère, 1947

Jérôme Bosch

#283

Cet homme que l’on prend pour un prodigue ou un débauché, n’est-il pas un misérable savetier ambulant, comme I’indique le poinpon de cordonnier entoure d’un fil de poix, épinglé a son chapeau, seul luxe intact de son appareil vestimentaire ? Dans ce cas, le symbole de la peau de chat demeurerait; la cuiller à pot ferait allusion à ses repas frugatix preparés et pris aux bords des routes. (p. 6)

de Boschère, 1947

Jérôme Bosch

#285

The Pedlar on the exterior shutters suggests a number of parallels with the parable of the Prodigal Son [English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Luke, 15:11-32]: both characters fall into bad ways, squander their money in disreputable establishments and end up improverished and disgraced. Even so, the pedlar is a distinct pictorial type [”Pedlar, from The Luttrell Psalter”, ca. 1325-1340]. Whereas the Prodigal Son, full of remorse, returns to his real father and is joyfully welcomed back into the family, the pedlar can only hope to be welcomed back by his heavenly father. While Bosch alludes to this possibility in his painting, whether it will actually come to pass is by no means certain. (p. 191)

Fischer, 2016

Jheronimus Bosch

#315

e vergeten beeldentaal van Jheronimus Bosch: de symboliek van de Hooiwagen-triptiek en de Rotterdamse Marskramer-tondo verklaard vanuit Middelnederlandse teksten.

The main figure shown is a pedlar and not, for example, the Prodigal Son, an interpretation often proposed. For all his similarity with the character in the biblical parable, this improvished, itinerant hawker is present as a type in his own right in late medival period, both in literature and in the visual arts [de Bruyn, 2001]. The painting’s message may be read to mean that humankind can reduce and overcome the breadth and variety of sinful paths by turn to God. (p. 255)

de Bruyn, 2001

#330

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

…work is opposed to idleness, wealth to poverty, thrift to avarice or prodigality. Here Bosch’s position was more moderate: he seems to have condemned the love of gain for its own sake but was even more opposed to extravagance. The poverty of those on the lowest rung of the social ladder was regarded as largely self-inflicted and ascribed to vices from the first two categories – drunkenness, whoring, excessive merrymaking. In contrast, Bosch commended a positive attitude to work and moderation in the spending and acquisition of money and property. All this is reflected in The Haywain [Bosch, ca. 1512-1515]. The Death of the Miser and Scenes of Idleness (known only through sixteenth-century prints). (p. 99)

Vandenbroeck, 2017

The Axiology and Ideology of Jheronimus Bosch

#335

The Axiology and Ideology of Jheronimus Bosch

The pedlar is an exceptional figure in Bosch’s oeuvre. Whereas with Bosch almost all poor people are good-for-nothings, he is a good man. He is a poor vagrant (with ragged clothing), but he is repentant: at the end of his life (his hair is white) he looks back, as if to judge his own life path. He sees robbery and revelry, and the punishment of crime (reverse of The Haywain [Bosch, ca. 1512-1515, “The Haywain Triptych”]); in the Rotterdam version, he leaves sinful lust (the brothel) and is about to open a gate towards better times. In his oeuvre, the pedlar is the only good common man, the only secular moral example, witness to another paradox in Bosch: in his view the popular classes consist of sinners and fools, but at the same time his most striking exemplary moral figure is a poor vagabond. (pp. 99-100)

Vandenbroeck, 2017

#340

Hieronymus Bosch: The pilgrimage of life triptych

The grey-haired old man who was originally on the outer (closed) sides of the triptych’s wings is an itinerant trader; judging from the attributes hanging from the wicker basket on his back, his wares included cat-skins and soup ladles. [Bruegel, 1564]. The bodkin and thread pinned to the hat he holds indicates that he was also active as a cobbler, while the holes in his clothing and his mismatched shoes point to a life of misery. It is possible that he has just squandered his money in the dilapidated house behind him. (p. 294)

Lammertse, 2017

#348

Hieronymus Bosch: The pilgrimage of life triptych

The Pedlar has sometimes been seen as a portrayal of the Prodigal Son [Glück, 1904; de Tolnay, 1937; Baldass, 1943], but the protagonist’s advanced age rules out this reading. Still, it is quite possible that some contemporaries were prompted by the sight of the brothel and the pigs to recall that parable; perhaps this was even the artist’s intention. After all, in the biblical story the son squanders his inheritance among the harlots and subsequently becomes a swineherd. The question of whether the pedlar eventually repents, as the Prodigal Son did, is left unanswered… For the interpretation of this work, the back of The Haywain Triptych [Bosch, ca. 1512-1515] is of great importance… The question is whether the inner sides of the panels of the present dismembered triptych carried a similar message. (p. 294)

Lammertse, 2017

#392

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

Bosch was a fierce critic of avarice (the Hay Wain) [Bosch, ca. 1512-1515] and usury (Death and the Usurer), but also of prodigality and impoverishment through one’s own fault (overindulgence, extravagance and laziness). The values and standards that underpin Bosch’s world view are, first and foremost, moderation with respect to money and possessions (neither avarice nor rejection of worldly goods, allied with the condemnation of usury). This is followed by the moderate and rational use of those things (neither miserliness nor squandering) and by the praise of work. (p. 142)

Koldeweij, Vandenbroeck & Vermet, 2001

Hieronymus Bosch. The Complete Paintings and Drawings

#420

Hat on left hand from The Pedlar

Het haar door de muts komt in het vers onder de prent van Sinte Reynuyt [van Leyden, ca. 1520-1530, “Het schip Reynuit”] en in een bekende parodie op het Wilhelmus voor als spreekwoordelijke uitdrukking om berooidheid aan te duiden [5]. De muts op het schilderij is een lap, een „sleter”, wat in het lied van Valerius op het standbeeld van Duc d’Alf ook spreekwoordelijk voor een vervallen mensch gebruikt wordt [Valerius, 1942, 75]. (p. 78)

Enklaar, 1940

Uit Uilenspiegel’s kring

#422

Shoe and slipper from The Pedlar

Op het eerste gezicht lijkt het schoeisel van den vagebond de verbeelding van de uitdrukking: op een schoen en een slof, die het tegenovergestelde van welvaart aanduidt [Koomen, 1932, 48]. Maar daargelaten, of die uitdrukking al zoo oud is, dat ze tot de dagen van Bosch opklimt, zij lijkt wel gegroeid uit een andere, die reeds bij Oats voorkomt: de netste schoen wordt eens een slof [4]. Aangezien daarmede vooral een zedelijk verval bedoeld wordt, is die spreekwijze hier wel zeer toepasselijk. (p. 79)

Enklaar, 1940

Uit Uilenspiegel’s kring

#432

Pigs from The Pedlar

De varkens bij den trog vormen de eenige rechtstreeksche toespeling op het bijbelsche verhaal [English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Luke, 15:16]; zij verbeelden, hoe de zondaar, naar het woord van den dichter, „o wellust, uit uw trog den draf der zwijnen dronk” [Gossaert, 1919, 126]. (p. 83)

Enklaar, 1940

Uit Uilenspiegel’s kring

#466

… in the tavern at the left, whose ruinous condition echoes the ragged clothes of the wayfarer. As in Bosch earlier Marriage Feast at Cana [Follower of Jheronimus Bosch, ca. 1560], the tavern symbolizes the World and the Devil in general, its dubious nature revealed by man urinating at the night at the right, and by the couple embracing in the doorway. Another inmate of the house peers curiously through one of the dilapidated windows. (p. 104)

Gibson, 1973

#467

The customer for whom the second woman waits may very well be traveller himself. As Bax [Bax, 1949] has perceptively observed, he has not just emerged from the tavern, but has passed it in his journey and now halts on the road, as if allured by its promise of pleasure. Bax further suggests that the garments of the traveller and the various articles he carries are a symbolic commentary of his poverty, the sinful tendencies which led to his present condition, and his readiness to succumb to temptation once more. (p. 105)

Gibson, 1973

#514

Hieronymus Bosch c.1450-1516

Bosing, 1987

#590

The left side-scene shows a disreputable house, its roof pitched at an awkward angle. The collapsing ridgepole, broken window panes, and sagging shutter, and the washing hung out to dry at the attic window make this sinister tavern a symbol of neglect and squalor. The blackness framed by the door and windows represents the murky background of the love affairs in the fugitive’s libertine past. (p. 258)

Fraenger, 1999

Boat with ten people onboard from Ship of Fools

#729

Mit den «Müßiggängerschiffen» (heißen sie nun «Narrenschiff»,«Leichtschiff», «Schluraffen Schiff», «Sint Reynuut» oder «Blauwe Schuit»)sollen die Müßiggänger satirisiert werden, die sich von der übrigen Gesellschaftabsondern. Das «Narrenschiff» wurde hauptsächlich gegen die Müßiggänger aufgerichtet. Die Passagiere dieser Fahrzeuge streben ein irdisches Paradies an, sie leben ms «Blaue» hinem [Leeber, 1939-1940; Enklaar, 1937, 35-85; Enklaar, 1940, 111], achten Jedoch nicht aufden «gemeinen Nutz» (res publica) und vergessen vor allem das Himmelreich. Sie ahnen nicht, daß die dünne Schale ihres Gefährtes sie nur wenigeZentimeter vom Tode trennt. Ihr sinnliches Treiben 1st Selbstbetrug, da ihr Ende naht. Diese – nach Meinung der Humanisten um 1500 – gottlosen Prasser und Schlemmer segeln ohne Steuer und Kompaß auf dem «Meerder Welt» ihrem sicheren Untergang entgegen. Die «Müßiggängerschiffe» sollen in satirisch-didaktischer Absicht sowohl vor dem persönlichenSchiffbruch wie vor dem «Schiffbruch» der Gemeinschaft und des Staateswarnen. Sie enthalten ein Gleichnis für «jedermann», um sich selbst zu erkennenund Maß zu halten. Diesem Impetus folgt auch Boschs «Narrenschiffo,das zu einem Laster-Triptychon gehört, das vor gefährlicher Armutund übertriebenem Reichtum warnen will. (pp. 167-168)

Hartau, 2002

“Narrenschiffe” um 1500

#736

Old man in green and chest from Death and the Miser

…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)

Morganstern, 1982

The Pawns in Bosch’s” Death and the Miser”

#778

Suche nach Glück bei nahem Untergang

Können Hausierer überhaupt den Sündenpfad verlassen? In den Augen von Hieronymus Bosch sind weder der Stand des Armen noch der Beruf des Händlers eine Voraussetzung für eine positive “peregrinatio”. Ein Hausierer kann eigentlich nur ein Negativ-Held, ein Schandmal, sein. Ein Läuterungsweg wird im Rotterdamer Bild nur angedeutet, fort von der sündigen Taverne, hin zur “grünen Aue” [English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Psalm, 23]. Auf die Verallgemeinerung als Lebensweg weist auch die Rundform hin. Es ist die Welt und gleichzeitig ein Spiegel, in dem sich jedermann erkennen kann. (p. 182)

#781

Renger believes that the figure in the Rotterdam tondo is an impoverished peddler and swindler [Renger, 1969, 66-67]. This interpretation of the Rotterdam figure agrees on some points with that offered in the second part of this paper. Seligman and Renger call the backpack a peddler’s basket, but although peddlers did use such baskets they were not carried only by peddlers [Seligmann, 1953, 104; Renger, 1969, 66-67]. Anyone traveling by foot who had to carry something would be likely to have some sort of a pack on his back, especially if he was a vagrant poor man who had to keep his few belongings with him. Michel Mollat describes the typical medieval poor man as a vagrant who carries a pack on his back and a walking stick in his hand [Mollat, 1966, 17]. A basket similar to those in the Haywain and the Rotterdam tondo is used by a demon for carrying damned souls in the center panel of Bosch’s Last Judgment triptych [Bosch, ca. 1504-1508; de Tolnay, 1966, 179] (p. 88:note 6)

#782

…Bosch’s ragged man is a personification of poverty, a personification that follows conventions established in works of art and literature of the late Middle Ages. (p. 88)

#784

As the preeminent Franciscan virtue, poverty was frequently illustrated virtue cycles, including those in the Bardi Chapel and the Baroncelli Chapel of S. Croce [Workshop of Taddeo Gaddi, 14th century], in the choir vault of S. Francesco in Pistonia, and in the Strozzi Chapel of S. Maria Novella [Workshop of Orcagna, 15th-16th century; Offner & Steinweg, 1979, IV, n. 10; Allegory of Chasity at the Bardi Chapel, ca. 1325]. In these cycles, cycles Poverty has begun to bear a number attributes that will later appear with the figure Haywain and the Rotterdam tondo. Rotterdam tondo. In each case the is dressed in ragged clothing, carries a walking stick, flees from an attacking dog while turning back to it [Tuttle, 1981, 91:note 26; Dante, ca. 1308-1321, XXI, v. 68-69]. These pictorial details also derive from descriptions poverty in the Franciscan texts. Franciscan texts. The bride of Saint Francis is called a homeless wanderer, “a fugitive upon earth,” [Habig, 1973, 1568-69] whom avarice has caused all men to despise [Habig, 1973, 1569, 1571]. She is explicitly associated with the suffering of Christ his Passion: “You were with him when the Jews him, when the pharisees insulted him, when the priest cursed him; you were with him when he was feted, spat upon, and scourged … you suffered him.” [Habig, 1973, 1563] The association of Poverty’s suffering with Christ’s Passion seems to be expressed in the Franciscan virtue cycles and in Bosch’s paintings by means of the dog that harries the poor man. (p. 91-92)

#785

Dante seems to have had such an image of Poverty in mind wrote “ch’escono i cani a dosso al poverello/che di subito s’ arresta,” [Dante, ca. 1308-1321, XXI, v. 68-69]. Perhaps would not be unreasonable to speculate that the 14th-century ists responsible for the depictions of Poverty were influenced description of the poor man attacked from behind by dogs. The dogs are not included in the descriptions of Poverty in Franciscan literature. The influence of Dante’s Inferno can be seen in the Hell in the Strozzi Chapel, whose vault illustrates Poverty with a dog [Workshop of Orcagna, 15th-16th century]. (p. 91:note 26)

#786

The Baroncelli Poverty [Workshop of Taddeo Gaddi, 14th century], however, is both male and wingless and therefore most similar to the figure in… the Rotterdam tondo. This correspondence is significant because another scene from the Baroncelli fresco cycle – the Presentation of the Virgin – had appeared about a century earlier in the Limbourgs’ Tres Riches Heures, suggesting that a model book illustrating the Baroncelli frescoes may have reached the Netherlands at an early date and become part of the vocabulary of early Dutch imagery from which Bosch drew some of his motifs [Gibson, 1973 (Hieronymus Bosch and the Dutch tradition); Meiss, 1974 (French painting in the time of Jean de Berry), pl. 573, pl. 668; Meiss, 1974 (The Limbourgs and their contemporaries), pl. 573, pl. 668]. (p. 92)

#787

The image of Poverty as a ragged man with a walking stick, harried by a vicious dog, eventually became part of the vocabulary of popular, secular art in Italy. He appears as Misero, the beggar, in two series of Tarocchi cards that were produced in the second half of the fifteenth century [Misero I, ca. 1465; Hind, 1970, 221-240]. Such images were easily transportable. The Tarocchi cards were, for example, copied by Albrecht Diirer [Strauss, 1974, 238-255]. (p. 92)

#788

…the Rotterdam tondo represents a second and very different way in which poverty was conceived by the medieval mind: involuntary poverty, the affliction meted out to those who waste their substance in sinful indulgence. indulgence. Throughout medieval literature there are references to poverty as one of the wages of sin. In the Carmina Burana songs, for example, poverty is the typical fate of drunkards and profligates [Hilka, Schumann & Meyer, 1970]. One entire section of the Speculum Laicorum was devoted to drunkenness and its consequences, which included poverty [Owst, 1953, 426-427]. Sebastian Brant opens his chapter “On Gluttony and Feasting” in the Ship of Fools with: “He merits future poverty/ Who always lives in luxury/ And joins the spendthrift’s revelry.” [Brant, 1962, 96] The spendthrift’s ruination in the tavern was a favorite theme of popular literature and art in the sixteenth century, as Konrad Renger has shown in his book Lockerer Gesellschaft [Renger, 1970]. (p. 93)

#792

The poor man in this painting has a bandaged sore on his left leg, and he has apparently lost one of his shoes and replaced it with a slipper. He has several new possessions, including a small hoof tucked into his vest, a purse hanging conspicuously at his side, a catskin on his basket, and a hat stuck with an awl holding a loop of thread, which he carries in his outstretched hand. These alterations in Bosch’s… representation of the poor man create an image that is antithetical to the concept of Christian virtue. (p. 93)

#793

… when figures in Northern European art are shown in front of taverns, they are usually associated with the kind of activities that take place within them [Tuttle, 1981, 93: note 47; Bosch, ca. 1505-1510; Bosch, ca. 1504-1508; de Tolnay, 1966, 174; Bosch, ca. 1500; Bosch, ca. 1490-1500; Beham, 1535]. One’s suspicion that the Rotterdam poor man was a frequenter of taverns and brothels is increased by the other changes that Bosch made in the painting. The precise symbolic meaning of some of these details may be irretrievably lost in forgotten folk proverbs and jokes, but some observations can nonetheless be made about them, with varying degrees of certainty. (p. 93)

Left leg with bandage from The Pedlar

#797

The fact that the Rotterdam poor man has lost a shoe leads to the same conclusion. Drunkenness and consorting with prostitutes were condemned for being extravagant as well as sinful pastimes in the Middle Ages. They were denounced by moralists who formulated bleak descriptions of the consequences of such unseemly, immoderate activities [Owst, 1953, 425-441; Renger, 1970]. The loss of one’s clothing and particularly one’s shoes as a result of gambling and other forms of prodigality in the taverns was a familiar topos in such literature throughout the Middle Ages [Renger, 1970, 20; Tuttle, 1981, 94:note 60]. Popular texts that elaborated upon the parable of the Prodigal Son were convenient vehicles for the expression of these moralizations [Renger, 1970, 23-70]. One of the most poignant depictions of the Prodigal Son in poverty appears in a series of tondos, today in Basel, that illustrates the various episodes of the parable [Der verlorene Sohn beim Spiel im Freudenhaus, ca. 1520]. The Prodigal Son is shown in wretched poverty, seated before a meager fire. One of his shoes is missing. (p. 94)

Catskin on backpack from The Pedlar

#799

The meaning of the catskin hanging on the poor man’s basket is more enigmatic. However, some popular association between dead cats and dissipation may be suggested by the appearance of another dead cat in the Basel tondo of the Prodigal Son in poverty. This popular association may have been current in Italy as well. Condivi’s explanation of the panther skin that Michelangelo’s figure of Bacchus holds states that the cat is dead because it is meant to symbolize the fatal consequences of dissolute living [Condivi, 1927, 28]. (p. 95)

#802

The figures on the Haywain exterior and the Rotterdam tondo thus illustrate quite aptly the two contrasting attitudes that existed toward poverty in the Middle Ages. Voluntary poverty, promoted by the Franciscans and the Devotio Moderna, was the most admirable of virtues, the symbol of Christian perfection. perfection. Bosch represented voluntary poverty on the outside of the Haywain triptych as the Christian alternative to, and protection against, For the Rotterdam tondo, Bosch used essentially figure to represent the same idea – poverty. However, the changes that he made in the secondary imagery terdam tondo changed the interpretation of that of the most Christ-like virtue to one of sin. (p. 95)

#858

The more specific identity of this figure as a peddler can be determined by observing that he carries a rncksack for his goods [Renger, 1969; de Bruyn, 2001 (Hieronymous Bosch’s So-Called Prodigal Son Tondo); de Bruyn, 2001]. His poverty is obvious from his scruffy costume with holes in the knee and from his bandaged leg with unmatched footwear. But he does have a small coin purse with a knife at his waist. He passes by a country inn that obviously doubles as a brothel, as the caged bird under the cave makes explicit… Earlier scholars attempted to interpret the main figure as the Prodigal Son of the gospel parable [English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Luke, 15:11-32], who is reduced to repentant poverty by wine, women, and song in taverns, and forced to dwell among swine. But this figure is grey-haired rather than youthful, and there is no reason in the parable for him to carry a peddler’s pack, either before he squanders his patrimony or afterwards. (p. 254)

Silver, 2006