Iconology of the Wayfarer Triptych

#62

Couple in a pink tent with clothes on shore from An Allegory of Intemperance

His symbolism has received many interpretations including psychoanalytic explanations for the erotic images. Yet a simpler and perhaps more reliable approach to understanding Bosch’s imagery is offered by Sebastian Brant’s Das Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools) [Bax, 1948, 199]. (p.18)

Rossiter, 1973

Bosch and Brant: Images of Folly

#81

Couple in a pink tent with clothes on shore from An Allegory of Intemperance

Surmounted by the sign of a cleft hoof, the pink tent represents a house of drink and lust. The fragile decoration tracing the edges of the roof, the square hole in the roof and absence of a door suggest the impermanence of the dwelling in which the couple carelessly celebrates. Brant describes a similar abandonment to pleasure in Of the Power of Fools [Winkler, 1951, 13; Brant, 1962, 169]. (p.23)

Rossiter, 1973

Bosch and Brant: Images of Folly

#82

Couple in a pink tent with clothes on shore from An Allegory of Intemperance

The tent of mirth and the train of clothes leading up to it allude to a seduction. (p.23)

Rossiter, 1973

Bosch and Brant: Images of Folly

#84

Couple in a pink tent with clothes on shore from An Allegory of Intemperance

Bosch implies a connection between drinking and love-making in the tent o mirth through the erotic symbol of a jug upon the table. Framed by the door, the whispering couple stands alone in the tent’s dim interior, involved in a private tête-à-tête. Light fails to pierce the black-reddish depths of the murky space behind the lovers, enhancing the sense of forbidden mystery within. Yet the couple does not appear to enjoy their moment of secret passion. The onslaught bold and blind remains more blind than bold, for the lovers appear sightless, their eyes blurred by shadow. Though the woman makes a small gesture towards the man (or towards the cup of wine) , she turns her face away and avoids looking at him. (p.23)

Rossiter, 1973

Bosch and Brant: Images of Folly

#104

Couple in a pink tent with clothes on shore from An Allegory of Intemperance

… worldly vice of luxury…show the combination of lust and indulgence known among the Seven Sins as luxuria. We can easily compare the scene of Luxuria from the Seven Deadly Sins panel, which displays a similar combination of rich costume, taste, and eros [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510]. (p.630)

Silver, 2001

God in the Details: Bosch and Judgment(s)

#106

Boat with ten people onboard from Ship of Fools

… worldly vice of luxury…show the combination of lust and indulgence known among the Seven Sins as luxuria. We can easily compare the scene of Luxuria from the Seven Deadly Sins panel [Bosch, ca. 1505-1510], which displays a similar combination of rich costume, taste, and eros…we find there some of the same costly foodstuffs (especially cherries and roast fowl) and wine flasks, as well as a fool in his standard costume. (p.630)

Silver, 2001

God in the Details: Bosch and Judgment(s)

#112

Boat with ten people onboard from Ship of Fools

…the Paris-New Haven wing embodies a deadly sin here, luxury, both of gourmandise (rather than the sin of gluttony, with its own segment on the circle of sins) and of sexuality (note that the scene of the punishment for luxury in the Hell roundel of the Prado sins consists of a fornicating couple in bed with demons[Bosch, ca. 1505-1510, “The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things”]). (p.630)

Silver, 2001

God in the Details: Bosch and Judgment(s)

#116

Couple in a pink tent with clothes on shore from An Allegory of Intemperance

…unchaste love, as represented by the couple in the tent. This couple could be regarded as the core from which all sins derive, hence this wing could aptly be titled Luxuria…(pp.31-32)

Hartau, 2005 (Bosch and the Jews)

Bosch and the Jews

#133

Table with beaker and cherries from Ship of Fools

On the board between them, which does duty for a table, is a dish of cheeries (symbol of sensual pleasure). (p. 31)

Delevoy, 1960

Bosch

#134

Nun playing the lute from Ship of Fools

Surrounded by a shipload of grotesque characters plainly the worse for drink, they sit face to face, singing lustily to the sound of a lute (which at the time had erotic associations). (p. 31)

Delevoy, 1960

Bosch

#136

Man with knife on tree mast from Ship of Fools

A man, brandishing a knife (sexual symbol or emblem of anger?) is climbing the mast, so as to cut down a toast chicken attached to it. (p. 32)

Delevoy, 1960

Bosch

#166

Tree mast with owl from Ship of Fools

De plaats, die de laatste auteur uit Colijn van Rijssele’s Spiegel der Minnen verklaart: „nu craectse haesnoten Juyst met haer teenen In een cleen bosselken [de Tollenaere, 1941, 128], komt overeen met het gezegde uit het toneelstuk van Leander ende Hero: „In prieelen en bosschen de rijpe haselnoten metten teenen kraecken [Kalff, 1907, 214]. Een voorbeeld van „die nootkens craken vindt men in Brands:900 Brands, 1921, 900]. Het bosje waarin op Jeroens Hooiwagen een minnend paar half schuilgaat, lijkt een hazelaarsbosje [Bosch, ca. 1512-1515]. (p. 196, note 74)

Bax, 1949

Ontcijfering van Jeroen Bosch

#172

Table with beaker and cherries from Ship of Fools

Men moet in de kers een zinnebeeld zien van het vrouwelijk geslachtsdeel, dat in geheel Europa vaak met vruchtennamen aangeduid wordt. De vruchten op het schilderij hebben ook dubbelzinnige betekenis, want kersen eten is het minnespel spelen. (p. 193)

Bax, 1949

Ontcijfering van Jeroen Bosch

#173

Nun playing the lute from Ship of Fools

De luit waarop de non tokkelt, steunt deze veronderstelling [het minnespel spelen]. Dit instrument komt in onze 16de-eeuwse taal en beeldende kunst nl. in erotische zin voor. Zo betekende „spelen met der luten hetzelfde als kersen eten [Leuvense bijdragen, 1990, 331] en schilderde Cornelis Metsys vrouwen, die luiten aan een luitensteller brengen [Massys, 16th century] (p. 193)

Bax, 1949

Ontcijfering van Jeroen Bosch

#176

Table with beaker and cherries from Ship of Fools

De twee kersen aan één steel, welke de harpenaar op de naar een compositie van Bosch vervaardigde gravure van die blau schuyte in zijn hand houdt [van der Heyden, 1559], hebben waarschijnlijk dezelfde functie als de vruchten op het paneeltje. (p. 193)

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

#193

Nun and monk from Ship of Fools

De non, die op het schilderij dezen monnik tot partner dient, wordt ook in het gedicht beschreven. Zij is één… Voert vanden gueden vroukijns fijn, Die gaern bi die guede ghesellen sijn, Ende die Venus dwinghet, die goddinne, Ende garen draghen verholen minne, Ist abdisse ofte nonne [Verwijs, 1871, 98:vs. 125-129] (p. 147)

Enklaar, 1933

De Blaue Schult

#210

Nun and monk from Ship of Fools

De non, die op het schilderij dezen monnik tot partner dient, wordt ook in het gedicht beschreven. Zij is één… Voert vanden gueden vroukijns fijn, Die gaern bi die guede ghesellen sijn, Ende die Venus dwinghet, die goddinne, Ende garen draghen verholen minne, Ist abdisse ofte nonne [Verwijs, 1871, 98:vs. 125-129] (p. 68)

Enklaar, 1937

Varende Luyden. Studiën over de middeleeuwsche groepen van onmaatschappelijken in de Nederlanden.

#263

Old tavern from The Pedlar

… a house of prostitution (p. 85)

Schwartz, 1997

Hieronymus Bosch: First impressions

#287

Old tavern from The Pedlar

… a brothel in a dilapidated house (p. 191)

Fischer, 2016

Jheronimus Bosch

#294

Table with beaker and cherries from Ship of Fools

A pewter beaker and a plate of cherries, symbols of carnal lust [Vandenbroeck, 1989, 162f], stand between them (the friar and nun) on a plank that projects out over the side of the boat like a springboard. (p. 191).

Fischer, 2016

Jheronimus Bosch

#312

Old tavern with pigs and rooster from The Pedlar

The left exterior shutter shows the life of excess, and above all lechery, associated with youth… (p. 192)

Fischer, 2016

Jheronimus Bosch

#342

Old tavern from The Pedlar

The caged magpie, the jug on the stick al the top of the roof, the dovecote and the sign with a swan are all clues – one by itself would suffice, but taken altogether they leave no room for doubt – that this is a brothel. A woman standing in the doorway is embraced by a soldier or Landsknecht, of the type who featured in the visual art of this period as regular visitors to this kind of establishment [Lammertse & van der Coelen, 2015, 118-122, 141-144]. His gigantic pike – they could be up to five or six metres long – stands against the façade. (p. 294)

Lammertse, 2017

Hieronymus Bosch: The pilgrimage of life triptych

#343

Old tavern from The Pedlar

The bird cage also occurs in brothel scenes depicted by Jan Sanders van Hemessen and the Brunswick Monogrammist (see Lammertse and van der Coelen [Lammertse & van der Coelen, 2015, 143, 159]; the jug on a stick and the dovecote can be interpreted as symbols of copulation [Bax, 1949; de Bruyn, 2001]; in a painting of ca. 1480 by an anonymous Brussels artist, a sign with a swan hangs outside a brothel to which Saint Lucy is being led [Bücken & Steyaert, 2013, 277]. (p. 301, note 11)

Lammertse, 2017

Hieronymus Bosch: The pilgrimage of life triptych

#399

Old tavern from The Pedlar

A soldier who has leaned his over long lance against the wall fondles a woman in the doorway. (p.56)

Friedländer, 1927

Die Altniederländische Malerei, 5

#428

Man and woman at doorway of tavern from The Pedlar

Dat de kroeg op het schilderij een verdacht huis is, onthult niet alleen de juffrouw – een kellnerin? —, die in de deur door een landsknecht geknuffeld wordt [Langendijk, 1715, vs. 8; Hildebrand, 1911, 333]… Dat een landsknecht het er eens van nam, zijn speer op zij zette, om een juffer in de bouten te vatten, zal ook in een gewone herberg geen uitzondering geweest zijn. (p. 80-82)

Enklaar, 1940

Uit Uilenspiegel’s kring

#429

Hanging birdcage from The Pedlar

Maar het suspecte karakter van de gelegenheid wordt buiten eiken twijfel gesteld door den mand met den vogel, die naast de deur hangt. Hetzelfde teeken ziet men ook op de schilderijen van Hemessen te Karlsruhe en te Berlijn [Friedländer, 1935, 81; van Hemessen, ca. 1540; Monogrammist, ca. 1530]. Het is mogelijk, dat dit ook in het werkelijke leven het teeken is geweest, waarmede dergelijke huizen zich afficheerden, te vergelijken met het groote huisnummer onzer dagen. Maar dan zit er toch zeker een woordspeling in. In Manken van Nieumeghen insinueert de moeye, dat haar nichtje „yewers in een camer ghemuyt si, daer men sulken tijtkens om een grootken speet”, d.w.z. zulke „kippetjes” voor een gering bedrag aan het spit steekt [Leendertz Jr., 1907, 292]. Hetzelfde beeld „ghemuyt” oftewel gekooid gebruikt Heynken de Luyere, in alle gelegenheden van dit slag thuis, als hij op zoek naar een op het breede pad geraakte „nichte, die schoon van aenschijn was ende van leven lichte” [Crul, 1920, 11]… Ook de duiven, waarvan er een rondvliegt en een ander onder den nok van het huis op til zit, bedoelen aan te duiden, dat in de kroeg gelegenheid tot het plegen van ontucht wordt gegeven; duiven op zolder houden, is tot den huidigen dag een euphemisme voor: een publiek huis houden [Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal III, 1912, col. 3561; Harrebomée, 1858, 159] (p. 82)

Enklaar, 1940

Uit Uilenspiegel’s kring

#431

Rooster from The Pedlar

Wat in het gedicht uitgedrukt wordt door het beeld van den roodgekamden haan, verbeeldt ook wel het dier op het schilderij, dat daar bovenop den mesthoop prijkt [Bisschop & Verwijs, 1870, 173]. (p. 83)

Enklaar, 1940

Uit Uilenspiegel’s kring

#437

Tree mast with owl from Ship of Fools

De aard van het door Brueghel [Bruegel, 1559 (The Fight between Carnival and Lent)] door het uithangbord getypeerdehuis blijkt ook duidelijk uit de gedragingen der personen,die men achter de ramen zien kan; een kroeg van dubbelzinnigkarakter. In verband hiermede zal men misschien in de groenekransen en bladerbossen, die eraan uitgehangen zijn, den hazelaarwillen herkennen, die bij het Carnaval als erotisch zinnebeeldgebruikt werd [Enklaar, 1937, 71]. Of zijn dat simpellijk de kransen, waarmeede waard zijn goeden wijn adverteert? Ook de voorman van denstoet, die uit de straat op den achtergrond recht op den beschouwertoekomt, draagt op een stok een tak, waarin men wellichteveneens den hazelaar mag zien. Op het bekende schilderijtjevan Jeroen Bosch in het Louvre te Parijs loopt de mast van de Blauwe Schuit uit in een wijdvertakten boom, die eraan vastgebondenis; ook zijn, door Hieronymus Cock uitgegeven, prentvan de drijvende mosselschelp vertoont een boom, die als mastdienst doet [Enklaar, 1937, 71, 74; van der Heyden, 1562]. Ik heb indertijd de veronderstelling geopperd, datook daarin een herinnering aan den hazelaar zou zitten. Sedertwerd mijn aandacht getrokken door een allegorische roodkrijtteekeningvan Leonardo da Vinei van 1516, die te Windsorbewaard wordt. Men ziet daarop een bootje, waarin een zwijn,of misschien een wolf, met een kompas zich richt naar een opde golven drijvenden wereldbol, waarop zich een adelaar verheft,boven wiens hoofd een kroon zweeft [von Seidlitz, 1935, 118; da Vinci, ca. 1591-1624]. Ook dat scheepje heefteen wijdvertakten boom als mast. Het is hoogst onwaarschijnlijk,dat Leonardo door Noord-Europeesche Carnavalsgebruikentot zijn teekening zou geinspireerd zijn. Uit te maken, of Bosch,die in 1516 overleed, die teekening nog kan gekend hebben, moetik aan kunsthistorici overlaten. In elk geval blijft de mogelijkheidbestaan, dat hij, ook indien zijn verbeelding op kennis vanLeonardo’s werk berust, dan nog aan het Carnavalsembleemvan den hazelaar gedacht heeft. (p. 115)

Enklaar, 1940

Uit Uilenspiegel’s kring

#448

Nun and monk from Ship of Fools

The monk and one of the nuns are singing lustily, the latter accompanying herself on a lute; they resemble the amorous couples depicted in medieval love gardens, who make music as a prelude to making love. (p. 41)

Gibson, 1973

Hieronymus Bosch

#467

Ragged poor man from The Pedlar

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

Hieronymus Bosch

#495

Nun and monk from Ship of Fools

The monk and one of the nuns are singing lustily, the latter accompanying herself on a lute; they resemble the amorous couples depicted in medieval love gardens, who make music as a prelude to making love. (p. 30)

Bosing, 1987

Hieronymus Bosch c.1450-1516

#514

Ragged poor man from The Pedlar

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. 63)

Bosing, 1987

Hieronymus Bosch c.1450-1516

#535

Boat with ten people onboard from Ship of Fools

The panel may have been part of a diptych or triptych dedicated to the theme of folly [Demonts, 1919; de Tolnay, 1937]: represented here is the rudderless boat drifting perhaps towards fools’ paradise, Brant’s Narragonia [Brant, 1944; Brant, 1962]; Helene Adhémar [Adhémar, 1962] thinks it is the Ship of the Church, and on the point of being wrecked. Attempts have been made to interpret the painting in a psychoanalytic key by identifying the erotic symbols [Solier, 1961]; but the various elements are better explained in the climate of the period, as a satire on one of the seven sins or of the five senses. Represented here are ‘Gula’ and ‘Luxuria’; most of the characters are intent on food and drink- one has had too much and is vomiting over the boat’s side. (p. 93)

Cinotti, 1966

The complete paintings of Bosch

#536

Nun and monk from Ship of Fools

The monk and the nun, as well as being obviously foolish characters, evidently have a sinful relationship (cherries, according to Bax, have erotic connotations); they are indulging in profane music-making too. (p. 93)

Cinotti, 1966

The complete paintings of Bosch

#562

Swan flag on tavern from The Pedlar

This negative image of the swan appears in many Bosch’s works. The tavern/brothels in his paintings, for examples, are identified more than once by a white swan on a flag or signboard. We see one example of this in the background of the central panel of the Prado Adoration of the Magi [Bosch, ca. 1494 (Triptych of Adoration of the Magi)], where the couple stands arm in arm, looking at a tavern whose sign is decorated with a white swan. The pigeons which fly in and out of the attic if this building identify it as a brothel. We know this because, as Bax has pointed out, the Netherlanders of the fifteenth century referred to a house of ill repute as a place which had pigeons in its loft. The same tavern/brothel, characterized by the same pigeons and swan on a signboard, appears again in Bosch’s so called ‘Prodigal Son’ at Rotterdam. Bax has shown that the swan could be an image of immorality, as well as an image of purity during the Middle Ages [Bax, 1979, 120, 295]. But surely it is unlikely that a devoted member of the Brotherhood of the Swan would have gone against his confraternity’s traditional symbolism, and chosen to depict the group’s namesake as a symbol of depravity. (p. 89).

Harris, 1995

The secret heresy of Hieronymus Bosch

#566

Old tavern from The Pedlar

The inn which he [the peddler] finds so tempting is obviously a place of sin and corruption. Its swan signboard, its pigeons in the loft, its jug, and its women all show that it is a house of prostitution. It also a place of drunkenness and intoxication. Symbols of drink include the leaking barrel and the man who urinates at the side of the wall. Bosch’s inn can be interpreted as a conventional Christian image of temptation, but it corresponds even more closely with a metaphor in the Manichean-related Hymn of the Pearl. In this poem, the Saviour who has come to rescue the fallen soul goes to stay in a similar inn. Symbolically, this is a temporary dwelling, which represents the earth [Jonas, 1963, 55f.]. Like the tavern/brothel in the painting at Rotterdam, it is a place where corruption and drunkenness are rife. (pp. 163-164)

Harris, 1995

The secret heresy of Hieronymus Bosch

#598

Catskin on backpack from The Pedlar

The cat’s skin, too, carries a double meaning. Up to now it has been taken for a “remedy for rheumatism” [Hannema, 1931] or a “bringer of bad luck” [de Tolnay, 1937, 46]. This trophy of an itinerant small-game hunter and knockeroff of cats has a sexual connotation that led Michael Lindener to choose the highly suggestive title “Katzipori” (derived from the Italian cazzo) for the collection of “droll stories” that followed his Rastbüchlein [Lindener, 1558]. (p. 259)

Fraenger, 1999

Hieronymus Bosch

#607

Hanging birdcage from The Pedlar

It represents the spiritual conversion of the Prodigal, and is therefore to be regarded as his soul-bird. We see it first in a cage outside the sinister house, representing the hero’s past entanglement in the evil world. In those days a birdcage hanging at the door was the sign of a brothel. Then the bird escapes and, like the birds that so often show people the way in fairy tales, flutters ahead of the fugitive and perches on the bottom bar of the gate-the direction his feet must take. Finally it soars to the top of a high pole from where it can see his father’s house rising out of the trees… Bosch borrowed the magpie symbol from a medieval world poem, Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, to which the famous magpie paradigm serves as an introduction [von Eschenbach, ca. 1200-1210]. For him the black-and-white magpie colors stand for zwivel (doubt), not in the present-day sense of vacillating faith or conscience but in the original sense of “zwie-fall” (duality), i.e., the fundamentally given polarity of cosmic, moral, and metaphysical powers. (p. 260)

Fraenger, 1999

Hieronymus Bosch

#696

Man and woman at doorway of tavern from The Pedlar

The gemini of Bruegel are an amorous couple. They are nude in accordance with the idealizing tendencies of the Renaissance reviving antiquity, but they otherwise resemble the profane couple represented by Bosch in the doorway of the tavern. This amorous couple by Bosch may very well have the same meaning as Bruegel’s couple and may represent one of the signs of the zodiacs [Philip, 1958, 19:note 38; Panofsky, 1939, pl. XXXVI:fig. 62; Essling & Müntz, 1902, 212-213]. (pp. 17-19)

Philip, 1958

The Peddler by Hieronymus Bosch, a study in detectio

#704

Man and woman at doorway of tavern from The Pedlar

A sin characteristic of the peddler’s profession seems to be indicated by the second figure representation at the tavern, the amorous couple. The connection of this representation to the main figure of the painting has given rise to various speculations [Pigler, 1950, 135; Philip, 1958, 68:note 143]. I think, that this connection, too, is a professional one, and that the peddler was the one who brought the two people together. That would mean, that the side-line of the peddler is procuring [Bosch, ca. 1512-1515; Philip, 1958, 54: note 115-116] (pp. 68-69)

Philip, 1958

The Peddler by Hieronymus Bosch, a study in detectio

#705

Hat on left hand from The Pedlar

The peddler’s most prominent attribute is the hat which is so ostentatiously displayed by his outstretched arm. That this hat is the proverbial “new hat earned by a person who made a match” has already been assumed by Enklaar. I think that Enklaar’s idea, although overlooked or rejected by others, is nevertheless correct [Enklaar, 1940, 79, note 5; Philip, 1958, 69:note 145]. The peddler is a procurer, the hat is the emblem for this. The way the two objects, the awl and the pitched thread, are pinned to the felt makes it perfectly clear that the hat is a symbol carrying sexual implications [Enklaar, 1940, 79f.; Philip, 1958, 69:note 146; Meijer, 1946, 4f.; Bax, 1949, 50, 99, 223, 229, note 60; Valentiner & Suida, 1949, 105, no. 71; Anthonisz, 1541; Seligmann, 1953, 101] (p. 69:note 146)

Philip, 1958

The Peddler by Hieronymus Bosch, a study in detectio

#706

Rooster from The Pedlar

The rooster which occurs near the inn in Bosch’s painting [Philip, 1958, 6: note 14] is a symbol of lust and unchastity and is also connected with the procuring activities of the peddler. The rooster originally signified fertility and was therefore an attribute of the god Mercury. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the cock frequently appears on the caps of fools in representations in which the fool is the entertainer and procurer. Cf., for instance, the fool as the maître de plaisir in the woodcut by Cornelis Teunissen, repr. in Hampe [Anthonisz, 1541]. There are innumerable examples of fools, prostitutes, procures, go-betweens and match-makers with the rooster [Bax, 1949]. (p. 69:note 146)

Philip, 1958

The Peddler by Hieronymus Bosch, a study in detectio

#707

Pigs from The Pedlar

The swine, the counterparts of the rooster in Bosch’s representation [Philip, 1958, 4:note 10]), also point to unchastity and prostitution when seen in the story-telling context of the painting [Seligmann, 1953, 101; Bax, 1949, 50, 99, 223]. (p. 69:note 146)

Philip, 1958

The Peddler by Hieronymus Bosch, a study in detectio

#708

Ragged poor man from The Pedlar

Procuring probably was the most lucrative part of the peddler’s activities. Bosch apparently meant to reveal this point above all. The procuring in his Peddler corresponds to the stealing of the purse in his Conjurer [Bosch, ca. 1475]…Bosch also had shown that not the official professional work of a dubious character but his concealed sideline is the real money-making proposition of his trade. (p. 69)

Philip, 1958

The Peddler by Hieronymus Bosch, a study in detectio

#710

Ragged poor man from The Pedlar

Despite his drinking in the tavern, the peddler cannot be regarded as the “victim” of this evil house, where his drinks were probably even free of charge. All writers who had taken this figure for the Prodigal Son, assumed that the peddler was the victim of the evil. But the peddler is by no means and in no respect the victim of the evil tavern. Quite to the contrary, according to the practices in low-class brothels in the middle ages, the girls were held like slaves by keeping them in debt and vagrant traders working in collusion with the inn-keepers were part of a scheme for the exploitation of the of the prostitutes [Philip, 1958, 70:note 150; Avé-Lallemant, 1858, 334f.; Bloch, 1912, 724f., 767, 769]. To the middle ages it was not so much the prostitutes themselves but the people taking advantage of prostitution who were utterly detested [Philip, 1958, 71:note 151; Bloch, 1912, 632f., 645, 818f.; Rabutaux, 1881, 22f.; Sanger, 1897, 97f.]. A figure like the peddling drunkard who probably cheated and over- charged the girls in their purchases and whose side-line it was to procure customers for them, was an odious person to the public of the time. (pp. 70-71)

Philip, 1958

The Peddler by Hieronymus Bosch, a study in detectio

#805

Boat with ten people onboard from Ship of Fools

…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) and Allegory of Gluttony (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven) [Bosch, ca. 1495–1500] from a dismembered triptych [Morganstern, 1984, 295-302]. (p. 28)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#806

Couple in a pink tent with clothes on shore from An Allegory of Intemperance

…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)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#807

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

…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)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#812

Boat with ten people onboard from Ship of Fools

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 the Ship of Fools… 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)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#813

Couple in a pink tent with clothes on shore from An Allegory of Intemperance

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)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#814

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

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)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#831

Boat with ten people onboard from Ship of Fools

…the Paris-New Haven wing presents a consistent enactment of another deadly sin: luxuria, sensuous self-indulgence featuring lust and gluttony in combination. In some respects, this fleshly weakness can be seen as the same kind of product of prosperity that provoked the image of Death and the Usurer [Bosch, ca. 1485-1490]… Bosch exploring such lustful and gluttonous impulses in me central panel of his Garden of Earthly Delights [Bosch, ca. 1490-1500]… its giant fruits and sexually cavorting nudes display a more extreme form of the same behavior as Bosch represents in his Ship of Fools and Allegory of Gluttony wing. (p. 245)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#832

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

…the Paris-New Haven wing presents a consistent enactment of another deadly sin: luxuria, sensuous self-indulgence featuring lust and gluttony in combination. In some respects, this fleshly weakness can be seen as the same kind of product of prosperity that provoked the image of Death and the Usurer [Bosch, ca. 1485-1490]… Bosch exploring such lustful and gluttonous impulses in me central panel of his Garden of Earthly Delights [Bosch, ca. 1490-1500]… its giant fruits and sexually cavorting nudes display a more extreme form of the same behavior as Bosch represents in his Ship of Fools and Allegory of Gluttony wing. (p. 245)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#833

Couple in a pink tent with clothes on shore from An Allegory of Intemperance

…the Paris-New Haven wing presents a consistent enactment of another deadly sin: luxuria, sensuous self-indulgence featuring lust and gluttony in combination. In some respects, this fleshly weakness can be seen as the same kind of product of prosperity that provoked the image of Death and the Usurer [Bosch, ca. 1485-1490]… Bosch exploring such lustful and gluttonous impulses in me central panel of his Garden of Earthly Delights [Bosch, ca. 1490-1500]… its giant fruits and sexually cavorting nudes display a more extreme form of the same behavior as Bosch represents in his Ship of Fools and Allegory of Gluttony wing. (p. 245)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#834

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

…the Paris-New Haven wing [Bosch, ca. 1475-1500; Bosch, ca. 1495–1500] presents a consistent enactment of another deadly sin: luxuria, sensuous self-indulgence featuring lust and gluttony in combination. In some respects, this fleshly weakness can be seen as the same kind of product of prosperity that provoked the image of Death and the Usurer. Yet instead of the middle-class money economy of the cities that shapes the Washington panel, this imagery emerges from a court culture, whose private pleasures remained potentially unchecked. (p. 245)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#840

Couple in a pink tent with clothes on shore from An Allegory of Intemperance

… the phrase “to plant the May” offered a euphemism of “to copulate.” (p. 410:note 14)

Silver, 2006

Hieronymus Bosch

#887

Ladle on backpack from The Pedlar

In his Eulenspigel engraving of 1520 Lucas van Leyden also shows… a spoon like the one the Prodigal carries in his back pack-proof that the spoon is a symbol of vagabondage [van Leyden, 1520]. Bosch also uses the spoon with which the homeless man eats the soup he begs to convey a moral idea. In the common speech of his time the spoon symbolized wanton lovemaking. In his Spinnerin, the popular preacher Geiler von Kaisersberg derides “unclean love, like that of a spoon for a foolish woman” and “the spoon (who) sets his cap for the harlots and runs after them like the bull after the cow,” to say nothing of the extravagant spoon litany in Johannes Fischart’s Gargantua (Chapter 8) [von Kaysersberg, 1510; Fischart, 1969]. (p. 259)

Fraenger, 1999

Hieronymus Bosch