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THE PICTORIAL LANGUAGE OF HIERONYMUS BOSCH |
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17. THE BARE KNEE The knee joint is a most important joint in the movement of the human organism, but at the same time it is through the knee that a man expresses feelings of devotion and reverence. We kneel to God or before those high dignitaries of Church and State who deserve our reverence or respect. In ancient astrological traditions, the knees are regarded as being under the influence of the "Goat" (Fig. 11 and Fig. 35). The goat, for these traditions, represents the sign of spirituality which gives man the ability to become inwardly active.
Fig. 35. Man and the Signs of the Zodiac. Our next picture (Fig. 36) shows the knee of man illustrated as the seat of the higher sustaining forces of the pentagram. The horns are most interesting. The picture illustrates the act of communicating a certain spiritual event (see also Fig. 22 and notes on blowing the horn in Section 16).
Fig. 36 The horn signal of spirituality. Two men, are connected through spirituality and the word-power of the larynx. From "La queste du Saint Graal", trans. Albert Pauphilet; L'Album de Villard Honnecourt. To return to our painting; the left knee of the prodigal son is visible. There is a hole in the trouser-leg in the area where a man at prayer touches the earth. By this means, Bosch points out the feelings of reverence and devotion which form the preconditions for the acquiring of deeper insight into the spheres of higher knowledge. There is an old expression in Holland "To thank God on bare knees", to which this may be an allusion. To convince ourselves further, other pictures can be studied, e.g. Fig. 38 from the 18th century, which shows the introduction of a neophyte to a lodge of Freemasons, according to the title page of the book in which the illustration can be found. One of the candidate's knees is bare, his shoelaces are loose, he cannot walk normally, he "limps". He has had to take off his "fine clothes", his breast is partially bare, he is temporarily blinded by a cloth over his eyes, to show him how "blindly" he has wandered through the world so far. We also refer the reader to Manbach [40] Gottedienstpflichten. Here the neophyte is called "Knight of the Rose Cross". Fig. 38 is easily interpreted and in many respects reminiscent of the Prodigal Son. The candidate finds himself "in a state of distress" -- he becomes aware of his helplessness. He has to lose the all too human portion of himself, only then may he expect to attain deeper insight. In this way, the Freemasons follow the oldest and most ancient rites of initiation.
Fig. 37. Title page, The Rites of Freemasons.
Fig. 38. Scottish Rite, a stage of initiation in Freemasonry. To return to our theme, we have now realised that the prodigal son is shod and yet he is not shod, that he is off balance, that he is existing in two states of consciousness, in two worlds, or in other words, that he limps as did Jacob who wrestled with his angel (I Moses 32, 25). We will see yet more indications of the swaying to and fro of this individual soul in the picture. Our painting has also been called 'The Hawker". A hawker goes from one house to the next, meets many people during his life and plies his trade everywhere. This is an excellent allegorical picture for a man who collects experience throughout his life, and also causes experience to others in the course of constant human interchange. We cannot see what it is that the so-called hawker carries in his basket in this picture. A wooden spoon is attached outside, and beneath it a catskin. His burden is obviously not a light one. He is not comfortable and the strap across his chest restrains his arms. The interpretation could be as follows: This man, at the end of his days on earth, drags the whole of his past life along with him as a burden. Its content remains hidden from his fellow human-beings, but it lies heavily upon him and hampers him in undertaking new tasks. Bosch always uses the wooden spoon to indicate the individual's having a profession, a means of earning his livelihood, and it can be found in other pictures (Hortus Deliciarum, Purgatorium, Temptations of St. Anthony, Ship of Fools). On the other hand, the explanation of the catskin is not so simple or obvious. The cat is a creature drowsy by day, doubly active by night. Phases of passionate emotion (indicated by loud yowls) alternate with periods of calm. It is understandable why the ancient Egyptian goddess of the magic of love (Bastet) had a cat's head. The cat has the same symbolic meaning in the fairy tales of many lands as it seems to have here. Bosch is probably alluding to certain compulsive feelings of love and desire in the individual by using this symbol; the hawker has retained a last remnant, the catskin, of all these passionate experiences. However, although the cat is dead, its remains can still "electrify". Taking the basket, the spoon, and the catskin together, one can interpret as follows: The heavy content of the burden of the man's soul remains hidden from others, but what he did to earn his daily bread on earth, is known to all. Probably his predilections for affection, love, passion, had also been known to those immediately about him, and had not been kept secret. Proof that the foregoing is not mere speculation but was really the message which the painter intended to convey, can be found in the altar-piece in Vienna (Fig. 39). Here the same basket appears. In this scene of the fires of hell, a young man sits in the basket, held down by the demon. The face of this young man is identical with that of a young man in the Hortus Deliciarum [viii] (lower right between crystal pillars, Fig. 40 ). In that picture however, the young man is fully clothed. This indicates that he is an initiate with spiritual vision, who is experiencing the scene in the Hortus Deliciarum [viii] while he is still within his physical body [65]. In the earlier volume, this individual was named as Jacob von Almaengien. However, since we know now, thanks to the researches of Mosmans [42], how Hieronymus Bosch looked in his youth, we can say with certainty that Bosch has portrayed himself. The likeness to the young man in the basket (Vienna) is unmistakable. Thus Bosch has painted himself in the basket. As he has never used this basket in any other way and everything has a symbolic significance in his pictures, we can assume that the prodigal son is carrying with him in the same kind of basket the "Spirit of his youth" as a burden in his soul, with all its passionate indiscretions, hopes, and failures.
Fig. 39· HIERONYMUS BOSCH: Detail from the Altarpiece, The Last Judgment. Vienna, Gemaldegalerie der Akademie der BildemijenKunste. Fig. 40. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: Detail from the central panel of The Garden of Heavenly Delights. Madrid, Prado Museum.
The tree standing next to the central figure in the composition may be looked on as representing his "tree of life". On looking more closely at this tree (Fig. 41), a bulge, possibly a knot, can be seen half-way up the trunk. It looks like the scar made by the grafting knife, as though a gardener had grafted an improved variety of fruit tree on the pre-existent stem. Bosch shows by this that a mental crisis must have struck the life of the prodigal son suddenly. Many saints will be found to have experienced such a sudden turning point in their lives, e.g. St. Francis of Assisi, St. Hubert, etc. Suddenly they became aware of a change in their lives, a turning point, which gave them a new, and quite unexpected direction. Other great painters, e.g. Raphael, placed a "tree of life" beside men as a symbol. The forces of growth and vitality, the life forces, often appear, in the symbolic language of the Middle Ages, in the form of a tree.
Fig. 41. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: Detail from The Prodigal Son, the tree of life showing a knot in the trunk.
Recently some analytically-oriented psychologists have claimed that patients, if asked to draw a tree, may show by means of knots, or bare branches, or other deformities, the incidence of psychological trauma, or illness [38]. A small spindle is stuck, almost negligently, and as if for decoration, in the hat which the wayfarer holds out; it has a short thread. This is a symbol of deep significance and importance. Clearly, there is a special connection with the hat and the way in which this is held gives it extra prominence -- why? In the paintings of Bosch, a hat denotes what the wearer has inside his head; if fashion vagaries are excluded, this can still be said often today. When he reaches the spiritual threshold, a man has to cast off the everyday ideas, which are geared only to this world. A new inner life then begins. The weary traveller has taken off his hat and put a cloth on his head in its place (known as a kovel in Holland); this is like the headgear worn by the members of the fraternity of Our Lady at their services in S'Hertogenbosch. This ritual headcovering shows that the traveller's thoughts are already directed towards the other world, a world where thoughts are realities. The symbolic meaning of the object on the hat (Fig. 46) has been interpreted in many ways. Some writers see it as a cobbler's bodkin -- a sexual symbol! This misunderstanding has probably arisen because the stone ring is missing which is used in spinning to give the spindle more weight. However, these were only placed on the spindle during spinning, otherwise they were kept in a pocket so as not to be lost. It can be proved that we are dealing with a spindle in this case, by the examples still extant in the collection of H. Wiegersma in the Folk Museum, Arnheim, Holland. Bosch has drawn them elsewhere (Louvre, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam) (Fig. 42 and Fig. 43), but so far as is known, he never drew a cobbler's bodkin.
Fig. 42. HIERONYMUS BOSCH. Sketch. Showing a spindle. Paris, Musee du Louvre.
Fig. 43. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: Sketch. Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen. Only a small thread hangs from this spindle on the hat; there is no more flax to spin, the thread of life has been fully used up (Fig. 46). We talk of the thread of life to the present day. In Northern myths the Norns were regarded as its keepers. Other spindles can be found, e.g. in a picture of Eve (Jacopo della Quercia, 1430, Bologna St. Petrino (Fig. 45), the mother of men, is shown with a spindle loaded with thread. Durer (1498) National Gallery of Arts, Washington), shows one of Lot's daughters with a loaded spindle (Fig. 44) and -- Giotto (1266--1337) shows St. Anne spinning (Fig. 47), see also Paul Brandt [14] Schaffende Arbeit und Bildende Kunst.
Fig. 44. ALBRECHT DURER, 1471-1528: Lot and his daughters. Washington D.C. National Gallery of Arts, Samuel Kress Collection.
Fig. 45. JACOPO DELLA QUERCIA, 1374-1438: Adam and Eve. Bologna, S Petrino ± 1430.
Fig. 46. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: The thread of life has been used up. (detail), The Prodigal Son.
Fig. 47. GIOTTO, 1266?-1337: St. Anne spinning (detail). Padua, Capella degli Scrovegni. In a previous work [65] reference has already been made to the hart or stag as the guide of the soul, the psychopomp. Bosch and his contemporaries always characterised this being by painting a stag, or at least a stag's antlers on a being with more or less anthropomorphic features. The psychopomp is always present, in spiritual form, as a kind of messenger for the spiritual world during processes of birth and death. The stag appears sometimes with, sometimes without antlers, as his symbol. This shows that the soul can be open to what enters from above, or may remain enclosed, shut within the living organism. The antlers which are shed every year and then grow again, larger than before, are a picture, a symbol of the growth of the soul. The psychopomp is really that which lies within the soul and makes it possible for the soul to move into the spiritual world, as it also enables the soul to exist in a physical body. (See also Psalm 42/2, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the Living God".) In this painting, Bosch only lightly hints at the presence of the psychopomp in the hart's foot protruding from the wayfarer's jacket. This points to the approach of his end. It is certainly erroneous to interpret this as a pig's foot. The foot of the hart -- the key to another world for the soul that is gaining its freedom -- protrudes from a region not far from the heart. The lacing of the jacket is loose, a cord is dangling. This can be interpreted to mean that the wearer is about to shed his physical body. Bosch has a similar theme in the picture of The Ascent to Calvary in the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum (Fig. 48) and on the wing of the Lisbon altar-piece -- there too the criminals [>]are soon to die, i.e. to lose their bodies (Fig. 48, Fig. 57).
Fig. 48. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: The Ascent to Calvary (detail) Vienna. Kunsthistorisches Museum. (Fig. 89 is on the reverse side.) Finally, we must point out the dagger and the fairly luxurious and definitely not empty purse [Librarian's Comment: Obviously symbolizing his balls and penis, further suggested by the man behind him with his penis out peeing, the man sexually accosting the woman in the doorway, his "stick-penis" crossing her pelvis, the rabbit's foot hanging out of his shirt like a penis, his penis-like walking stick with its ball-like end, and on his hat, the pin stuck through the circled thread, the circle representing the yoni and the pin the penis, i.e., lots of penis imagery here that isn't being copped to by the writer. Quite opposite to placing this man's mind in the realm of the spirit, it seems to be obsessed with Mr. Penis!], both objects which can only have significance for life on earth and which counterbalance the foot of the deer. They show how Bosch, in masterly fashion, quite unobtrusively juxtaposes the appurtenances of life and death. It is only when one has begun to decipher the symbols woven into this late work of the master, that one can begin to have some conception of the tremendous spiritual knowledge that he has incorporated in it. 23. "THE PRODIGAL SON" ON THE OUTER WINGS OF THE TRIPTYCH OF The Hay Wain Bosch used the theme of the prodigal son also on this triptych (Madrid and Escorial, Fig. 49). It seems to this writer, that the Master had not yet reached his full stature and maturity of symbolic expression in that picture which is commonly known as The Hawker. The symbols of death here are still rather obtrusive -- the bones and skull of a horse and crows, -- and the pallor around the mouth here appears like a white unshaven beard. Also the little bridge, used here as in the Lisbon work [ix] to indicate a way into the other world, does not seem closely related to the symbols of death.
Fig. 49. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: The Prodigal Son on the outer wings of the Hay Wain Triptych. Madrid, Prado Museum, and Escorial In this picture, the knot in the tree of life is shown as a little house. This is too high for a shrine; it is a "house for soulbirds". One can see from a comparison with the more mature later picture that this little house had to be placed half-way up the tree of life, if it was to represent a change in the ideas and way of life in the middle of the life-span of the individual. This little house can only have meaning if it is regarded as the new home for the soul-bird of the individual, otherwise it would only be a jest. But with this Master, the smallest detail has significance. To prove this contention, an earlier work is reproduced here (Fig. 50).
Fig. 50. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: Juvenile work. Painting in the ownership of Frau E. van der Feer Lader-Lohmann, Baarn Holland. The wise man has built himself a new little house for his soul "above in the tree of life", i.e. in his higher consciousness. Just because the symbols are still relatively primitive in this early picture, they can give clues to Bosch's later works. To the left of the picture (Fig. 49), we witness the scene of a disgraceful robbery; on the right the simple pleasures of life are shown, while in the background on the hill, above the head of the man dragging himself along, is the gallows and wheel, not only representing earthly reality but also indicating the judgment in Heaven that is awaiting the individual. The river Lethe, which forms the frontier between this world and the other, is indicated by the stream. Bosch has painted beside it, an egret, which was a holy bird already in Egyptian times. He always represents longing for the spiritual world within the soul by this bird (see also the Lisbon work). On this side of the bridge, we find a duck. This bird is used by the painter to symbolise the capacity to learn, while a drake is used to mean the spiritual content transmitted in the educational process. These birds, like geese and swans, come from the air (spirit realm) into water. They can also move on land where they are at home, but with greater difficulty. From earliest times the soul, whether of angel or human being, has been represented by a bird. The ducks or geese come from spiritual realms (air), swim on the "oceans of the spirit on earth" and "breed on land", i.e. they move in the thinking of man and so develop and evolve upon the earth [36], [5], [20]. The reeds and rushes belong to the duck in symbol as in real life [24] (Rushes are ordinary plants which grow thick and close together by the waters. Through these characteristics they have become a symbol for the congregation of the faithful, who lead a humble life and keep to the teaching of the Church, which is the spring of living water). This interpretation is based on Job 8, 11, "Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water?" These plants are also associated with the place whence comes the liberation of people, as the infant Moses (who is regarded as the ancestor of Christ) was found in the rushes (see Fig. 55).
Fig. 55. Reeds as a symbol. The Pilgrim, clearly recognisable by his staff [Librarian's Comment: Again, with balls] and the seashells on his collar and hat, strides from the tree of life towards the reeds, i.e. from his birth he is travelling towards spiritual growth. If one imagines the duck and the reeds together one can regard the rushes as representing life and growth, and the duck the spiritual element which seeks to unite with it. The effect of the spirit on a living and growing organism can also be described in one word as "education". Both this "Prodigal Son" and the later work deal with a farewell to earthly life. However, at the time when he painted the Hay Wain, the artist probably had not yet the courage to combine the consecrating band and hart's foot with all the other symbols already in the picture. Perhaps at that time this would have been too obvious and too dangerous. Clement of Alexandria had already in 220 A.D. condemned the "Skin of hart", "the band across the brow" (commonly worn around the head at that time), "staff" and "ivy" as old symbols, and would only permit the mysteries of the Logos to be shown [46], and the Church enforced this point of view ever more harshly. In the Rotterdam picture, the ancient symbols are shown much more boldly. Probably Bosch thought circumstances to be more favourable, towards the end of his life, for showing such things more openly. It has already been said that the painter had to beware of the Inquisition. Had the Inquisitors of the time understood what was painted in The Hay Wain, the painter would have found himself in an extremely difficult position.
Bosch was fully aware of this. He hinted at the spies of the Inquisition at first in quite an obscure way in the so-called Hawker or Vagabond, more clearly in the Hortus Deliciarum, and in The Temptations of St. Anthony, later also in The Prodigal Son. It is possible that he became bolder because the political situation changed and also because he knew that no one as yet understood him apart from a small intimate circle. It must also be borne in mind that his works were in different places and so could not easily be compared with each other. The spies of the Inquisition at that time were chosen mainly from the order of Dominicans ("hounds of the Lord") and by the rule of their Order, they always went in pairs. We met these "domini canes" in the purgatorium of the Hortus Deliciarum [65] (Fig. 51) in the scene with the hare and the "naked ego" of the Inquisitor who now has himself to suffer in hell fire, the tortures which he had inflicted upon so many "hares", the symbol signifying spiritual, Le. independent and selfless men. (See Note 14 St. Anthony.)
Fig. 51. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: Hounds in the purgatorium. Detail from the right inner wing of The Garden of Heavenly Delights. Madrid, Prado Museum.
25. THE HOUNDS OF PERSECUTION IN THE CENTRAL PICTURE OF The Temptations of St. Anthony In this work also we find the symbol of persecution and espionage -- the "domini canes" -- in the form of hounds, to the left of the picture where they precede the frightful representatives of the torturers of the Inquisition (Fig. 52).
Fig. 52. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: Hounds. (Detail from the central panel.) The Temptations of St. Anthony. 26. THE HOUND WITH THE STUDDED COLLAR IN The Prodigal Son The painter's intention becomes even clearer when, on looking carefully, we find a second dog indicated immediately behind the hound in this picture. Possibly it had been painted in one place and then shifted slightly? This seems unlikely. The Master's sureness of touch would seem to contradict this. It is more likely that Jeroen Bosch [xi] made an allusion here in the form of a mock penitence which must have raised a smile among his circle of friends who understood him.
In all these pictures, the dogs wear some sort of armour. In both pictures of The Prodigal Son, they wear a collar with dagger-like studs, small, but clearly painted. This collar may well be a sign of the persecutors of such people as refused to bow blindly to the dogma of the Church. Bosch places a similar collar around the neck of the persecutor of the Saviour (Fig. 53: Note also the half-moon and star, below left, on the headcloth of one of the torturers, which is used here as a symbol of disbelief).
Fig. 53. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: Christ crowned with the crown of thorns. London, National Gallery. [x]
Two dogs play in the foreground of Bosch's painting The Marriage at Canaa (Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Fig. 54). These had been painted out in the course of time and have now reappeared, which only goes to show the complete lack of understanding of what it was that Bosch intended to show in these animals. The foregoing comments should furnish an adequate key to the understanding of what it was that Bosch wished to express.
Fig. 54. HIERONYMUS BOSCH: The Marriage at Canaa. Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen. In the foreground there are two dogs. One seems to be still innocent, the other (the poodle) points to the focus of poodles who is the devil himself (cf. Goethe, Faust, Part I). Here the two spies of the hunt for heretics of the time are peeping through the window.
Once it has been grasped that nearly all the paintings of Bosch also represent a great autobiography, it becomes easier to understand why he -- the wayfarer between two worlds -- paints his staff almost like that of a fool. The ambivalence in this symbol becomes clarified on seeing the gesture with which this staff is held to ward off the pursuing hound. Bosch pretends to be a fool to elude the Inquisition and remain safe from it. Besides, this symbol points to the saying in the Bible, "What may seem foolishness to man is wisdom before God". Outwardly the foolery is used as a support, while inwardly the staff of the mystic is being borne. Many people have sought a self-portrait of the Master in The Prodigal Son. The self-portrait of Bosch has been determined with certainty, thanks to the research of Jan Mosmans and does not resemble the face of the prodigal son in this picture. But this picture is a portrait of a soul, the soul of the painter Hieronymus Bosch in old age. The Master of the delicate colour tones and the rich composition here shows the greatest heights of his art. As the picture grew with a relaxed and almost humorous self-appraisal, into a full confession of a whole biography, so also the composition points to the greatest degree of human maturity. Only the most mature individual can present his errors and weaknesses so frankly that even today critics suppose that they are looking at a "bad man". They do not know that he who is so advanced spiritually as Master Bosch, has also advanced in a calm self-knowledge of what is only too human within himself. All this shows that The Prodigal Son must have been one of the last paintings by Hieronymus Bosch. _______________ Notes: viii. The Garden of Heavenly Delights. ix. The Temptations of St. Anthony. x. Reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees of the National Gallery, London. xi. Translator's Note: Hieronymus Bosch.
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