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Redalyc.Bosch and the Jews Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas ISSN: 0185-1276 [email protected] Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas México Hartau, Johannes Bosch and the Jews Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, vol. XXVII, núm. 86, primavera, 2005, pp. 29-53 Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas Distrito Federal, México Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=36908602 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative JOHANNES HARTAU new york university Bosch and the Jews osch’s art combines a double dimension: the visible world and the moral behind it; all things are supplemented by a dark other-worldly Bpresence of evil. Bosch’s pictures reflect the religious conflicts of the Middle Ages, full of eschatologic and apocalyptic expectations. Essential to this fight is the prophetic thinking that the Old Testament will be supple- mented by the New Testament, overcoming Jewish thinking. In art historical literature, one question is seldom asked: did Hieronymus Bosch fight against heresy, especially of Jewish origin? That there exists a connection between Bosch and the Jews has been ad- vanced by some scholars, foremost among them Wilhelm Fraenger.1 However, Fraenger’s method of associative exegesis cannot be tested in any meaningful scholarly sense, even if some of his findings are worthy of reconsideration, e.g. the connection to Jewish thinking. Lotte Brand Philip covincingly pressed Fraenger’s idea forward and connected the strange fourth king in the “Adoration” (Madrid) with the Jewish messiah (i.e. the An- tichrist).2 Later, Edward Cohen also dealt with some Jewish themes in Bosch’s work.3 1. Many of Fraenger’s articles published since 1943 are collected in the book Wilhelm Fraenger, Hieronymus Bosch. Dresden: Verlag der Kunst 1999, cited in the first edition 1975 (English editions since 1983). 2. Lotte Brand Philip, “The Prado ‘Epiphany’ by Jerome Bosch”, The Art Bulletin 35, 1953, pp. 267-293. 3. Edward Cohen, “Jheronimus Bosch and Victor van Carben…”, Studia Rosenthaliana 18, 1984, pp. 1-11; same: Jeroen Bosch. Amsterdam: Amsterdam Boek, 1975. 29 ANALES DEL INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES ESTÉTICAS, NÚM. 86, 2005 30 johannes hartau Bosch’s social background is reasonably well known: he belonged to the wealthy class of Hertogenbosch citizens, not least through his propitious marriage to Aleid van de Meervenne.4 His social rank can also be surmised through his commissions, at least through the patrons he portrayed. It is possible that he had contacts to local Jews. Unfortunately, the history of the Jews of Hertogenbosch during the Middle Ages is sketchy. We do, however, know of a Jewish settlement in “Achter het Wilt Vercken”.5 The way Bosch thought about Jewish issues can only be guessed at on the basis of his paintings.6 I will here have to restrict myself to one example, the New Triptych,7 but I believe that this contains the key to the entire oeuvre; through the New Triptych one finds exactly those themes that are vital for Bosch’s view: the fighting against sensuality and greed. The New Triptych, which is made up of the fragments Ship of Fools (fig. 1), Gula (fig. 2), Death of the Miser (fig. 3) and the Pedlar (fig. 4),8 is an 4. Paul Vandenbroeck, “Jheronimus van Aken en de stad ‘s-Hertogenbosch”, In Buscoducis: 1450-1629; kunst uit de Bourgondische tijd te ‘s-Hertogenbosch; de cultuur van late middeleeuwen en renaissance, Deel 2, Wetenschappelijke bijdragen, Adrianus M. Koldeweij (ed.), Maarssen 1990, pp. 395-402; Godfried C. M. van Dijck, Op zoek naar Jheronimus van Aken alias Bosch. De feiten: familie, vrienden en opdrachtgevers, ca. 1400-ca. 1635. Zaltbommel: Europese Bibliotheek, 2001. 5. Christoph Cluse, Studien zur Geschichte der Juden in den mittelalterlichen Niederlanden. Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 2000; J. Bader, “Uit stof en as”. Joden in Noord-Brabant in vroeger eeuwen: de Nederlands Israëlitische Hoofdsynagoge 's-Hertogenbosch, 1799-1843. Breda: Vereniging ‘Vrienden Synagoge Breda’ 1998, p. 3; Germania Judaica, III, 1330-1519, Teil 1, Ortschaftsartikel Aach-Lychen, Arye Maimon (ed.). Tübingen: Mohr, 1987, p. 553; J. Becker, “‘s-Hertogenbosch de oudste joodse gemeente in de noordelijke Nederlanden”, Studia Rosen- thaliana 18, 1984, pp. 74-78. 6. Good reproductions in Roger H. Marijnissen and Peter Ruyffelaere, Hieronymus Bosch. The Complete Works. Tabard Press, 1987. From the recent publications: Roger Schoute and Monique Verboomen, Jérôme Bosch. Tournai: La Renaissance du Livre, 2003; Carmen Garrido: Roger van Schoute, Bosch at the Museo del Prado. Madrid: Museo del Prado, 2001. 7. See author: “A newly-established triptych by Hieronymus Bosch”, Jérôme Bosch et son en- tourage et autres études. Colloque XIV, 13-15 septembre 2001, Bruges-Rotterdam, Hélène Verougstraete et Roger Van Schoute (ed.) (Le Dessin sous-jacent et la technologie dans la peinture, XIV), Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters 2003, pp. 33-38. 8. The Pedlar, oil/wood, octagon, 71 × 70.6 cm, diameter of circle 64.6 cm; Catalogue Van Eyck to Bruegel: 1400-1550; Dutch and Flemish Painting in the Collection of the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Friso Lammertse (ed.), Rotterdam: Museum Boymans-van Beuningen 1995, No. 16, pp. 91-95 (cited as: Catalogue Rotterdam, 1995); Friso Lammertse and bosch and the jews 31 1. Bosch, Ship of Fools, Louvre. early variant of the Haywain triptych — excluding the middle panel, which remains unaccounted for (fig. 5). The left-hand wing (containing Ship of Fools and Gula) depicts sloth, careless selfishness, as displayed by the passen- gers in the boat, profligate drinking, as manifested by the barrel-rider, and 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 Annetje Roorda Boersma, “Jheronimus Bosch, ‘The Pedlar’: a Reconstruction, Restoration and Painting Technique”, in Verougstraete, 2003 (see note 7), pp. 102-118. 32 johannes hartau 2. Bosch, Gula, New Haven. be titled Luxuria, offering a counterpart to Avarice on the opposite wing. In the picture we see representatives of a religious order, burghers and aristo- crats, even a fool — but no Jew. And yet the vices exemplified here are pre- cisely those conventionally associated with the Jews. A number of symbols do, however, allude to the Jewish world. First, the pennant: normally, the half-moon stands for the Turkish world. Bosch’s use of the crescent moon in bosch and the jews 33 3. Bosch, Death and the Miser, Washington, National Gallery of Art. other paintings, such as Crowning with Thorns and Ecce Homo,9 demon- strates his reference to the Jewish world, possibly meaning the threatening “otherness” of the heretic world as such. Second, a detail in the boat, the pancake (“mop” in Dutch) hanging on a thread, alludes to the carnival tradi- tion and to the depictions of fools, as we encounter them in manuscripts de- picting Psalm 52 (“Dixit insipiens in cordo suo non est Deus”). It is possible 9. “Crowning with Thorns”, London (L’opera completa di Bosch, apparati critici e filologici di Mia Cinotti, Milano: Rizzoli Editore, 1968, Classici dell’arte, 2, No. 57 ; referred to as: “Cin.” plus No.); Marijnissen, 1987 (see note 6), p. 353; Ecce Homo, detail, background, Frankfurt/M, Städel (Cin. 10; Marijnissen, 1987, pp. 369, 373). 34 johannes hartau 4. Bosch, the Pedlar, Rotterdam, Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum. that Bosch has also the Jewish tradition in mind: the Jewish “mazzah” found attached to the wall in the synagogue “symbolises the main meal and domes- tic community of all Jewish inhabitants of the district”.10 Third, the paw in the heraldic standard of the tent: 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.11 Pigs’ trotters always crop up in Bosch’s work wherever gluttony or impending poverty are concerned,12 since 10. Cluse, 2000 (see note 5), p. 354, fn. 289; Bax shows examples of fools “snapping at a sus- pended edible object” in manuscripts of the 14th and 15th centuries (Dirk Bax, Hieronymus Bosch. His Picture-writing Deciphered. Rotterdam: Balkema, 1979, p. 189, figuras 77, 78; Dutch edition: Ontcijfering van Jeroen Bosch, 1949). For the “mazzah”: Encyclopaedia Judaica. Jerusalem, 1971, vol. 11, pp. 1155-1158. 11. Isaiah Shachar, The Judensau: A Medieval Anti-Jewish Motif and its History. London: Warburg Institute, 1974 (Warburg Institute Surveys and Texts, 5); Claudine Fabre-Vassas, The Singular Beast: Jews, Christians, and the Pig. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997 (French, 1994). 12. Gula in The Seven Deadly Sins, Madrid (Cin. 2) and The Temptation of Saint Anthony, right wing, Lisbon (Cin. 43; Marijnissen, 1987 [see note 6], p. 202); Merrymakers and Helmets, bosch and the jews 35 5. Bosch, reconstruction of the the New Triptych (fragments from Paris, New Haven, Rotterdam and Washington). it is this small residue of the pig that could be given away to the poor.13 The drawing, Paris (Inventaire général des dessins des écoles du Nord, maîtres des anciens Pays- Bas nés avant 1550, Frits Lugt (ed.), Paris, 1968, No. 69, p. 25; color pl., Catalogue Jheronymus Bosch, ed. A. Koldeweij. Rotterdam, 2001, p. 160. 13. Other proposals: Bax 1979 (see note 10): “trotter… of billy — or nanny-goat”, p. 301; Tóth-Ubbens: “herte-poot” (Magdi Tóth-Ubbens, verloren beelden van miserabele bedelaars: leprozen, armen, geuzen. Lochem: De Tijdstroom, 1987, p. 48). 36 johannes hartau 6. Anonym, De Judeo…, woodcut (Brant, Esopi appologi, 1501). barrel-rider also belongs to this context of gluttony as a parody of Bacchus.
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