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Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School

2004 The Theme of in Northern Banquet Scenes Robert Quist

Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

THE THEME OF MUSIC IN NORTHERN RENAISSANCE

BANQUET SCENES

By

ROBERT QUIST

A Dissertation submitted to the Program in Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2004 The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Robert Quist defended on October 29, 2004.

______Charles E. Brewer Professor Directing Dissertation

______Patricia Rose Outside Committee Member

______Leon Golden Committee Member

______Russell M. Dancy Committee Member

The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members.

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT

In writing this dissertation, I have gained an appreciation for the consideration and abilities of my committee. Dr. Charles E. Brewer has shown remarkable insight, patience, and understanding. He has honored my work with constructive advice that has directed me to become my own worst critic. Throughout the course of my Ph.D. work, Dr. Golden has been a major source of inspiration and knowledge. Dr. Rose gave me my first real exposure to rich arena of northern Renaissance Art. She has also been a great source of general art knowledge. Dr. Dancy has given me important insights regarding philosophical concepts of music and art. I would, therefore, like to thank these scholars for their tremendous help. I should also like to acknowledge and express gratitude to the museums and collections for their willingness to grant permission for the use of images reproduced in this dissertation. These individuals and institutions include: Sylvia Inwood and the Detroit Institute of Art, Emil Krén and Web Gallery of Art, Grete Toté and Koniklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in , and Frans de Jong and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. To my parents who have supported me both financially and morally during my studies, I owe a dept of gratitude. I would like to express gratitude to Dr. Lee Ann Westman for her willingness to proofread the final drafts of this dissertation. Finally, I would also like to express gratitude to my wife for the sacrifices that she made during the course of my studies.

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES...... vi

ABSTRACT ...... viii

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

1. LAYERS OF MEANING, REALITY, AND ACCURACY IN IMAGES OF MUSIC AND FOOD...... 8 Feasting in Europe from Antiquity to the Renaissance and the Role of Music within the Banquet ...... 8 Musical Banquets and the Association of Food and Music ...... 15 Music and the Joys of Abundance vis a vis the Anxieties of Gluttony...... 22 Instruments as Social Attributes ...... 39 Instruments as Character and Moral Attributes...... 50 Instruments as Symbol vs Instruments as Reality ...... 62

2. MUSIC IN BATHING, MYTHOLOGICAL, PHANTASMAGORICAL, AND ALLEGORICAL SCENES CONTAINING BANQUETS ...... 68 Music and the Symbolic Banquet ...... 68 Fountain of Youth and Bathing Scenes ...... 69 Mythological Scenes ...... 76 Music in Phantasmagoric Feasting Scenes ...... 89 Music in Allegorical Scenes ...... 129

iv 3. MUSIC IN BIBLICAL SCENES CONTAINING BANQUETS ...... 133 Music and Feasting in the Bible ...... 133 Music in Old Testament Scenes...... 134 Music in Feast of Herod Scenes ...... 140 Music in Prodigal Son Scenes ...... 146 Music in other New Testament Banquet Scenes ...... 150

4. MUSIC IN PEASANT SCENES CONTAINING FESTIVALS, BANQUETS, AND MEALS ...... 155 The Peasant Feast and Music...... 155 Music in Festival Scenes...... 156 Music in Smaller Peasant Banquet Scenes ...... 165

5. THE VARIED EXPRESSIONS OF NORTHERN RENAISSANCE MUSICAL BANQUETS ...... 179

APPENDIX A ...... 183

APPENDIX B ...... 211

APPENDIX C ...... 213

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 215

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH...... 231

v LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 1. Pieter Bruegel, Battle of Carnival and , 1559...... 183 Fig. 2. Rhenish Master of the Paradise Garden, Garden of Paradise. C. 1410-20 ...... 184 Fig. 3. Rhenish Master of the Paradise Garden, Garden of Paradise, detail...... 185 Fig. 4. Unknown German Master, Virgin and Child with and , 1415 ...... 185 Fig. 5. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Rest on the Flight into Egypt. 1504...... 186 Fig. 6. Albrecht Altdorfer, Rest on the Flight into Egypt. 1510 ...... 197 Fig. 7. , Garden of Earthly Delights, Panel. C. 1510-15 ...... 188 Fig. 8. Pieter Bruegel, Mad Meg, detail, 1562 ...... 189 Fig. 9. Pieter van der Heyden, The Blue Ship, 1559 ...... 189 Fig. 10. Lucas Cranach the elder. Fountain of Youth, 1546 ...... 190 Fig. 11. Albrecht Dürer, Mens’ Bath, 1498 ...... 191 Fig. 12. Hieronymus Bosch, , 1490–1500 ...... 192 Fig. 13. , The Triumph of , 1562 ...... 193 Fig. 14. , , 1550 ...... 194 Fig. 15. , Concert. 1508-9 ...... 194 Fig. 16. Hieronymus Bosch, St Anthony Triptych. Left panel, 1501 ...... 195 Fig. 17. Hieronymus Bosch, Saint Anthony Triptych. Center panel ...... 196 Fig. 18. Hieronymus Bosch, Saint Anthony Triptych. Right wing,1501 ...... 197 Fig. 19. Hieronymus Bosch, Last Judgment Triptych, 1486 ...... 198 Fig. 20. Hieronymus Bosch, Last Judgment Triptych, center panel. 1482 ...... 199 Fig. 21. Hieronymus Bosch, Last Judgment Triptych, right panel ...... 200 Fig. 22. Hieronymus Bosch, The Seven Deadly Sins, 1480 ...... 201

vi Fig. 23. , Worshiping the Golden Calf, 1530 ...... 202 Fig. 24. Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, and the Witch of Endor, 1526...... 203 Fig. 25. Quenton Massys, Saint John Altarpiece, 1507-08 ...... 203 Fig. 26. Quentin Massys, Saint John Altarpiece, left wing...... 204 Fig. 27. Jan Sanders van Hemessen, The Prodigal Son, 1536...... 205 Fig. 28. Martin de Vos, Marriage at Cana, 1596-97 ...... 206 Fig. 29. Joachim Beuckelaer, Village Feast ...... 207 Fig. 30. Joachim Beuckelaer, Village Feast, detail...... 207 Fig. 31. Gillis Mostaert, Village Feast ...... 208 Fig. 32. Pieter Bruegel, , 1566 ...... 209 Fig. 33. Pieter Bruegel, Peasant Wedding, 1568 ...... 209 Fig. 34. Pieter Bruegel, The Peasants’ Dance, 1568 ...... 210 Fig. 35. , Dance, 1552...... 210

vii ABSTRACT

Banquets and casual eating scenes in northern Renaissance art frequently include musical instruments for a variety of purposes. Northern Renaissance works such as Pieter Bruegel’s Battle of Carnival and Lent use images of music in order to emphasize the extreme lifestyles of prodigality and abstinence. The Rhenish Master’s Paradise Garden, however, includes a psaltery in order to stress temperance and harmony. While specific instruments reflect stereotypes regarding elements of social class and morality, these stereotypes are contradicted by the artists’ works and real life situations. The cosmic significance of musical iconography ennobles the feast scene by offering a more civilized counterpart to simple eating. Nevertheless, northern artists frequently express a level of irony in such works. Albrecht Dürer’s Mens’ Bath condemns sensual overindulgence that led to disease and moral disorder. Hieronymus Bosch’s works show an ironic world where musical instruments perform on sinners. Bosch commonly places musical instruments in the context of eating in a fantastic manner that raises the symbolism to a higher level. The works of Bosch often depict fantastic landscapes overrun by monstrous demons and strange hybrids. Musical instruments serve more as moral symbols in biblical banquet scenes. For the most part, they underscore the wealth and corruption of the world or a distraction from God. Musical instruments are used in Lucas Van Leyden’s Worshiping the Golden Calf and Quinten Massys’s St John Triptych to reinforce man’s unchecked hedonism. In peasant banquets and festivals, artists more often use the bagpipe in order to highlight the social class of the figures. While many peasant scenes depict in the context of brawls, vomiting, and love making, Pieter Bruegel’s bagpipe figures betray an intense interest in the culture of rural workers. The study of musical iconography in northern Renaissance banquet scenes reflects a multifaceted culture.

viii INTRODUCTION

Renaissance art depicting banquets and feasts frequently includes musical activity. Works based on biblical narratives such as several versions of the Feast of Herod depicted in Israhel van Meckenem’s (1450–1503) prints and Quentin Massys’s (1465– 1530) Lamentation Altarpiece show professional instrumentalists. Northern works such as Jan van Hemessen’s (c1500–c1566) Prodigal Son, Lucas van Leyden’s (1489–1538) Worshiping the Golden Calf, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s (1525–1569) Ten Virgins focus on biblical scenes depicting a banquet and regularly include instrumentalists. Banquet scenes, moreover, extend to non- biblical subjects. Mythological paintings that include banquets, such as Frans Floris’s (1514–1575) Banquet of the Gods and Hans Schäufelein’s (c1482–1540) print The Wedding of and Psyche, contain musical activity. Peasant weddings and festivals especially popular in Antwerp and Nuremberg also depict musicians—such as the works of Bruegel and Hans Sebald Beham (1500–1550). Allegorical works (including one or two human figures that personify specific traits such as love, , sanguineness, and perniciousness) may link eating with music. Martin de Vos (1531–1603) and Bruegel frequently devote several of their prints to allegorical subjects. Works that show planetary influences, especially and Ve- nus—exhibited in the prints of the Housebook Master (c1475) in —combine music with eating. The theme of love, moreover, may extend to garden scenes lacking an allegorical figure. The Master of the Garden of Love’s The Large Garden of Love (c1460?) shows young courtly couples at leisure with music and food. This engraving betrays a direct influence of the Rhenish Master of the Paradise Garden’s exquisite Garden of Paradise (c1410–20) reflecting a similar scene but with the Virgin and Child. In addition garden of love scenes may include bathing images such as Lucas Cranach’s (1472–1553) Fountain of Youth. Indeed, feasting and music have a rich correlation that Renaissance and later artists explored.

1 2

Iconographical studies examining the subject matter in art rely on primary sources to reveal the possible intellectual content of the works. The theme of music in literature depicting feasting is also rich in meaning. Music has a significant function for feasts in the Bible. Levites and priest musicians are shown accompanying the Feast of the Passover.1 Somewhat contrasting this verse is this passage in Isaiah: “Ah, you who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink who linger in the evening to be inflamed by wine, whose feast consist of and , and and wine, but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands.”2 Furthermore, there are many more verses, parables, and passages in the Bible that provided northern Renaissance artists with inspiration. Other sources support spiritual, practical, and metaphorical aspects of feasting and music. Saint Augustine’s Confessions contains a passage that examines the possible sins of excesses in music and food. Book 10 includes a large section devoted to music.3 He fears that the music for The Psalms could become more beautiful than the content of the text. For Augustine, then, beauty is a source of pleasure and can be a distraction from God. He confesses that he used to love music much more before he converted and now believes music should only enhance the text. This passage on music also includes his concerns regarding food and eating. Like music, food and eating should not be enjoyed too much. One should only eat enough to sustain life and health. He supports his stance with several biblical quotes against gluttony. also reveals a combined interest in music and food. One of the characters in Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier, , considered music a type of spiritual nourishment that leads the soul away from lustful or worldly thoughts.4 In St. Thomas More’s Utopia, the ideal city would have music played during evening

1 The New Oxford Annotated Bible, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994) 1 Chronicles 30:21.

2Ibid, Isaiah 5:11-12.

3Saint Augustine, Confessions, translated by R.S. Pine-Coffin, (New York: Penguin, 1961) 234-39.

4 Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, translated by George Bull, (New York: Penguin 1967) 334-5. 3 suppers in order to aid digestion.5 These represent only a few of the primary sources that help clarify the musical iconography of northern Renaissance banquet scenes. Artists use music iconography in banquet and feasting scenes in order to espouse a deeper spiritual, social, and symbolic meaning to their works. This dissertation will examine the historical significance and metaphorical interplay between feasting and music revealed in northern Renaissance paintings, prints, and illuminated manuscripts. Since musical instruments function as symbols in Renaissance art, their symbols will be re-evaluated within the context of the banquet. The focus of this study will investigate the motivations and effects of placing musical activity in the context of feasting, both formal and casual. Since it appears unlikely that all northern Renaissance artists shared similar motivations, this dissertation will separate peasant scenes from biblical scenes. Nevertheless, comparisons and significant contrasts of differing subjects will also be examined. This study will explore the context of the banquet in order to discover unique implications that distinguish music and feasting from music in the context of war, the pastoral, the portrait, or the . Granted, these other contexts may show similar meanings. The still life, for instance, often implies the notion that “all is ” as expressed in Ecclesiastes 1:2. Similarly, the banquet scene frequently underscores the brevity of life and may even include still life elements. The banquet scene, however, brings in a human component that occasionally reaches monumental proportions, as in Bruegel’s peasant scenes. Banquet scenes, moreover, are often based on a narrative such as the rich man and Lazarus. But while the narrative of the rich man and Lazarus contains no musical activity, every work that I have found devoted to this subject —as yet five prints by various artists including Martin de Vos and Breu the Younger—includes musicians entertaining at a banquet. The musical symbolism not only supports the wealth of the rich man, but also aids in contrasting the rich man’s conspicuous consumption with Lazarus’s emaciation. In addition each of these artists varies the instruments at the rich man’s table, which leads to more interpretation. Artists in general depict musical instruments with various levels of accuracy. This dissertation will, therefore, examine these portrayals with implications regarding the levels of reality concerning the subject matter. For

5 Thomas More, Utopia, translated from the Latin by Paul Turner. (New York: Penguin, 1965) 83. 4

example, Bruegel’s Mad Meg includes a banquet scene with Boschian demons and monsters. Over the table leans a large harp functioning as a cobweb for a black spider. This strange harp contrasts with the accuracy of Bruegel’s that have become models for modern reconstruction. In addition, musical instruments also serve as social attributes. Many artists such as Bruegel, Sebald, and Dürer use a bagpipe as a social attribute denoting peasants. The harp, by contrast, provides a visual clue to royalty—except for its more fantastic forms as in Mad Meg and Hieronymus Bosch’s (c1450–1516) Hell panel in Garden of Earthly Delights. While the geographical scope does not focus on a single country, Germany and the Netherlands figure prominently. The chronological scope extends approximately from the second decade of the fifteenth century to the later decades of the sixteenth century. Since this scope comprises much of the Renaissance period, the specific dates will range from approximately 1400–1600. The term “Renaissance” will, for simplicity’s sake, refer to this time period. Each chapter, excluding the first and fifth, concentrates on one or more specific scenes that include feasting and music. Chapter One examines the basic meanings that the meal and music share, and is meant to provide a foundation for the other chapters. Nevertheless, Chapter One is not limited to pure exposition, but rather includes specific works in order to illuminate the points made. Chapter Two discusses feasting scenes that appear more symbolic or allegorical in nature than biblical or peasant scenes. The major portion of Chapter Two concerns the works of Hieronymus Bosch in a sub-section titled phantasmagorical scenes. Since his works often defy any categorization, my analysis concerns his subject matter that expresses a more metaphorical than real world. Other parts of this chapter focus on allegorical scenes, bathing scenes, and mythological scenes. Chapter Three examines biblical scenes showing feasting and music. It begins with Old Testament scenes then moves to specific New Testament scenes such as The Feast of Herod and Prodigal Son scenes. Chapter Four concerns peasant scenes, and a large portion is, therefore, devoted to the works of Pieter Bruegel. The chapter moves from larger festival scenes depicting several activities to smaller scenes usually showing a single banquet. Chapter Five serves as a summary to the dissertation. Each of these chapters, excluding chapter five, move from vague scene-types to more recognizable genre scenes. The chapter is, therefore, meant to help unify the otherwise disparate works and themes. 5

Although the study of music as a subject in art, even one as limited as music iconogra- phy, covers a wide and multifaceted area, a thorough interdisciplinary examination of music in Renaissance banquet scenes has not been undertaken to date. Mary Louise Johnson’s masters thesis represents a similar study to this dissertation. Her topic covers music in northern Italian art depicting banquets including Donatello’s Feast of Herod. She organizes her study according to different ensembles, such as the wind and the soft consort. The late Emanuel Winternitz’s book, Musical Instruments and their Symbols in Western Art functions to many as a foundational text in the area of musical iconography. It is a collection of articles that were formerly published separately, and therefore, each chapter is independent and specific. Winternitz’s discussion of bagpipes is extremely valuable to this study. Another chapter focuses on the mythology of Marsyas and as personifications of the conflict between stringed instruments and wind instruments. Winternitz uses prints from the 1501 edition of ’s Metamorphosis to show the transformation of the to a bagpipe. Several books have included discussions relating to instrumental types and ensembles as symbols that signify high or low social class. Similar to today, musical instruments functioned in the Renaissance as markers of social class. They note the difference between “high” instruments played by professionals high in instrument lofts and “low” instruments played by the nobility within chambers. Polk’s examination of German instrumental music provides much clarification to the specific musical instrument types. Leeman Perkin’s book on also discusses musical instru- ment types. Walter Salmen edits and authors the first chapter in an important book titled The Social Status of the Professional Musician from the to the 19th Century. His study of the medieval and Renaissance musician’s social status provides essential background to this dissertation. Staiti looks beyond the notions of musical instruments and class stereotypes in his study “ and Shepherds: Musical Instruments within Mythological and Sylvan Scenes in Italian Art.” According to Staiti, woodwinds do not always represent notions of lust or worldliness; rather they represent a yearning after an Arcadian paradise where heaven and earth meet resulting in a cosmic suspension of time. Staiti also extends this cosmic suspension idea to Nativity and Transfiguration scenes. These studies represent several of the general sources that Chapter One draws on. 6

Regarding Chapter Two, several studies are useful in providing an understanding of the specific works mentioned. Verner Kümmel’s article on Dürer’s Mens’ Bath goes into great detail concerning the meaning of the print’s otherwise enigmatic theme. Of the large number of publications devoted to Bosch, Dirk Bax’s studies represent the most thorough. Walter and Charles de Tolnay have also contributed important books. More recent monographs include Laurinda Dixon’s fascinating analysis of Bosch’s alchemical background and influences. Jos Koldeweij, Paul Vandenbroeck, and Bernard Vermet collaborate on a monograph, which include articles by each author and copies of Bosch’s complete works. Each author brought their specific specialization to the book. Koldeweij examines Bosch’s life and influences, Vandenbroeck discusses the meaning behind Bosch’s works, and Vermet studies the dating and attribution of Bosch’s works. The works discussed in Chapter Three, of course, rely heavily on the Bible. The Golden Legend offers another primary source that provides illumination. Andrea Beth Lieber’s dissertation, “Feasting on the Divine Presence in Ancient Judaism” provides explanations for the moral meanings in biblical feasting. Since the chapter argues that musical iconography supports the moral theme of the works, Lieber’s dissertation is important. There are several dissertations that focus on the theological significance of biblical banquets. Fazadudin Hosein’s dissertation, “The banquet type-scene in the parables of ,” consists of an exhaustive study that examines the historical, philosophical, and theological meanings of feasts in biblical narratives. Others, such as Snyder’s book on northern Renaissance painting, also contribute to the discussion. Several monographs on the artists under discussion submit helpful material for specific works. These include Larry Silver’s book on Massys and Carroll Jane Louise’s dissertation on Oostsanen. The sources used for Chapter Four include several studies by Keith Moxey, primarily his most recent Peasants, Warriors and Wives. Moxey’s works concern mainly the German masters such as the Beham brothers. However, his book on Aertsen and Beuckelaer provides useful analyses as well. Among the many studies concerning the peasant scenes of Pieter Bruegel, Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones’s monograph represents the most important recent examination. Other studies on Bruegel include articles by Svetlana Alpers and Albert Deblaere. Although many other works could be mentioned, these are the most relevant. 7

Since this dissertation consists of an interdisciplinary focus, secondary sources from various fields of study have been examined. In addition, primary sources that lack a musical premise but include musical instruments such as Ovid’s , Sebastian Brant’s The Ship of Fools, and the Bible will also be discussed. This dissertation does not attempt to collect all the works depicting banquet scenes, but will rather chose specific works that will provide the major points of discussion. While studies that present exhaustive catalogs offer a much-needed contribution, this study concentrates on the intellectual content of carefully selected works. This dissertation’s methodology also includes examining the formal aspects and the historical context of the paintings and prints. The formal aspects include such matters as medium, color, line, and composition. Such considerations examine why Bruegel places his bagpipers close to the picture plane while other artists give their bagpipers a more marginal placement, e.g., Hemessen. Consideration of historical and contextual aspects, localized to the specific artist or artwork, include economic, political, and religious issues when relevant to the topic. This dissertation follows Erwin Panofsky’s book, Studies in Iconology and Ernst Gombrich’s, Gombrich on the Renaissance: Symbolic Images as models for examining the symbolic or metaphorical elements in these monuments. Panofsky’s method is especially thorough in considering the various levels of interpretation. All translations are my own accept where otherwise indicated. CHAPTER 1 LAYERS OF MEANING, REALITY, AND ACCURACY IN IMAGES OF MUSIC AND FOOD

Introduction: Feasting in Europe from Antiquity to the Renaissance and the Role of Music within the Banquet

Renaissance works of art and literature illuminate a multifaceted culture that tends to confound simple or general classifications. For example, in struggling to categorize the salient features that help distinguish the northern Renaissance from its Italian counterpart, general history and humanities textbooks often use terms such as “Christian humanism” or “biblical humanism.” Yet Renaissance scholars see these terms as misleading claiming they imply that Italian humanism was secular or even pagan.1 In considering the differences between northern and art, one may assert that northern works exhibit a moral theme. However, scholars note that the voice of northern Renaissance thought is ironic rather than direct.2 The ironic voice, combined with a multifaceted dialectic of the northern Renaissance, allows, for many discrete readings of the artistic monuments. The great monuments of northern Renaissance art more often embody a wide range of intellectual, aesthetic, and emotional thought and less often a single point on a bipolar grid. This chapter will, therefore, include a wide range

1See Paul Oskar Kristeller, “Humanism,” in The Cambridge History of , Edited by Charles B Schmitt and Quentin Skinner, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 2000), 133.

2Simon Schama , The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture during the , (New York: Vintage, 1987), 216.

8 9 of chronological and geographical sources. Since this chapter provides a foundation for the following chapters, more general discussion regarding the Renaissance, feasting, and music will facilitate a clearer understanding of the selected monuments. Ideas of music, food, and digestion provide a rich interplay that influence Renaissance art and thought. In order to aid modern conceptions regarding music and feasting in northern Renaissance art this chapter will examine historical, philosophical, religious, and social ideas associated with the banquet. The chapter will then explore the various symbols associated with musical instruments that are often shown in banqueting scenes. A comparison between the associative properties of musical instruments and their real counterparts will serve as a conclu- sion to the chapter. Feasting in Europe during the Renaissance entails a long and evolving tradition stretch- ing back to pagan celebrations and Judeo-Christian holidays. Michel Jeanneret’s study on Renaissance banquets states, "The banquet, throughout history, has provided special inspiration for the imagination precisely because it restores to us a . . . mythic fulfillment which we think we have lost."3 The "mythic fulfillment" that Jeanneret speaks of may to some degree include the religious significance of the altar that emphasizes unity with God. “The sacrificial feast has all the features of a meal shared with God.”4 Feasting, therefore, represents a religious ritual that eventually is expressed in table manners or appropriate behavior. The appropriate precepts included musical performances. In Sirach (Old Testament Apocrypha), rules concerning the boundaries between music and conversation are explained: “Speak, you who are older, for it is your right, but with accurate knowledge and do not interrupt the music. Where there is entertain- ment, do not pour out talk; do not display your cleverness at the wrong time."5 Interrupting a musical performance disrupts protocol that protects civility.

3Michael Jeanneret, A Feast of Words: Banquets and Table Talk in the Renaissance, (Chicago: Press, 1991), 2

4Andrea Beth Lieber, “Feasting on the Divine Presence in Ancient Judaism,” (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1998) 62.

5The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), Sirach 32:3-6. 10

Banquets remain an influential activity in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and their ubiquity indicates a growing popular appeal. In his study on Dutch culture, reveals how frequently feasts occur in northern Europe: There were lying-in feasts, birth feasts, baptismal feasts, churching feasts, feasts when infants were swaddled and another when boys were breeched, birthday feasts and saints’ days feasts (not necessarily the same), feasts on beginning school and beginning apprenticeship, betrothal feasts, wedding feasts, feasts on setting up house, feasts for departing on long journeys and feasts for homecoming, wedding anniversary feasts and co-option (to a municipal regency or the board of a charitable institution) feasts, feasts on the inauguration of a lottery and the conclusion of its draw, feasts on the return of a grand cargo or the conclusion of a triumphant peace, on the restoration of a church, the installation of a window or organ or organ loft or pulpit and on the setting of a family gravestone in its floor, feasts on recovering from sickness, feasts at and burials and the reading of a testament, even jokmaalen, feasts of inversion when master and mistress would act the part of servants and wait on their own retainers. And for each there would be particular foods: spiced wine and caudle for lying-in, another kind of caudle of sweet wine and cinnamon for birth parties.6

Schama notes further that these feasts are largely secular parties that tended to upset both Catholic and Protestant clerics.7 These banqueted events that Schama lists reveal a ritualistic process that include music. Although music has had an important role in banqueting since antiquity, the specific role of music has changed with the quality of the banquet. Several scholars have noted the differ- ences between medieval and Renaissance banquets and banquet entertainment. Roy Strong devotes a book to Renaissance festivities and considers Renaissance banquets similar to those in medieval times, except for the development of classical themes that medieval banquets largely disregarded.8 The large court banquets are usually part of political festivals that could last over a week.9 During the Middle Ages these festivals comprise military tournaments during the day

6Schama, 185

7Schama, 152.

8Roy Strong, Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals 1450-1650, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 42

9Strong. 11

and banqueting at night.10 The Renaissance courts, in effect, transform the chivalrous festival activities such as jousting to classical feats that conform to the more current humanist views. For example, Olivier de la Marche describes a Renaissance banquet in which the entertainment and scenery consists of classical characters such as Jason and Hercules and pastoral motifs such as shepherds.11 Strong also notes that during the Renaissance, the chivalrous tournaments are slowly supplanted by more artistic feats. Rather than jousting and other military sports, ballets and other staged works become the major focus of Renaissance cultures.12 The transformation of medieval tournament banquets to the more subtle entertainments of the Renaissance appears as early as the fourteenth century. Giovanni Boccaccio writes how feasts provided a venue for wealthy noblemen to display their riches. At these gatherings of ours you’d scarcely imagine the gorgeous hangings that bedeck the dining-halls, the place-settings fit for a king, the elegance of the attendants waiting on the tables, the beauty of the serving-maids, the pleasure of feasting off gold and silver plates, the salvers, ewers, goblets and flasks; and the dishes brought to the table as each guest desires—such abundance, such variety, each one served at its proper time. How can I describe to you the airs and melodies played on any number of instruments, the melodious concert of voices.13

This passage includes among the symbols of affluence musical instruments that provide entertainment. In his poem, Remede de Fortune includes a similar picture: Next everyone came into the main hall, which was in no way vulgar or mean, where all, I believe, were paid due honor and served with wine and food as their bodies and appetites required. And there as I ate I observed the demeanor, bearing, conduct, and deportment of her in whom is found all my happiness. And after the meal you should have seen the musicians arrive, all combed and comfortably attired. They played various harmonies, for there all in a circle I saw , , , , Moorish

10Strong.

11Leo Treitler, ed.. Strunk’s Source Readings in Music History, Revised Edition. (New York: Norton, 1998), 313-316.

12Jeanneret, 54.

13Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, Translated by Guido Waldman. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 530. 12

guitar, small psaltery, , and the psaltery, harp, , , nakers, portative organs, more than ten pairs of horns, bagpipes, , musettes, douçaines, , , , and Bohemian flute and the large German , willow flutes, a , pipe, Alsatian pipe, small , buisines, a psaltery, a monochord (which has a single string), and a straw pipe all together. And it certainly seemed to me that such a melodious sound had never been perceived or heard: because I heard and perceived each one of them, according to the pitch of his instrument—vielle, guitar, cittern, harp, trumpet, , flute, pipe, , bagpipe naker, tabor, and whatever could be played with finger, pick, or bow—performing in perfect harmony there in the little park.14

Boccaccio and Machaut’s writings show a high level of pageantry that will continue with subtle changes during the Renaissance. Yet music is not simply a vehicle for pageant display. Strong writes, "It [universal harmony] is indeed the central theme which unites all Renaissance festivals. . . . So those forms most expressive of this quest gain currency and develop in a passionate search for ‘’ and ‘ancient dancing,’ which are allied to a use of the newly recovered images and hieroglyphs of antiquity.”15 Thus while medieval festivals cultivate notions of chivalry, Renaissance culture replaces the chivalric with classical themes. Perhaps part of the motivation for the focus on classical themes arises from magical properties that Renaissance authors, such as Ficino, attribute to the ancient and Romans. Gary Tomlinson’s study on music and magic in the Renaissance explores the preoccupation of the considered occult powers of music. Although the banquet and music in the Middle Ages also exhibit magical interests, the translation of Platonic texts fuels occult interests. In a sense, the human spirit relies on music for nourishment. Music, therefore, serves as a nexus to the spiritus mundi or the celestial spheres.16 The musical banquet echoes the philosophical symposium, and not only functions as an ennobling classical agent, but it has magical powers that enhance the act of feasting.

14Guillaume de Machaut, Le Jugement du Roy De Behaigne and Remede de Fortune, edited by James I. Wimsat and William W. Kibler. (Athens, : University of Georgia Press, 1988), 390-392.

15Jeanneret, 62.

16Gary Tomlinson, Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a Historiography of Others, (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1993), 88. 13

While the inclusion of art and erudition in the Renaissance banquet may appear unique, a closer examination reveals that Renaissance festivities have roots in medieval and ancient customs. In his monumental study of late medieval and early Renaissance culture, Johan Huizinga, however, claims that the assertion that Renaissance cultures abandoned medieval notions of chivalry is misleading. "That Renaissance love of fame and the preoccupation with honor is at the core of the knightly vision and is of French origin. The honor of a particular estate has broadened into a more general application, has been freed from the feudal sensibilities and fertilized by ideas from classical antiquity."17 In addition, Huizinga notes that chivalry “is without historic dimension.”18 Chivalry stretches to antiquity, and, therefore, is not a purely medieval phenomenon. The similarities between medieval, Renaissance, and even ancient feasts lends credence to Huizinga's belief in the more subtle changes of Renaissance thought. Throughout ancient times and up to the Renaissance, musical activities represents an important component to feasting. Although the role of musicians at a dinner table appears from our modern view to be merely for entertainment, primary documents show that entertainment is only one aspect of dinner music. Stephen Nichols’s article on the symbolic meanings of food considers a statement in Plato’s Symposium, “We cannot simply pour wine down our throats in silence: we must have some conversation, or at least a . What we are doing now is hardly civilized.”19 The intellectual banquet or symposium also has a Christian parallel. Scholars have even noted that the of Jesus Christ is a continuation of the philosophical symposium, because Jesus’s meal is not simply eating or even ritual, but rather philosophical instruction.20 As with Plato’s banquet, music at feasts during the Renaissance represent a deeper level of human interaction. More than simply a background to set a mood, music reminds the table

17Johan Huizinga, The Autumn of the Middle Ages, translated by Rodney J Payton and Ulrich Mammitzsch, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 74.

18Huizinga, 75.

19Stephen G Nichols, “Seeing Food: An Anthropology of Ekphrasis, and Still Life in Classical and Medieval Examples.” MLN 106/4 French Issue: Cultural Representation of Food (Sep., 1991), 839.

20Jeanneret, 19. 14 occupants that although they share a dependence on food with the lowest form of animal life, they also share a dependence on spiritual food with the highest form of divinity. The ideal banquet mirrors the human macrocosm, because just as the human figure is composed of substance and spirit, so too the banquet entails substance in food and spirit in music or philo- sophical thought. “The banquet more than any other activity unifies these elements.”21 Banquets since antiquity depends on music to bring the mundane to a higher spiritual level, steer the mind in areas of divine contemplation during physical nourishment, and to ennoble an otherwise routine event.22 Indeed “the banquet with music provides its own sort of Concordia discors, giving pleasure to the senses while reviving the traces of supernatural beauty which can be found in an inspired melody.”23 Members of a banquet should not simply eat, but should contemplate the cosmos. Moreover, as the banquet is a vehicle for social interaction, so music is also a coming together of minds that mirrors the banquet. Walter Salmen, examining the link between social themes and music, states that “Music has a social function to fulfill and is dependent upon society for its social significance, its purpose and its role. . . .Music and musicians are an integral part of so many spheres of activity that they cannot be viewed in isolation.”24 Salmen’s point supports the combination of feasting and music. Feasting is also a social phenomenon similar to music; this combination of social interactions is one of the elements that attracted artists and patrons. Just as a successful consort requires a group united in a focused activity, so the nobility wanted to display their feasts. Feasts represent phenomena that unites the nobility with a common goal. Wedding celebrations that could last over a week are considered a means to solidify a (more often political) union; and the music helps set the theme of oneness or Harmo- nia. There exists a social interplay with the food consumption side of the banquet. The social component of the banquet not only entails eating to rejuvenate the body, but cultivating

21Jeanneret, 20.

22Jeanneret.

23Jeanneret.

24Walter Salmen, “The Social Status of the Musician in the Middle Ages,” in The Social Status of the Professional Musician from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century, (New York: Pendragon, 1983), 3-4. 15

relationships between individual participants. Such relationships aids in the refinement process from the untamed animal to the intellectually and spiritually sensitive individual.25 The music at the banquet reinforces the act of learning social manners as well. When to speak, what to say, and how to eat resembles when to play, what to play, and how to play with others. Manners and grace represents essential traits for the ideal banquet that remove the participants from simply eating. The difference between plain eating and social eating with grace effects language where various verbs denote the different types of eating. In German, for example, fressen has a negative aspect much different from essen. Fressen means animalistic swilling and can even be used to denote voracious greed. Graceful eating equates to a higher form of civilized behavior providing a foundation to the ideal banquet.

Musical Banquets and the Association of Food and Music

Ancient and Renaissance writers regard good music as a form of spiritual, intellectual, or aesthetic food. The ancient theologian, Niceta of Remesiana states, “Just as the honest guests at a banquet are delighted with a succession of courses, so are our souls nourished by a variety of readings and a display of .” 26 By comparing music and literature to courses at a banquet, Niceta asserts the need for spiritual enlightenment. Nichols discusses the aesthetic connection between eating and art.

Food has naturally evoked artistic process because it is so enmeshed in process itself. Even the most natural of foods, like fruit, bespeaks cultivation, harvest, marketing, and presentation. Cooked foods connote even more elaborate chains of processing. From the earliest times, food was seen to link the natural world in which it was produced to the culture of consumption where it was prepared and eaten, often in highly socialized rituals. Art and food were also closely bound up with the other world: the were minor deities and there were poets and musician gods in many ancient religions. The

25Jeanneret, 28.

26Treitler, 131. 16

table possessed a sacred character which has been largely forgotten in modern culture except for that most ritual of tables, the altar, now almost exclusively relegated to the religious sanctuary.27

Nichols’s association of the natural world of food and human involvement on a cultural level reflects a preoccupation with ontological issues that much of Renaissance life and thought is known for. In the Renaissance, even the more mundane events like meals have a special relevance as Huizinga notes: Every event, every deed was defined in given and expressive forms and was in accord with the solemnity of a tight, invariable life style. The great events of human life—birth, marriage, death—by virtue of the sacraments, basked in the radiance of the divine mystery. But even the lesser events—a journey, labor, a visit—were accompa- nied by a multitude of blessings, ceremonies, sayings, and conventions.28

The very purposeful functions of even minor activities supports the need for music, whether it be remembering God with psalms or titillating the aural senses. Music helps to bring a sense of purpose to the banquet that would otherwise be a routine event. Renaissance letters, moreover, describe listening to music as a form of tasting or feasting. While discussing the of Obrecht, Paolo Cortesi states that people who enjoy his music have not developed a taste for sweet music “like, in the field of taste, people who seem to like those things that taste of unripe juice better than sugar.”29 In addition Antonfrancesco Doni writes while praising the sound of Venetian instruments, “but if you heard the divine sound I have tasted with the ears of my intellect here in you would be astounded.”30 The comparison between tasting food and listening to music broaches several gustative, philosophi- cal, and religious issues. Regarding gustation, the enjoyment of food connotes the taste and digestion of external objects and the associated pleasure or displeasure. Sources as far back as the Middle Ages relate how

27Nichols, 125

28Huizinga, 1.

29Treitler, 320.

30Treitler, 334. 17

the minstrels who accompany the feasts offer another sensory experience that complements the taste phenomenon. Jean Froissart writes: The hall was full of knights and squires, and there were plenty of tables laid out for any who chose to sup. . . .He [the Count de Foix] had great pleasure in hearing minstrels. Being himself a proficient in the science. He remained at table about two hours, and was pleased whenever fanciful dishes were served up to him—not that he desired to partake of them, but having seen them, he immediately sent them to the table of his knights and squires.31

This passage emphasizes the importance of the musical capabilities of the nobility. Froissart reveals that good taste in music and food means a thorough understanding of the two. Being a musician, the nobleman can appreciate the musical performance just as he has the erudition to inspect the food. This passage also shows that the feast is not an exercise in gluttony, as Hollywood tends to show; rather they are meant to refine the sensitivity of the guests. Giraldus Cambrensis, a twelfth-century writer, moreover, compares olfactory enjoyment with the enjoyment of music. "There are two things which, more than any other, refresh and delight the mind, namely, sweet odours and music. Man, as it were, feeds on sweet odours and music."32 Huizinga mentions that our modern world lacks the intense preoccupation that medieval and Renaissance cultures places on sensory phenomena.33 These cultures react to and have a more intimate relationship to the various stimuli no matter how subtle. The sights, smells, and sounds of the banquets are just as important as the food. Renaissance sources show that the enjoyment during feasts entailed many nuances. Jeanneret draws attention to Cristoforo da Messisbugo’s Banchetti, Composizioni di Vivande e Apparecchio Generale of 1549 (Banquets, Course Compositions, and General Table Design).34 Messisbugo’s work is a mixture of a treatise detailing instructions on dishes and banquet

31James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLauchlin, eds. The Portable Medieval Reader, (New York: Viking Penguin, 1977), 119.

32Ross and McLauchlin, 555.

33Huizinga, 1.

34Jeanneret, 53. See also Cristoforo da Messisbugo, Banchetti Composizioni di Vivande e Apparecchio, (Venezia: Neri Pozza Editore, 1960), 31-42 18 arranging and an account of several sumptuous feasts. One includes eighteen courses and different musical ensembles for each course. The treatise lists each course, which consists of seven to eight dishes. A description of the music ensemble follows at the end of each course.35 This feast lasts from ten in the evening till five in the morning.36 Since this banquet took hours to complete, the actuality of the eighteen-course event appears plausible. Therefore, the connection between the differing foods and music offers a further link between the tasting of food and the listening of music. The many philosophical implications that eating and music share seem to point to moral and ethical considerations. Renaissance cultures inherit the ancient Greek doctrine of ethos that and the various medieval cultures developed. Authors that believe in ethos consider music food for the soul; just as good food make healthy bodies, good music make healthy souls. Athenaeus writes how the music at banquets serve several ethical functions. It is plain that Homer observes the ancient Greek system when he says: 'and with the ,33 which the gods have made companion to the bounteous feast,' evidently because the art is beneficial also to those who feast. And this was the accepted custom, it is plain, first in order that every one who felt impelled to get drunk and stuff himself might have music to cure his violence and intemperance, and secondly, because music appeases surliness; for, by stripping off a man’s gloominess, it produces good-temper and gladness becoming to a gentleman, wherefore Homer introduced the gods, in the first part of the Iliad, making use of music. For after their quarrel over Achilles, they spent time continually listening “to the beautiful phorminx that Apollo held, and to the Muses who sang responsively with beautiful voices.” For that was bound to stop their bickering and faction, as we were saying. It is plain, therefore, that while most persons devote this art to social gatherings for the sake of correcting conduct and of general usefulness, the ancients went further and included in their customs and laws the of praises to the gods by all who attended feasts, in order that our dignity and sobriety might be retained through their help.34

35See Appendix for a translation of these banquet ensembles.

36Jeanneret.

33A phorminx is an ancient stringed instrument similar to a kithara. See Don Michael Randel, The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, (Cambridge Massachusetts: Press, 1986), 629.

34Treitler, 91. 19

Table music, then, for the ancient Greeks keep the peace and represent Apollo's counterweight to the invocation of through wine. Music as a peacekeeping measure during celebrations continue in the Renaissance and, indeed, remains in force today. The ethical considerations with music, however, go further than diplomacy or calming warring spirits. Music's ability to shape character remain a potent idea during the Renaissance especially since Ficino and others are translating Greek texts that address notions of ethos. For Plato, music aids the banquet members in remembering the ideal world. The statement in Symposium—quoted above—reveals the belief that the physical acts of feasting are part of the shadowy world that fades with time. Music, however, is part of the world of ideas that in its eternal nature is more real than the physical food being consumed. The music at the banquet, therefore, has an ethical function that reminds the members of the true world that surpasses physical pleasures. Other philosophical ideas such as Aristotle's discourse on leisure and the pleasure principles of Epicurus are discussed below. Religious implications concerning the feast and music have deep roots that numerous biblical passages reveal. Both the consumption of food and the sounding of music often incorporate a mystical idea. Even in the great medieval feasts, the banquet provide the perfect venue for the supernatural.35 Nichols gives an example of an Arthurian banquet at depicted in the du Cor where a magical ivory drinking horn with bells on it transforms the festive atmosphere to a mystical moment when time stopped. , when struck, sound music that is more beautiful than any standard instrument.36 Following a discussion regarding the narrative and the meaning of the horn, Nichols concludes by stating, "The magic of the music forces them to suspend all social interaction in favor of the inner contemplation of listening to the unearthly music.”37 Eating without contemplation represents a basic fear that Augustine and the other church fathers felt. This fear does not just target mindless eating, rather that the person's mind would turn from God as the provider to the sole pleasure of eating. Eating for

35Nichols, 819

36Nichols.

37Nichols, 822. 20

health and nourishment often function as a pretext for reveling in pleasure.38 Taking pleasure from feasting portends disaster as expressed in the popular biblical feasts, which northern artists and moralists are quick to use as examples. Religious music at religious feasts entail prayerful gratitude, praise, and confession that combine food and mental communion. Furthermore, religious feasts transform the pagan banquet from a secular to a sacred nature. "By shifting ritual emphasis from the dining room table to the altar in the sacred space of the sanctuary, and by making the ritual consumption of the wafer a commemorative mystery of sacrifice and regeneration central to the structure of society, paleo-Christian and medieval theology gave transcendent meaning to the food metaphor."39 Augustine also writes that music does not always lead one's mind to God; and that it is just as easy to find pleasure in music as it is for food. “Yet when I find the singing itself more moving than the truth which it conveys, I confess that this is a grievous sin, and at those times I would prefer not to hear the singer.”40 The pleasure that food and music gives creates an ambivalence between fears of distractive incitements and spiritual bliss. Some northern Renaissance thinkers, however, consider music’s earthly value equally important as its spiritual nourishment. Thomas More in Utopia includes a discussion regarding how meals are executed in the ideal city. “Lunch is pretty short, because work comes after it, but over supper they rather spread themselves, since it’s followed by a whole night’s sleep, which they consider more conducive to sound digestion. During supper they always have music, and the meals end with a great variety of sweets and fruit.”41 More suggests that since supper is larger and occurs before bedtime, music’s function at supper is to aid in digestion. Indeed, Rabelais’s Gargantua is taught at an early age to use music for food digestion. And not only of this one [games of chance], but also of all the other mathematical sciences, such as geometry, astronomy, and music; or, while awaiting the natural concoction and digestion of his meal, they formed a thousand joyous geometric

38Augustine, 235.

39Nichols, 847.

40Augustine, 239.

41More, 83. 21

instruments and figures, and likewise they practiced the laws of astronomy. Afterward, they delighted themselves in singing musically in four or five parts, or on a set theme, to their throats’ content. As regards musical instruments, he learned to play the lute, the spinet, the harp, the German flute and the one with nine holes, the viola, the . This hour thus employed and digestion completed, he purged himself of natural excrements.42

Although Rabelais’s contrast between the higher arts and lower bodily functions has a humorous tone, the connection of music and digestion is still evident. In a later passage of More’s Utopia, one notices a contrast between the medicinal function of music at the table with the spiritual function during the religious service. “After a few minutes the priest gives a sign for the congregation to stand up. Then they sing hymns of praise to God, accompanied by musical instruments, which are generally quite different from anything to be seen in our part of the world. Most of these have a much sweeter tone than ours, though some of them simply won’t bear comparison with European instruments. But in one respect they’re undoubtedly far ahead of us.”43 The passage then relates that the Utopians’ instruments excel European instruments because they express more accurately the emotions of the text.44 In other passages, More betrays his dislike for displays of superior opulence and wealth to the point where scholars have noticed the book’s similarity to communism. For More, music is only a spiritual source of food in the communal church, not subject to the monopoly of wealthy noblemen. Outside of the church, music holds a lower purpose but is affordable to and even required by all Utopians. More’s sentiment echoes ’s words of disdain for elaborate feasts. I have always possessed an extreme contempt for wealth; not that riches are not desirable in themselves, but because I hate the anxiety and care which is invariably associated with them. I certainly do not long to be able to give gorgeous banquets. I have, on the contrary, led a happier existence with plain living and ordinary fare than all the followers of Apicius, with their elaborate dainties. So-called convivia, which are but vulgar bouts, sinning against sobriety and good manners, have always been repugnant to me. I have ever felt that it was irksome and profitless to invite others to

42François Rabelais, The Complete Works of François Rabelais, translated by Donald Frame (Berkeley: University of California, 1999), 57.

43More, 127.

44More, 127. 22

such affairs, and not less so to be bidden to them myself. On the other hand, the pleasure of dining with one’s friends is so great that has ever given me more delight than their unexpected arrival, nor have I ever willingly sat down to table without a companion. Nothing displeases me more than display, for not only is it bad in itself, and opposed to humility, but it is troublesome and distracting.45

Petrarch’s dislike for pomp and spectacle influence northern humanists such as More and Erasmus. One should remember, however, that Petrarch is very religious, and his disdain of worldly opulence is shared by the Christian majority since antiquity, including Augustine.

Music and the Joys of Abundance vis a vis the Anxieties of Gluttony

The association of food consumption and joy or anxiety provides a basic impetus for artistic expressions during the Renaissance. As a symbol of abundance, food offers a purpose for expressions of gratitude. The biblical altar serve as an opportunity to show devotion by giving something back to God and, thus, strengthening the covenant. As a symbol of gluttony, however, food creates a cause for anxiety that a greedy misuse of God’s gifts would result in punishment. These contrasting associations divide attitudes, expressions, and even geographical areas. Huizinga notes the contrasting opinions regarding festivals between the Burgundians who, under the extravagant lifestyle of Philip the Good, favor elaborate feasts and the Dutch who value quiet modesty and restraint.46 These contrasting views become a theme in Pieter Bruegel’s Battle of Carnival and Lent, discussed below. Music and food denote, among other things, the conception of joyful abundance and the worry of a future dearth. Ancient texts have equated music with joy and rejoicing. The Bible shows king David establishing the function of liturgical music in the temple, “David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their kindred as the singers to play on musical

45Ross and McLauchlin, 391.

46Huizinga, 315. 23

instruments, on and and cymbals to raise loud sounds of joy.”47 Although many other similar passages relating music to joy can be cited, the book of Job stands out as an indication regarding the characteristic of joy that music signifies. The famous passage where Job exclaims, “My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep” suggests that the lyre and pipe represent instruments of joy.48 Because of Job’s suffering, however, these symbols of joy have become transformed into symbols of sorrow. Since part of Job’s sorrow results from a lack of the abundance he once enjoyed, the lyre and pipe hold some connection Job’s material fortune. The passage exhibits dramatic irony because joy and music in a biblical context are close associates. Like Job’s fate, the instruments’ implicit function have been reversed. The ironic expression of a musical lack of joy also occurs in the Psalms, “By the rivers of Baby- lon—there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the Willows there we hung our harps.”49 This passage shows a lack of joy by the absence of music and bears a similar theme with Job. Music in this passage and Job reflect the expression of joy from the abundance given to man from God. One sees the close association of feasting and music as an expression of joy and gratitude, both of which reoccur frequently in the Psalms of praise. The transformation of Job’s character from joy to sorrow and from abundance to penury reveals a shared aspect between consuming food and the influences of music. Food as a pervasive symbol in the Bible reveals God’s expressions of favor or disfavor.50 Moreover, many biblical figures are forbidden by God to eat specific foods. and ’s breaking of God’s “dietary restriction” result in the world’s fall from grace.51 Food, as a creation of God, manipulate one’s physical environment and being. In a similar way, music is seen as affecting one’s spiritual environment and being. In addiction to creating food, God controls the amount of food offered to humanity. Feast and

471 Chronicles 15:16.

48Job 30:31

49Psalms 137: 1-2.

50Lieber, 58-9.

51Lieber, 59. 24

famine as manifestations of divine favor or trial resemble the divine forces that are considered to move through musical modes and rhythms. The biblical "dietary restrictions" also appear reminiscent to the modal and instrumental restrictions that Plato's model enforces. The Wisdom of Solomon contains a passage which suggests that the changing of the rhythms of the harp reflects the changing of the elements of nature.52 The banquet as an expression of nature’s continual abundance also displays ’s power and diverts attention from political crises.53 The joys of abundance, however, hold a warning of impending doom or sorrow, which often create a sense of anxiety. Too much enjoyment of wealth and prosperity denote pride and wickedness as Job observes: Why do the live on, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? Their children are established in their presence, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them. Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and never miscarries. They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance around. They sing to the tambourine and the lyre, and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.54

Musical instruments, in this passage, appear to be associated with the prideful enjoyment of abundant wealth. For the wealthy classes in northern Europe, who understood the biblical lessons, the enjoyment of wealth leads to anxiety. They knew that either the wickedness of the proud or the trials of Job are soon to follow wealth. Yet abundance per se does not motivate anxiety, but rather the misplaced joy.55 The morals of Job, Daniel, and several other passages stress that one should not rejoice in material abundance but in God. Job, therefore, refers to musical instruments in order to aid in presenting this moral. Anxiety leads to a series of conventions that provides a mode of acceptable enjoyment of abundance. The conventions often include carnivals, which entail feasts and the manners that accompany them. One of the functions that Plato considers music to have is helping individuals

52Wisdom of Solomon 19:18.

53Jeanneret, 57

54Job:21:7-12.

55Schama, 188. 25 learn grace.56 While Plato does not explain what he means by grace, one may assume he means refined behavior as opposed to more wild behavior that “bad” music may lead to. Castiglione incorporates Plato's ideas of music teaching graceful behavior in his influential Book of the Courtier. When dancing, one should avoid excessive movements, and one should perform on a musical instrument not to show off but to provide spiritual nourishment.57 Furthermore, instruments as graceful tools are gender specific and, therefore conform to social criteria: For example, when she is dancing I should not wish to see her use movements that are too forceful and energetic, nor, when she is singing or playing a musical instrument, to use those abrupt and frequent diminuendos that are ingenious but not beautiful. And I suggest that she should choose instruments suited to her purpose. Imagine what an ungainly sight it would be to have a woman playing , fifes, trumpets or other instruments of that sort; and this is simply because their stridency buries and destroys the sweet gentleness which embellishes everything a woman does.58

Thus music functions not only as an instrument of grace, but is also subject to the rules of civility and grace. Castiglione's words imply that musical performances could deteriorate into the hedonistic revelry fueled by luxurious feasts. The banquet serve as a means to help the members overcome indulgent desires. As an example of the evils of intemperance, the banquet taught its participants to avoid gluttony and inebriation.59 Proper feasting entail self-control and grace, both of which resemble the application of music. The conflict between abundance and asceticism make the musical feast the venue of moral philosophy that northern humanists are quick to examine. Neither ascetic nor luxurious lifestyles appeal to Erasmus, More, or Montainge; rather, they tend to support Aristotle's "nothing in excess" stance. Jill Kraye’s excellent article on Renaissance moral philosophy states:

56Plato, Great Dialogues of Plato: Republic, translated by W. H. D. Rouse. (New York: Mentor, 1984), 200.

57Castiglione, 118-122.

58Castiglione, 215.

59Jeanneret, 63. 26

Montainge, never one to endorse extreme views, favoured Aristotelian moderation, noting that neither pure virtue nor pure sensual pleasure would be serviceable to us without some admixture. Those who place all good in virtue, claimed Aonio Paleario, do not appear to realize that we are living beings and as such require food and drink, sleep and relaxation, clothes and shelter.60

The Aristotelian concept of moderation effects almost all aspects of Renaissance life.61 Moderation is stressed in commentaries, scholastic and humanistic philosophical texts and treatises, and even vernacular literature.62 While the nobleman is expected to spend money on banquets, the festivities should always be in good taste.63 The elaborate festivals, that Strong reviews, attest to the high level of opulence expected in important festivals. Many courtiers understood Aristotle’s idea that “moral virtue is a mean,” and that one should be vigilant in matters of extremes, such as prodigality.64 In order to reconcile this contradiction between moderation and excess, conventions regarding taste become important to the courts. Those who could afford banquets and individuals who write etiquette books express a deep concern on proper manners.65 Instruction on behavior, choice of cuisine, and conversation are common topics.66 Court expenditures, therefore, should be tasteful, reflecting a high level of erudition and sensitivity. For the larger court banquets, music is an important part of the prince's tasteful expenditure.

60Jill Kraye, “Moral Philosophy,” In The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. Edited by Charles B Schmitt and Quentin Skinner. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 2000), 362.

61Kraye, 339.

62Kraye.

63Strong, 22.

64Aristotle, The Basic Works of Aristotle, Edited by Richard McKeon. (New York: The Modern Library, 2001), 963.

65Jeanneret, 3.

66Jeanneret. 27

Epicurean philosophy also reveals a connection to contrasting views of immoderate restraint and excess. Epicurus shares Aristotle's views regarding moderation and that the goal in life—or the supreme good—is happiness, but he differs from Aristotle on what constitutes happiness. Since Epicurus considers happiness to consist of pleasure, music holds a higher function in life being an Aristotelian component of pleasure. Throughout the Middle Ages and even the Renaissance the Epicurean pursuit of pleasure appear to clash with the ascetic ideal that the early church fathers advocate. Nevertheless, scholastic philosophers such as Abelard write that and Epicureanism share a similar goal. Abelard, for instance, express that the Epicurean pursuit of pleasure does not entail self-indulgence. Rather, the pursuit of pleasure often means denial of indulgent practices in order to avoid painful side effects of overindulgence.67 Indeed, the doctrine of enduring minor pains for greater awaited pleasures applies to the whole Christian concept of suffering the brief pangs of mortal life in order to gain a heavenly reward.68 The similarities between Christianity and Epicurus, or the emphasis on the pleasures of paradise that both systems hold, also appears in practice. In the introduction to Decameron, Boccaccio discusses how some of the Florentines practice a life of moderate pleasures in order to ward off the plague. These include eating and drinking certain foods accompanied with music.69 Therefore, while Epicurus in theory is condemned generally, in practice the indulgence of moderate pleasures appeal to medieval and Renaissance cultures. Indeed, scholars such as Erasmus and More see a significant point to Epicurean philosophy.70 Erasmus equates Epicureanism with monasticism because both movements stress living for enduring pleasures over short-lived thrills.71 More’s Utopians’ belief in an immortal soul represents the only split

67Kraye, 383.

68Kraye.

69Boccaccio, 8-9.

70Kraye, 383-85.

71Kraye. 28 with Epicureanism.72 Yet the rewards of eternal life and the thorny road that leads to this reward resemble Epicureanism.73 More and Erasmus understand the relationship between Epicurus and Christianity, yet the irony of comparing Christianity with a pagan philosophy devoted to pleasure must have fueled their interest. Of course, not all Renaissance scholars agree with Erasmus and More. Nevertheless, this Christianized version of Epicureanism reflects a noticeable trend in northern Renaissance art, although apparently more de facto than titular. Music in More’s Utopia bears a striking contrast to Augustine’s Confessions. For the Utopians the pleasures of music are similar to the olfactory pleasures of incense and, therefore, innocuous. Harmless aesthetic pleasures do not in themselves represent distractions from Heaven, rather, they foretell a harmonious quality of the coming paradisiacal glory for the faithful. From an Epicurean standpoint, music does not reflect the self-indulgence that leads to bad side effects. In the context of feasting, music symbolizes the proper temperament of Aristotelian moderation that aids in fostering the supreme good i.e., pleasure. Northern Renaissance artists create works that show a sensitivity to the moral philosophy of moderation. Pieter Bruegel’s painting, Battle of Carnival and Lent embodies much of the current ambiguity regarding feasting and abundance (fig 1). Bruegel shows a mock battle between the two personified extremes of fasting and feasting. The personification of Lent is an emaciated old woman, while the personification of Carnival is a corpulent man surmounting a wine barrel. Behind Lent sits the church, and the tavern sits behind Carnival. This battle between two excesses is a common theme with Bruegel’s works, and according to Schama represents a major characteristic in Netherlandish culture. Notwithstanding the displeasure of both reforming Catholicism and militant Calvinism, the old ebb and flow of feast and fast was preserved, albeit in manifold variations. . . .There had been, in any case, a sort of self-adjusting gastric equilibrium built into the pre- festive and religious calendar in which the excesses of carnival feasting were offset by the austere regime of Lent, the two tempers meeting at Vastenavon, Mardi Gras, after which the ashes of Wednesday would be scattered on the detritus of its fat predecessor. The contest of manners—pagan grogging and pious atonement—was painted by Bruegel in the Battle of Carnival and Lent. Carnival sits

72Kraye.

73Kraye. 29

astride the festive cask, his skewer packed with trussed capons as he jousts with magere Lent, skinny Lent, whose weapon is the griddle on which reposes the penitential herring. Hans Worst, Mynheer sausage, was the earthly incarnation of flesh, offal and blood, all packed tight inside the case of skin, the lord of hibernal warmth and saturna- lia, inaugurated on Martinmas, the eleventh of November in the midst of slagmaand, the slaughter month, when the fatten ox met the knife.74

Scholars, however, overlook the role music plays in The Battle of Carnival and Lent. As may be expected music making is part of the retinue of Carnival, while completely absent on the side of Lent. Music, therefore, remains an expression of the joy of abundance. Nevertheless, the sins of excess characterize an inevitable outgrowth of abundance. The musicians of Carnival do not play on standard instruments. A button-eyed old woman plays a rummel pot; an almost faceless man in a fool’s cap performs on a grill with a knife; a man wearing a pot over his head and a small picture on his belt plays a cittern. These musical instruments reflect a close association with the feast. Two of them—the grill and the pot—are more culinary than musical; the cittern performer wears not only two culinary vessels, but he also accompanies a figure who carries a platter of waffles and wears some form of food necklace. The sound of kitchen utensils are also used humorously to amuse the child Gargantua’s voracious appetite.75 No musical instruments accompany Lent, which exposes the general ecclesiastical dislike of musical instruments. The musical imagery in both opposing groups, however, contributes to an overall lack of harmony. The Lent figure and retinue appear so emaciated and despondent that one hardly imagines beautiful harmony coming from their voices. Similarly, the Carnival figures use instruments for hedonistic noise more than sonorous quality. Both groups are self congratulatory and equally dubious. Among the many works that express the value of moderation, perhaps the most effective is the Rhenish Garden of Paradise (fig. 2). The painting depicts the Christ child with Virgin, saints, and angels in an enclosed garden. The Virgin sits by a table with food reading from a book while the Christ child sits on the grass and plays a psaltery assisted by St. Cecilia, the

74Schama, 152-53.

75Rabelais, 22. 30 patron saint of music.76 Since the Virgin sits nearest to the table, she appears connected to the feast. However, her reading symbolizes her spiritual nourishment over physical nourishment. Indeed, the painting is full of symbolic detail. The lilies, irises, and other foliage reflect the virtues of the Virgin. The enclosed garden also symbolizes the guarded chastity of the group. To the right of the Christ child a saint or handmaiden draws water from a well that also resem- bles a small sarcophagus. It, therefore, symbolizes the well of living water and the grave. The symbol of rebirth that baptism represents brings a deeper meaning to the work.77 Aside from the symbolic detail, the overall aesthetic expresses a sense of peace, harmony, and contentment. This painting shows paradise in the form of temperate pleasures that illuminate the purpose of the holy meal. “In many cultures, the meal is a traditional rite of participation in the sacred, one of the ceremonies where human beings are in contact with the hereafter and glimpse the heavenly bliss of immortality.”78 Jeaneret’s statement is in the context of , but the statement also may reflect this painting of a Christian paradise. One may conclude, therefore, that the Rhenish Master depicts a Christianized feast of the gods. The psaltery that the Christ child plays serves as a symbol of royalty, the psalms (hence the shared word root), and the . Both the harp and the psaltery function as attributes for king David.79 As the author of the Psalms, the psaltery often appears with king David as an attribute. The psaltery, however, holds a higher spiritual status than the harp. Ildikó Ember states in his monograph devoted to Renaissance and musical iconography, “As compared to the kithara, the psaltery represents the more exalted music. The kithara (or its equivalents, the harp, the , etc.) served to express the painful yearning of mortal men after

76James Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1985), 81.

77See Alan W. Watts, Myth and Ritual in Christianity, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968), 179-181.

78Jeanneret, 17

79James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, (Oxford: Westview, 1974), 255. 31

God, while the psaltery is used by angels, the possessors of eternal life, to praise the Lord.”80 Therefore, the symbolism of the psaltery runs deeper than simply an attribute of king David. Ember further writes, “According to Honorius of Autun, the shape of the psaltery imitates the crucified body of Christ (“forma sua corpus Christi exprimit”), and since it is triangular, it also symbolizes the Holy Trinity.”81 Indeed, images of angels performing on cross-shaped appear frequently in French illuminated manuscripts.82 The harp took on this symbol of the Crucifixion as well. In addition, the infamous Malleus Maleficarum, despite being instrumental in the “great” witch trials in Germany, contains this passage of explanation concerning David healing Saul with music: “David repressed the evil spirit by the harp, not because there was so much virtue in the harp, but it was made in the sign of a cross, being a cross of wood with the strings stretched across. And even at that time the devils fled from this.”83 In a similar explana- tion, Niceta of Remesiana’s On the Benefit of Psalmody claims that the youthful David heals Saul not because of the music but “because the image of Christ’s cross was mystically exhibited in the wood and stretched strings of the instrument, and thereby it was the very Passion that was hymned and that overcame the spirit of the demon.”84 The symbol of stretched strings reflects further the passion since strings are made from the tendons of lambs; hence strings offer a deeper connection to Christ as the sacrificial Lamb of God. In her article on musical instruments of heaven and hell, Eva Helenius-Öberg remarked that the reason the harp represents the passion is due to the strings being stretched between the frame: “David as the warrior and defeater of evil is understood as a prefigure of Christ. But the harp also stands as a symbol for Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, because as Christ’s body was stretched on the cross, so stretch the stings on the

80Ember, Ildiko. Music and Painting: Music as Symbol in Renaissance and Baroque Painting, (Budapest: Corvina Kaido, 1984), 18.

81Ember.

82See Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry, (New York: George Braziller, 1974): figures 559, 574, 627, and 628.

83Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, The Malleus Maleficarum. Translated by Montague Summers, (New York: Dover, 1971), 41.

84Treitler, 129-130. 32

harp.”85 The psaltery, therefore, that the Christ child plays in this painting signifies his crucifix- ion in a similar manner that the Madonna and Child images may portend the Pietà. Indeed, if one looks closely at the Christ child’s hand, one notes that the are held between the fingers bearing a startling resemblance to the nails of the cross (fig. 3). of Christ provides a model for behavior in paradise. Just as Christ sacrifices himself, one should be willing to sacrifice immoderate activities. The psaltery allusion to king David refers also to the psalms and hymnody, which have a strong connection to the table and feasting. Niceta’s words claiming that the Passion is the real subject of David’s reflects the didactic role of music in the Garden of Paradise. St. Basil states that singing psalms at the dinner table is a way to make feasting on the Word just as pleasant as feasting on food.86 Since man is naturally inclined towards the pleasures of life, the Holy Spirit “blended the delight of melody with doctrine in order that through the pleasantness and softness of the sound we might unawares receive what was useful in the words, according to the practice of wise physicians, who, when they give the more bitter draughts to the sick, often smear the rim of the cup with honey.”87 In a sense, St. Basil draws a similarity between the pleasures of taste with the pleasures of music. He attempts to link the association of pleasure to the praise and contemplation of God. Although St Basil’s analogy of music to honey may appear more metaphorical than real, St John Chrysostom is more literal regarding psalmody at the table:

For since Satan is wont to lie in wait at feasts, and to employ as allies drunkenness, gluttony, immoderate laughter, and an inactive mind; on these occasions, both before and after table, it is especially necessary to fortify oneself with the protection of the psalms and, rising from the feast together with ones’ wife and children, to sing sacred hymns to God. . . . If something untoward be visited upon our souls because of drunk-

85“David såsom bekämpare och besegrare av det onda uppfattades som en prefiguration av Kristus. Men harpan står också som symbol för Kristi offerdöd på korset, ty såsom Kristi i kropp utsträcktes på korset, så spänns strängarna på en harpa.” Eva Helenius-Öberg, “Anglakor och djävulstrummor: Kring medeltidsmänniskans föreställningar om musik,” Iconocraphisk Post 4 (1988), 6.

86Treitler, 121.

87Treitler. 33

enness and gluttony, the arrival of psalmody will cause these evils and depraved counsels to retreat. And just as many wealthy persons wipe off their tables with a sponge filled with balsam, so that if any stain remain from the food, they may remove it and show a clean table; so should we also, filling our mouths with spiritual melody instead of balsam, so that if any stain remain in our mind from the abundance we may thereby wipe it away. . . And as those who bring comedians, dancers, and harlots into their feasts call in demons and Satan himself and fill their homes with innumerable contentions (among them jealousy, adultery, debauchery, and countless evils); so those who invoke David with his lyre call inwardly on Christ. Where Christ is, no demon would dare to enter, nor even to peep in; but peace, and charity, and all good things would flow there as from fountains.88

Singing psalms not only instructs but also cleanses the mind of impurities. These statements by St. Basil and St. Chrysostom support the model life that the figures live in paradise. The Christ child learns to play the psalms providing a model for all children. The presence of the table in this painting draws also on the practice of psalmody at meals and Communion. Chrysostom’s statement about demons not daring to enter where Christ resides supports the presence of a dead demon-like creature in the lower sinister corner. Additionally, the close association of the Christ child with the psaltery reflects the close association of Christ and David that St. Chrysostom makes. For St. Chrysostom and the Rhenish Master, music should invite the spirits of David and Christ to the table rather than the bodies of harlots. The choice of the psalms of David also shows an Aristotelean choice of temperance over excess. As St. Basil notes, however, temperance does not have to extend to the extremism of Lent. One hundred years after the Rhenish Paradise Garden, Paolo Cortesi echoes the duel function of music for pleasure and instruction. “Indeed, we are convinced that music should be put to use at this time [after meals] for the sake not only of merriment, but also of knowledge and morals.”89 The psaltery as a symbol of holy music that complements the Virgin’s Bible, supports this ideal of peace and paradise through an even tempered lifestyle of moral pleasure.90 The image of the Christ child playing the psaltery is also shown in an unknown German master’s painting (fig. 4).

88Treitler, 124-25.

89Treitler, 317.

90The assumption that this is a Bible is made from the traditional scenes where the Virgin reads from the Isaiah 7:14 passage of a Virgin conceiving a son. 34

Unlike the Rhenish Master’s work, this work brings the psaltery-playing child close to the picture plane and includes two angels instead of Cecilia. The small doll-like faces betray a unique style that will become later a recognizable component of Stephen Lochner’s works (d. 1451). This painting reflects also the central importance of the psaltery-playing Christ child. By placing the psaltery-playing child in the center of the composition, the Rhenish Master stresses the essential balancing quality that music holds in paradise. The psaltery in the Rhenish Master’s painting shares a similar theme to illuminated manuscript images showing king David. Margareth Owens discusses the significance of images depicting king David in prayer. She notes the popular Penitential Psalms, and points out the imagery of a penitent king David.91 Often he is shown praying with his harp set aside in a landscape. The Garden of Paradise shares not only a similar function—personal devo- tion—with the Book of Hours, but also the reference to the psalms with the psaltery provides a counterpart to the sorrows of David. Owens examines the symbol of David’s harp—as a symbol of pleasure—being set aside as meaning perhaps David’s abandonment of worldly lusts for spiritual cleansing.92 In this aspect, the Garden of Paradise shows the eternal spiritual pleasures that reward abstemious behavior. Another interpretation, however, suggests that David sets aside the harp in order to show his degraded state. Owens writes, “In the Penitential Psalms miniatures, then, the fact that the harp is set aside may be taken to mean the disharmony of David’s sinful state.”93 Indeed, the double-edged symbolic nature of the harp—i.e. sinful lust and spiritual enlightenment—also extends to other musical instruments. This ambiguity is present in the peasant works of Bruegel where one might expect a strong moral stance. The multiple and contradictory symbolism of instruments combined with the willingness of artists to be highly ambiguous reflect the complicated nature of Renaissance art. This playful ambiguity serves also as a reminder of the dangers of a narrow interpretation.

91Margaret Boyer Owens, “The Image of King David in Fifteenth-Century Books of Hours.” Imago Musicae 6 (1989), 26.

92Owens, 33

93Owens, 36. 35

The psaltery highlights the civilized nature of the cultivated garden. Ember notes that both the harp and the psaltery are metaphors for the Ten Commandments.94 The Ten Command- ment metaphor occurs in several biblical passages and other literary sources. In both Psalms 33 and 113 the author refers to a ten-stringed lyre. In his Confessions, St. Augustine states concerning sins, “they are hatched from the lust for power, from gratification of the eye, and from gratification of corrupt nature—from one or two of these or from all three together. Because of them, O God most high, most sweet, our lives offend against your ten-stringed harp, your commandments.” 95 The connection of a ten-stringed harp to the commandments comes from both the position that the harp is held and its association with harmony. Both the harp and the lyre are shown being held next to the chest similar to the way that is shown holding the table of laws. But also, the number of strings is an allusion to harmony reflecting the order and balance that the laws bring to obedient civilizations. The ten-stringed harp and psaltery, representing the table of laws, are civilizing agents that symbolize the order and peace that come from obedience to God’s law. In this respect, the Garden of Paradise presents nature tamed by God in harmony with the Ten Commandments. Moreover, since king David established the temple as a holding place for the Ark and the Commandments, his close relation to the laws makes the association of the Ten Commandments and the harp much closer. One more element worth noting in the Paradise Garden is the symbol of the table. As a symbol of the altar of sacrifice, the table draws one’s attention to the function of Christ as the Sacrificial Lamb and the Epicurean notion of sacrificing some pleasures to avoid pain. In a biblical context, however, the table holds a special significance concerning the feast. Although the table may signify unity and harmony, it might also signify exclusion.96 The association in a religious context may be applied to the sacrificial altar as a symbol of the covenant and God’s chosen people. Etiquette rules at the banquet function at a metaphorical level associating the banquet to life and the divine commandments to rules of conduct. “Indeed, sacred meals

94Ember, 18.

95Saint Augustine, 66.

96Lieber, 32-33. 36

simultaneously include and exclude; proscribing boundaries entails the designation of who is ‘in’ and who/what is ‘out.’”97 The Garden of Paradise is exclusive in nature, especially in respect to the wall that surrounds the group. The symbol of the table is significant to musical activity. The famous frontispiece of Sylvestro Ganassi’s Fontegara shows men surrounding a table covered with and performing on recorders. The frontispiece includes a print that not only shows the practical use of the table for performance, but it suggests also the notion of music as spiritual feasting.98 Moreover, the exclusive symbol of the table reflects the fraternities that are becoming more popular at this time (1530s) as protective institutions for musicians.99 The paradise garden theme shows a similarity to the Rest on the Flight into Egypt theme. Both portray images of bucolic peace that support Aristotelian moderation and Epicurean restrained pleasure. Moreover, both subjects are not found in the Bible and are, therefore, cultural embellishments. The Rest on the Flight into Egypt theme draws on the passage in Matthew that describes the holy family fleeing destruction of the Holy Innocence in Bethlehem.100 The actual rest, however, is never depicted in the New Testament. The inclusion of a rest theme and its appeal to Renaissance cultures shows the value placed on leisure. Lucas Cranach’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt reflects the strong connection that music and food have with pleasure (fig. 5). Cranach shows the Holy Family relaxing in a thick forest with an performing on a recorder while three others sing and another angel offering a cluster of grapes to the eager Christ child. The wistful look of the angel offering the grapes emphasizes the symbolic meaning of the Eucharist and the shedding of blood on the cross. The dual meaning of the angel consort represents not just dinner entertainment, but also the expectant rejoicing of Christ’s victory over death. Angels are described in Luke 2: 13-14 singing praises at

97Lieber, 33.

98See Sylvestro Ganassi, Intitulata Fontegara Venice 1535, edited and translated by Hildemarie Peter (Germany: Robert Lienau, -Lichterfelde, 1956), 7, for a copy of the print.

99Salmen, 28.

100Matthew 2: 14-15. 37 the birth of Jesus as the symbol of man’s redemption and resurrection. Therefore, the image of singing angels reflects an allusion to this passage. Renaissance audiences may also notice a connection to the real-life practice of music during meals enjoyed by the noble and wealthy. Nevertheless, this subject represents a respite from the otherwise troubled existence of Jesus. Moreover, it reminds the viewer that life is not always gloomy, and that one should accept the small pleasures of the earth with humility. Indeed, leisure and music have an important Aristotelian meaning. Aristotle claims that music provides a source of pleasure, but that its true function is in the field of leisure. In order to support this claim he cites Homer: For this reason Homer wrote thus: "But him alone tis meet to summon to the festal banquet;” and after these words he speaks of certain others “Who call the bard that he may gladden all.” And also in other verses Odysseus says that this is the best pastime, when, as men are enjoying good cheer, “The banqueters, seated in order due throughout the hall may hear a minstrel sing.”101

Aristotle makes it plain that the pleasure music affords complements business and work. However, musical leisure for Aristotle is not simply relaxation but meant as a contemplative tool. “Music . . . aids in the development of practical wisdom, but it also does more than this. Proper understanding of the place of human beings . . .brings with it incipient wonder about the things that are more valuable than human beings, and that are above all worth contemplating for their own sake.”102 For Aristotle, music leads to contemplation, which makes leisure a form of philosophy.103 Music, as a form of leisure, is to be taken in turn. In addition, he cites Homer to suggest that music shares its leisurely component with feasting. The recorder, like the psaltery, brings symbolic, aesthetic, and historical meaning to the painting. Unlike the psaltery and the harp, however, the recorder represents a rural rather than civilized ideal. The recorder, similar to other winds, has a close affinity to shepherds, the pastoral, and a more natural paradise. It appears significant that the Christ child does not play the recorder. Since king David plays the psaltery and the harp, it is an attribute of royalty.

101Treitler, 25.

102David J. Depew, “Politics, Music, and Contemplation in Aristotle’s Ideal State.” In A Companion to Aristotle’s “Politics.” (Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell, 1991), 370.

103Depew, 371. 38

Therefore, the psaltery in the hands of the Christ child points to his royal lineage. Whereas the recorder, as part of the more general pipes category, represents the instrument of servants and shepherds. These angels function as entertainers in a similar manner of court-entertaining musicians. The recorder is not the instrument of law, harmony, and temperance; rather it reflects the more servile agrarian nature. The venue in Cranach’s work also differs from the Paradise Garden and aptly changes the instrument’s function. The Rest marks an interim rather than a chronic state of bliss. Cranach’s landscape is not the groomed gardens of paradise but the untamed wilderness of sin, age, and overgrowth. Regarding the later point, this landscape resembles the Reformist disfavor of the overgrown nature of Catholic bureaucracy and corrup- tion. Although the work predates Reformation by a few years, it expresses the values of simplicity and modesty, which are both important themes in Reformist circles. It is not surprising, therefore, that Cranach became a Reformist.104 In this context, the recorder may reflect a more simple and natural Protestant ideal that serves as an alternative to the luxurious papal court of Julius II and Leo X. Cranach’s use of the recorder in a religious context strikes one as contradictory since the recorder often has an erotic symbol.105 One may also note that the recorder is symbolic of humility, appearing with rustic shepherds. Even so, the emphasis on natural simplicity is an emphasis on moderation that is shared by the Paradise Garden. Both paintings show the importance of moderate pleasures over excess—more often stressed with the bagpipe. Cranach’s recorder is simple to the point of appearing homemade. Indeed, it lacks the subtle foot-flaring of the so-called Ganassi recorders that appear twenty years later.106 This homemade recorder betrays an implicit statement that God’s music does not require human refinement. The implied statement even goes further to reflect the Protestant disregard of religious authority i.e., God’s Word does not need papal refinement.

104Snyder, 370.

105See the discussion below.

106Angelo Zaniol, “The Recorder of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Dordrecht to Van Eyck,” Continuo 8 (1985), 6. There has also been some disagreement concerning the “Ganassi” recorders. See Alec Loretto, “When is a Ganassi Recorder not a Ganassi Recorder?” The American Recorder, 27/2 (1986): 64-66. 39

Albrecht Altdorfer paints a similar Rest on the Flight into Egypt (fig. 6). This painting shows angels or putti entertaining the Holy Family. The fountain that the Holy Family rests by, however, establishes a more man-made setting than Cranach’s. Nevertheless, Altdorfer, like Cranach, stress a less human involvement in his instruments. The putti perform on tiny instruments that, of course, are divorced from reality. Tiny angels playing musical instruments resemble Stephen Lochner’s musical “doll-like” angels.107 Cranach’s homemade recorder and Altdorfer’s miniature instruments also reflect the fantastic musical instruments in the first transformation of Mathis Grünewald’s (1470/80–1528) famous Isenheim Altarpiece. It may be tempting to consider this emphasis on non-human music as a northern reaction against Italian humanism. However, both northern and Italian humanists and writers in general share a concern for Aristotelian moderation.108 What seems to be more noticeable in these paintings is the desire for a return to the simple religious life. A return to simplicity brings the unfiltered spirit of God. Both Cranach’s work and Garden of Paradise emphasize simplicity, moderation, and naturalism, which provide a noticeable contrast to the kermis (church festival) and the Herod scenes.

Instruments as Social Attributes

Throughout history musical instruments serve as symbols of social states. Specific instrument reflect stereotypes concerning the performers and audience. Today, the carries a certain image of the social status of the performers and audiences that differs from other instruments such as the grand . In addition, existing visual and literary records support the notion that European civilizations during the Renaissance maintain stereotypes about different instruments. I have already discussed the social status of the harp and psaltery as visual clues to kings and royalty. However, the more complicated subjects of the following chapters warrant a

107Snyder, 219.

108Kraye, 339. 40 deeper look into the historicity of the symbols contained in the musical instruments that more frequently appear in banquet scenes. Recently, scholars note two basic social types of musical instruments that they call “high” and “low.” These terms do not represent the social hierarchy of high and low class; rather they represent the location of where the instruments are performed and their respective dynamic levels. The bas instruments are played in chambers while the haut instruments are performed high in the musicians’ box.109 In his book on late medieval and early Renaissance instrumental music in Germany, Keith Polk examines in detail the specific function of these categories. He states, “As ensemble instruments the most important in the soft category were the lute, the portative organ and the bowed stringed instruments. The harp, recorder and were also favoured, though less likely to appear in professional ensembles.” 110 The high instruments also denote their respective dynamic level. The , , and represent loud instruments that are more likely played by professional musicians and are considered high instruments. Instruments in the low category include the softer more delicate instruments such as the harp and lute. Moreover, the soft musical instruments are more often played with smaller ensembles “for more subtle music of polyphonic character, performed at intimate occasions permitting and requiring concentration on the intricacies of text and texture.”111 Ganassi’s treatise also supports the notion that bas instruments are often performed by amateur nobility. At the beginning, Ganassi dedicates the work to Prince Andrea Gritti and states, “May Your Excellency therefore deign to accept this work in a friendly spirit, even though it be but a poor return for all the great benefits that I and my family have received from Your Highness.”112 Therefore, despite the location names and dynamic sounds, these two

109Leeman L. Perkins, Music in the Age of the Renaissance, (New York: Norton, 1999), 106-116.

110Keith Polk, German Instrumental Music of the Late middle Ages: Players Patrons and Performance Practice, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 13.

111Emanuel Winternitz, Musical Instruments and their Symbolisms in Western Art. (New York: Norton, 1967), 145.

112Ganassi, 8. 41 different types of instruments represent the difference between professional and amateur classes. If the function of music reflects the attributes of the social classes, then these more contempla- tive instruments do, indeed, fit the role of the nobility. The contemplative life is significant also in the Aristotelian definition of the supreme good or happiness stretching only as far as reason will allow. “Happiness extends, then just so far as contemplation does. . . . Now he who exercises his reason and cultivates it seems to be both in the best state of mind and most dear to the gods.”113 Since the contemplative life appeals to the nobility, the instruments best suited to contemplation also warrant a higher status. Aristotle’s notion of happiness reflecting the contemplative life also has a moral significance. A contemplative life is considered more holy if the individual spends time contemplating God and the cosmos. Being “dear to the gods” is something for the nobility to strive for, and soft musical instruments aids in this endeavor. High instruments are sometimes shown in degrading circumstances. A wall decorative print by the Swiss artist, Jost Amman, shows the personified liberal arts assaulted by , Bacchus, and demons.114 Part of this print shows a demon using a as a weapon against a member of the liberal arts. A harp sits on the floor next to one of the liberal arts. A later seventeenth-century painting by George de la Tour depicts brawling professional musicians using the shawm in a similar manner.115 Musical instruments do more, however, than just mark the difference between profes- sional and aristocrat; they define the characteristics of each class. The delicate sound of the that produce more complicated harmonies are meant to resemble the supposedly more sensitive, refined, and complicated nature of the leisure classes; while the loud, monophonic shawms are meant to reflect the loud, insensitive, and benighted natures of the working classes. The connection between instrumentalists and performers may appear somewhat difficult to distin-

113Aristotle, 1107-1108.

114See the copy of Jost Amman, Bacchus and Pluto Assaulting the Liberal Arts given in Hollstein German Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings 1450–1700 (Amsterdam: Van Gendt, (1940), vol. 2, p. 18.

115See the copy of George de la Tour’s Quarreling Musicians given in Web Gallery of Art [database online] http://gallery.euroweb.hu/index1.html 42

guish since instrumentalists are often dressed in the clothing of the court. Susan Weiss’s article about musical feasts in the Renaissance notes that scenes depicting instrumentalists repeatedly separate the consorts from the courtiers and nobility.116 The court musicians are servants and function in several ways such as symbols of courtly pageantry that emphasize the wealth and power of the lord. Among the high category of instruments the bagpipe represents the most class specific. If professional musicians accept bagpipers into their circles at all, bagpipers often receive lower wages than other professional musicians.117 The bagpipe ranks as the chief instrument in the peasant scenes. The purpose for its lower-class association resides in its real life connection to shepherds. However other reasons include physical nature, high dynamics, and mythology. Its and pipes allow it to become substituted for the ancient aulos. Plato considers the aulos not appropriate for his ideal city because it lures men out of their reason.118 In The Symposium it reflects the instruments of charlatans whose "pipe-dreams" sound pleasing but are illusions.119 Emanuel Winternitz devotes several chapters to the bagpipe's symbols. He notes the myth of Apollo and Marsyas and showes how Renaissance prints depicting the bagpipe sometimes use it as a replacement for the aulos.120 The myth underscores the social significance of the aulos and its Renaissance equivalent. The gods and aristocrats perform the stringed instruments while the more instinctive laborers perform loud winds. Some scholars note the association with lower classes as a sign of innocence rather than a sign of the dangerous and unrefined. Eleonora Beck discusses the bagpipe’s connection to natural innocence. "Though clearly an earthly ‘loud’ instrument commonly played at lively banquets and weddings, it is also

116Susan F. Weiss, “Medieval and Renaissance Wedding Banquets and Other Feasts.” In Food and Eating in Medieval Europe, edited by Martha Carlin and Joel Thomas Rosenthal. (London and Ohio: Hambledon Press, 1998), 166.

117Polk, 55.

118Treitler, 11-12.

119Plato, 109-112.

120Winternitz, 158-59. 43 associated with prayer, and is often depicted as being played by angel consorts. A very prominent angel bagpipe player appears in Orcagna’s Strozzi Altarpiece (1354-1357), also in Santa Maria Novella."121 Beck cites Catherine Homo-Lechner's article that claims its construc- tion from animal membranes qualifies it as a symbol of life-giving elements, i.e., breath, food, and water.122 However, these natural symbols signify more often lustful symbols, which reflect a negative moral symbols—especially for northern cultures. This sexually negative symbol can also reflect the social position of the performers. The soft flutes and recorders represent a shady area that on one hand reflect the pipes that curses while on the other hand exhibit great appeal. Castiglione outlines a careful approach for court members when using flutes : The human voice adds ornament and grace to all these instruments, with which I think it is good enough if our courtier has some acquaintance (though the more proficient he is the better) without concerning himself greatly with those which both Minerva and Alcibiades rejected, because it seems they have something repulsive about them. Then as to the occasions when these various kinds of music should be performed, I would instance when a man finds himself in the company of dear and familiar friends. . . . But above all, the time is appropriate when there are ladies present; for the sight of them softens the hearts of those who are listening, makes them more susceptible to the sweetness of the music, and also quickens the spirit of the musicians themselves.123

Since Minerva (Athena) rejects the aulos, most woodwind instruments become suspect. Yet the delicate sounding flutes appear to be the more appropriate prelude to love that Castiglione implies. The lute, as a low, amateur instrument often signifies a higher social level than the professional woodwinds, percussions, and brass. It becomes one of the more popular instru- ments during the Renaissance functioning in educational, leisure, and religious activities.124

121Eleonora M. Beck, Singing in the Garden: An Examination of Music in Trecento Painting and Boccaccio’s Decameron. Ph.D. Dissertation, (Columbia University, New York, 1993), 90.

122Beck.

123Castiglione, 121.

124Polk, 28. 44

Moreover, among the upper classes, the lute is often heard at banquets.125 In mythology it appears in the hands of the Muses. It regularly accompanies loving couples of the leisure classes who recline in garden settings and may even appear in the hands of . The lute’s connec- tion to love together with its delicate, soft, and harmonious qualities make it a instrument for the higher-classes. At one of the feasts in Boccaccio’s Decameron the lute is depicted as an instrument for the leisurely group. When the tables were cleared, as all the ladies, and the young men too, were familiar with round dances, while several of them were excellent singers and musicians, the queen sent for the musical instruments; at her bidding Dioneo took a lute, Fiammetta a , and then struck up a mellow dance. The servants were sent off to take their own meal and the queen and her sisters stepped out slowly with the two young men on a round dance.126

Since the performance on these musical instruments occurs when the servants eat their meal, we may assume that the lute, among other stringed instruments, are associated with nobility. In Holbein’s famous work, The Ambassadors, a lute not only serves as a symbol of education but also of status. It informs the viewer that this portrait depicts men of education and rank. As a plucked stringed instrument, it is associated with the royal instruments of the harp and psaltery. Moreover, other portraits include lutes and other more noble stringed instruments as visual tools for social buoyancy. Isabella d’Este, although in the Italian court of , shares a common desire of the courts to collect luxurious items including fine musical instruments. Among the several musical instruments that she requests to be made for her is a lute of ebony. Although her musicians advise against it on grounds that it will not sound good, she persists.127 Musical instruments, therefore, have many other functions than tools of sound. Fine instruments are as much status symbols then as now. The more cosmetic aspects of the lute are frequently painstaking tasks. For example, the rosettes often are carved in elaborate geometrical shapes that

125Polk, 29.

126Boccaccio, 92.

127Julia Cartwright, Isabella D’Este: Marchioness of Mantua 1474-1539 (London: 1903), 131. 45 contribute more to notions concerning the cosmos than to the timbre.128 The lute’s association to the heavens provides a noticeable contrast to the bagpipe’s association with the earth. This contrast helps define class distinctions enabling the nobility to share a common bond with the gods and the higher levels of the cosmos. Other sources support the lute’s connection to the spheres in literature and art. Matthew Spring’s exhaustive monograph on the British lute states, “‘Still’ [bas] instruments were symbolic of divine order, of heaven and paradise, and are normally depicted played by a host of angels, each of which holds a representative instrument type.”129 Moreover, Thomas Mace’s (1612–1706) treatise on the lute includes “and all its occult-locked-up-secrets plainly laid open” on the title page.130 Mace also expresses his favor of the lute with a short poetic dialogue where the author endeavors to cheer up a sad, personified lute: “Lute. What need you ask these questions why ‘tis so? Since ‘tis too obvious for all men to know. The world is grown so slight; full of new fangles, and takes their chief delight in jingle-jangles; with fiddle-noises; pipes of Bartholomew, like those which country-wives buy, gay and new, to please their little children when they cry: this makes me sit and sigh thus mournfully.”131 While Mace’s dialogue with his lute may appear strange to the modern reader, Tomlinson notes that some Renaissance thinkers consider music to have rational independence.132 The lute’s association with heaven and paradise also includes an association with the Virgin. Helenius-Öberg writes following her examination of lute-playing angels with the Queen of Heaven,

128For more regarding the symbols of the rosette, see Douglas Alton Smith, A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance. (Canada: The Lute Society of America, 2002), 87- 88.

129Matthew Spring, The Lute in Britain: A History of the Instrument and its Music, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 29.

130Thomas Mace, Musick’s Monument vol. 1 (: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1958).

131Mace, 33.

132Tomlinson, 114. 46

The lute can thus be understood as a symbol for chastity and purity. . . . The lute, possibly, has come to be associated with Mary on the grounds of its form. Many lute- type instruments, especially the smaller lutes, have the form of an almond, and within organology . . .the term “almond formed” is used in order to describe a certain body form of the lute. The almond was, as we all know, a Marian symbol. Possibly putting together lute—almond—Mary was the initial symbolic image .133

In addition, the significance of the almond results from its white pith thus reflecting the Virgin’s purity. The viol also evokes characteristics of the ruling classes perhaps even more than the lute. Winternitz shows how the Renaissance equivalent to Apollo's lyre in the myths is the lira da braccio.134 This is a bowed instrument similar to the viola da braccio but with the tuning pegs facing the front rather than on the sides and a series of drone strings. It is used in the Italian courts to accompany, in an improvisation-like manner, the voice. As such, it relates to the classical tradition of improvising on passages of Homer or Hesiod. Since one's noble lineage means a great deal to members of the Renaissance courts, the lira da braccio offers a connection to the noble traditions of antiquity. The Bible shows lyres as status symbols made for the queen of Sheba from exotic woods.135 The ancient lyre evokes more themes of divine leadership than the myth of Apollo and Marsyas. Homer describes Odysseus using musical imagery as the only person among the suitors who can string his bow: But the man skilled in all ways of contending, satisfied by the great bow’s look and heft, like a musician, like a harper, when with quiet hand upon his instrument he draws between his thumb and forefinger a sweet new string upon a peg: so effortlessly Odysseus in one motion strung the bow. Then slid his right hand down the cord and

133Lutan kan således uppfattas som en symbol för kyskhet och renhet. . . .Möjligen har lutan kommit att förknippas med Maria på grund av sin form. Många lutinstrument, särskilt de mindre, har formen av en mandel. Och inom organologin . . .används just termen ‘mandelformad’ för att beteckna en viss korpusform hos lutan. Mandeln var, som vi alla vet, en Mariasymbol. Sannolikt har hopkopplingen luta–mandel–Maria varit det primära i symbolbildningen. Helenius-Öberg, 5.

134Winternitz, 158-59.

135Chronicles 9:10-11. 47

plucked it, so the taut gut vibrating hummed and sang a swallow’s note. In the hushed hall it smote the suitors and their faces changed.136

In his poetic fashion, Homer uses the stringing of a harp as a kind of metaphor that is similar to the Ten Commandments and David's harp. In other words, Homer employs the harp as a symbol of Odysseus's authority and right to rule. The allusion to Apollo who "strings both the lyre and the bow" appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses where is able to use the lyre to charm the animals out of their wild habits.137 In the Renaissance, the legend of Orpheus appeals greatly to the nobility. Bronzino paints Cosimo I Medici’s portrait in the likeness of Orpheus. One reason for Orpheus's appeal to Renaissance courts is his ability to bring harmony to the wilderness with this lyre. Rulers such as Cosimo desire a similar notion of a divine gift and authority that enable them to bring peace and order to their lands. The tradition of the lyre as an instrument of authority similar to David's harp make the lira da braccio—the Renaissance's equivalent—appealing to the nobility.138 According to Emanuel Winternitz, “no peasant plays a lira da braccio—the player must be Apollo. The only god who has this attribute.”139 Ovid's passage that depicts the death of Orpheus at the hands of the Bacchantes also stresses the difference between the lyre as a noble instrument and the louder instruments as unrefined attributes. "And all their weapons would have been harmless under the spell of song; but the huge uproar of the Berecyntian flutes, mixed with discordant horns, the drums, and the breast- beatings and howling of the Bacchanals, drowned the lyre’s sound."140 One notices a similarity between this passage and the Amman print that shows the struggle between Bacchus and the

136Homer, The , translated by Robert Fitzgerald. (New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1998), 404.

137Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by Frank Justus Miller. (London: Loeb Classical Library, 1999), book X, 71.

138Winternitz, 44.

139Winternitz.

140Ovid, book XI, 121-123. 48

Liberal Arts. The nobility of the Renaissance may have also understood this passage as a conflict between the divine authority of nobility and the savage nature of lower class habits. The viola da gamba and da braccio signify a noble class distinction although they did not occupy the same level as the lira da Braccio. Considering Castiglione, Edward Lowinsky states in his article about Renaissance music, “It does not behoove the courtier to use wind instruments. The noble instrument par excellence is the viol and the sweetest music is that produced by a quartet of ."141 Pieter Bruegel's drawing of Spring depicts peasants working in a garden and also shows a nobleman performing on a viola da gamba.142 Bruegel clearly delineates the spaces between the leisure and working classes. The working classes work the fields while the nobility repose and use the devices of music and conversation for contemplation. During the Renais- sance, debates pitting the contemplative life against the active life, appeal to northern humanists. More, among others, argues that the active life is necessary especially for the nobility who need to take an active part in civic duties but not as a replacement for contemplation and the search for truth.143 Moreover, Aristotle advocates a need for noble leisure: Aristotle had argued in the Politics that, because public service requires leisure and the means to sustain it, the most effective and praiseworthy citizens will always be those who are rich as well as virtuous, and owe their wealth to inheritance rather than their own acquisitive skills. As a result, the contention that vera nobilitas must be a matter of lineage and wealth together with virtue came to be characteristic of scholastic legal and political thought.144

Bruegel's drawing, moreover, reflects an acceptance of class distinctions. While the peasants appear happy in their active life, we may assume that the nobility—marginalized enough to only appear as a glimpse—are also enjoying their leisurely contemplation of grander things. The

141Edward E. Lowinsky, “Music in the Culture of the Renaissance.” Journal of the History of Ideas, 15/4 (Oct., 1956), 516.

142See Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones, Pieter Bruegel, (New York: Abrams, 1998), 192-93.

143Quentin Skinner, “,” in The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. Edited by Charles B Schmitt and Quentin Skinner. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 2000), 449.

144Skinner, 422. 49 viola family functions in this and other works to distinguish a division between mental and manual labor and the classes that follow. Bruegel, however, suggests a more harmonious—or at least ambiguous—relationship between the division of labor than Aristotle or Castiglione. It will be argued in Chapter Four that Bruegel's attraction to the peasant classes cannot be taken as scornful. Bruegel's works show a great love for the manual process of painting. He, like other Netherlandish artists including Rembrandt, use a loose brush technique and impasto that extol the physical process of painting. Bruegel’s works betray a sentiment that there is just as much virtue in the active life of the artisan as there is in contemplation of the aristocrat. Although trumpets and brass instruments have a more royal association in the Bible, they are performed by professionals and, as such, are of a lower class nature. The priests of David are described blowing their trumpets before the Ark of the Covenant.145 Obviously, this is not just a professional occupation. Nevertheless, over the centuries trumpets either are demoted to a professional standing or they become more of a religious symbol of forewarning. In the Middle Ages, several versions of the trumpet-type and wind instruments have the general title of “.”146 Since they serve as heraldic signals, trumpets acquire a religious attribute denoting the advent of Christ in both Nativity and Last Judgment scenes.147 The trumpet also symbolizes God’s wrathful presence at Mount Sinai and St. John’s apocalyptic vision.148 Perhaps this religious role help trumpeters in the Renaissance become the most privileged of the professional musicians.149 In short, the trumpet’s religious symbolism is much more complicated than its social nature.

145Chronicles 13:14.

146Ember, 16-17.

147For Nativity examples see Meiss, figures 570 and 572. For Last Judgment examples see Meiss, figure 565 and figures 17 and 18 below.

148Ember. Also, for an example of St. John’s vision see Meiss, 551.

149Mary Louise Johnson, Musical Banquet Scenes from Northern ca. 1450-1600. (Masters thesis, University of Minnesota, 1976), 36. 50

The recorder during the Renaissance is considered a soft flute—as apposed to the transverse flute, which at this time is a military fife-type instrument—and often holds an erotic connotation.150 In the mythological works of (1490-1576) Venus is shown holding a recorder.151 Indeed, the recorder serve as the Renaissance version of the pipes that construct following his lustful pursuit of Syrinx. This narrative by Ovid is well known in the Renaissance and show the recorder as a creation from a lustful motive.152

Instruments as Character and Moral Attributes

Modern scholars who examine music in northern Renaissance works tend to infer that musical instruments are predominantly negative symbols. Musical instruments, as mentioned earlier, are symbols of pleasure that more often irritated both Protestant and Catholic writers who tend to suspect anything evoking merely pleasure. In his 1530 fulmination against all musicians, the German philosopher Henry Cornelius Agrippa states, “The Kings of the Persians, and Medes reckoned Musicians among Parasites, the Players, as they which take pleasure of their own doings, and make little account of their Masters.”153 In his book on Renaissance music, Leeman Perkins admits the largely negative symbolism of instruments partly due to the secular nature of dancing with which instruments are more commonly associated.154 The works of art, however, portray a more polemical vision of the moral qualities associated with various musical instru- ments. Moreover, regarding the differences between “high” and “low” instrument types, Salmen states, “It was more than simple division between loud and soft instruments. The contrast,

150Polk, 41.

151See Winternitz, plate 10.

152Ovid, III, 51-53

153Treitler, 306.

154Perkins, 757-761. 51 framed by theologians as the imagined difference between the music of the angels and the music of the devil, was considered fundamental.”155 Trumpets are an exception since they appear more often in the hands of angels in both art and literature. Northern Renaissance works frequently include musical instruments that portray positive moral stances. Among the countless Madonna and Child paintings, many include musical angels. Geertgen’s famous Madonna of the Rosary shows the Virgin surrounded by angels playing all manner of musical instruments. Winternitz discusses this work at length and notes that the instruments are symbols of the cosmic forces that the Christ child, as the prime mover, sets in motion with his bells.156 The symbolism in this work, therefore, reflects a more abstract musica mundana theme that transcends the more common musica humana. However, Martin de Vos’s print contrasts the joys of heaven with the agonies of hell.157 This work shows instruments of torture in hell and musical instruments in heaven. Moreover, these instruments reflect a more realistic portrayal than the Madonna of the Rosary. Granted, de Vos also includes the gamut of instrument types. However, these instruments do not float in a circle around the godhead, but are performed in realistic consorts. De Vos depicts musical instruments as positive moral attributes that show the joys and pleasures that await the righteous in heaven. Although music since the Middle Ages is considered a Donum Dei or a gift of God, hell is often seen as a perverse counterpart to heaven. Artists, therefore, often exhibit an evil alternative to the instruments of heaven. Among the sounding numbers that constituted the world’s physical principle, was also a metaphysical principle in celestial music. The heavenly liturgy in Paradise became a high archetype for the earthly in the church’s humble service, where paradise was mirrored. Contrasting this super-earth music was the sub-earth, devil music principle. Satan directed Hell’s musical sounds. Everything he did was contrary and evil. Man is

155Salmen, 8.

156Winternitz, 142.

157See Martin de Vos, “Heaven and Hell” from the Four Last Things. Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings, vol. 46, p. 141 52

found on this earth between heaven and hell. She stood between evil and good, she existed at the intersection between these forces.158

Contrary to heaven, de Vos shows a complete lack of musical instruments in hell. De Vos’s hell shows that the punishments for a sinful life means both physical and psychological pain. Bosch’s Hell Panel of his Garden of Earthly delights depicts a much different hell than de Vos (fig. 7). Bosch’s hell is full of musical instrument that are less realistic than de Vos due to their immense size. In his book on northern Renaissance art, James Snyder notes that Bosch mixed musical instruments with instruments of torture.159 In effect, Bosch’s work functions as a warning that the instruments of pleasure will eventually turn to torture the users. The most notorious instrument that signifies moral decadence, and a regular instrument in banquet scenes, is the bagpipe. Indeed, it is used as a weapon in the great printing wars between Protestant and Catholic forces. The chiaroscuro woodcut called The Devil’s Bagpipe shows a demon performing on a bagpipe with the bag in the likeness of Martin Luther.160 A Protestant rebuttal print shows a similar demon bagpiper, now, however, performing for an ass-eared- pope.161 These images show a stark contrast to the works showing the harp-type instruments in the hands of David, Christ, and Orpheus. In Sebastian Brandt’s Ship of Fools, the bagpipe is the chosen instrument of fools.162 The accompanying woodcut by Albrecht Dürer depicts the fool

158Om de klingande talen i världen utgjorde en fysisk princip, fanns också en metafysisk princip i den himmelska musiken. . . . Den himmelska liturgin i Paradiset blev en hög förebild för den jordiska i kyrkans ödmjuka gudstjänst, där Paradiset speglades. Såson kontrast mot och polarisering av den överjordiska musiken fanns den underjordiska, djävulens musikaliska princip. Helvetets toner dirigerades av Satan. Allt han gjorde var tvärtom och ont. . . .Mellan himmel och helvete fanns mäniskan på denna jord. Hon stod mellan ont och gott, befann sig i skärningspunkten mellan dessa krafter. Helenius-Öberg, 1-2.

159Snyder, 216.

160See the copy of Erhard Schön?, The Devil’s Bagpipe given in Hollstein German Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings, (Amsterdam: Van Gehnt, 1954), vol. 47, p. 119.

161See the copy Wolfgang Meyerpeck, Caricature of the Papacy given in Hollstein German Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings, vol. 28, p. 90.

162See the copy of Abrecht Dürer, Fool with a Bagpipe given in The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer, (New York: Dover, 1963), 55. 53 playing a bagpipe while disregarding instruments of a higher moral nature. The text that accompanied this print reads: If bagpipes you enjoy and prize And harps and lutes you would despise, You ride a fool’s sled, are unwise. Bagpipes are dunces’ instrument, For harps they have no natural bent, And naught gives fools a greater joy Than wand and pipe, their favorite toy. . . . A fool will pipe but reck no morrow.163

Another passage of Ship of Fools includes a print that shows the Fool trading a mule for a bagpipe.164 The text reads: Whoe’er for bagpipes trades his mule, Will not enjoy his trade, the fool, He’ll walk when riding’s been his rule Who gives up heaven for trumpery, A fool is he whoe’er he be He never will enjoy his trades Who gives what’s deathless, takes what fades. To say it in a word, he has Secured a bagpipe for and ass.165

Since Ship of Fools is a popular publication during the Renaissance, we may assume that the bagpipe as a degraded symbol becomes ubiquitous. Other prints show similar bagpipers in fools' clothing.166 Schön’s woodcut shows Folly distributing fools' caps while a fool playing a bagpipe accompanies her. In a Bruegel drawing, Lust, a bagpiper leads a throng of the lustful in a line behind him. The choice of a bagpipe for the fool’s instrument appears less clear than its choice

163Sebastian Brant, The Ship of Fools, translated by Edwin H Zeydel. (New York: Dover, 1944), 186.

164See the copy given in Brant, 291.

165Brant, 291-92.

166See the copy of Erhard Schön Distributions of Fool’s Caps given in David Landau and Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print 1470–1550, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 230-231. 54

as a symbol of lust. One possible reason resides in its capacity to store air, which reflects a foolish trait of a loud windbag. This seems to be the trait of the bagpipe in Ship of Fools. Brant’s text and the accompanying woodcuts contrast the bagpipe as a loud instrument with the harp and lute as soft instruments. These attributes also reflect the moral attributes of human behavior. The windbag reflects a voluble characteristic—due to its ability to supply an indefinite air stream to the chanter—while the chanter (basically a double reed instrument like a shawm) reflects a loud trait. Trading a mule for a bagpipe equals taking on these negative characteristics for common sense practicality. In Chaucer’s Tales, the miller plays a bagpipe in order to alert nearby towns of the pilgrims’ arrival and the possible blessings from lodging a spiritually superior group of people.167 One of the miller’s characteristics is rudely chattering, and at one point he interrupts the company in a loud manner “like Pilate” in order to tell his own story before another could be chosen.168 His story, moreover, is the most scatological of the pilgrims. The miller’s bagpipe provides a symbolic extension of his loud and uncouth manner. Although the weight of evidence regarding the bagpipe suggests a categorical symbol of evil, there remain significant elements that make the bagpipe’s symbolism more ambiguous. The popularity of the fool during the Renaissance reflects Erasmus’s more ironic Praise of Folly than the straightforward didactic Ship of Fools. Indeed, Erasmus's Praise of Folly targets pride more than folly. In Erasmus's oration, Folly, a personified goddess, exposes the foolishness of kings, popes, and Stoics whose pride blinds them from their true foolish selves. Erasmus’s Folly notes that foolishness and even stupidity are blinding agents of one’s true nature promoting the illusion of greatness, which help men rise up through social ranks of power and wealth.169 In addition Martin Luther notes in his Heidelberg Disputation that God loves “sinners, evil persons, fools, and weaklings.”170 Indeed, it is this level of ambiguity that makes the possible symbol of

167Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. (New York: Norton, 1989), 16-17.

168Chaucer, 76.

169Erasmus, Praise of Folly, translated by Betty Radice. (New York: Penguin, 1971), 96- 97 and 184.

170Timothy F. Lull, ed. Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989), 48. 55

Bruegel’s bagpipes difficult to understand. Some scholars rest on its morally corrupt symbols, while others appear less hasty with their analyses, noting the natural attributes such as humility. The bagpipe, however, is not just a symbol of folly. Numerous scholars claim that artists use the shape of the bagpipe, especially Bosch, to imitate the male sex organ.171 In the Hell Panel scholars note its suggestive shape and color to embody the sins of lust. And several scholars argue that the bagpiper’s extended codpiece in the Detroit Peasant Dance shows the oversexed nature of the peasants.172 The bagpipe reflects also gluttony and greed, which sometimes appear in allegorical works. John Planer’s detailed study of the bagpipe centers on the works of Hieronymus Bosch. He notes that aside from the trumpet, the bagpipe occurs most frequently in the works of Bosch and his followers.173 Planer uses the symbolic evidence to support Bosch's lack of involvement in witchcraft, drugs, or the heretical group called the Adamites.174 While Planer provides more general evidence regarding the bagpipe stigma (including the quotes from Brant's text), the most compelling sources focus on Bosch. For example, he considers the association of the bagpipers to an equally negative association to Judaism because a few of the bagpipers in Bosch's works wear recognizable Jewish emblems.175 The Jewish emblems, therefore, may have signified the stigma of apostasy that extend to the bagpipe. Yet Planer's almost blanket statement that bagpipes, with rare exceptions, signify moral failings overlooks some important aspects of the instrument's ties with nature. Further discussion in Chapter Four reveals that the bagpipe's symbol does not always function as a stigma even among Bosch's followers like Bruegel.

171See John H Planer, “Damned Music: The Symbolism of the Bagpipes in the Art of Hieronymus Bosch and his Followers.” In Music form the Middle Ages through the Twentieth Century: Essays in Honor of Gwynn McPeek. Edited by Carmelo P. Comberiati and Matthew C. Steel, (New York: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1988), 343, for a survey of the critics who have noted the sexual symbolism.

172Planer.

173Planer.

174Planer, 353.

175Planer, 352. 56

Furthermore, although Bosch may not have been a witch or an astrologist, he is certainly not a typical artist. Planer even states regarding Bosch's fantastic style, "his art reveals less about the construction of instruments and performance practices than it does about instrumental symbol- ism.”176 Therefore, Planer's statements that the bagpipe is a negative symbol because of its "harsh" sound lacks foundation in Boschian symbolism.177 Indeed, since there are many differing instrument types in Bosch's Hell Panel, instrumental timbre has little to do with its symbolism in Bosch's works. The enigmatic symbolism of the bagpipe warrants a deeper investigation into iconogra- phy. Panofsky states: "Iconographical analysis, dealing with images, stories, and, instead of with motifs, presupposes, of course, much more than that familiarity with objects and events which we acquire by practical experience. It presupposes a familiarity with specific themes or concepts as transmitted through literary sources."178 The iconographical meaning of the bagpipe, and other instruments, relies on the literary and historical contexts. The context of the bagpipe in literary narratives, moreover, is not always negative. The shepherds in Nativity scenes occasionally include a bagpipe. Since the shepherds are visited by an angel in the opening chapters of Luke and given privileged information concerning the redemption of man, the bagpipe, in this context, does not symbolize lust, folly, or gluttony. Even Bosch's Adoration Triptych includes a shepherd with a bagpipe; the bagpipe may not celebrate the humility of the shepherds, but it does not castigate them either. Winternitz notes its frequent appearance in the hands of unbiased angels.179 Apollo's execution of the piper, Marsyas, is mourned by the wood that enjoyed his music. While Apollo's punishment of Marsyas may tempt one to stress the negative aspects of the bagpipe symbol, the myth also reflect the struggle of pristine nature against oppressive forces personified by Apollo and Athena. Winternitz lists the pastoral literary

176Planer, 337.

177Planer, 353.

178Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in Art. (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), 11.

179Winternitz, 72. 57 works becoming more popular during the sixteenth century that enhance the more positive elements of the bagpipe.180 In Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel, Panurge claims, "For I swear to you that I like better the merry little disheveled shepherdesses, whose tail smells of thyme, than the ladies of the great courts with their rich attire and their perfumes redolent of maujoint. I like the sound of the rustic bagpipe better than the quavers of the courtly lutes, , and .”181 Panurge reflects the common desire shared among northern humanists, including Erasmus, for political and religious reform. also shares a similar theme of simplicity in “I care not for these ladies.”182 In this context, the bagpipe represents a return to a more simple lifestyle void of growing bureaucracy, corruption, cities, and courts. Planer, moreover, notes Bosch's possible bias against all musical instruments. "His membership in the Lieve Vrouwe Broederschop at s'Hertogenborsch was not a cover for witchcraft or astrology. The records of the confraternity, published by Dr. Smijers, indicate that the brother- hood commissioned and performed only choral and organ music."183 Although Bosch’s works appear to attack musical instruments in general, Bosch uses musical imagery as symbols of human nature. Bosch does (although rarely) give musical instruments positive symbols. As most artists do, Bosch depends on the context for the symbol’s quality. Snyder calls Bosch's Hell Panel an "urban ghetto."184 In this context, the bagpipe's negative symbol fuels the lust of the civilized world at the eve of the Last Judgment.185 However, the bagpipe placed in a sylvan context has more of a connection to nature, humility, and innocence.

180Winternitz, 79.

181Rabelais, 395.

182See the copy of Thomas Campion’s “I care not for these ladies” given in Muriel Eldridge, Thomas Campion: His and Music 1567–1620, (New York: Vintage, 1971), 92- 3.

183Planer, 353.

184Snyder, 215.

185Snyder. 58

Moreover, the bagpipe is one among many instruments that symbolize lust. Winternitz’s claims that the history of woodwinds in general has an erotic connection. Such symbolism is based on their suggestive shapes, often on their intoxicating sounds, and frequently on both. From defloration and initiation flutes, taboo to women in the so-called primitive civilizations, up to the intoxicating, reedy saxophone of our days (or nights), there runs an unbroken tradition of magic, religious, or poetic notions, all crediting certain wind instruments with sexual connotations and regarding them as symbols of fertility, birth, and rebirth.186

Winternitz further notes that the use of the bagpipe in Apollo and Marsyas works, popular during the Renaissance, are rare.187 Moreover, Winternitz also goes into great detail concerning the moral aspects of the bagpipe. His statement about the bagpipe being “an eccentric member of the woodwind family” may seem self-evident.188 However, the bagpipe’s eccentric nature may have also appealed to musicians and artist even at the cost of social and moral condemnation. For example, among the various bagpipes that Winternitz examines is the Bock that has goat fur on the bag and a goat’s head on top of the chanter.189 Winternitz states, “the old cloven-footed Pan, or as we might call him now, Satan, must have enjoyed this development. As the devil smelled of goat, so the bagpipe now smelled of the devil.”190 One might wonder why would an instrument maker go out of the way to make an already morally suspect instrument more culpable, especially at the height of the “great” witch trials? The Bock example that Winternitz provides also has a set of bellows that evidently is added to the bagpipe during the second half of the sixteenth century.191 The bellows further link the Bock to hell where demons are shown blowing the flames, such as the famous Hell scene

186Winternitz, 48.

187Winternitz, 154.

188Winternitz, 67.

189Winternitz, plate 25b.

190Winternitz, 76.

191Winternitz, 78-79. 59

in the Tres Riches Heures.192 While we may imagine that this bagpipe is a unique exception that few dare bring out in public, Winternitz claims that it is performed at peasant dances.193 He further adds, “We recollect the even coarser dance of Walpurgis Night, when witches rode on goats to the Blocksberg to hold revels with the Prince of Hell in the guise of a gigantic goat. . . . The Bock had a sturdy life. Even in Viennese prints of Mozart’s time we find street musicians with this instrument.”194 The Bock leads one to assume that the bagpipe is enjoyed as a liberating instrument that allows the audience and performers an unbridled alternative to the quieter civilized instruments of the court and church. Moreover, the Bock as an instrument of the devil and rebellion provide fuel for Sunday clerical fulminations. Other woodwinds, such as flutes and reed instruments, tend to evoke a more ostensible negative moral quality as well. Shawms are often played at kermises accompanying animalistic behavior—vomiting, lovemaking, and violence. In Bosch’s Hell Panel of the Garden of Earthly Delights a flute or recorder is shown half-way up the rectum of a sinner, which, more than the bagpipe, suggests a negative sexual homoerotic symbol. In discussing the flutes in Titian’s Bacchanal, Winternitz states, “There can hardly be any doubt that these flutes symbolize an utter abandonment to the senses.”195 Nevertheless, Winternitz considers Titian’s musical symbolism to represent the antithesis of Bosch’s instruments. Winternitz states that flutes reflect “the golden glow of nostalgia for an Arcady far back in antiquity.”196 The longing for the classical past evokes the ancient bias against wind instruments. Winternitz, again, includes a thorough and effective analysis of the musical competition myths between Apollo, Pan and Marsyas.197 Although these myths place the woodwinds among the instruments of Dionysus and his Dithyrambs, these myths are ambiguous at best regarding the woodwinds moral character. He

192See Meiss, figure 581.

193Winternitz, 76.

194Winternitz, 77-78.

195Winternitz, 51-52.

196Winternitz, 52.

197Winternitz, 150-165. 60

concludes his study by stating that although Marsyas is flayed alive, Marsyas’s music “never dies.”198 Like the ancient Greeks, the Renaissance Europeans largely consider these instruments to evoke the passions occasionally bringing woodwinds, other instruments, and notation to the “bonfire of the vanities.”199 Although the harp often evokes a high level of morality to the figures it accompanies, several works use it in the context of lust. In Bruegel’s Mad Meg a harp hangs over a table with feasting demons (fig 8). A large black spider sits in the strings of this harp, which gives them a cobweb function. This idea of a cobweb-harp is taken by Bosch’s drawing for the print called The Blue Ship (fig 9). In these works, the harp resembles a trap that the lustful could trip into. A passage in Isaiah that quotes a song supports this notion of harp music ensnaring the wicked: “Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten prostitute! Make sweet melody, sing many , that you may be remembered”200 Moreover, Thomas Aquinas believes the harp to be dangerous because its only goal is to create pleasure.201 Nevertheless, these few exceptions are eclipsed almost fully by the preponderance of images that include the harp in morally edifying contexts. In allegorical works it symbolizes spiritual joy. Its connection to antiquity would have also appealed to the growing interest in ancient themes among Renaissance writers and translators. Other stringed instruments, however, do not play equally positive roles. The viol evokes moral attributes that are divided more evenly among positive and negative qualities. One negative example appears in a Protestant print that depicts the destruc- tion of corrupt popes and Turks.202 Two demons exult in their destruction with a viol and lute. Since the viol and viol consort gave a high level of pride and enjoyment to Italian secular audience, northern works such as this one used it as an instrument that reflects the luxurious

198Winternitz, 162.

199Perkins, 422.

200The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Isaiah: 23:16.

201Beck, 80.

202See the copy of Matthias Gerung, Allegory on the Downfall of Catholics and Turks given in Hollstein German Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings. vol. 10, p. 52 61 corruption of the Catholic Italian courts. Yet before one dismisses the viol and viol consort as a negative theme in northern Europe, one should note that it is included in elevated circumstances such as the English memorial painting for Uxton. In this context the viol consort functions as a metaphor for domestic . Antonfracesco Doni calls the viols of San Guido della Porta miraculous to hear.203 In general the viols retain the high moral character that accompanies the gods. Winternitz makes an interesting point concerning the lira da braccio. The fact that it is a bowed instrument rather than a plucked instrument is a non-issue because “at the time the invention of the bow was attributed to Sappho; and did not statues and relief’s of Apollo and the Muses show them using large plectra—something, one might think, like bows?”204 Although the lute is often associated with the Virgin’s purity, in other contexts it suggests sexual connotations. In his book, Peasants, Warriors, and Wives, Keith Moxey discusses a print by Huys. The print depicts a man tuning a peasant woman’s lute. She is followed by other women. Regarding the image of the lute in this print Moxey states, "The print depends for its meaning on the sexual symbolism of the lute in the sixteenth century. It was used in literature, drama, and song to refer to a woman’s sex. The print thus represents a sexual allegory in which several women approach a man for his sexual services."205 Part of the reason for the lute’s sexual attribute is found in its pear shape. Pears are often used as an erotic symbol perhaps alluding to the , but most likely because of their suggestive shape.206 Although trumpets became the most respected professional instrument, some authors castigated trumpeters as morally flawed. "And Antisthenes . . .when he heard, that a certain man, called Ismenias, was a very good Trumpeter, he said, He is a ribald, for if he were an

203Treitler, 334.

204Winternitz, 44.

205Keith Moxey, Peasants, Warriors and Wives. Popular Imagery in the Reformation. (Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 50.

206Roberta Smith Flavis, “The Garden of Love in Fifteenth Century Netherlandish and German Engravings: Some Studies in Secular Iconography in the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance. Ph.D. dissertation, (University of Pennsylvania, 1974), 110. 62 honest man, he would not be a Trumpeter.”207 The loud nature of the trumpet creats a target for noisy attributes similar to the bagpipe. Even in the Bible where trumpets function as signals of divine wrath, warning, or advent, we see boastful pageantry equated with the instrument. “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from you Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.”208 However, the trumpet more often stands for a positive moral that signifies royalty and respect. The trumpet accompanied royalty and functioned as a herald in a similar way that the trumpet is shown in art as a herald for the Judgment Day.

Instruments as Symbol vs Instruments as Reality

Despite the moral qualities that musical instruments represent in art, the evidence for their physical social acceptance in northern cultures is notable. Virdung’s treatise states: “I believe, moreover, that in the past hundred years, all instruments have been made so refined, so beautiful, so excellent, and so well-formed, that neither Orpheus, nor Linus, nor Pan, nor Apollo, nor any of the poets [of antiquity] would have seen or heard [the likes], and [if they had,] could have thought that improvement is possible in [their] construction or invention.”209 Virdung’s statement reflects a bold assumption considering that ancient instruments heal king Saul, force

207Treitler, 306.

208Matthew 6:1-2.

209Beth Alice Beahr Bullard, “Musical instruments in Early Sixteenth-Century: A Translation and Historical Study of Sebastian Virdung’s ‘Musica Getutscht’ (Basel, 1511).” Ph.D. Diss., (University of Pennsylvania, 1987), 34. 63

Alexander the Great to arms,210 and move large stones.211 Although Virdung mentions mytho- logical figures we can assume that his treatise addresses real musicians and instruments. Virdung’s statement, therefore, reveals an inconsistency between musical instruments as symbols of moral decadence or decency and physical objects of mass appeal. This inconsistency is especially noticeable in his statement concerning the shape of the psaltery. Virdung writes, “But it is not strange that you show that psaltery of Jerome as a square. For the shape of an instrument does not matter much; rather, only the stringing and tuning.”212 Virdung’s practical- ity seems to contradict the religious sources that attribute David’s healing power to the instru- ment’s shape rather than its music. The admiration that Virdung expresses regarding the latest musical instruments is shared by other sources. Lowinsky states, The account books of the city of Antwerp show that the city employed regularly five town musicians, all instrumentalists. From inventories of the first half of the sixteenth century we can see that the town musicians had to be experts on a great many instru- ments. According to an inventory drawn up in 1531 the town owned 28 flutes, 19 , three trumpets, a field trumpet, a tenor fife, one alto and one tenor shawm. In 1548 payments were made for repairing the city’s viols. Since the Flemish book- keepers were animated by the same love of detail for which the Flemish painters are justly famous we know the function of the town musicians very well. They appeared at all receptions of dignitaries; they played at the colorful of the city; on the evenings of holidays they played on the tower of the cathedral; they were indispensable at all official banquets. In 1483 the custom was introduced for the town musicians to perform evening music daily in the town hall, most likely from the tower. Besides, on holidays they joined the singers in the cathedral in the performance of solemn musical services and their names appear constantly in the account books of the Congregation of Our Lady at the cathedral in Antwerp. . . .Archives, chronicles, and paintings from all over Europe demonstrate that the town musicians were a universal social institution rooted in the Middle Ages but mainly developed in the Renaissance.213

Lowinsky’s statement shows that musical instruments satisfy a social need. While Bosch use musical instruments as instruments of torture, the seemingly contrasting real versions are

210Trietler, 298.

211Treitler, 297.

212Bullard, 29.

213Lowinsky, 518-19. 64

considered important for regular events. Since musical instruments and musicians are a ubiquitous element of Renaissance life, it may not surprise us that they have an equally ubiqui- tous frequency in art. Nevertheless, the difference between the instruments’ negative symbolism in art, and the instruments’ real function in society reflects a notable conflict between the need for music against the scorn felt towards the musician. The class and moral markers among musical instruments as reflections of human and social characteristics have a strong historical basis. From the thirteenth century until the mid sixteenth century, musicians—especially itinerant musicians—struggle to avoid persecution as the devil’s servants. Salman states, “Traveling musicians, without legal rights and considered dishonorable, were treated as murderers, highway robbers and other antisocial types.”214 Yet the traveling musician is often forced to move from place to place by his or her patrons. “This mobility increased the musicians’ sphere of influence . . .The nobles often treated the musician the way one would a song bird, which might be traded from court to court, from one district to another, according to some whim.”215 The differences between the itinerant musicians and town musician also fueled tensions among clerics and townspeople. However, even the town musicians are treated poorly. Salmen provides an example: “As late as 1540, even the resident piper of Nördlingen wore the colors of the bailiff as an identifying stigma. It was thus necessary to have the personal protection of a powerful patron if one wished to survive as a musician in the Middle Ages.”216 Part of this scornful feeling towards musicians results from the product, or to be more precise, lack of a tangible product that is considered produced by their art. Salmen continues: “The citizen who considered work valuable and meaningful if it had a concrete purpose and produced something tangible often made use of the otherwise disdained musician. Records reveal that musicians were often used as messengers and even as spies during wars.”217

214Salmen, 22.

215Salmen.

216Salmen, 25.

217Salmen, 24. 65

He lists the other responsibilities that include teachers, chamber servants, and even doctors.218 The evidence, then, supports a real fear that is felt towards musicians. Musical instruments are not just symbols of the seven deadly sins; their representations extend to a distrust of their performers. There is even a historical premise for non-Christian musicians that Bosch occasion- ally includes in his works. Salmen notes that “the musician’s nationality or religious belief played only a minor role.”219 Thus Bosch’s Jewish bagpipers and Turkish half moons have a basis in reality. Such a composite of religious, class, and geographical backgrounds apparently instil fear and disgust in some of the northern communities that anxiously avoid anything foreign.220 Such trepidation is deeply felt amid the instrumentalists who already have the exhausting task of entertaining vastly different audiences.221 The instrumental stratification between "high" and "low," moreover, includes more subtle layers that appear to have been a result of this prejudice.222 Several elements contribute to this internal hierarchy. The most obvious and damning label is whether or not the musician was itinerant.223 Other elements are pedigree, education, possessions, employer’s status, and talent.224 The trumpeters enjoy the highest level of importance partly because they accompany the nobleman and functioned as a heralds; but also their instruments appear in the visual arts more frequently in the hands of the angels.225 Salmen provides a compelling example that supports the trumpet's higher placement amidst the professional instruments. A lost tapestry (dated 1548) depicts a comparison between Christ's court in heaven in the top half and a temporal court banquet in the lower half. Both

218Salmen, 25.

219Salmen, 8.

220Schama, 171.

221Salmen, 7.

222Salmen, 8.

223Salmen, 8.

224Salmen, 8.

225Salmen, 8. 66

courts contain trumpeters; the heavenly court includes trumpet-playing angels while the lower court includes professional trumpeters.226 Nevertheless, images that show trumpeters performing for court dances may stress negative aspects regarding the patron. Works depicting Herod's court also include trumpeters; however, these trumpeters now take on a sinister aspect. In addition, the trumpeters are still servile components of the court. Visual clues inform the viewer that the trumpeters are servants. Indeed, Salmen includes a banquet scene that conspicuously shows the minstrels much smaller than the court members and very much a part of the other servants.227 Therefore, while trumpeters have a closer association to the nobility, they are still professional servants; their closer association morally extends as high or low as the nobleman's reputation. The musical imagery in northern Renaissance banquet works discussed thus far represents a rich and varied catalog of symbols. Music and the banquet share an intimate association. Listening to music is considered a form of spiritual consumption. The type of music, just like the type of food, one consumed effects the body and soul of the individual. Music at the table elevates the meal to a more civilized activity and made the guest privy to a higher form of pleasure and sensory erudition. However, the musical meal does not always evoke positive connotations. The various and differing views of musical imagery are seen in Bruegel’s Battle of Carnival and Lent. Two extremes of musical expression appear in the mock battle scene. The Carnival side includes instruments as approaching mere noise makers while the Lent side abandons musical instruments all together. Bruegel, therefore, exhibits a need for moderation in life’s activities. Musical instruments in the early fifteenth century primarily maintain an ecclesiastic association signifying heavenly bliss and paradisiacal glory. The Paradise Garden provides a salient example of divine music in paradise. Christ playing the psaltery in a walled garden symbolizes the good Christian soul protecting the innocence and virtue that the boy Jesus exemplifies. The psaltery supports the devotional nature of the work, reminding the viewer of the necessity of daily worship, which includes psalm singing and

226Salmen, plate 3.

227Salmen, plate 1. 67

prayers. The Christian paradise, shown in the Garden of Love, is a paradise of moderation; and the psaltery supports the notion of moderation in its association of balance and temperaments. Paradise is also expressed in Rest on the Flight into Egypt works. Cranach and Altdorfer exhibit a need for pleasure and leisure even in the most desperate times. The recorder in Cranach’s work symbolizes the humility and unpretentious nature of the holy family. Musical imagery often takes a sinister path in the works of early sixteenth-century artists such as Bosch and his followers. Bosch’s Hell Panel of Garden of Earthly Delights includes a vast array of musical instruments. Bosch’s musical instruments are often used at banquets; indeed Bosch’s Hell Panel may be considered a demonic banquet scene. The symbolic association of musical instruments frequently shown in banquet scenes represents many social and moral levels. The bagpipe occupies the lowest moral and social level, while the trumpet enjoys the highest. The social and moral levels of musical symbolism is fluid and far from absolute. Bruegel’s peasant bagpipes have a much different symbolic value than Bosch’s giant bagpipes. And even Bosch shows trumpets blown by sinners, demons, and angels in his Vienna Last Judgment. CHAPTER 2

MUSIC IN BATHING, MYTHOLOGICAL, PHANTASMAGORICAL, AND ALLEGORICAL SCENES CONTAINING BANQUETS

Introduction: Music and the Symbolic Banquet

While chapter one explores the various meanings behind the Renaissance banquet scene, numerous works bring the associative properties of the meal to a higher level of symbolism. Works that scholars or artists consider allegorical or mythological, for example, tend to raise the images to the higher realm of abstract ideas. Scenes that show the fountain of youth, the banquet of the gods, or the personification of an emotion occasionally include images of food consumption. Since artists usually intended these scenes to point to something other than what the surface displays, interpretations remain limited to ideals rather than actuality. Granted, mythological notions connotes a scientific reality for much of Renaissance Europe. Even so, the symbolic imagery exhibited in mythological and other similar scenes reflects an intentional characteristic that other scenes often lack. The regularity with which images of music occupy the more symbolic banquet scenes bolsters the association that music and food share. Music as a real yet intangible force offers an effective symbolic tool in the image of the musical instrument and its use. Allegorical scenes, for example, regularly include a personified figure performing on or holding a musical instrument. Mythological scenes that show the influences of Venus frequently use lutes or other soft instruments in order to show the goddess’s influence on youthful couples. Since feasting shares the pictorial space in many Venus scenes, couples not only consume physical

68 69

nourishment, but also invoke the goddess’s “food of love.” Other scenes within these more symbolic areas use music for similar purposes. The function of music within symbolic banquet scenes or scenes that show food consumption in a symbolic context provide an attributive agent that connect the feast to a more abstract ideal. This chapter examines the symbolic theme of music within feasting scenes. Bathing and fountain of youth scenes will also be included because they often offer a similar high level of symbolic detail. Closely related to the fountain of youth scenes are mythological scenes by virtue of a fabled narrative. The phantasmagoric works of Bosch mix feasting with music on a symbolic level. Allegorical works tend to use some level of personification. While these scene types may seem self evident, some works such as Bruegel’s Triumph of Death and Dürer’s Mens’ Bath defy any categorization. Yet they exhibit enough significant similarities to the scene types under discussion to warrant inclusion.

Fountain of Youth and Bathing Scenes

Banquet scenes that depict young loving courtly couples frequently include a fountain or they may show scenes of group bathing. Lucas Cranach’s Fountain of Youth displays a large bathing scene in the center with a banquet in the upper right corner (fig. 10). Above the fountain scene are minstrels—one playing a pipe and another a tabor— accompanying couples absconding to the bushes. Horses and wheelbarrows bring elderly figures who bathe and are miraculously made younger on the right side of the work. The musical activity appears to accompany the youthful figures. Castiglione mentions that music as a prelude to love should be restricted to the youth. “For it goes without saying that sports such as jousting are for the young and of no use to the old, and that at that time of life music, dancing, merrymaking, games and love affairs are simply ridiculous.”1 Nevertheless, he admits later that the elderly may enjoy

1Castiglione, 318. 70

music on a more contemplative level.2 Cranach displays this contrast between the old sedentary figures with the more lively youthful figures. The love-making aspects of this work reflect a systematic conquest. As the lovers move from the banquet table, the women show signs of resistence; but once they emerge from the bushes, they show signs of a happy union. The fife and as military instruments, therefore, serve as metaphors of the conquest of love. Cranach’s ostensible lack of a didactic theme is remarkable. Cranach, and other northern painters tend to hold on to the medieval negative portrayal of nudity. Medieval and northern Renaissance art often place nudity within a negative context, such as ’s expulsion from Eden or the damned being escorted to hell by demons. Nudity in such contexts heightens the ashamed state of the guilty. In the case of scenes showing Eve tempting Adam with the forbidden fruit, with the head of Holofernes, or Venus, the northern artist frequently stress the dangers of sexual promiscuity. In this work, however, Cranach emphasizes the functional necessity of bathing in order to become young again. Once the youthful transformation is complete the figure move to a dressing tent to the extreme right and emerge clothed with more fashionable vestments. According to Cranach’s painting, youthful activities, then, include feasting, love-making, fashionable dressing, and leisurely garden strolls. Yet one cannot simply dismiss Cranach’s Fountain of Youth as a simple scene of loving couples. Cranach is closely associated with Luther, and, therefore, a religious theme appears close to the surface theme. In this case, water serves as a symbol of baptism and Christian rebirth. The symbolism remains coherent with the banquet scene and the love-making. Just as the fountain of youth serves as a means to age reduction and increased vigor, so baptism functions as a gate to the eternal paradisiacal glory and a restoration of the joy that Adam and Even lost. The topography also supports a return to paradise. The left includes rugged mountainous rocks while the right side shows nature more subdued. The musical activity enhances the ordered aspects of a garden scene. Granted, the theme is not as obvious as the Paradise Garden, but the minstrels give the right half a more civilized quality that contrasts with the left half’s unrefined look. Perhaps the strongest case for a moral theme comes from the Golden Legend that equates the name of Jesus to food and a fountain, symbols of nourishment and rebirth.

2Castilgione, 320. 71

“According to Bernard, this name [Jesus] suggests food, a fountain, a remedy, and a light. This food has a multiple effect: it enlivens, it fattens, it strengthens, and it invigorates. . . . The holy name is also a fountain, and the same Bernard says: ‘Jesus is a sealed fountain of life. . . .”3 Cranach, however, touches on the theme of bathing that is considered highly erotic. “Baths encouraged eroticism, and it is not surprising to discover that public baths and steam rooms were regulated and closely watched. Going to the public baths seems to have been a risky business, and steam closets were often installed in private homes by jealous husbands.”4 Régnier-Bohler further notes in a large series devoted to “private history” that the bath is a symbol of comfort and closely associated with eating.5 Although Cranach’s simple longing for eternal youth is evident in the painting, it points to the reality of feasting, bathing, and listening to music. The fountain of youth theme also appears in a famous print by Sebald Beham.6 Although the bulk of the scene comprises the fountain and partying, the lower right shows an elderly man and woman being carried to the fountain on a stretcher. Inside and on top of the loggia men and women eat, drink, and make love to musical instruments. Aside the first pillar, a figure plays a rebec, while another figure surmounting the loggia plays a recorder. Sebald’s ability to include many figures results from the rather large size of the print. Sources show that larger prints are often used for decorative wall paper.7 Moreover, Landau and Parshall state in their book devoted to Renaissance prints that “Erotic indulgence was particularly common in large-scale woodcuts, a feature that anticipates an aspect of taste more commonly associated with paintings and

3Voragine, vol. 1, 73.

4Danielle Régnier-Bohler, “Imagining the Self,” in A History of Private Life. Vol. 2 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1985), 365.

5Régnier-Bohler, 366.

6See copy of Sebald Beham, Fountain of Youth given in David Landau and Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print 1470–1550, p. 233.

7David Landau and Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print 1470–1550, 233.. 72 small sculptures or with Dutch and Italian genre subjects in the following century.”8 The recorder and rebec are considered soft instruments appropriate for the private chamber. In addition, Dürer’s woodcut, discussed below, also includes a rebec and recorder. Although Sebald’s scene resembles a public bath house more than a private chamber, the erotic content, especially seen with the love-making figures in the back of the loggia lends itself to delicate instruments that would support the tender trysts. The image of a fountain has appeared in various works including Altdorfer’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt and the Garden of Paradise. Although the sacred nature of the fountain recalls the rituals of baptism and anointing, the secular counterpart warrants further discussion. Even though the Paradise Panel in Bosch’s triptych includes a fountain, fountains also appear in the center panel where groups of nude figures are seen bathing. Moreover, lakes and fountains are in many garden-of-love type scenes. As symbols of both life and youth, fountains ally themselves with musical instruments in a visual evocation of love. Often courtly youths are seen around a pool of water by a fountain.9 Vermeyen shows youths dressed in fashionable clothing feasting and accompanied by a man performing a viola da braccio. Most of the figures stare into the well for what appears to be their own reflections. The engraving portrays an element of tasteful vanity. The figures are not ostensibly approaching the well for self admiration. Nevertheless, Vermeyen draws on the myth of Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection as punishment for spurning Echo. The musician appears to be the only noticeable participant interested in the reflected image. His curious manner of holding the instrument is midway between playing a lute-like and simply holding the instrument. His interest is clearly not in music but rather with the reflected image of the company. The image suggests that the musician belongs to a lower professional class, and is more interested in his association with nobility than his professional estate. Understandably, the musician’s social status is in speculation; nevertheless Vermeyen depicts with this print the willingness of courtiers to see themselves in an unrealistic manner that resembles earlier preoccupations with chivalry.

8David Landau and Peter Parshall, 233.

9See copy of , Courtly Company at a Well given in Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings 1450–1700, vol. 36, p. 119. 73

Huizinga notes that this preoccupation includes music and extends to other social classes. “The charm of the noble life form is so great that even burghers succumb to it wherever they can. . . .Philipp van Artevelde lived in princely splendor, every day he had musicians perform in front of his lodging, every meal he had served on silver dishes as if he were the count of Flanders.”10 The use of fountains and musicians, therefore, evokes a courtly ambiance with members who are youthful, sensitive, modest, and exclusive. In addition, the feasting images that occasionally appear in the fountain scenes underscore the union, pleasure, and leisure that court members desire to achieve. Dürer’s famous Mens’ Bath supports the assumption that intimate activities and scenes called for delicate instruments (fig. 11). One notices a striking contrast in quality between Dürer and the previous bathing prints. While Renaissance prints often compromise artistry for swift publications for an eager mass audience, Dürer, elevates the medium to the level of fine art.11 Dürer puts such painstaking detail and pays close attention to artistry that he must have expected his prints to be collected as works on a par with the finest painting.12 Two of the men in the bath play soft musical instruments; one plays a recorder while the other plays a rebec. As mentioned above with Sebald’s woodcut, both instruments have a lower dynamic range than the bagpipes, shawms, and trombones. These soft instruments do not draw attention to the private nature—further supported by the fence behind the figures—of the bathing scene and nude men. Food consumption is also a part of the bathing scene with the more corpulent man on the left drinking from a large tankard. The muscular figures reflect the influence of Italian artists such as Michelangelo that Dürer may have seen when he was in Italy. Dürer’s woodcut, however, contains a deeper significance. The print reflects the tradition of personifying the five senses: the man behind the fence looking at the bathers represents sight; the man drinking represents taste; the musicians and the man at the well

10Huizinga, 104.

11Landau and Parshal, 172.

12Landau and Parshal. 74 directing his ear towards the music represent hearing; the man at the wall holding the flower represents smell; the man at the wall holding what resembles a hard brush represents touch.13 Dürer’s print serves as a public warning against promiscuous sex in the wake of a syphilis epidemic that broke in 1494, a year before the print’s date.14 In a thoroughly detailed analysis of the woodcut, Harald von Kümmerling states that these sense representations are deliberate perversions of the ideal: The men are robbed of their senses: the man with the body brush has no more sense of touch, the man in the background is blind in one eye, the drinker cannot swallow so the liquid accumulates over the throat (his neck is knotted), the hearing figure arranges his left ear forwards, because he is hard of hearing and does not hear the music in his proximity, the man with the carnation has a plug in his left nostril, because in those days it was used in the healing arts when treating a nose inflamation.15

Since a Kardätsche is a rough brush used for horses, the man using it for his body reflects the severe itching that results from syphilis.16 Kümmerling finds other sexual symbols. The most obvious one is the penis shape of the tap that is in line with the hearing man’s crotch.17 Also the vegetable outside of the basin wall is a metaphor for the male organ.18 Kümmerling claims that Dürer evokes the Whore of Babylon described in Revelations.19 “So he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous

13Harald von Kümmerling, “Das Männerbad, von Albrecht Dürer. Bild oder Abbild (6).” Gittarre und Laute, 2, 2, (1980), 27.

14Kümmerling, 32.

15Die Männer sind ihrer Sinne beraubt: Der Mann mit der Kardätsche hat kein Gefühl mehr, der Mann im Hintergrund ist auf einem Auge blind, der Trinker kann nicht schlucken, so daß sich die Flüssigkeit über der Kehle staut (sein Hals is zugeschnürt), der Hörende links richtet seine Ohrmuschel nach vorn, weil er schwerhörig ist und die Musik in seiner Nähe nicht vernimmt, der Mann mit der Nelke hat einen Stöpsel im linken Nasenloch, wie er seinerzeit in der Heilkunst bei Nasenentzündungen Verwendung fand. Kümmerling, 31.

16Kümmerling, 32.

17Kümmerling, 30.

18Kümmerling, 32.

19Kümmerling, 32. 75

names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and peals, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead was written . . . Babylon the great, mother of whores. . . .”20 Kümmerling suggests that these seven bathers represent the “seven heads” or the “seven kings” of the beast/world and the cup in front of the basin-wall represents the cup of abominations.21 The relative large size of the woodcut, moreover, suggests a public display that would deliver its warning concerning God’s wrath against lustful behavior. “The sheet must be fastened to the wall in order to be noticed. . . . Thus it has the characteristic of a wall billboard, hence a poster”22 The public nature of this print provides a contrast to the intimate nature of the scene and instruments. In addition, by using a bathing scene, Dürer draws on the bathing and fountain of youth pictorial traditions, which are considered highly erotic. Yet the print’s public warning characteristic functions as an intended contradiction to the pleasure contained in other bathing works. The inclusion of sense personifications also shows a similar contradiction with the disease that results from fornication and corrupts the senses. The musicians also share the bathers degraded state. Kümmerling notes that they resemble an extension of the tree behind them. 23 The image of humans turning into trees or plants draws on the myth of Pan and Syrinx. Syrinx turns into a reed plant in order to evade Pan’s sexual advances, and Pan constructs a woodwind musical instrument from the reeds. The recorder, as a wind instrument, provides an allusion to this myth. In addition the association of these soft instruments to love making provides an addition to the well-tap, nudity, and biblical Whore of Babylon. The recorder and rebec, according to Kümmerling, resemble poorly made instruments that would hardly produce audible sounds. He considers the bore of the recorder carved too wide for proper resistance, and he considers the rebec’s C-holes also too wide for

20Revelations 17: 3-5.

21Kümmerling, 32.

22Das Blatt muß an der Wand befestigt werden, um betrachtet werden zu können. . . . Dadurch kommt ihm ein Merkmal eines Maueranschlages, also eines Plakates zu. Kümmerling, 27.

23Kümmerling, 31. 76 quality sound.24 While it remains unknown whether Dürer intentionally showed poorly made instruments, they reflect the overall dilapidated condition of the bath house.

Mythological Scenes

The Renaissance banquet in many ways follows mythological narratives that often depict a wedding and temporary truce. Mythological scenes are meant to mirror the ideal banquet and reflect a model for the courts to follow.25 Images of vegetation frequently appear showing a fertility link.26 It is not surprising that wedding banquets especially take on mythological characteristics including music. Vegetation also contributes to the theme of abundance that the ideal banquet embraced. Dancing is also seen or implied with the musical instruments or the presence of the Muses. The gods that often appear at banquet scenes include , Bacchus, Venus, Mercury, and Apollo with a host of muses, nymphs, and satyrs.27 Mythological banquets frequently include weddings such as the weddings of and Peleas or Psyche and .28 The gods, moreover, behave in a civil manner conducive to a formal banquet.29 Invariably the Renaissance banquet scene reflects the harmonious meeting of the gods. Prints showing the Wedding of show a joyful gathering reminiscent of a modern-day wedding.30

24Kümmerling, 31-32.

25Jeanneret, 15-16.

26Jeanneret.

27Jeanneret.

28Jeanneret.

29Jeanneret.

30See the copy of Hans Schäufelein, The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche given in Hollstein German Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings, vol. 42, p. 185. 77

Hans Schäufelein depicts Apollo in a chariot playing a harp with his muses; one muse plays a wind instrument.31 Cupid and Psyche are at the end of the table and are greeted by Mercury. However, the dress and architecture reflect an anachronistic style. One may assume, therefore, that this print does not serve as a mythological lesson. Since prints often function as memorabilia, this print may have both documented and ennobled an actual sixteenth-century wedding by elevating it to a mythological level. In addition, the ancient symposiums include the narration of mythological stories, such as the wedding of Cupid and Psyche. The telling of mythological stories at banquets during the Renaissance, however, occurs on a much grander scale than their ancient counterparts. Sources reveal elaborate ephemera that may have included a re-enactment of various myths that often include music. In 1471, Olivier de la Marche documents a very elaborate Burgundian feast called the Feast of the Pheasant. The document not only lists a panoply of instruments—including bagpipes and hurdy-gurdies—but many of the musical entertainments aid in mystery play about Jason and the .32 Schäufelein’s print, therefore, depicts an actual aspect of the Renaissance court entertainment mixed with mythological fantasy. Using musical instruments to invoke an ethereal plane is also evident in mythological scenes that also serves as calendars for book of hours. The calendars not only indicate the day and month, but also show the feast day and the spiritual forces at work in the cosmos. The Housebook Master’s planet series includes feasting and music making in the prints devoted to Mercury and Venus. Mercury contains a feasting couple and a series of artisans, one of which is an organ builder.33 The upper half shows the god on his horse between the personifications of Gemini and Virgo. Since Mercury is responsible for creating the first musical instrument (the lyre) he is often given the attribute of a musical instrument as well as other artisan crafts. The table appears out of place among the other symbols of arts and sciences. Snyder speculates that

31Fazadudin Hosein, The Banquet Type-Scene in the Parables of Jesus, (Ph.D. dissertation, Andrews University, 2001) 195.

32Treitler, 313-14.

33See the copy of Housebook Master, The Planet Mercury and The Planet Venus given in Snyder, 287. 78

the man is the apprentice of the artist creating the sculpture of Christ as the “man of sorrows.”34 Perhaps the table and food represent, as Nichols states earlier, another form of artistic creation. The table may serve as a reminder that the arts and sciences function in a similar vein to food, i.e., as a source of edification. The organ often serves as a general symbol of music. It frequently appears in the hands of saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music and with the muses. Saint Cecilia is also associated with heaven in the Golden Legend. “Or she is called heaven because, . . .the philosophers have said that heaven is revolving, round, and fiery, and Cecilia was revolving in a constant circle of good works. . . .She was a heaven of the people because in her, as in a spiritual heaven—the sun, the moon, the stars—people saw how to imitate heaven.”35 The Housebook master, thus, follows the tradition of using the organ as a symbol of celestial music. Venus has attributes of love-making, bathing, dancing, and feasting. She moves through the heaven on her horse between Libra and Taurus. The instruments consist of the professional high instruments—a shawm consort, pipe and tabor, hurdy-gurdy, and a bladderpipe—that accompany the dances. Music and love shared a strong connection during the Renaissance. The subject of Venus draws on a tradition of works showing the “garden of love.” During the Renaissance, there are reprints of Guilaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun’s The Romance of the Rose. The poem is an allegorical account regarding the progress of love. The opening depicts the poet in a garden, “When I had gone a little further, I saw a large and extensive garden, entirely surrounded by a high, crenellated wall, which was decorated on the outside with paintings and carved with many rich inscriptions.”36 Huizinga notes that “as late as the end of the fifteenth century Jean Molinet could claim that quotations from the Rose were as familiar as common proverbs.”37 The poem’s major theme of “love conquers all” justifies the need for

34Snyder, 287.

35Voragine, 318.

36Guilaume de Lorris and Lean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose, translated by Frances Horgan. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 4-5

37Huizinga, 140. 79

Venus as a tool for procreation. The protagonist must contend with Rebuff and Reason before he achieves the Rose or symbol of love. The reason for the popularity of Romance of the Rose appears to relate to the ambiguous idea of love. While lust and pleasure are considered damnable traits, love is a shady area. The entire struggle to beautify life is concentrated in the colorful presentation of the forms of love. Those who sought beauty in honor and rank, or who endeavored to embellish their lives with splendor and stateliness, in short, those who sought the beauty of life in pride, were constantly reminded of the vanity of these things. In love, however, there appeared to be a purpose and reality for all those who had not entirely taken leave of that earthly bliss, which was the enjoyment of beauty itself.38

Love, therefore, offers a refuge for beauty against criticisms of vanity and lust. In addition, love had a pagan and Christian foundation that is developed by Plato, Jesus, and Paul. It is no mistake that the Master of the Garden of Love’s print, the Garden of Love bears a striking similarity to the Rhenish Master’s Garden of Paradise.39 Both display a hexagon shaped table, a border, and faunae, youthful figures, and musical instruments. The secular nature of the Large Garden of Love, however, divides the figures into groups of two, which supports the subject of love. Nevertheless, love is also a theme in the Paradise Garden. The relation between the female saint and the Christ child shows a platonic intimacy; and religious texts that surrounded the life of Jesus focused on divine love. Above all the table serves as significant link: The food and drink set on the table, and the wine flasks cooling in the stream in the Large Garden of Love also serve to recall that a 'repast in the garden' was a popular medieval custom. The striking resemblance between the table in the print and that in the Frankfurt Paradise Garden again suggests strongly that the artist of the Large Garden meant to emphasize the paradise-like nature of his setting. The table in the Frankfurt panel has been seen as symbolic of the altar, its fruit and drink as signifying the Eurcharistic feast. In the Ghent altarpiece garden, there is an actual altar and the Eurcharistic lamb stands upon it, his sacramental blood flowing into a chalice.40

38Huizinga, 127-28.

39See the copy of Master of the Garden of Love, The Garden of Love given in Snyder, 278.

40Flavis, 101. 80

By drawing on the themes, composition, and figures in the Garden of Paradise, the Master of the Garden of Love raises love to a higher level than the more lustful figures of the Housebook master’s Venus. The activities in The Garden of Love show an ostensibly chaste vision of intimacy. Indeed, Huizinga asserts that the more subtle images of love had a greater impact on the medieval and Renaissance cultures. But that which can serve to shape and adorn life is the covertly erotic, whose theme is the possibility of satisfaction, the promise, the longing, the deprivation, anticipated happiness. Here, the greatest satisfaction is found in that which is unexpressed, disguised by the thin veils of expectation. Because of this, indirect eroticism is much more viable and embraces a much wider sphere of life.41

Flavis’s dissertation also notes that the stream that divides the print is a symbolic division between matrimony and courtship.42 The table, reflecting the altar, sits on the matrimonial side of the stream while the card game, music, love letter, and garland weaving occupy the courtship side. Music functions, therefore, as an activity of courtship that leads to marriage. These seemingly innocuous images of intimate couples tends to function as metaphors for love making. “Almost any craft, any occupation, yielded its form to erotic metaphor, then just as well as now. It is obvious that during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the tournament, the hunt, and music provided the subject matter for this purpose.”43 Both the Garden of Love and the Housebook master’s Venus shows music making as a form of love, albeit one of several. Although the Garden of Love includes music as only one aspect of love along with games and garland weaving, music making appears regularly in other works as a symbol of love. George Pencz’s (1500–1550) engraving, Venus, shows a similar subject to the Housebook master and the Master of the Garden of Love, yet now music serves as the major theme.44 The couples in the foreground perform on soft instruments: a lute, viola da gamba, harp, and flute. Since the

41Huizinga, 133.

42Flavis, 96.

43Huizinga, 130.

44See the copy of Georg Pencz, Venus given in Hollstein German Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings 1450–1700, vol. 31, p. 195. 81 couples are shown in more intimate circumstances than the Large Garden of Love, we may assume that music making has a closer association to love making than card games or garland weaving. A closer look in the background shows musicians in the balcony performing on loud instruments for the banquet and the dance. Loud instruments accompany more often the dance while soft instruments support intimate love making images. A bathing scene behind the love- making couples divides further the instruments. One may notice a progression that uses music as a prelude to love and a celebration after the act. The couples in the foreground create the mood; then they advance to the bathing scene shown by the couple walking there with their backs to us; the couples then bathe and consummate their love—expressed by the copulating couple in the bushes; then the couples celebrate their union with a banquet. In both the court and garden states, music sets the mood. The division between the court where the banquet takes place, and the garden where the love making occurs, extends into other cultural dimensions. The emphasis of the garden scene that these prints depict reflects a growing interest in nature and the landscape that Joachim Patinir (c 1485–c1524) and Bruegel will develop. Part of the interest in nature results from a growing interest in the pastoral. Time and again the pastoral serves as the means to liberate the spirit from the clutch of highly pressured, dogmatic, and formalized view of love. . . .In this, any contact with reality vanishes. All the elements of courtly system of love are merely transported into a rural setting; a sunny dreamland engulfs yearning in a mist of flute tunes and bird twitters.45

Huizinga further notes that this pastoral sentiment continued in the Renaissance with masques and even up to the time of Marie-Antoinette.46 Huizinga’s statement helps to explain why the consummation occurs before the courtly celebration. Nature provides a liberating alternative to the oppressive rules of the civilized court. The table in this print may also symbolize the altar of matrimony. Moreover, it is significant that the table is situated in the building. Matrimony represents a civilizing element of the court. The table is, therefore, surrounded by more formal

45Huizinga, 150-51.

46Huizinga. 82 activities—the banquet and dance. In addition, the notion of eating reflects the satisfaction of love. Eating and sex fulfill primary needs. The banquet table, therefore, reflects a natural appetite satisfied in a civilized manner. The garden, however, contains more natural activities—love making and bathing. The musical instruments also take on this division. The lute, harp, flute, and viola da gamba represent more natural instruments because they perform at a spontaneous time and place. The trumpets and drum represent more formal instruments because they perform at a specified time and place i.e., the dance. The formal and natural elements also appear in the different dynamics of the loud and soft instrument types. The soft instruments perform at a dynamic range comparable to the human voice, while the loud instrument perform above the voice’s dynamic range. Since the voice represents the most natural of all instruments, the soft instruments imitate the voice to a greater degree. The more natural instruments provide a stronger connection to love as a natural emotion that does not answer to the civilized formalities. If one considers the lower instruments as more natural than the loud instruments, one runs into ambiguity and contradictions. Does not Plato condemn the aulos because it is too emotional and praise the lyre because it is more logical? Perhaps the level of ambiguity arises with the conflicting ideas regarding love. Since these prints show love as an accepted emotion, the instruments that accompany the figures could also include such revered instruments as the harp and trumpet. Not all northern Renaissance works show love and music in a favorable representation. As we might expect, the works of Bosch and Bruegel show an ironic side to these garden scenes. Bosch’s engraving Merrymakers Sailing in a Mussel Shell depicts a motley group surrounding a table in a floating half-opened oyster shell.47 Similar in its composition and subject matter to The Blue Ship, Merrymakers expresses a bitter sarcastic view of coeval notions of love. The facial features exhibit grotesque travesties of Pencz’s loving couples. Bosch displays the hugging and kissing couple as a repulsive eyesore. In front of this couple sits a book from which the majority of the figures sing and play musical instruments. A dog stands up to the table as if to join in with the music. An almost freakish large woman with male features holds the

47See the copy of Hieronymus Bosch, The Mussel Shell given in Tolnay, p. 428 plate 7. 83 choir book open for the rest of the group. The instruments reflect the absurdity of the scene. Bosch degrades these instruments from the more dignified instruments of Pencz’s print. They consist of a bagpipe, griddle harp, and a bellows. All these instruments in the context of an amorous scene function as mockery to the activity. The griddle harp would sound more percussive than its harmonious counterpart (i.e., the harp). The bellows, the bagpipe, and the griddle harp would not sound in an acceptable manner in a vocal ensemble. In addition, the bagpiper, being forced to lean over the shell and vomit, is unable to perform. The bellows seems to imitate the lute, however, more as a travesty because it has no strings, , or tuning pegs. Indeed, it also resembles more of a kitchen utensil than a musical instrument. The overall scene shows a pessimistic trivial view of love that castigates the courtly attempt to ennoble the emotion. Moreover, the mussel shell is isolated on the ocean reflecting selfish behaviors that result in an alienation of divinity and man, a common theme in Bosch’s works. Bosch also includes a figure holding a mutton joint, bread, and is offered a chicken. Since the figure holds far more than a normal figure could eat, the feast stresses the excesses of gluttony rather than the path to culinary pleasure. Bosch’s Ship of Fools displays a theme that is similar to these other vessel scenes (fig. 12). The painting shows mindless revelry around a board with a plate. A nun performs on a lute while a monk and other figures eat while singing. Bosch draws a few similarities to Brant’s text. Brant describes the ship of fools as being too small for all the fools that are in it.48 He also writes that the occupants play and sing while the ship moves towards disaster.49 No one in Bosch’s work appears too concerned about the direction of the ship. Rather, they are absorbed in practices of folly and self gratification. Bosch, therefore, turned the leisure of the nobility expressed in the Garden of Love to the recklessness of the idle. While Augustine’s fear of one becoming derailed by music from God to material concerns has already been mentioned, Dante also reveals a similar fear in Purgatorio. In Canto XIX, Dante dreams of a siren that draws men

48Brant, 58.

49Brant, 354. 84 into the deadly waters of materialism through music.50 This religious manipulation of Homer not only emphasizes the alluring nature of music, but it also links music with the mundane trifles of mortal life. Ship of Fools represents one of many works that reveals Bosch’s distrust of man’s use of music. The ship is steered with a ladle which has both musical and gastronomical significance, as explained above. The article of food hanging from a string is most likely a Lenten pancake used in the Carnival as a delicacy.51 A lute in the hands of a nun would have evoked the notion of “sister lute,” which stands for “a runaway nun or . . .a woman pretending to be a member of a religious order.”52 Again, we see Bosch using musical instruments in order to represent human nature. The wayward nun or “sister lute” fits well within the context of the Ship of Fools sailing from reason. Similarly, Bruegel’s Triumph of Death displays an amorous couple within an ironic context (fig. 13). The painting depicts a wasteland overrun with a army. The lower right corner features a table with gold coins, a turned over glass, bread, and a bowl holding a skull. A skeleton in a servant’s cap serves a horrified woman a platter of and a skull. On the ground by the table sits a music making couple with a skeleton joining in with a viol. At the lutenist’s feet sits a flute on a flute consort case. Although this work has been used in modern documentaries on the , in actuality Bruegel depicts all forms of death. “It is a sort of inventory of the different forms of death. There is genocide, and accidental death—a man falling from a rock—as well as illness, shipwreck, and execution.”53 This point is important in order to understand the theme as a dramatic . By contrasting activities of pleasure with pain and death, Bruegel expresses a stark reminder of the tenuous nature of ephemera. In Triumph of Death Bruegel develops with Holbein a tradition of death images that often incorporates musical instruments. Musical instruments evokes images of time and transience.

50Dante, Purgatorio, translated by John Ciardi (New York: Signet, 2001), 197.

51Dixon, 76. See also Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered translated by M.A. Bax-Botha. (Rotterdam: A.A.Balkema, 1979), 152.

52D. Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach: Two Last Judgement Triptychs: Description and Exposition, (New York: North Holland, 1983), 255.

53Philippe and François Roberts-Jones, Pieter Bruegel, (New York: Abrams, 1998), 98. 85

Just as the hour-glass in Dürer’s Knight, Death, and the Devil stresses the mortality of the knight, the instruments in Bruegel’s work function in a similar manner. Medieval and Renaissance cultures understand the momentary quality of music. Bruegel and Holbein echo the medieval morality play pictorially by linking the short-lived sound of the lute strings with the brevity of mortal life. Musical instruments, however, hold a deeper significance than the hour- glass or the figure of death. Since these instruments are considered sources of pleasure, they not only stress the momentary nature of life, but the futility of pleasure and vanity. The banquet table also shares in the ephemera of life especially with its association with food. The existence of both food and music depend on time and are subject to decay. Moreover, the pleasure they give quickly passes. Although Bruegel emphasizes the brevity of life with the musical instruments and food, critics argue whether or not shows these elements in a prudish negative manner. Philippe and François Robert-Jones’ monograph on Bruegel questions whether or not the music-making couple could be spared momentarily, and, therefore, serve as a ray of hope.54 While this possibility may seem tempting, the skeleton joining the couple adds a bitter irony to the image. “Irony always lurks in Bruegel’s work in the 1560s, and its mood does not change overnight.”55 Indeed, the music-making couple contributes, perhaps, the only ironic element to the painting. The couple represent the only figures who fail to notice—or refuse to notice—the horror of their surroundings. The theme of music in the context of death and horror has precedence in late medieval and early Renaissance culture and literature. One may see a less-than-casual connection between the music-making couple in Triumph of Death and the ten figures in Boccaccio’s Decameron who flee the plague to find refuge in leisure. Boccaccio’s contrast between the introduction that depicts a first hand view of the Black Death and the escapist nature of the humorous stories resemble Bruegel’s oblivious couple. Yet Bruegel’s couple occupies a peripheral space in the painting while Boccaccio’s figures represent the main focus of the work. Although death

54Roberts-Jones, 98-99.

55Roberts-Jones, 224. 86 provides the backdrop to Boccaccio’s stories, it stands as the central theme in Bruegel’s work. Music fails to tame the deadly armies. Moreover, the landscape resembles an antithesis to the paradise and love gardens. Bruegel’s landscape is rough and barren despite the lute. Music, in Bruegel’s work, lacks the leisurely hiatus that Boccaccio granted in Decameron. By denying his musical couple a protective walled garden, Bruegel ridicules these exclusive paradise scenes. Yet despite this satirical element, The Triumph of Death expresses a deeply pessimistic theme that transcends the more palpable morals of “dance of death” works. The images of the dead mother holding her dead baby and the piles of corpses has drawn scholars to compare it to Goya’s Disasters of War and Picasso’s Guernica.56 Moreover, the barren landscape that provides the backdrop to this war scene prefigure the Expressionist, apocalyptic landscapes of Paul Nash (1889–1946) and Ludwig Meidner (1884–1966). Music and feasting in the context of this warn-torn landscape appear more absurdly barbaric than a reminder of death. The satirical target of this work, nevertheless, may point to the style of the love garden works—more than the subject matter—and early northern Renaissance works in general. Huizinga notes the apparent fragmentation between the desperate conditions of real life and the blissful quality of art in the early fifteenth century. “What is the reason for this profoundly deep difference between the two images of this time, the one reflected in art and the other derived from history and literature? . . .Once articulated in words, the lamentations over the suffering of the world always retain their tone of immediate grief and dissatisfaction, . . .while suffering expressed through the means of the fine arts at once slips into the elegiac and serenely peaceful.”57 Bruegel’s Triumph of Death resembles a reaction against the blissful naivete of garden scenes. The delicate sounds of the lute are not only out of touch with its surroundings, but also are inundated by the cacophony by the drums and that the death figures play. In targeting garden of love scenes, The Triumph of Death shows a satirical quality that other works echo. Pieter van der Borcht IV displays a high level of ironic satire in his etching,

56Roberts-Jones, 99.

57Huizinga, 295. 87

The Monkeys’ Game.58 Borcht shows a similar scene to the Venus print, but instead of couples, monkeys are shown in aristocratic dress, eating, drinking, playing music, and dancing. The satire, however, includes non-graceful elements, such as vomiting and fighting. By using monkeys in the place of the nobility, Borcht’s print degrades the noble art of love to the level of a mindless animal. Despite the obvious satire of the garden scene, the images of animals performing on musical instruments arose in popular print forms. The humor of a bear performing a bagpipe or a cat concert reflects a less caustic comedy than Bruegel or Bosch’s works. The feast of the Gods represents a loose theme that could include a wedding or a less formal feast. Floris’s Feast of the Gods shows a more general feast than the Schäufelein’s print (fig. 14 ). Somewhat reminiscent of ’s Feast of the Gods in Washington D.C., Floris combines music, food, and frolicking in a jumbled composition. Floris’s inclusion of nudity seems unique among northern artists who more often catered to a modest audience. One notices, moreover, the lack of Renaissance instruments that appear in mythological works such as ’s Parnassus. Perhaps Floris included an aulos-type instrument for Mercury in order to create a sense of authenticity. The nudity and ancient instrument type reflect the interest in reviving ancient motifs and combining it with the shared theme of “love conquers all.” Despite the antique emphasis, however, the painting shows an anachronistic blend with a few of the figures wearing contemporary dress as well as the northern pitched roof of the house in the background. Floris’s Feast of the Gods prefigures the fête gallant works of Rubens and the later rococo artists by including this type of mixing genre with mythological figures. Since the instrument does not reflect a common northern Renaissance instrument, we are left to regard it as more of an abstract symbol than a real-life possibility. Indeed, Giorgione’s resembles a possible pictorial source (fig. 15). Although Giorgione’s work is apart of a poesi tradition where ambiguity was the goal, the nude women resemble muses. Floris, therefore, could also be attempting to achieve a similar effect—to personify spiritual and symbolic presences in an otherwise typical . The overall mixture reflects the

58See the copy of Pieter van der Borcht IV, The Monkey’s Game given in Roberts-Jones, 225. 88

desire to raise the level of court activities to divine significance. The musical activity in Giogione and Floris’s works represents a slight divergence. In Giorgione’s work a lute is played by one of the youths, while one of the nude women holds a recorder. Giorgione is, therefore, placing music in a penumbra between heaven and earth. Music in Pastoral Concert is an art that exists both on earth and in heaven. However, Floris appears to favor the music of the gods. His bias resembles More’s Utopians who play a celestial music that is incomparable to anything mundane. Moreover, the aulos that Mercury plays does not appear realistic. Rather Floris seems to disregard the practical aspects of the instrument. There are no finger holes, yet Mercury is playing it as though there were. The shape of the instrument does not resemble the ancient images on attic pottery. Mercury could just as well be holding two trumpets to his mouth. Floris’s work presents music on an ideal plane rather than mixing instruments of heaven and earth as Giorgione does. Aulos are uncommon even in Italian Renaissance art. As Winternitz notes, the recorder represented the Renaissance equivalent to the ancient aulos.59 Some artists will even show figures holding two recorders in order to evoke an allusion to the ancient aulos.60 Part of the reason that Renaissance works substituted the recorder for the aulos resulted from the limited knowledge of ancient Greek music during the Renaissance. Translators of ancient Greek texts such as Facino would use the term flute in the place of the aulos, for which they had no reference. Floris’s choice of instrument types also appears out of character for Mercury who is known in the Homeric hymn as the creator of the lyre. Bacchus, who is also present in the lower left side, would have been a more appropriate choice. Floris, however, seems to disregard the earthy nature of the aulos and simply emphasizes it as an instrument of the gods. The choice of the aulos may have resulted from its virtual extinction in the European courts. By using the aulos, Floris evokes a sense of mythological exoticism.

59Winternitz, 49-50.

60Ibid. 89

Music in Phantasmagoric Feasting Scenes

Floris’s use of an exotic instrument recalls Bosch’s phantasmagoric style that engenders a surreal landscape and often mixes feasting and music. Images of feasting and music occur frequently in Bosch’s works. It should not surprise us, therefore, that Bosch belonged to a contrafraternity called the Brotherhood of Our Lady, whose members’ meetings often entailed music and banquets. Laurinda Dixon’s book on Bosch examined, among other things, this biographical component to Bosch’s life: Food and song were essential components of confraternal celebrations, and the upper echelon of sworn members was obliged to provide both. The hosts of confraternal banquets were chosen from among the wealthiest and most prestigious sworn members, who vied with each other in the expense and elaborateness of their dinners. The banquets offered hosts the opportunity to display preeminence through culinary generosity, and to be honoured in return by wearing a gilded wreath set with pearls during dinner. The first mention of Bosch at a confraternal banquet is in 1488, when, together with six fellow members of the Brotherhood, he marked his “elevation in rank.”61

The elaborate banquets that Dixon describes seems to contravene Bosch’s works that censure prodigality. However, the banquets serve more as confraternal rituals than hedonistic activities. We should also note that Bosch becomes so popular among patrons and artists who copy his works that he has become more of a genre than an individual stylist.62 Perhaps the best example is seen in Hieronymus Bosch’s Saint Anthony Triptych since the work mixes images of eating and music on each of the three parts. Around the image of the saint’s retreat into isolation in the left wing (fig. 16) are flying images, demons, and unnatural hybrids. Saint Anthony is shown in continuous narrative both being helped over a bridge and in the sky with demons. The scene is loosely based on the Vitae Patrum and the Golden Legend:

61Laurinda S. Dixon, Bosch, (New York: Phaidon, 2003), 29.

62Jos Koldeweij, “Hieronymus Bosch and his City,” in Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings, (Amsterdam, Abrams, 2001), 83. 90

Another time, when he was living hidden away in a tomb, a crowd of demons tore at him so savagely that his servant thought he was dead and carried him out on his shoulders. Then all who had come together mourned him as dead, but he suddenly regained consciousness and had his servant carry him back to the aforementioned tomb. There, lying prostrated by the pain of his wounds, in the strength of his spirit he challenged the demons to renew the combat. They appeared in the forms of various wild beasts and tore at his flesh cruelly with their teeth, horns and claws.63

Saint Anthony was successful because he practiced “moderation in food and talk.”64 Bosch, who is known for his demonic phantasies, took the legend as an opportunity to give form to the considered evil forces of immoderate behavior. The many interpretations of this triptych include a large monograph devoted to this single work by the late Bosch scholar, Dirk Bax. Bax examines the theme of the saint’s victorious struggle over Satan’s minions shown in the left panel. The left panel shows monster-demons mocking and tormenting Anthony. These monsters, according to Bax, are not included at random, but rather have specific functions.65 For example, the figures under and before the bridge read a letter that the hybridized bird carries in its beak. On the paper is written a word that scholars have struggled to decipher. Bax claims that the bird is a “devil-messenger” and the word on the note spells “protio” in mirror writing, which Bax considers an abbreviated form of “protestatio.”66 The devil-bird-messenger and the figures under the bridge, therefore, portray a mock protest, which is meant to ridicule and scorn the saint.67 Therefore, the three demons under the bridge scornfully read the protest letter. In a more recent publication, Jos Koldeweij suggests that the letters could spell “bosco,” which would function as a signature for a Spanish patron.68 Moreover, the badge that the messenger bird wears may also serve as a signature since it resembles an “A” and Bosch’s real last name is

63Voragine, vol. 1, 93.

64Voragine, vol. 1, 95.

65Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered,, 13.

66Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 14.

67Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 15.

68Koldeweij, 23. 91 van Achen.69 Bax’s interpretations, however, seem to support the overall theme of the left panel. He considers the “A” badge to represent the messenger bird’s master. The A could, therefore signify “Antikerst” or Antichrist as the messenger’s employer.70 Yet if this were a letter of protest mocking Anthony, the letter would not come from the Antichrist but would be Anthony.71 Perhaps Bosch wants it to represent an ironic pun supporting both the mocking aspect of the demons and their hellish true nature. Bax also considers the words “abyssus,” i.e., abyss meaning hell, or “abyssus” as mockingly representing Anthony since the devils are pretending he is protesting.72 The devil-bird also displays attributes of sin and folly. The upside down funnel on the bird’s head represents waste and immoderation, and the dry twig with the stringed ball signifies revelry.73 Foolishness is implied with the bird’s long ears, while its cockspur represents “addiction to drink.”74 The funnel could also reflect a perversion of accepted alchemical practices and conventional wisdom.75 On the right side of this panel is a cave constructed from a kneeling man. In front of the cave are demonic clerics who appear to approach the cave. Bax considers this cave to represent Anthony’s cave turned into a tavern by the demons and a play on words. “Bommel is probably an old word for devil: Bommelskont meant the devil’s bum, and almost certainly also the entrance to the underworld. . . .Nobis kroeg [ie the devil’s pot-house] is an old name for tavern as well as for hell.”76 In creating hell’s tavern, Bosch ridicules a common theme that appears in all of his hell scenes, namely carnival hedonism. Images of the carnival in Bosch’s works invariably use musical instruments and figures. Anthony is also shown in the air

69Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 15.

70Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 15.

71Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

72Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered,

73Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 21.

74Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

75Dixon, 60.

76Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 29. 92 being tormented by demons. Below are ships sinking because of a false or “satanic” beacon on the right hill.77 Thus, the scene on the left panel shows Saint Anthony overwhelmed by an evil world. In addition, the theme of music contributes to the satanic struggle against the saint. Among the many fantastic figures is a bagpipe-playing demon. According to Charles de Tolnay’s monograph on Bosch, the bagpipe represents a symbol of lust.78 Tolnay’s analysis is supported by the figure’s suggestive bent-over stance. Bax notes the common hybridization of animal characteristics and minstrels. “Minstrels were held in evil odour by mediaeval moralists. Already long before Bosch we find them satirically depicted, and also after him still. Sometimes they were shown as partly animal to bring out clearly their bestial characteristics. Bosch undoubtedly painted his bagpiper under the influence of similar depictions.”79 In addition, Bax’s suggestion that this bagpiper plays a march in order to jeer the saint supports the overall panel.80 The monster appears to have a tail. Since it also resembles a stick, it reflects a phallic symbol, and an allusion to sodomy. This bagpiping monster, then, is not simply a minstrel, but a symbol of peccatum contra naturam.81 However, the connection of homosexuality to the minstrel is not a casual one. A large number of minstrels are often the victims of homosexual punitive acts. Moreover, these acts are severe and could entail burning at the stake.82 Bosch’s use of the bagpipe draws on the obscene entendre that, according to Bax, continues in sixteenth- century Flemish literature and even is considered obscene in modern day Flanders.83 The bird on

77Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 36.

78Charles de Tolnay, Hieronymus Bosch, (New York: Reynal, 1966), 357.

79Bax, 25, see also the illuminated manuscript examples on the same page.

80Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

81Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 26.

82Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

83Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered. 93 the minstrel’s “stick” also has a sexual symbol according to Bax.84 Moreover, the boots, knife, and feathered headband draw on entertaining costumes worn by vagrant minstrels in order to attract attention. The outfits, in addition, become objects of satire in Flemish miniatures that even make the minstrel more monstrous than human. “In a 15th-century illustration . . .the long knife is attached to the side of a minstrel-monster. We may assume that Bosch intended it to be also a symbol of pugnacity, irascibility and rage.”85 The bagpipe is blue, which most critics believe to be the symbolic color of deceit. The monster not only reflects a deformed creature, but it also performs the bagpipe in an unnatural manner. Rather than holding the bag, the monster holds the instrument with its mouth by the blowhole. The drone-pipe does not rest on the figure’s shoulders, but rather extends between the monster’s legs, reflecting another obscene image. Although the scorn of the minstrel is expressed in this bagpiping monster, Bosch expresses a more general symbol than one targeting itinerant musicians. Since monster figures are often shown performing music, it behooves us to examine the function of such figures. As Bax mentions above, demonic minstrels have existed in art before and after Bosch, which suggests that the artist is working within a larger tradition. In Walter Gibson’s monograph on Bosch, he notes that Bosch shares an interest in monsters with other artists. This taste for monsters Bosch shared with his age, which was fascinated by the grotesque and the unnatural. In an engraving, Dürer recorded for posterity the likeness of an eight-legged pig born in 1496, while Sebastian Brant published woodcuts announcing monstrous births and similar prodigies. These were often interpreted as portents of impending disaster. . . .”86

One may also note that these demonic monster represent a spiritual dehumanization resulting from sin. While the belief in the real counterparts of demon monsters is prevalent, another purpose may help explain their frequency in art since Romanesque times. Indeed, in the twelfth century, Bernard of Clarvaux struggles to understand the purpose of demonic monsters on the

84Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

85Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

86Walter S. Gibson, Hieronymus Bosch, (New York: Praeger, 1973), 67. 94 capitals of monastic cloisters.87 Several reason are proposed to explain why monsters appear in monastic cloisters where monks contemplate divine things and in illuminated manuscripts that lavishly exhibit scriptural passages. One reason reflects a reminder to monks that divine contemplation leads to a healthy soul. However, evil contemplation deforms the soul.88 These monstrous images “make tangible the contradiction of the natural order in the ideal body of Christ, which is the measure and microcosm of the universe and matrix for the individual faithful. . .For here, deformity visually competes with the sacred models that the monk is expected to imitate and to impress upon the inner man.”89 This spiritual competitive struggle is also evident in private churches such as Giotto’s grisaille virtues and vices in the Scrovegni chapel. The struggle of good and evil forces frequently take on musical attributes. The musical demons not only provide a satanic counterpart to musical angels, but they target real-life minstrels, jongleurs, and dancers who contort their bodies or exhibit distorted features in order to entertain.90 Monks, therefore, use grotesque images for unfavorable models that resemble people who in their minds live a devilish lifestyle that is opposite of their ideal. Minstrels and entertainers in general are used as a negative symbol in monastic art in order to provide a negative example, which justified their own existence. Entertainers do not conform to the three estates; they do not farm, fight, or rule and, therefore, provide no clear or noble contribution to their society. In addition, their nomadic lives contravened the monastic ideal of stabilitas, which is considered both a spiritual as well as physical quality; the minstrel’s instability extend to issues of faith and behavior.91

87Thomas E. A. Dale, “Monsters, Corporeal Deformities, and Phantasms in the Cloister of St-Michel-de-Cuxa,” The Art Bulletin (vol. 83, no. 3, Sept 2001), 402.

88Dale, 407.

89Dale, 409.

90Dale, 410-12.

91Dale, 412-13. 95

Although Bosch is born well after the Romanesque times and is no monk, the Devotio Moderna influence Bosch’s works and in many ways may be considered a lay form of monasticism. Bosch’s paintings are suffused with the redemptory message of the reformist Devotio Moderna movement, which called upon every Christian to express their faith through the personal experience and emulation of Christ. It was no longer considered acceptable to shift responsibility to the Great Christian examples from the Bible. . . .The pursuit of salvation only became possible and necessary through an intense recognition and understanding of human fallibility.92

One of the purposes of the musical monsters—including this bagpiper— in Bosch’s works and his followers, therefore, is to remind the viewer of the evil potential of man, that is often expressed by carnival revelers, prevalent during Bosch’s day. Although the minstrel figures among several types of wandering entertainers, they are considered the worst of the group. The moralists around Bosch’s time ridicule nomadic musicians as well as conjurors and contortionists. But the minstrels receive the severest charges because they, more than other entertainers, frequented brothels and taverns, thus lulling souls into sinful activities.93 Their songs are also considered indecent or even blasphemous, and they are accused of wasting their earning on gamboling and alcohol, which reduce them to poverty and beggary.94 Therefore, the minstrel fill several negative functions that contribute to his monstrous representation. Since the minstrel represent a tavern symbol, images of consumption accompany this bagpiper figure. Because the demon is urinating at the same time as playing, a connection to food digestion is apparent. Directly above the bagpiping monster sits a fish with grasshopper legs and a scorpion’s tail consuming another fish. Tolnay considers this image to be a symbol of lust because “the grasshopper legs look like those of the man on his back, so that the tower becomes a phallic symbol, but at the same time the fish is lying on its belly, so that the image has

92Koldeweij, 62.

93D. Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach, 140.

94Bax,Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach. 96 a double function with sexual overtones.”95 Bax notes that the tower resembles a church steeple, and could together with other elements symbolize the wealth and corruption of the clergy.96 Bosch, therefore, does not limit his symbols to the lower classes, but includes all classes including the clergy. Religious figures appear frequently in Bosch’s works to the point where one notices a strong tone of reformist sentiment. In addition, this image resembles a military machine—complete with flags, weapons using metal balls, and armor discs—and is moving towards the brothel where other clerics appear. The mixture of martial elements, lust, and ecclesiastical authority exposes a caustic stance against church corruption.97 Moreover, the image of the big fish devouring the small fish represents the oppression of greater powers on the weak and will be reinterpreted by Bruegel.98 Just below the bagpiping monster is a bald bird standing on a broken egg, devouring a frog. Bax identified the bird as a bittern, and claims that the image signifies poverty because of its nakedness, uncleanliness, and gluttony because of its nature. “In Bosch’s plucked bittern we are apparently meant to see an utterly down-and-out person. . . .In the Bible the bird is called an unclean animal. . . .In the Middle Ages people believed that the bittern had two stomachs. . . .”99 Bosch associates the bagpipe with both immoderate sex and food consumption, which effectively contrast with the saint’s abstemious resolve. The immoderate symbol, furthermore, effects all levels of society. The bittern reflects the poor whose immoderate habits result in poverty. The scorpion-fish signifies the wealthy clergy’s immoderation that feeds on the weak. Both images enhance the bagpiping monster’s deformed representation of waste, revelry, and lust. The center panel has evoked the most discussion (fig. 17). St. Anthony is shown kneeling at an altar. Behind St. Anthony stand three figures before the altar and a kneeling woman. The panel is full of monstrous demons, including minstrels. One is a hog-man holding

95Tolnay, 358.

96Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 38-39.

97Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered

98Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered

99Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 22. 97 a lute. Behind him is a cripple with a hurdy-gurdy. A demon with a shawm nose stands behind the table. Below the platform is a curious minstrel-figure with a horse skull playing a harp, that also appears in other works. Among these minstrels are several other monstrous figures, to which scholars have devoted much attention. In the background, to the side of the ruined tower is a bath house with an exposed table where a monk is seen enjoying the pleasure of the flesh with a woman. A burning village with flying demons is seen in the left background. In the ruined tower, Christ stands next to an altar holding up his hand in blessing. While the subject matter remains unclear, at least three major interpretations reflect attempts to explain the panel. The first interpretation asserts that the panel shows a witches’ Sabbath. The second interpretation regards the subject to be a display of false charity. And finally, the third considers this scene to reflect an ergotant ritual. Although each of these interpretations seem different, the theme of music supports each viewpoint. Some scholars consider the panel to be a depiction of a witches’ Sabbath, which according to Tolnay is the first time the saint is placed in this context.100 Tolnay notes other images of witch lore, which include the burning village, the flying figures, and the Anti-Christ and demon figures that surround the altar/table. The whole composition is given a curious unity by the dominant theme of the “witches” sabbath’ which is here for the first time, and at once with an unusual richness of motifs, introduced into the iconography of the Temptation of St. Anthony. . . .In the center panel Bosch surrounds St. Anthony with the adepts of this sect. They are overrunning the ruined castle which, according to tradition, the ascetic chose for his life as a hermit while around the castle the scenes of the “witches” sabbath’ are taking place: the ride through the air, the gathering on the backs of a pond, the burning of a village, the pact with the Devil in the shape of a black mass read by a priest-deamon with a pig’s head, while in the foreground close beside the saint a young knight listens to the tempter’s words of welcome.101

The image of Christ in the tower, therefore, serves together with St. Anthony as the true alternative to the black mass.102

100Tolnay, 27.

101Tolnay, 27.

102Tolnay, 357. 98

The use of musical instruments supports a demonic ritual that reflects a perversion of the mass. The hog-man with the lute and cripple with the hurdy-gurdy reflect the various musical classes. The hog-man is corpulent and dressed in noble clothing while the cripple is shown in rags and following the cape of the hog-man. As mentioned in chapter one, the lute has noble associations. The hurdy-gurdy, however, is a common instrument of the poor and outcast. While the hurdy-gurdy originally had a noble beginning, during the Renaissance it fell out of noble fashion.103 By using these two figures at a witches mass, Bosch extends his evil world to all classes. The use of a hurdy-gurdy as well as the shawm-nosed demon behind the Anti-Christ figure at the witches mass, moreover, shows a corruption of the holy mass. While Bosch’s bias against wandering minstrels has already been noted, other sources also betray a dislike of instrumental music in the liturgy. The Malleus Maleficarum, which Tolnay considers to be the chief influence of this work, illustrates this bias.104 “Anything, also, is superstition which human tradition without higher authority has caused to usurp the name of religion; such as . . .the reliance upon an organ rather than upon the choir for music. . .”105 This bias against the use of musical instruments in church results from both the association of musical instruments and pleasure and magic. The latter association represents a main theme in this and other works by Bosch. “Set free from all weight, they are obeying the laws of a magical space in which the force of gravity is replaced by a mysterious power of attraction between objects.”106 As mentioned above, magic is considered real, and for the most part a threat to the holy church. In addition, musical instruments are considered tools of magic. “Magic action occurs through indirect contact . . . through sounds and images which exert their power over the senses of sight and hearing. . .With regard to sounds, the manipulator should know that tragic harmonies give

103Winternitz, 71-73.

104Tolnay, 27.

105Kramer and Sprenger, 180.

106Tolnay, 27. 99

rise to more passions than comic ones, being able to act on souls in doubt.”107 In the Malleus one notices a close link to devils and magic. Moreover, the greatest power that devils exhibit is over the sexual organs.108 Demons are considered to be abundant, ubiquitous, and anxious to inflict havoc on peaceful society. A demon seems to appear on almost every other page in the Golden Legend, and—as seen in the case of St. Anthony—anxious to inflict spiritual and temporal harm to opposing humans. Bosch’s work, therefore, fits well within the cultural phobias. Moreover, witches and demons are believed to have the power to influence the unsuspecting mind to the point of instilling fantastic hallucinations.109 Bosch may very well be using the musical instrument images in order to express the satanic use of hallucinations on people’s minds. The dream-like influence of music exists in literature since the sirens of Homer’s Odyssey. Perhaps the strongest allusion to music and witches is seen in the draped horse skull figure playing a harp. The horse skull is used also in Oostsanen’s Saul and the Witch of Endor (fig. 24). In this work one of the witches rides a horse skull to the conjuring. Bosch also uses flying demon- figures in the sky, which may appear a product of hallucinations, but one should note that flying demons are common and considered real in the Middle Ages. “To the mediaeval mind there was nothing strange about seeing demons depicted in the air. Broeder Gheraert [Frater Gerard] knew many kinds of aerial spirits: knights of the night, witches, wandering women, . . . kobolds, elves, nixes, (night)-mares, and mume (presumably related to mumme: mask, ghost).”110 Therefore the witches’ Sabbath interpretation has a historical premise. Dirk Bax does not consider this scene to be a good or bad liturgical ritual, rather he believes it to be an ostentatious display of false charity. The two figures behind the table are, therefore, giving food and drink to the begging minstrels and other poor figures that approach.111

107Ioan P. Couliano, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance, (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1987), 91

108Kramer and Sprenger, 24.

109Kramer and Sprenger, 62.

110Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 134.

111Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 49. 100

Furthermore, simulated charity or charity for show rather than meaning offered Bosch another form of torment for Anthony since he is known for great acts of true charity. Anthony, evidently, sold his patrimony in order to disperse it among the poor.112 In his thorough analysis of the work, Bax breaks down and explains each detail of the panel. Many of the images reflect symbols of poverty. The old woman taking the bowl from the wealthy woman kneeling by St. Anthony is among the symbols of poverty.113 The man with no body next to the old woman is also a symbol of poverty with respect to the cup placed on his knee. Regarding the cup on the knee motif, Bax claims that it derives from an old saying which “implies that poor folk often use the knees for their table, for the reason that by no damast tablecloth, napkins, large dishes, plenty of courses, or dinner-plates are they encumbered.”114 Behind the minstrel mendicants is a group of monstrous figures, which Bax claims to represent part of the more mercenary class.115 The group consists of a man wearing gauntlets on his hands and a dead tree trunk over his head. Behind him is an ape-like figure wearing a broken pot and carrying a wheel with a crow and a severed leg. Two dogs wearing armor lead the figures. The man wearing gauntlets is a vagrant soldier, and the ape-faced man is an executioner who holds a wheel used to display the rotting bodies of criminals as warnings to others.116 Like the minstrels, these mercenaries hold social parasite-like stigmas. The armored dogs are “extremely savage little beasts” whose character extends to the overall group.117 The demon figure with gauntlets represents a rogue soldier who does more pillaging than defending.118 While the gauntlets reflect a clear military symbol, the

112Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 60.

113Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 52.

114Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

115Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 80.

116Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

117Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 68.

118Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 70. 101 hollow tree relies on verbal expressions that reflects a quarrelsome disposition.119 The executioner’s title job garners scorn from the public, but also they are known to be pimps.120 In depicting these figures, Bosch shows another unworthy recipient of charity. Perhaps even more than the minstrel, these mercenaries reflect characteristics that contravene the very notion of charity as Christian love. The theme of music in this center panel supports the interpretation of a display of false charity. Although the lute has a noble association, Bosch frequently shows beggars with lutes.121 Since Bosch does not reverence the lute as an upperclass instrument, the consideration that both these minstrels are beggars appears valid. The man with the hurdy-gurdy may seem lower. However, he looks down and holds the cape of the hog-minstrel for guidance, which shows that the hurdy-gurdy player is blind and, therefore, less likely to visually prepare himself. The local classification of mendicant minstrels also is apparent. Regardless of the minstrels’ class association, this interpretation stresses that they both are begging minstrels before a charitable distribution of food and drink. Bosch’s use of begging minstrels draws attention to the notion that giving alms to wandering minstrels was considered a sin.122 Nevertheless, Bax notes that minstrel beggars are common. Two minstrels are approaching the table to receive food and drink. They appear here as beggars, which is not at all extraordinary, because in the Middle Ages vagrant entertainers often alternated their profession of musician, singer of songs, declaimer of verse, acrobat, dancer, tightrope-walker, juggler and stage-actor, with that of mendicant. In the Dutch adaptation of the Vagatorum not only beggars, but also minstrels visit the poor-house. Moreover, many who were beggars by profession carried a musical instrument with them, a hurdy-gurdy for instance, or a lute or harp, to give a fair semblance to their beggary.123

119Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 73.

120Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 75.

121See his sketch of Cripples in Jos Koldeweij, Paul Vandenbroeck, and Bernard Vermet Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings, (New York: Abrams, 2001) 110.

122Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 58.

123Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 61. 102

While all of the minstrel demons reflect penury and beggary, each of these minstrels—the hog- man, the hurdy-gurdy cripple, the shawm-nosed demon, and the horse-skulled harper— have specific symbolic characteristics. The hog-man with the lute reflects the professional minstrel. He wears a badge which could either be the crest of his noble employer, a municipal minstrel badge, or a badge for beggars. The badge could be a municipal coat of arms because musicians in s-Hertogenbosch (Bosch’s hometown) wore municipal badges and armbands. In S-Hertogenbosch, the musicians are required to wear brooches depicting a coat of arms with a tree. Armbands were also used.124 One does not, however, see a tree depicted on the hog minstrel, which would signify Bosch’s town—bosch means forest. Rather, it shows a crest with a red top and a white bottom attached to a golden disc. This coat of arms, therefore, may denote either nobility or municipality. Musicians, however, are not the only people who wear coat of arm badges. As notes above, messengers wear badges as well as soldiers and officials. But in the case of minstrels, the badges often function as stigmas, which reduce their standing to the level of beggary.125 Although these badges show the musician’s employer, they also lack any strict regulation. If a musician’s master dies or does not support him anymore, the musician often continues to wear the badge to maintain his professional standing.126 Badges are also given as payment or symbols of favor if the minstrel pleases a nobleman. Moreover the minstrels may obtain forged badges illegally. Bax consideres this lutenist to have secured his badge by these more dubious means.127 Bosch, in his caustic ironic manner, shows the lutanist using a symbol of disgrace as a means to receive charity. The hog minstrel’s badge supports an ironic sense of pride. Indeed, this minstrel is overdressed for the occasion. The lute he holds also signifies a higher level of pride and vanity that contrasts with the hurdy-gurdy player behind him. The small dog that he holds to also denotes pride. The dog wears a jester’s cap showing that it is a trick dog used

124Koldeweij, 26. See also the badge examples displayed on the same page.

125Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 62.

126Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered

127Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered 103 by minstrels and other entertainers.128 Symbolizing his owner’s character, the trick dog denotes deceit. If this minstrel is receiving charitable donations, his conceited manner reflects an act of fraud. The owl perched on his head in addition symbolizes deceit because it was often used as a lure for other birds. “The owl that lures the birds towards it functions as a symbol of temptation and of the evil that seems innocent enough, but which will drag the unwary into ruin. . . .the owl symbolizes the sinful/foolish person who shuns the light of virtue and wisdom.”129 The notion of enticement and luring fits well with music because of music’s trance-like association. His corpulent frame also suggests his ability to milk the system. The pig snout as well reflects the sin a gluttony. Bosch’s culture considers the hog as a symbol of inordinate consumption.130 Pork is used extensively during the Carnival, which perhaps leads to the hog as a representation of gluttony.131 Gluttony, however, is not the only negative symbol of the hog. It represented lecherousness, filth, and even the devil, which possible drew on the New Testament story about the demons possessing the swine.132 The knife reflects the symbol of wrath. However, Bosch seems to display it in another context. “A purse is attached to the lute-player’s girdle. The knife shown with it certainly looks as if it has been stuck into the purse from behind so that its point has cut through the bottom . . . . which means . . . . he wastes his money.”133 This figure representing almost all seven of the deadly sins provides a marked contrast to St. Anthony. It seems apparent that the lute, the ostentatious clothing, and effected stance belie the figure’s sinful nature. Behind the hog minstrel stands the crippled hurdy-gurdy player, whose blindness forces him to hold the cape of the hog minstrel. Bax notes the saying “Kreupelen en blinden komen

128Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 64.

129Paul Vandenbroeck, “Hieronymus Bosch: The Wisdom of the Riddle,” in Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings, (New York: Abrams, 2001), 104.

130Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 62-63.

131Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered

132Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered

133Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 64. 104 altijd achter [Cripples and the blind always come behind].”134 With this and other crippled figures Bosch expresses the prevailing view that cripples are considered fraudulent. Their deception from contortionist abilities not only links them to frauds but demon monsters. Vandenbroeck writes concerning the prevailing ideas about cripples and beggars: Their wandering lives are filled with lewdness, pleasure, sponging, gluttony, dipsomania, profanity and violence. They are incapable of settling down they shun all work and make their living through trickery and fortune telling. They spend most of their time in taverns, where they fritter away all that they possess. These are all habits and traits that are attacked by Bosch. Although Bosch’s drawings of Beggars have no inscriptions, the prints made after the sheet with beggars . . .by the Antwerp engraver and publisher Hieronymus Cock tells us that beggars are frauds—they are not crippled at all, they just like to live that way as it earns them a good living.135

Likewise, Bosch portrays this cripple with evil characteristics. One notices a thorned tail stretching to the floor besides his stumped leg. It should not surprise us, given the negative view of crippled beggars, that cripples often are transformed into devils before and after Bosch.136 Cripples are seen in Flemish miniatures as demons with crutches performing on bagpipes, and they appear in plays.137 The association of cripples with demonic powers, moreover, can be traced to ancient mythology. The metallurgy god of the underworld, , is depicted as a cripple. In addition, Satan often has a crippled form due to his fall from heaven.138 Bosch displays the crippled demon in such a ubiquitous array that often one struggles to decide where the line between demon and cripple exists. Another demonic crippled figure appears just below the two minstrels at the edge of the platform. He wears a hat that resembles a top hat—perhaps a demonic tiara. In front of him is a severed foot on a square cloth in order to cause pity. What has replaced his foot is a demonic claw. Bax notes that sources described beggars cutting limbs

134Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 65.

135Vandenbroeck, 114.

136Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 67.

137Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered

138Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered 105 from executed criminals in order to feign a handicap.139 Although the hurdy-gurdy has a real-life connection to the blind beggar, it also maintains a cosmic symbol. It frequently is found in the hands of angels as well as demons, which emphasizes the duality of the universe. Since hell is a perversion of heaven, one tends to find attributes shared by both realms. Because Bosch focuses on the evil aspects of the world, it stands to reason that his musical instruments support the satanic dimension. Nevertheless, Bosch is not the only artist to show the hurdy-gurdy with demonic or negative forces. In the Holbein woodcut series devoted to danse he shows the expulsion of Adam and Eve with a death figure performing a hurdy-gurdy, which emphasizes their fallen state.140 In addition, Oostsanen’s The Witch of Endor shows a holding a hurdy- gurdy among other witches and demonic figures (see fig. 24). The hurdy-gurdy, therefore suits both the cosmic and social elements of the demon cripple. The shawm-nosed demon behind the table also supports the false show of charity. Demons with noses that double as wind instruments appear in other works by Bosch. In The Hay Wain a blue demon plays his instrument nose on the center panel surmounting the haystack; the Vienna Last Judgment includes a bagpipe monster that performs on its nose/chanters (see fig. 20). Bax consideres this figure to be a minstrel “hired by the rich do-gooders for a musical performance to attract public attention to their display of charity.”141 The small ball hanging from the shawm symbolizes the Carnival.142 This minstrel, therefore, is subject to selfish lusts and revelry and is not truly charitable. Smoke and fire bellow from the bell of its instrument—another common Boschian motif—suggesting that this is an infernal instrument as apposed to a heavenly one. Its demonic aspect is further heightened by the black cloak it wears. But perhaps the most overt damning attribute is its lack of any human features. Its eyes are

139Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 66.

140See the copy of Holbein, The Expulsion from Paradise given in , The Dance of Death (New York: Dover, 1971), 108

141Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 57.

142Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered. 106 animal in nature, and it has no mouth. Indeed, it reflects more of a zoomorphic machine than a personified demon. The skulled harpist also denotes sinful characteristics. Regarding this “minstrel” Bax notes, “The head of the goose-rider is a horse’s skull without the lower jaw. The fleshless skull of a horse was in Bosch’s time, among other things, a symbol of licentious merrymaking, of folly, and perhaps also of stupidity, and it is therefore possible that not only the goose’s head but also the head of her rider symbolizes lack of wisdom.”143 The plucked goose that the figure is riding symbolizes poverty, and its action of drinking from the lake reflects inebriation.144 Bax also considers the cloth draped over the figure to signify a transvestite. “The cloth (kerchief) was in olden times a symbol of the female sex.”145 The armor, perhaps, is meant to contradict the female kerchief and confuse the monster’s gender. Elements of the gentry are noticed in the armor, kerchief, and harp. Yet the figure rides a symbol of poverty and addiction to drink. Bosch may, therefore, be showing us a similarly contradictory character who feigns wealth just as the hog minstrel does. In another similarity, this figure rides a goose with another animal’s head and face. Bax considers this a sheep’s head and a symbol of “stupidity and lewdness.”146 However, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic creatures with faces that differ from their bodies symbolize fraud as well. Perhaps the greatest example of this is Dante’s monster of fraud called Geryon who, while having the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, wore the face of an innocuous man.147 This figure’s skull reflects also a deceptive characteristic. Being half cloaked, it appears to resemble more of a mask than a real head. A symbol of death seems apparent with the horse skull. The skull, as a symbol of death, recalls death figures who are often shown mocking the vanity of the upper classes. With this figure Bosch

143Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 87.

144Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 86.

145Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 87-88.

146Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 87.

147Dante Alighieri, The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation, translated by Robert Pinksy. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994), 135. 107 effectively combines the death figure with the elements of vanity. In addition the horse skull is used as a musical instrument, most likely for satirical purposes. “During harvest festival village youths made music on the horse-skulls strung with . . . .Now in Dutch the words for jaw- bone and pillory are the same.”148 Moreover, the instrument is used in the context of feasting. Bax explains that playing on the jaw-bone equals heavy eating. Perhaps the expression has its origin in the movement of the jaws when eating, but there is still another possibility: also in the Low Countries many a ‘Carnival-bird’ will have made ‘music’ on a horse’s jaw-bone to enliven the proceedings at eating- or drinking- parties with the result that . . . to play on the jaw-bone acquired the meaning of: making merry in a licentious manner, and subsequently of: gorging, guzzling, feeding lavishly.149

A hybrid bird with the head of a flower stem is perched on the harp. Both are considered phallic symbols, and Bosch apparently uses this bird flower as a counter figure to the harp.150 Bosch compounds the symbols in order to underscore the harp’s sexual side. In the Netherlands, stringed instruments embodied lust and, according to Bax, still do.151 The other animals by the plucked goose also represent sexual symbols.152 A basket with a nude man with a sword appear behind the skulled harpist. This figure resembles a medieval punitive measure where an individual is placed in a basket and raised for the townspeople to throw dirt and hurl insults.153 The sword gives the figure a chance to escape, which could reflect a willful martyr. This nude figure, therefore, provides a similar show of self aggrandizement as the skulled harpist, only now an emaciated figure punishes himself for show. The difference between the two figure reflects the opposing figures of Carnival and Lent. Next to this figure is a bird called a heron wearing a plated collar. “The heron is a symbol of the devil in the French bestiarium of Philippe de Thaon

148Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 214.

149Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

150Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 88.

151Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered

152Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

153Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 84. 108

[beginning of the 12th century] and that in some regions of Germany it was held to be a demonic animal.”154 Its placement near the harpist and emaciated criminal associates both images with evil. Standing at the edge of the water are three monsters who sing from a liturgical book. Bax noticed that Bosch took the idea from Psalters which occasionally shows three clerics singing from a book.155 The two nearest figures resemble otter-like animals, while the farthest figure appears to be a stork. The nearest creature wears glasses and has a rip in his mantel that exposes his internal organs all rotted and flowing over. Another image of deception seems apparent. Although this cleric wears fine clothing and can sing , his spiritual insides are decayed. The middle monster wears a funnel, a common motif of Bosch and discussed above. Bax examines the stork: Mediaeval folk did not regard it as entirely without blemish. A man who deceives his wife and is himself deceived by her is described in a 15th-century manuscript by an anonymous author as a bont houdevaere [pied stork]. . . .From the Spiegel der Sonden [Mirror of Sins] it would seem that the female stork was regarded as an unchaste bird in the Middle Ages, because she was believed to consort with several males at the same time. . .Moses classified the stork, like a number of other birds of the marsh, among the creatures whose flesh it was forbidden to eat. . . .Ruusbroec says that it eats unclean food and he regards it as the symbol of the sanctimonious, hypocritical cleric.156

The stork wears a nest with one egg, which reflects another symbol of deceit. The nest and egg that the monk stork wears on his head suggests that he is “plotting something evil.”157 These three singing monster clerics show that Bosch does not limit his negative musical symbols to instruments, as scholars tend to note. Since Bosch uses both instrumental and vocal music in his works, primarily in a negative context, music per se does not appear to be the main target. Rather, Bosch uses musical symbols to signify human characteristics, such as folly, hypocrisy, and sin. In addition to attacking the corruption of church officials, the image may also apply to

154Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 85.

155Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 102.

156Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

157Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 103. 109

St. Anthony. These musical clerics assume a stance that mocks sacred music, which serves as a weapon against Anthony’s spiritual struggle. Behind the clerical monsters rides a winged figure on a horse with the body of a ceramic jug. A curved trumpet hangs from its back. According to Bax this is a beggar posing as an impoverished nobleman drawn to the charitable act.158 His horse’s pot belly is in fact meant to contain beer or wine, and in Middle Dutch means belly.159 The beer-jug/belly symbol reveals the rider’s true nature as a drunkard. The blue jay wings, together with the thistle head, further remove the semblance to humanity. While Bax goes into great detail concerning the rider’s wings and thistle, its fantastic dehumanized form does more to damn the figure than its symbolic parts. This figure is no longer a man but an arrangement of disparate items. Indeed, Bosch’s attraction to the fantastic have divided critics regarding the work’s meaning. It is difficult to believe that even Bosch’s patrons and current audience immediately understood the symbols associated with this rider and the other strange figures in this panel. Nevertheless, its blue jay wings associates the figure with gluttony, which include alcohol addiction.160 Next to this beggar cavalier is a curious tree-woman with the tale of a fish holding her baby with another child in the water. Bax considers this woman another beggar figure displaying her children for pity.161 Behind her is an old man with a blue hat. Bax further notes that the old man, woman, and child reflect a kind of mocking of the holy family.162 The winged trumpeter, in the context of the holy family, may also reflect their servant trumpeter. Trumpeters often rode with their noble patrons in order to alert others of their arrival and to display their wealth.163 The three figures, therefore, could be creating a mock modern display of a flight into Egypt theme. But whereas the holy family is poor but not given to beggary, this group perverts the holy family by

158Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 105.

159Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

160Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

161Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered. 110.

162Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 113.

163See Perkins, 106-107. 110 begging and, at the same time, showing a false display of wealth. Vandenbroeck supports Bax’s idea that this panel expresses the degradation of humanity which the abuse of materialism leads to. Bosch’s attitude towards good and evil was far from theoretical. It was rooted instead in his observation of how society worked and in the opinions and prejudices of the group to which he belonged—the urban bourgeoisie. Bosch was particularly concerned with relations between the different social groups, and he also considered the issue of exclusion and marginality, hence , paupers and other deprived people who occupy such a special place in his work. . . .Bosch’s attitude towards social reality was intimately linked to his moral views. He associated a whole range of sinful follies with members of the lowest echelons and fringes of society. Those who failed to live their lives according to the prevailing standards—those, that is, of the bourgeoisie—were branded sinners and fools, and elements to be eradicated. Poor people and beggars were not disapproved of in the Middle Ages, as far, at least, as official and ecclesiastical theory was concerned. They enabled people to show mercy, while demonstrating the ideal of poverty. In the 15th and 16th centuries, however, begging and destitution began to be viewed as transgressive—the poor, it was felt, were mostly too lazy to work.164

The poor, therefore, are forced into beggary because of their profligate lifestyles which especially included items of pleasure, such as music, sex, and food. The column that forms part of the ruined tower includes grisaille figures meant to evoke relief sculptures. The images reflect this theme of prodigality and licentiousness which results from false charity. Among the images is a monkey sitting on a drum to which people offer gifts. Above this monkey is a scene depicting the Worshiping of the Golden Calf by the Israelites. Bax considers the monkey scene to be a satire on the gifts of Venus. The drum is regarded “as a minstrel’s instrument and, as such, a symbol of licentiousness.”165 The Worship of the Golden Calf shows the Israelites flailing their arms in wild gestures. Bax notes Die Spiegel der Sonden citation that compared this type of dancing to the Crucifixion. Basically it stresses that just as Christ’s arms were stretched in reverence to God, dancers often stretch their arms in praise of Satan.166 Therefore, the proximity of this scene to the Crucifix in the tower is not a casual one.

164Vandenbroeck, 112.

165Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 118.

166Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach, 140. 111

The third interpretation involves St. Anthony and ergotism. Laurinda Dixon’s examination of Bosch approaches his works from a medical and alchemical standpoint. According to Dixon, this scene represents a healing ritual for ergotants who contract egotism called St. Anthony’s fire during Bosch’s time. If we consider Bosch’s triptych in a healing context, it emerges as a devotional image, intended to be viewed by victims of during their mystical identification with St Anthony. . . .In light of the ceremony of the holy vintage, the abnormal persons clustering around the saint are probably not meant to be celebrating a black mass or mocking the Lord, as some have suggested. Rather, the scene recalls the healing ritual of the holy vintage, as perceived by the fevered, hallucinating brains of ergotants.167

In the wake of such monumental studies such as Tonlay and Bax, Dixon’s reading of this scene may strike one as tenuous. Yet, her argument is supported with cogent examples. The hallucinogenic nature of hybrid monsters and flying figures reflects a symptom of the disease. Ergotism is caused by the consumption of contaminated grain from ergot mold, which leads to hallucinations. “Ergot mould, when heated in an oven with dough in the bread-baking process, transformed into a form of lysergic acid diethylamide, known today as LSD.”168 Bosch is, therefore, expressing a visual example of these LSD hallucinations which he understood through prints and perhaps verbal descriptions. Other symptoms are “gangrene of the extremities resulting in the withering and eventual detachment of effected limbs, . . .muscle contortions, convulsions and agonizing, burning pain. . . . Because of St Anthony’s intense suffering and his fiery attribute, he became the intermediary for victims of holy fire. He could inflict it as a punishment or heal it through divine intercession.”169 The figure on the platform with the top hat, displaying a severed foot is, therefore, a victim of ergotism. Moreover, the distribution of food and drink reflects the “holy vintage” made by monks and offered as a cure during the Feast

167Dixon, 184.

168Dixon, 181.

169Dixon, 185-6. 112

of Ascension.170 One of the treatments for ergotism is application of the so called mandrake plant and fish. Regarding the former, Dixon claims: The fruit of this plant belongs to the tomato-nightshade family and grows atop a strong, forked root. . . . Mandrake was used along with other ingredients in elixirs against ergotism. But it is the root, depicted in the earliest medical herbals, that received the strangest treatment. Its forked shape, resembling two human legs, was given even more human form by drying and twisting into the shape of small doll-like figures, which were carried as talismans against holy fire. . . .the composite creature in Bosch’s centre panel, which seems to be part bark and part fish, bears the tendrils and woody texture of the actual mandrake dolls, which were also often formed into the shape of nursing mothers. Victims of holy fire prized the power of mandrake root talismans to restore fertility and sexual potency, for female victims experienced spontaneous abortion and premature delivery as a side effects of ergot poisoning, and male sufferers lost their sexual organs to the gangrenous effects of the disease. Bosch’s curious hybrid bark-fish mother and child, seated upon a giant rat, suggests an amalgam of two effective remedies against St Anthony’s fire: fertility-restoring mandrake and cooling fish.171

Another image in this center panel that reflects the mandrake is the large red fruit behind the skulled harper. This image, according to Dixon, is a mandrake . “Like the mandrake’s roots, its apples had a practical application in curing St Anthony’s fire. Their juice, which contains a sleep-inducing substance, was effective as an anaesthetic and valued by Antonite physicians as an aid to amputations, the most common ‘cure’ for afflicted limbs.”172 Yet the mandrake, being a drug, only exacerbated the hallucinations and contributed to the flying sensations.173 The musical images in this center panel also relate to this medical interpretation. The trumpet has a practical function in eradicating the mandrake. The trumpet sounds when pulling up the mandrake in order to drown the horrible shrieking sound that the plant made when up- rooted.174 The winged trumpeter’s proximity to the tree mother may resemble the trumpeter’s

170Dixon, 182.

171Dixon, 187-8.

172Dixon, 188.

173Dixon, 189.

174Dixon, 185. 113 function to the mandrake root. Moreover, the role of music has a strong connection to science, being placed in the more scientific quadrivium. Perhaps the greatest association of music to this medical interpretations exists in the hallucinogenic context. The use of musical instruments to conjure up another realm whether spiritual, hallucinogenic, or psychological is, of course, nothing new even in Bosch’s time. Musical instruments in the hands of angels or muses serve as symbols of spiritual presences more frequently than literal images of consorts. Concerning musical angels Winternitz writes, “Throughout nearly two thousand years of Christian art, methods of representing the supernatural did not remain unchanged. The invisible was made visible in many ways and forms, ranging in persistence from firmly ingrained and long-standing traditions, and even clichés, to the passing flight of fancy of an individual imagination.”175 The attempt to portray the spiritual facets of life led artists to use musical instruments as symbolic counterparts. Since music reflects a less tangible expression than the visual arts, instruments became appropriate images for visual artists to express the spiritual forces of the cosmos. As the shape of many instruments lend themselves well to otherworldly forms, artists and authors occasionally use some musical instruments as metamorphic imagery. In Canto XXX of Dante’s Inferno, the poet sees Master Adam, a counterfeiter whose hellish punishment comprises disfigurement in the shape of a lute.176 In this minor passage, Dante gives a literary foreshadowing of Bosch and his followers. These artists go beyond using instruments as spiritual symbols; they use the strange shape of various instruments to achieve the bizarre. Other artists even push the shapes of musical instruments beyond functional reality. Winternitz notes the fantastic shapes and playing positions of the musical angels in the first transformation of Mathias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece—also influenced by ergotism.177 Moreover, Grünewald includes fantasy monsters behind the angels that unlike Bosch’s monsters, reflect a more celestial nature. Both Grünewald and Bosch, however, use and manipulated the shapes of musical instruments in order to suggest

175Winternitz, 139.

176“Io vidi un, fatto a guisa di lëuto” Dante, 256.

177Winternitz, 47. 114 another dimension of life. For Bosch the instruments point to moral and social vices and the Dante-esque dehumanization effects of sin; while for Grünewald the instruments promise the heavenly joys that await the faithful. In addition, the connection between instruments and the human form reflects Job’s statement noted in Chapter One. Although Job’s metaphor resembles his emotional state, his use of the reflexive pronoun “my” suggests that the instruments stand in as a component of his being. One should, however, note the more practical relationship of music and hallucinations. If these strange images on Bosch’s center panel reflect hallucinations, then their demonic nature would have caused viewers more likely to attribute them to the machinations of Satan, and not so much the side effects of St. Anthony’s fire. Such hallucinations are considered the results of a lazy mind becoming more easily subjected to demonic forces.178 “In addition to such theoretical discussions of ‘fantasies’ within dreams and imaginations, the very palpable threat posed by demonic apparitions was recorded in the lives of the founding fathers of monasticism. In his Life of Saint Anthony the Hermit, Athanasius records a host of metamorphoses by which the Devil tried to deceive the third-century monk, including naked women, serpents, scorpions, dragons, wild beasts, and even monks.”179 Music, especially the singing of Psalms, is considered an aid against letting the mind lapse into demonic hallucinations. Dale notes that Psalm 91 with its penitential request for protection is sung by monks at Compline before retiring to bed as a safety precaution against demonic possession.180 It stands to reason that the demons’ greatest counter weapon against Psalms singing would be lascivious carnival music or the mocking of Psalms singing, effectively expressed in this triptych. The right panel shows the temptation of St. Anthony who struggles to read and contemplate amongst more demonic figures (fig. 18). Below the saint is a table supported by nude figures. One half-dressed figure plays a bizarre S-shaped trumpet signaling the meal, thus tempting St. Anthony to indulge in gluttony and lust. One of the nude supporting figures holds a

178Dale, 425.

179Dale, 426.

180Dale, 427. 115 sword revealing the spiritual dangers of the sin. Another figure has one leg in a ceramic jug. Ceramic jugs are a common image in Bosch’s works and could both symbolize the female sex and gluttony. Behind the draped tree, which shows a nude woman, an old woman pours a drink into a bowl held up by a frog with wings. According to Bax, this woman represents a procuress, which would make the nude woman a prostitute. “We see the sharp nose and sharp chin of the typical Bosch bawd, and she wears a blue cloak similar to the one which adorns St Mary in the 15th-and 16th-century paintings, but the holy Virgin’s aureole is here replaced by a stylized flower and a wild orchid. Now . . . several kinds of orchids . . .were popular aphrodisiacs.”181 This procuress, therefore, represents the anti-Mary in the form of Venus. “The motif of Venus pouring drink into a bowl occurs fairly frequently in the literature of the Rhetorical period.”182 The image of Venus as a perverted Mary also relates to the theme of false charity. This scene draws on the account of St. Anthony from the Church Fathers. At one point in the narrative, Anthony comes across a “devil queen.” The Vaderboek tells us, namely, that Antonius once, while penetrating into the depths of the wilderness, came to a stream in which a beautiful queen—the devil in disguise—was bathing with the ladies of the court. Embarrassed, the saint was about to turn back, but the woman pleaded with him to stay and teach her the way to divine salvation. She took him with her to the city where she reigned (depicted by Bosch in the background of the right wing) and there healed the sick and made mention of her charity, saying that she was in the habit of distributing food and drink among the poor. . . .In painting the right wing his fantasy was fired by another episode: the confrontation with the bathing women.183

Eroticism and bathing represent a recurring theme in Bosch’s works. Probably the greatest example appears in the center panel of Garden of Earthly Delights that shows a massive bathing scene. A bath house is, as well, the means of torture in the Vienna Last Judgment discussed below. The trumpeter again represents a minstrel devil whose half-dressed body supports the erotic context. Indeed, the transparent nature of the clothing heightens the erotic nature of the

181Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 136.

182Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 140.

183Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 142. 116 figure as it both conceals and reveals. The two other figures at the table are also itinerant entertainers. “Bosch, then, presents at the table three itinerants: a musician, a wandering mendicant (less probably a singer) and a swordfighter. That they should be exactly three in number is perhaps due to the stereotype motif of the three minstrels.”184 The nudity of these minstrels reflects a real-life connection because some minstrels are forced to give their clothing in taverns for drinks consumed or money gambled. “Their nudity could therefore illustrate their dire poverty, a state into which they have sunk through loose living.”185 In addition, nudity frequently occurr during Carnival, especially with itinerant entertainers.186 The trumpet-blowing minstrel wears a badge again showing a stigma. The trumpet itself does not appear to resemble any functional instrument, rather it seems to be a perversion of slide trumpets common during this time.187 The inserted tube characteristic of this instrument metaphorically reflects a sexual act. Smoke and fire flow from the bell, which recalls another favorite motif of Bosch. The demon with the instrument nose also blows smoke and fire. In addition, several of the wind instruments in the hell panel of Earthly Delights issue smoke and fire. Bax notes that this motif signifies “carnal love” and “impurity.”188 The motif also associates wind instruments with hell. In the hell panels, these fire-breathing instruments match the fire landscapes. In this context, however, the instrument serves as a presentiment. There are several associations of this minstrel and the trumpet to gluttony and the pleasures of eating and drinking wine. The inserted nature of the instrument resembles the big fish eating the smaller fish on the left panel. Hanging from the trumpet is a sausage, which is a “symbol of gluttony and licence (in particular of the kind indulged during Carnival).”189 The shape of the sausage suggests a phallic symbol, thus tying it in with lust. Bax mentions the connection of the trumpet to a type of wine. “A synonym of

184Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 151.

185Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered.

186Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 152.

187Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 147.

188Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach, 244.

189Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 148. 117 basune, trumpe and trumpet [all meaning trumpet] was claret, which was also the name of a type of wine.”190 The table functions as a source of temptation for the saint. Anthony is seen reading a book, a spiritual source of nourishment. The table is used by the demons as a distraction from his spiritual feast. More symbols of gluttony sit on the table, including the bread-rolls, the type of which were eaten during Carnival, during which a large amount of food was also consumed.191 The monster to the right of the table consists of a leg and a draped belly with a dagger stuck in. It also symbolizes gluttony and perhaps wrath.192 The fantastic images presented in St Anthony’s Triptych reappear in Bosch’s other works, and in most cases Bax’s analysis extends to Bosch’s other paintings. Perhaps the most famous Boschian display of musical is the Hell Panel of Garden of Earthly Delights (fig. 7). Like the center panel of St Anthony’s Triptych, several scholars have struggled to explain this complex scene. Many scholars, such as Tolnay and Snyder, this scene to represent the punishments exacted on the sinful—expressed in the center panel—whose lusts controlled their activities. Within this punitive context, notable theories expand on specific themes. Gibson suggests that the hell scene represents the results of the where lust becomes the purpose of sex rather than procreation. Vandenbroeck’s theory is similar to Gibson’s with a slight modification which asserts that both the paradise and hell scenes reflect proverbial weddings. Another interpretation by Dixon draws on Wilhelm Fraenger’s radical theory that Bosch is painting for a heretical sect called the Adamites and notions of alchemy. An examination of these interpretations provides a greater insight to the role of music within this famous work’s right panel. Tolnay considers Earthly Delights “the most perfect expression of the Late Gothic current” partly because of its strong moral fervor.193 The center panel shows man’s foray into the world of pleasure. “The artist’s purpose is above all to show the evil consequences of

190Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 147.

191Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 152.

192Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 154.

193Tolnay, 31. 118 sensual pleasure and to stress its ephemeral character.”194 The hell panel, thus, reflects the eternal punishments for an impulsive and reckless life. “The panel showing Hell presents the third phase of the Fall. The earth itself has become a hell; the very objects that had been instruments of sin have become gigantic instruments of punishment. These chimeras of bad conscience, which enliven the night with hallucinatory clarity, possess all the special significance of sexual dream symbols.”195 The work constitutes a late medieval expression regarding the brevity of life and pleasure contrasted with the eternal tortures of hell. In the context of ephemeral earth vs. eternal heaven or hell, music plays a key role. Bosch and his circle understood the irony of instruments in hell. Hell is both painful and eternal and as such it represents the antithesis of the general association of instruments as symbols of brevity and pleasure. The ironic placement of instruments in hell is a bitter attack on human nature. The instruments signify negative human traits, in this case lust and gluttony—both ephemeral pleasures. Amid the cluster of unrealistically sized musical instruments sits a large hurdy-gurdy. Surmounting the hurdy-gurdy is a nude figure on his stomach with one hand on the crank shaft. The image suggests a sexual connotation since the crank shaft is at an equal position to his penis. The cranking function of the hurdy-gurdy implies sexual acts. The harp represents not only lust, as it is jammed in the rosette of the lute, but also a corruption of the crucifixion. Bosch must have been aware of the association between the lute and the passion because the figure impaled by harp strings is in a crucifixion pose. To the left of the instrument cluster sits a large bird, representing Satan, devouring souls and defecating them to hell. Here, Bosch links lust and gluttony as closely related sins. Since the bird’s feet are in ceramic jugs, gluttony is underscored. Bosch displays the satanic banquet accompanied by a cacophony of noise that causes pain as shown by the nude sinner under the shawm holding his ears. Fire shoots out of the large shawm and bagpipe and reflects their carnal nature. The symbolism of the instruments in the hell panel supports the brevity of pleasure and its ironic context in their accuracy and scale. In showing these instruments as monumental and

194Tolnay.

195Tolnay, 32. 119

larger than life, Bosch draws the viewer’s attention to their role in hell. Moreover, in depicting accurate instruments as if painted from life, Bosch wants them to be recognizable, which is a marked contrast to more fantastic anthropomorphic and zoomorphic instruments of St Anthony’s Triptych. There has been some confusion, however, regarding the identification of the large shawm. Hans Lenneberg consideres this instrument a because a figure with bulging cheeks is playing it from a mouthpiece extending from the perforated mechanism protector.196 However, a closer observation shows that the instrument has a double reed at the end with a lip-brace resembling a shawm. Moreover, if one looks closely, the mouthpiece does not extend from the perforated mechanism protector. Rather the woman is playing a curved trumpet that extends behind the shawm and the sinner supporting the shawm on his back. Regardless of these minor observations, Bosch’s emphasis of hell’s instruments in their monumental scale and accuracy further emphasizes their ironic purpose in hell. No longer do these instruments ornament the subtle nuances of the court as shown in Garden of Love works. These instruments are playing men rather than the opposite; in doing so they are the masters of the souls of men. Just as these sinners enjoyed the brief pleasures of the banquet, they are now reduced to becoming the food and music at Satan’s banquet in hell. The irony is further noted in the image just below the hurdy-gurdy which shows a hare blowing the hunting horn while carrying a sinner on a spear, presumably from hunting. This image reoccurs in Bosch’s Hay Wain and the Vienna Last Judgment and is meant to show the irony of the hunter and hunted in reversed roles. Another interpretation considers the paradise panel as the key to understand the other panels including the hell panel. Walter Gibson emphasizes the theology that described as a change from sex for procreation to sex for lust. God’s injunction to “be fruitful and multiply,” which he later gave also to Noah, could perhaps be construed as a mandate to indulge in the sort of licentious activity taking place in the middle panel; but, as we might guess, the Middle Ages thought otherwise. Instead, it was assumed that previous to the Fall, Adam and Eve would have copulated

196Hans H. Lenneberg, "Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights: Some Musicological Considerations and Criticisms,” Gasette des Beaux-Arts, 58 (1961), 139. 120

without lust, solely for the purpose of producing children. After the Fall, however, all this was changed; many people believed, in fact, that the first sin committed after the eating of the forbidden fruit had been carnal lust, an interpretation which is reflected in certain erotic representations of the Fall in the early sixteenth century. In this respect, it is significant that no children can be found in the garden of the central panel, and that the inhabitants, far from subduing the earth, are in fact overshadowed by the giant birds and fruit. The garden thus shows not the fulfilment of God’s injunction to Adam and Eve, but its perversion.197

Indeed, lust is such a pervasive theme in this work that other scholars, such as Bax, have used the title Garden of Lust.198 Vandenbroeck’s analysis is similar to Gibson’s arguments. Vendenbroeck, however, considers the work to offer two contrasting views of marriage. The left panel shows the marriage of Adam and Eve as the ideal. “This model of marriage entails the control of sexuality, which must serve purely for purposes of reproduction.”199 The center panel shows sex in its most uncontrollable form. “Earthly nature, even the inorganic world, is essentially sexual—and that from the moment of creation. Consequently, the physical world is inherently dangerous because of its all but uncontrollable character. This, to Bosch, is the drama of humankind and its history—human beings were marked with from the beginning.”200 For Vandenbroeck, the center panel is a false paradise that perverts the Christian paradise exemplified in Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece.201 Bosch also draws on literary sources such as the beginning of the Roman de la Rose and legend of the Mountain of Venus.202 The Roman de la Rose bears a similarity to The Paradise Garden with its surrounding wall. The garden in the Romance, however, represents lust rather than divine love. The mountain of Venus is a

197Gibson, 92-93.

198Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 203.

199Vandenbroeck, 102.

200Vandenbroeck, 104.

201Vandenbroeck, 107.

202Vandenbroeck, 107-108. 121 legendary place that draws the lustful, such as Tannhäuser, to a perpetual orgy. The hell panel is, therefore, a warning against the excesses that follow and pervert marriage.203 The interpretation of the Earthly Delights as an expression of carnal lust on a cosmic scale helps explain why instruments in the hell panel are more often associated with lust than other sins. The instruments’ sexual nature reflects a perversion of the cosmic forces that these instruments are often used to symbolize. Vandenbroeck’s association of this work to the Ghent Altarpiece supports a musical contrast. The upper panels of Van Eyck’s altarpiece include images of musical angels singing and playing instruments. Bosch effectively transforms this orderly display of the instruments to a confused giant ensemble. Sinners rather than angels surround and are tortured on the instruments. In addition, the Ghent Altarpiece reflects a symbolic marriage of Christ—who is referred to as the bridegroom in the Bible—to his flock. Unlike Adam and Eve—shown in grisaille on the upper outer panels—the marriage of Christ and his flock practices complete chastity. The Ghent Altarpiece uses musical instruments to show a harmonious universe kept pure by the absence of lust among Christ’s flock. The association of musical instruments with chastity allowed Bosch to express the satanic use of musical instruments as vehicles for lust and the pollution of divine forces. Bosch’s association of musical instruments with lust also has a real-life connection. Bax produces quotes from Dutch moralists who condemn musicians (who performed in whorehouses) for their ability to encourage lust in order to bring souls to Satan.204 Laurinda Dixon’s interpretation is based on an alchemical process. “The subject matter and organization of the Garden of Earthly Delights is identical to the oldest chemical allegory of all, which sees distillation as an imitation of , destruction and rebirth of the world and its inhabitants.”205 According to Dixon, each panel is allegorical to the alchemical process of creation: the Adam and Eve scene reflects “conjunction,” the center panel is the “slow cooking” or “child’s play,” the hell panel is the refiner’s fire or “putrefaction,” and finally the external

203Vandenbroeck, 110.

204Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 202.

205Dixon, 234. 122 panels reflect the “cleansed” material.206 Dixon supports this interpretation by claiming that the strange fountains, shapes, creatures, and even the musical instruments resemble alchemical tools. The marriage of Adam and Eve is a symbolic chemical marriage.207 The paradise fountain reflects an “astrological fountain.”208 The owl is not a symbol of evil or an ominous forecast of doom, but an alchemist’s mascot.209 The center panel, therefore, is not a condemnation of lust, but an expression alchemical materials reacting to each other.210 Regarding the hell panel, Dixon does not deny that it reflects a punishment of the damned, but that it also shows an alchemical stage called putrefaction. “While commenting upon the nature of sin and the fear of damnation, Bosch’s inferno continues the evolving thread of chemical symbolism begun in the Adam and Eve panel. It reflects alchemical putrefaction, the stage characterized by fire, violence and death.”211 Thus, the panels have layers of meaning, one of which draws on alchemy. The musical instruments play an important role in this alchemical interpretation. The bagpipe atop the head of the egg man has both musical and alchemical connotations. Its shape is similar to that of the common vessel that was also called the ‘bagpipe’ because it was ‘shaped like a musical instrument which the Germans play vulgarly.’ Bosch’s pulsating, rosy bagpipe serves as both musical instrument and alchemical flask, in the same way that the creature’s white egg body is both everyday object and laboratory apparatus.212

The musical instruments are closely related to alchemy and reflect alchemical tools as well as everyday objects. Dixon’s point is well taken since music functioned as a science first and a form of entertainment after. Dixon’s conclusion resembles, to some extent, the previous interpretations. “We should not assume, in looking at these horrifying vignettes, that Bosch

206Dixon, 233-34.

207Dixon, 236.

208Dixon, 239.

209Dixon, 240.

210Dixon, 248.

211Dixon, 268.

212Dixon, 264. 123 meant to castigate either music or alchemy by placing them in hell. Rather, the unfortunate inhabitants of the netherworld are being punished for eternity by the very things they abused in life.”213 In this context Bosch’s moral is not aimed at music or musical instruments per se, but the excesses of human nature that pervert divine forces. The hell panel shares many similarities to the center panel of The Last Judgment Triptych in Bruges (fig. 19). Images of music and feasting appear in fantastic forms and . To the right sits a cylindrical structure in which a feast with reptiles is seen. Surmounting this structure are three instruments: a lute, a bagpipe, and a harp. All three are immoderately large lust as the instruments are in The Garden of Earthly Delight’s Hell panel. The lute includes a dry branch around the neck in the same way that the Hell Panel’s lute shows an insect/reptile- like demon surrounding it. Dry branches appear throughout Bosch’s works. According to Bax they are “a diabolic version of the Maybranch or, what is more likely, in itself an attribute of merrymakers.”214 An owl replaces the rosetta. In Bosch’s works, owls symbolize folly or secrecy. Paul Vandenbroeck’s article includes a poem by Jan van Styevoort that states “Like the owl that by day angrily conceals itself from the rays of the sun so those lovers act who do not adhere to marriage as it was first begun.”215 The lute as a symbol of sexual pleasure includes now secrecy and promiscuity. The harp has a similar crucifix form in the strings except for the figure’s spread legs. The bagpipe is as well similar to the hell panel as it is placed on a platform and includes dancing or processional figures circling it. In this case the figures hold hands and face the bag as if to taste it. Below the instruments are scenes depicting a bedroom and a satanic feast of reptiles and frogs. Like Earthly Delights, the instruments appear to be associated with lust. Their scale is almost as large as Earthly Delight’s Hell panel suggesting symbols of excess. The feasting scene below the instruments reflects lust as well as gluttony since the cleric is nude with other women. To the right of the harp sits a nude figure on a barrel at a table that is partly inside a giant

213Dixon, 268.

214Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 16.

215Vandenbroeck, 105. 124 ceramic jug—resembling the gluttony aspect of feasting. Bosch, however, limits the instruments to the lute, bagpipe, and harp. Yet Bosch maintains the symbols of gluttony and lust by using these instruments because they are closely associated with the physical deeds taking place below. Bosch painted an earlier Last Judgment Triptych (in Vienna) that also includes fantastic images of musical instruments and feasting (fig. 20.). Like the Bruges triptych’s center panel this work shows the Last Judgment with the angels sounding the trumpets and the damned tortured by demons. Despite the scene with Christ and the angels, Bosch emphasizes the negative aspect of the biblical prediction. “Bosch’s works on this theme stand out for the fundamental way in which they differ from the prevailing iconography. Not only do they not show the resurrection of the dead, the sorting into good and wicked souls is also extremely unequal. There is an army of damned souls, compared to a mere handful of the blessed.”216 Bax explains that the lack of a resurrection and few saved souls results from an after-the-fact occurrence. We are not shown any people rising from their graves or out of the sea. The resurrection of the dead has therefore already taken place. Judgement has already been pronounced and this has been done by the twelve apostles to the right and left of Christ, because it is through them that God lets the Doomsday judgement be spoken. . . The trumpeting angels are accordingly not proclaiming the day of judgement, but sounding the praise of Christ. Devils have taken possession of the earth and are already punishing sinners before carrying them off to hell. The last of the blessed are being conducted to heaven by angels.217

Bosch effectively deepens the gloom by leaving the earth to the damned and demonic forces. Regarding Bosch’s abject world view, Snyder makes the following powerful observation while discussing the Adoration Triptych. “The life of Christ thus hardly seems a promise of redemption for Bosch. There is no happy omen, no jubilation, no rejoicing in his vision of a tragic world caught firmly in the grips of Satan; in fact, there is no hope for salvation at all, only impending doom for mankind. This extreme pessimism pervades his representations of the

216Vandenbroeck, 179.

217Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach, 76. 125 traditional Passion scenes to an even greater degree.”218 Perhaps Bax underestimates Bosch’s pessimism. Bosch’s emphasis on man’s hopeless state of sin and degradation may, indeed, lead one to infer that the Last Judgment will benefit only the saints and Apostles in a positive manner. The details below Christ and the Apostles constitute a cluster of graphic punishments that include musical iconography. On the left we see a platform structure surmounted by demonic and comical figures including a lute-playing ape-like figure and a figure who appears to be an anthropomorphic self-played bagpipe. Both the bagpipe demon and the ape with the lute represent the male and female sexual organs, while the nude woman with the coiling demon around her is a prostitute. Indeed, the self-playing bagpiper suggests masturbation. “Our female sinner has committed immoral acts with the two men and she has also abandoned herself to vain, voluptuous dances. The minstrel who used to provide the music on such occasions is alluded to by the imp with the lute. A lute, moreover, was a vagina symbol in the late 15th- and 16th-century Low Countries.”219 This reflects, therefore, a brothel with minstrels who, like their real-life counterparts, perform for the love-making couples.220 “We observe that the netherworld of Bosch frequently corresponds to that of the writers. In one exemplum a devil looks forward to enjoying the fun of the fair in hell with a woman sinner. In another a sinner on a bed in hell is forced to be sexually active with whore-devils in the shape of snakes and worms while infernal minstrels make music.”221 The dragon demon is enjoying the pleasures of a prostitute, while the man on the slab is being forced to have sex with snake-like demons. Behind the prostitute stands a bodyless figure with a large helmet and a tail. This figure represents an executioner working at his second job as brothel manager.222 Below the platform sits a corpulent nude figure who is being forced by demons to drink from a barrel of human waste. To the right side of this scene sit two demons cooking human

218Snyder, 207.

219Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach, 139.

220Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach,, 156.

221Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach,, 158.

222Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach,, 164. 126 body parts in a frying pan and over a fire. Bosch once again merges symbols of lust and gluttony and expresses them in fantastic imagery. Moreover, Bax notes that the moralists Jan Praet and Jan de Weert claimes that gluttony leads to lust with the following quote: “When the belly is full of food, then are kindled the sparks of lust.”223 Perhaps the moralists and Bosch are inspired by the Golden Legend that links both gluttony and lust with Adam and the first sin. “According to Gregory, the first man had sinned by pride, disobedience, and gluttony: he wanted to be like God in the sublimity of his knowledge, to overstep the limit set by God, and to taste the sweetness of the apple.”224 In addition, the pride connection to gluttony results from the notion that overeating is considered a status symbol.225 To the right of the gluttonous sinner stands a devil minstrel with a lute on his back, driving a knife-like weapon into the chest of a sinner. Another deadly sin is observable in this image evoking wrath. Although we have discussed minstrels carrying knives as symbols of wrath, additional interpretations may be made. Knives represent a reappearing motifs in Bosch’s works. A large knife is seen in the right corner of this panel. “Long knives were often used in tavern brawls. Consequently the carrying of such weapons was repeatedly prohibited by civic authorities. In the 16th century the long knife was a symbol of irascibility and wrath.”226 Sometimes Bosch will include a stylized M at the base of the blade. Scholars have guested that this could either be a B for Bosch or an M for mundus meaning the world.227 The latter meaning is supported by Bosch’s own experience of violence and war. “Bosch was in a position to witness the miseries of war from close up. The people of ‘s-Hertogenbosch had to suffer, for instance, the outrages of Maximilian’s soldiers.”228 In addition, musicians are occasionally recorded as being violent criminals. “Entertainers were sometimes guilty of violent killings. As

223Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach,, 152.

224Voragine, vol. 1, 209.

225Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach, 153.

226Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach,, 90.

227Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach,, 91.

228Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach,, 103. 127 another anonymous expressed it . . . ‘What is the beggar, and the entertainer? murderer’s soul they wear.”229 Apparently, this violent minstrel reflects real-life counterparts. The hell panel of this work continues the grotesque images of cannibalism and torture (fig. 21). The center includes a structure that frames a satanic image in the doorway. The structure is most likely a public bathhouse.230 At the base of this structure is a group of musicians. One is another self-playing bagpipe creature, another is playing the trumpet with his behind, a demon carries a lute, and in front of the group sits a nude woman sinner forced to sing with other demons. Above the bagpipe creature in a window is a harp-playing demon. This group represents the tavern musicians of hell. “The four musician-devils can be associated with those minstrels who used to perform in alehouses and who. . . . had a bad name.”231 Above the satanic figure stands a large bird with a pipe and tabor in its belt holding a bowl as if offering a drink to the bathing woman and demonic cat. “A flute and a tambourine or small drum which he carries with him, identifies the devil with the bowl as a musician. Music-makers did indeed perform in bath-houses, and not only in Bosch’s work but also in Dutch literature we find the motif of a devil as serving-man in an infernal bath-pavilion.”232 On the very top of the building, a nude figure sounds a trumpet with its behind, while above the whole scene burn the fires of hell. Bosch, therefore, associates musical instruments with lustful bathhouses. “In the Middle Ages the . . . public bath-houses with stoves for heating the water were notorious as hotbeds of immorality. In the 14th century a bath-house in Antwerp was the same thing as a brothel. Bosch’s intense abhorrence of these institutions is evident from the fact that in two of his depictions of hell a bath-pavilion features as a place of torture.”233 In almost all of Bosch’s works, instruments represent symbols of torture and lust that complete the grim feasting scenes of inordinate consumption.

229Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 202.

230Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach, 239.

231Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach,, 133.

232Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach,, 240.

233Bax, Hieronymus Bosch and Lucas Cranach,, 239-40. 128

One of the few works of Bosch to show a positive context to musical instruments is the small tondo representing heaven as part of the Four Last Scenes in his Seven Deadly Sins table- top painting (fig. 22). Music is associated with lust in the “table-top” Seven Deadly Sins. This work is meant to reflect the sins of the world in the likeness of a cosmic mirror with Christ in the center. The circular placement of the genre-scenes symbolizing the deadly sins draws on zodiac charts, which support its cosmic significance.234 The tondo format signifies the earth and the center the eye of God.235 Under Christ are written the words Cave, Cave Dominus videt [be careful, be careful, God watches]. Like the Last Judgment works, the Seven Deadly Sins shows the entire world as synonymous with sin. The lust [luxuria] scene shows a garden party with a table, harp, pipe and tabor. The instruments’ lustful symbolism appears strong in this context as the word luxuria is written to the side. Lust is supported by the young couples who eat, drink, and make love. To the right kneels a fool surmounted by a monk who holds a large ladle. The ladle has both musical and gastronomical significance. “An engraving by Tobias Stimmer shows a woman about to beat against the insides of a pot with a ladle in order to let it sound. An accompanying text tells us that in this way she wishes to make music that will delight the ears of gastronomers.”236 This painting also serves as a great example of symbolic context because the Gothic harp appears twice: here as a symbol of lust, and in the hands of an angel in the heaven circle. Bosch does not condemn or praise the specific instrument but rather the function for which they are used. During Bosch’s time, musical instruments are considered celestial tools that may be used to aid both devotion and sin. Bosch’s own pessimistic view of humanity, however, tends to reflect the latter.

234Dixon, 47.

235Tolney, 338.

236Bax, Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered, 216. 129

Music in Allegorical Scenes

Allegories have similarities with mythological works in subject matter, but their titles bring the subject matter closer to the symbolic level. Moreover, allegories include, more often, personifications in a manner similar to mythological works. However, the titles of allegories tend to be more general than mythological works. While “love” as an allegorical title may seem to display slight variations to Venus scenes, the title warrants a separate category. Huizinga wrote, All in the medieval sense is ultimately anthropomorphism. If the thought that ascribes an independent essence to an idea wishes to make it visible, there is no other way except through personification. Here is the locus where symbolism and realism turn into allegory. An allegory is symbolism projected on a superficial power of imagination. . . .Allegory has the potential of being reduced to a pedantic commonplace and, at the same time, of reducing an idea to an image.237

Furthermore, Huizinga notes that while allegory characterize more of a medieval literary phenomenon, seen in works such as morality plays and The Romance of the Rose, “allegory is still in full bloom until well into the sixteenth century and beyond.”238 Artists of the northern Renaissance create allegorical scenes primarily in the print media. A simple example of visual allegory is Sebald Beham’s personification of Music.239 The liberal arts subject of music is personified as a winged goddess performing on a portative with a viol at her feet. As an allegory, Music pushes the symbol to the surface of the subject matter rather than disguising it in the form of common objects. Allegorical scenes regularly include other symbols other than the personified figures. For example, Pieter Bruegel drawing Gluttony depicts a more complicated allegorical scene than

237Huizinga , 238.

238Huizinga , 247.

239See the copy of Sebald Beham, Music given in Hollstein German Woodcut, Engravings, and Etchings 1450–1700, vol. 3, p. 76. 130 the seven liberal arts figures.240 Like Bruegel’s other allegorical scenes, the personification occupies a central place in the composition. Bruegel shows gluttony as an overweight woman “seated on a pit that is collapsed under her weight, drinking avidly. . . ‘Excess makes man forget God and himself,’ reads the legend.”241 The majority of the images focus on consumption. Seated at a table are plump, nude women under the influence of spirits, in the form of Boschian monsters. Several figures drink and hold pitchers while another vomits over a bridge assisted by another demonic form. The left side shows another nude female figure in prayer at a large wine barrel as if it were an altar. The man halfway inserted in the barrel reflects a higher degree of religious ritual perversion. Indeed, Bruegel shows gluttony as a misuse of the Communion ritual. A figure nearby carries his obese belly in a wheelbarrow. Above the table in a barren tree hangs a bagpipe. Bruegel appears to favor the bagpipe’s image in the context of feasting. Bruegel may have noticed a similarity between the bagpipe and the human digestive system. The bagpipe comprises a bag with inserted pipes that resemble, to a simple degree, the gullet and stomach. Furthermore, the bag itself is made from animal skin provoking a flesh-symbol of lust; or it can be made from an animal’s bladder, suggesting liquid consumption. The bagpipe’s position—carelessly draped in a tree—reflects a non-productive lifestyle. Just as the figures consume without producing, the bagpipe sits deflated without producing music. The ominous image of the caged birds next to the bagpipe reflects the enslavement to the senses that the figures display, and portends a disastrous future. Bruegel’s Lust, in the same series, also depicts a bagpipe as part the arsenal of symbolic figures.242 The nude female personification “‘stinks, she is full of shamelessness,’ reads the legend. Naked, with a cockerel standing over her, she allows herself to be titillated by a demon sitting in a hollow tree—a place hollowed out by vice. Here, everything is fornication, exhibitionism, even self-mutilation.”243 Bruegel displays an ironic version of a love garden

240See the copy of Pieter Bruegel, Gluttony given in Roberts-Jones, 84.

241Roberts-Jones, 86-87.

242See the copy of Pieter Bruegel, Lust given in Roberts-Jones, 89.

243Roberts-Jones, 87. 131

complete with foliage, fauna, loving/bathing couples, and a fountain. However, the serene images of love share the composition with disturbing images of lust that command a more central position. These lustful images includes a bagpiper who leads a throng of demonic creatures and nude women. The figure on a cloaked horse skeleton wears a bishop’s miter, which adds a religious theme to the work; it has been suggested that this figure represents adultery.244 The bagpipe, in this context, recalls the suggestive images of Bosch and the pied- piper who leads the unwary to hell. Rabelais also used the construction of the bagpipe as an erotic image in the fourth book of Pantagruel: “A senior graduate, passing by, said to a young chick: ‘Hey, hey! Long time no see, Muse!’ ‘I’m always glad to see you, Horn,’ she replied. ‘Couple them together,’ said Panurge, ‘and blow into their asses: that’ll be a bagpipe!’”245 The bagpipe, therefore, has at least two erotic symbols as a result of its structure: the first is the often noted male sex organ, and second as male and female copulation as described by Rabelais. Yet among the other more graphic sexual images, such as the masochistic figure in the lower dexter side, the bagpipe as a sexual symbol appears quite tame. In the context of the other grotesque images, Bruegel’s bagpipe and bagpiper take on a normal aspect. Indeed, the piper in this work evokes more of a nursery rhyme character, which supports the heavily didactic nature of the series. Huizinga noticed the mixture of comical, juvenile, hellish facets to the Boschian demonic fantasies. “Although the fantasies about devils were directly rooted in the deep fear that nourished this belief, the naive imagination nevertheless rendered such figures so childishly colorful and so familiar to everyone that they sometimes lost their terrifying aspect. . . .Satan’s company is frequently fashioned in the manner of Hieronymus Bosch and the hellish smell of sulfur blends with the fluff of the farce.”246 Bruegel, as a follower of Bosch, borrows the mixture of the bizarre and the humorous. The comical element of Lust is not limited to a satire of the love garden scene; it extends to the hybridized creatures and ridiculous activities. Moreover, the

244Roberts-Jones, 88.

245Rabelais, 456-457.

246Huizinga, 286. 132

bagpiper fits within the context of foolish behavior that seems to be equally influenced by Brant and Bosch. The theme of music within more symbolic feasting scenes supports a greater association between gastric and aural consumption. Bathing scenes more often include soft musical instruments, which enhance the intimacy and erotic nature of the events. Chranach’s Fountain of Youth provides an exception with the more military drum and fife. However, Cranach uses these instruments in order to express the conquest of love rather than a delicate prelude to love for couples. The pleasure of food and music led artists, who uses the association, to provide a backdrop for love scenes. Pencz’s print shows the progress of love with soft lutes providing a mood-setting invitation. The louder instruments at the banquet help to celebrate the lover’s union. Yet given the frequent ironic climate of northern Renaissance art, other artists are quick to exhibit travesties of the love garden scenes. Bosch’s Ship of Fools ridicules elements of the garden of love scenes with a grotesque group sailing without direction in a small boat. Instead of loving couples basking in the joys of love, Bosch depicts a monk and nun among other dubious persons led blindly by their bodily lusts. Bruegel’s triumph of death expresses the oblivious absurdity of the leisure class by including a music-making couple in the context of an apocalyptic landscape inundated by violent death figures. In order to show the evils of the world, Bosch includes fantastic images, which often include musical instruments or events. Bosch’s instrumental images have led some scholars to conclude that Bosch is castigating itinerant minstrels. Bosch, however, does not limit the musical imagery to attributes associated with minstrels. Instead he also shows ecclesiastical musicians, such as the singing trio of monsters in the St Anthony Triptych. Indeed, Bosch’s musical symbols signify something more universal than a historic group of wandering musicians. The association of food consumption and music reflects a more universal theme. Bosch uses musical symbols more often to depict the flaws of human nature, such as lust and gluttony. By reversing or blurring the function of musician and instrument in the Hell panel of the Garden, Bosch effectively expresses a world where humans are the instruments of greater evil powers. CHAPTER 3

MUSIC IN BIBLICAL SCENES CONTAINING BANQUETS

Introduction: Music and Feasting in the Bible

The Bible describes the act of feasting from several angles. Within the bounds of the covenant, feasting espoused an intimacy between God and man. When feasting occurred outside of the covenant, the corollaries often triggered divine wrath and punitive measures. Indeed, the fall of man results from eating outside God’s proscribed boundaries. “The fatal meal in Genesis 3 further bears cosmic significance in that it forever alters the eating habits of all humanity. While in Eden, humans received their nourishment effortlessly; it thus becomes the fate of post- Eden humanity to labor for food, and it is this very fact which further separates humanity from divine beings.”1 The accepted feast frequently entailed modesty and restraint. Moses’s fast on mount Sinai contrasts the idolatrous reveling of the Israelites and even provided a future model of good behavior. The Last Supper strikingly differs in ascetic surroundings from the lustful Feast of Herod that culminated in the martyrdom of John the Baptist. Moreover, the extravagant feast accepted by God invariably celebrates a higher principle. The fatted calf slaughtered for the return of the prodigal son maintained an honorable characteristic because God’s principle of repentance represented the theme of the banquet. The marriage at Cana included Jesus as a guest and celebrated a divinely sanctioned union. While the parable of the Ten Virgins also includes a marriage feast, the five foolish virgins become excluded because their negligence forced their lack of preparation for the Bridegroom. Divinely

1Lieber, 59.

133 134

accepted feasting, therefore, celebrates moral activity, while feasting outside these limits leads to sin and punishment. Music within these moral and immoral meals serves to enhance the holy or sinful nature of the banquet. The Israelites during Moses’s absence conduct a sacrificial festival with dancing and reveling.2 We may assume, therefore, that music is a part of the activities. Music is also part of the Feast of the Passover. “The people of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the festival of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, accompanied by loud instruments for the Lord.”3 The Last Super describes the Apostles singing a hymn.4 The biblical description of these meals inspired northern Renaissance artists to include musicians in banquet scenes even when the biblical passage lacks musical detail. Northern Renaissance artists use musical imagery in order to enhance the moral theme of biblical banquet scenes. This chapter will examine this moral and musical connection using selected biblical banquet scenes within the following areas: Old Testament scenes, Feast of Herod scenes, Prodigal Son scenes, and other parable scenes. This chapter will show further examples of northern artists using music in order to emphasize the sinful banquet scenes.

Music in Old Testament Scenes

Feasts in the Old Testament reflect either the God-sanctioned celebrations or the illegal feasts devoted to idols. The most famous example of idol feasts is the construction of the golden calf during Moses’s absence. Lucas Van Leyden expresses the Israelites’ dancing to the heathen music before the idol in Worshiping the Golden Calf (fig. 23 ). Biblical scenes that foreshadow doom—as we have seen with Bosch—reflect a developing moral trend that stressed man not

2Exodus 30:18-19.

32 Chronicles 30:21.

4Mark 14:26. 135 living on bread alone. “Moses, who survived on the mountain for forty days without food or drink is a model of ascetic discipline. The feat was accomplished because he transcended the bodily need for food and survived on divine contemplation. He was transported to that place, equivalent to the place before the ark in the holy of holies, where a vision of the divine presence provided satisfying nourishment of the soul.”5 Lucas’s work also exhibits the ultimate contrast in pitting Moses’s ideal with the Israelites’ degradation; it resembles the theme of Carnival vs. Lent. Yet Lucas goes further than the simple moral of moderation. Lucas’s work provids a visual aid that supports the doctrine of self-sacrifice. In addition, the work shows most of the figures in contemporary dress. The feasting and dancing complement the elaborate plumed hats—both supporting a scene of opulence, recklessness, and self-indulgence. Yet, the clothing worn by the unfaithful Israelites shows a more specific association with gypsy costumes. On one level the dress of the Israelites is surely intended as an allusion to their sojourn among the Egyptians, from whom the word gypsy derives, since popular belief held that they originated in that land. But a secondary meaning may also have been intended. The loose living of the gypsies was generally acknowledged, and their religion, at first believed to have the support of the Pope, was soon recognized as highly unorthodox.6

In addition, by including an anachronistically dressed group in an ancient biblical scene, Lucas emphasizes the timeless warning applicable to his own age. The dark storm clouds over the rocky mountain also provide an ominous foreshadowing of divine wrath. Lucas places the feast scene in the foreground in order to stress the contrast of the disobedient Israelites’ gastric pleasure with Moses’s abstemious fast. The placement of a genre scene close to the picture plane and including a biblical scene in the background becomes a common technique among northern artists including Bruegel. Lucas is credited as one of the first artists to begin this tradition with some of his earlier prints.7 The purpose for this mixture of genre and biblical scenes is to provide a moral to an otherwise plain image of daily life. Lucas emphasizes the pleasure of eating and drinking, while at the same time suggesting the connection

5Lieber, 139.

6Elise Lawton Smith, The Paintings of Lucas van Leyden: A New Appraisal, with Catalogue Raisonné, (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1992), 67.

7Smith, 40. 136

to a biblical narrative. Scholars note the more subtle allusion to the Fall of Man. “It has been noted that the exchange of fruit between the man and woman in this [foreground] group is a clear parallel to the Fall of Man. The child in the woman’s arms is an unexpected addition, . . .But he also serves as a reference to the transferral of Original Sin from the first couple to their descendants.”8 Thus by alluding to and showing biblical scenes, Lucas stresses a moral interpretation. While Lucas relegates the music to the more peripheral right side, the instruments assist the overall theme of worshiping the false god of luxury and wealth. The instruments appear to be—due to the loose brushwork—a consort of shawms and a large tabor, which accompany the dance. By showing a realistic contemporary consort Lucas offers a moralizing likeness to the Renaissance court dance. The inclusion of the large tabor as a musical instrument of war reflects Joshua’s mistake in assuming the Israelite’s were making war.9 As the most noticeable instrument, the large tabor also reflects the less pitch specific and, therefore, the most “noisy” instrument. Perhaps this “noisy” attribute leads Virdung to write concerning drums: All these drums are as you please. They disturb the peace of honorable, virtuous, old people; of the sick and ailing; of the religious in cloisters, who are obliged to read, study, and pray. And I believe and consider it the truth that the devil invented and made them for there is absolutely nothing pleasant or good about them. On the contrary, [they cause] a smothering and a drowning of all sweet melodies and of the whole of Music. I can well believe, therefore, that the which was used in the service of God must have been an object entirely different from our drums that are made today, and [I believe] that we have given that name undeservedly to the devilish instrument, which is surely not worthy of being used for music. . .much less [worthy] of even being admitted as an instrument of this noble art. For, if beating or making loud noise is supposed to be music, then the hoopmakers or the coppersmiths or the coopers must be musicians as well.10

8Smith, 65.

9See 32:17-18.

10Bullard, 31-32. 137

Lucas’s inclusion of the large tabor reflects, moreover, a trend that associated this military instrument with the more violent biblical scenes. As an instrument linked to martial violence, the tabor may remind the viewer of the disastrous outcome of the wicked.11 The mystical characteristics of a feast are shown in Cornelisz Van Oostsanen’s Saul and the Witch of Endor (fig. 24). Oostsanen’s work draws on the narrative of the last days of King Saul, who sought the services of a medium for aid against encroaching Philistines because God does not answer his first prayer.12 The medium conjures up the spirit of Samuel from the grave, who tells Saul that God is not answering him because he is displeased with Saul. Samuel further tells Saul that his time is almost up. Following this devastating news, Saul collapses. The medium, believing he is weak from hunger, summons for a meal to be brought to him. Oostsanen shows the medium in continuous narration at the right side by the portal greeting Saul and then front and center using witchcraft to evoke Samuel’s spirit in the back. This Old Testament scene, although more obscure than the worship of the golden calf, belies the ubiquitous fears of witchcraft and heresy.13 Indeed, Oostsanen emphasizes the occult aspects of the narrative more than Saul’s involvement. This witch is shown with other witches and demonic creatures. Four witches surrounding a fire drinking and holding vessels appear to be cooking something. Above them, another nude witch flies in on an horse’s skull drawn by a two-headed cockerel. Behind this nude witch appear other witches flying in from a dark ominous cloud as if they are attending a Sabbath. “Cornelisz’s primary concern was to record the fantastic world of demons preparing for their magic acts, rather than to illustrate the biblical text. Without the band of text floating above, the viewer would be hard pressed to identify the theme enacted below.”14 Even the biblical passage apparently confuses Renaissance interpreters and its content is subject to debate. The Malleus Maleficarum includes the following

11Exodus 32:25-27.

12See 1 Samuel 28:3-25.

13Carroll Jane Louise, “The Paintings of Jacob Cornelisz Oostsanen,” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1987), 76.

14Louise, 92. 138

clarification regarding the necromancy of Samuel. “Wherefore, when they think that they call the dead from hell to answer their questions, it is the devils in the likeness of the dead who appear and give such answers. And of this sort was the art of that great Pythoness . . .who raised up Samuel at the instance of Saul.”15 These two inquisitors appear eager to isolate the powers of the witch from the holy powers of God and his chosen. The painting also stresses the ungodliness of the witch. The ritual reflects a bizarre incantation. A faun holds her spell book, while a satyr holding a hurdy-gurdy receives a cup from one of the other witches. The main witch sits on two owls while a Boschian hybrid holds a convex mirror to the fire that she ignites. The representation of the owl and the satyr have also been discussed in the Malleus: It is a very general belief, the truth of which is vouched for by many from their own experience, or at least from hearsay as having been experienced by men of undoubted trustworthiness, that Satyrs and Fauns (which are commonly called Incubi) have appeared to wanton women and have sought and obtained coition with them. . . . To the same effect is the gloss on Esaias xiii, where the prophet foretells the desolation of Babylon, and the monsters that should inhabit it. He says: Owls shall dwell there, and Satyrs shall dance there. By Satyrs here devils are meant; as the gloss says, Satyrs are wild shaggy creatures of the woods, which are a certain kind of devils called Incubi.16

The inclusion of owls and satyrs predicts the fall of the Church to Babylon because of the use of Incubi (demons that have sexual intercourse with unsuspecting women usually as they sleep). Mirrors not only have a negative association to vanity, but also they were considered tools of witchcraft and magic.17 The hurdy-gurdy is used in this work as a symbol of lust and heresy. The cranking motion reflects the sex act, and its hybridized construction resembles the considered synthetic nature of heretical sects, as opposed to the pure and authoritative church. Its composite nature mixes well with the overall style of the painting. Louise also notes the painting’s distortion of color and the manipulated forms. In Endor Jacob selected non-primary colors to create an uneasy mood, a technique which came late in the artist’s career. The dark stormy sky dominates the right half of

15Kramer and Sprenger, 80.

16Kramer and Sprenger, 24.

17Louise, 98. 139

this work and contrasts eerily with the sunlit portion. This unnatural combination, as well as the low glow of the fires, helps create this piece’s brooding atmosphere. . . .A new approach to anatomical form allowed the artist to exaggerate certain parts of the body for effect. For example, the seated woman in the right foreground who places sausages on the grill has impossibly long arms which emphasize her gesture. The cloth in Endor emphasizes and reveals body shapes. . . . A new type of female nude is introduced in the shape given the Witch. She has a solid, almost masculine form with broad shoulders and a squared torso, in contrast with the rounded, sylph-like images of her young assistants. This manly silhouette eliminates her sexuality and thus may confer to her actions a power heretofore restricted to patriarchs.18

The hurdy-gurdy, therefore, contributes to the strange quality of the painting meant to evoke a satanic ritual. The hurdy-gurdy used in the context of Black Magic recalls Tolnay’s interpretation of Bosch’s St Anthony’s Triptych. Although Bosch uses a crippled beggar instead of a satanic satyr, the difference between the demon and the mendicant is almost non-existent in Bosch and his follower’s visual vocabulary. Just as the hybridized hurdy-gurdy serves as an extension of the satyr’s man-beast form, it also reflected the cripple’s or man-prosthetic form. Bosch’s cripple is also half demon. This composite and mechanical nature of the hurdy-gurdy offered artists a symbol that contrasts with a more pure metaphysical world. Granted, the hurdy- gurdy also appears in the hands of musical putti as a symbol of humility. Nevertheless, the instrument lends itself equally, if not more, to the demonic ranks.19 Indeed, the very name hurdy-gurdy derives from “the Scottish phrase ‘hirdy-girdy’ meaning disorderly noise.”20 Moreover, since it is more frequently found in the hands of the poor and outcast, and these people are often the target of witch burnings, the hurdy-gurdy also took on a satanic attribute. Kramer and Sprenger’s text gives many examples of old beggar witches whose hatred of the normal townsfolk cause them to wreak havoc by storms or diseases. The sexual link to the cranking of the handle not only draws attention to the satyr’s uncontrolled behavior, but also to the witches who are depicted using stirring motions in water and sand to create hail storms. As

18Louise, 93-94.

19See Kanren Jones Hellerstedt, “Hurdy-Gurdies from Hieronymus Bosch to Rembrandt.” (Ph.D, dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1981), 22-26.

20Hellerstedt, 1. 140

in Bosch’s works music and magic combine to create a darker version of the adoring hurdy- gurdy playing angels.

Music in Feast of Herod Scenes

The feast of Herod is a popular scene considering its frequency in the print form. The overall theme of music in these Feast of Herod scenes supports the moral regarding evil that wealth and pride engender. Indeed, the Feast of Herod shares similarities with the court of Nebuchadnezzar. Herod’s banquet resembles the musicians who perform for the idol: “the herald proclaimed aloud, ‘You are commanded , O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you here the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon,21 harp, drum, and entire , you are to fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.’”22 In a similar manner, Herod’s court creates music for a false god, and the banquet reflects the worship service. The Old Testament describes God’s hatred of pageantry and festivals. “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. . . .Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.”23 The fulmination is extended further to wealth, “alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music; who drink wine from the bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.”24 This passage shows how God’s indignation targets the false security that wealth and luxury bring.

21A trigon was a stringed instrument like a harp.

22Daniel 3:4-7.

23Amos 5:21-23. See also the annotation, which reads: “the Lord delights not in an abundance of festivals and sacrifices but in justice and righteousness.”

24Amos 6:4-6. 141

Furthermore, musical instruments reinforce this theme of false security. Here, and in the Herod scenes, musical instruments signify the leisure that wealth affords. Yet if unguarded, musical leisure deludes the court members into a false sense of security. Both the Feast of Herod and the festivals of Nebuchadnezzar reflect a form of material worship that stands in contrast to the ascetic examples of Moses and Jesus, who also supposedly fasted for forty days in the wilderness. One notices a further contrast in Herod’s feast and the Last Supper both in imagery and biblical depictions. Regarding the Last Supper, Lieber states, “the Lord’s supper is not supper at all—it is not even a meal, and should not be treated like one. In gathering together, the bread and wine would be taken as a solemn remembrance of Jesus’ death and with the awareness that in consuming the sacraments they are performing a holy rite akin to the temple sacrifice of the priests.”25 The fact that Jesus and the Apostles sing a hymn a capella supports the ascetic quality of the ritual. One, moreover, may apply Lieber’s words to the feasts of Nebuchadnezzar and Herod as not meals, but religious rituals. Even though these feasts glorify materialistic idol worshiping. Schama notes that these biblical passages are favorite sermon subjects because the increase of wealth and elaborate feasts cause many to see a similarity with Herod rather than Moses.26 The use of musical instruments underscores further the warning concerning the dangers of uncontrolled wealth and leisure. Israhel van Meckenem’s famous Dance at the Court of Herod provides a great example of the dangers of ungodly wealth and hubris.27 The engraving is based on the dance of who, following her dance, asked for the head of John the Baptist. The left background shows Salome receiving the head from the executioner on a platter, while the right background shows Salome presenting the head to Herod. In the center foreground the actual dance is seen taking place. The dancers appear to be in a stately processional dance. Snyder notes that the two most

25Lieber, 175.

26Schama, 149.

27See the copy of Israhel van Meckenem, Dance at the Court of Herod given in Snyder, 291. 142 lively dancers towards the center are Salome and her dance partner.28 Meckenem shows a stately hall with stone pillars and sculptural ornamentation. The court members are fashionably dressed with fancy head-dresses. Yet the display of civility and erudition is false given the narrative and implied by the fighting dogs in the lower right corner. Voragine’s text also notes that Herod feigned sorrow at the beheading of John the Baptist: Herod chained him and put him in prison. He also wished to please his wife but feared to lose the allegiance of John’s followers. What he really wanted to do was to kill John, but was afraid of the people. Indeed, both Herodias and Herod longed to find an opportunity to get rid of John, and they seem to have arranged secretly between themselves that Herod would invite the leading men of Galilee to a banquet in honor of his birthday, and would have Herodias’s daughter dance for them, after which Herod would swear to give her anything she asked for, and she would ask for the head of John. On account of his oath he would have to grant her request but would pretend to be saddened because he had sworn. . . . Two-faced Herod feigns sadness because of his oath. . . . But the sadness was only on his face. In his heart he was delighted.29

This duplicitous nature of Herod’s court is reflected in the musical instruments as well. The role of music in this print is strong given the prominent place of the minstrels in the center above the dancing croud. The three musicians are playing, from left to right, a , a pipe and tabor, and trumpet. They stand high above on a hexagonal platform. The ensemble appears atypical. The field trumpet reflects a “loud” instrument while the pipe and tabor and cornet are of the more soft category. The pipe and tabor are a smaller one-man version of the so called “Swiss pair,” which consists of a transverse flute and a large tabor.30 In the context of the court of Herod and the beheading of John the Baptist, the instruments are invariably “loud” instruments. The significance of the loud consort could allude to Salome’s dance, since loud ensembles are more often used for dancing. But also the symbol of the loud consort represents the wealthy hubris of Herod. Part of this hubris symbol reflects the ostentation that the costumed musicians and dance represent. The atypical combination reflects a more broken, less pure consort. Its haphazard mixture resembles the sloppily formed dance that seems more devoted to

28Snyder, 291.

29Voragine, vol. 2, 133.

30Polk, 41. 143

pomp than order. Meckenem emphasizes the pipe and tabor since it is in the center and facing the viewer. The pipe and tabor seem linked to a level of deception as he deludes the crowd away from the evil acts that their lord and lady are committing. Having a military association, the pipe and tabor enhance the violent reality under the veneer of pretended grace. The deception works as well for Herod distracts himself into embracing a false lifestyle of pride and wealth. Meckenem made several engravings of this biblical narrative. And since he was a ruthless businessman, we may assume the scenes supplied a lucrative market.31 In addition, the platform resembles a pedestal that does more to ennoble the minstrels than the court members. Yet this seemingly unrealistic platform has a precedence in images depicting the Roman theater. Both print and illuminated manuscripts endeavor to recreate the ancient venue, in which the comedies of Terence and Plautus are performed. In a French woodcut, the hexagonal Roman theater includes loving couples in contemporary fashion at the theater’s base.32 The so-called Master included a musician’s platform in the center of the theater.33 Images depicting the Roman theater occasionally include minstrels wearing grotesque masks, such as those seen in the Luçon Master’s The Roman Theater.34 The masks signify a pagan link, which heightened the moral content. It is a fascinating fact that the jongleurs . . .sometimes wore masks whereas the actors in our manuscripts of the Comedies do not. . . . In antiquity masks were employed in the theater and in the religious rites of the mystery cults. . . . The early Christian Fathers, however, violently condemned the theatrical plays. . . . and the mask suffered the same fate. . . .The mask has a strong magical power, radiating evil like the face of Medusa. Christian opposition to it was rooted, we may infer, in its capacity to conceal the moral, rational person, permitting under its cover the expression of otherwise unacceptable

31Evidently he was not above making prints to sell as indulgences. At one point he even raised the amount of years off in purgatory in one of his prints in order to sell more copies. See Landau and Parshall, 58.

32Meiss, fig. 214.

33Meiss, fig. 212.

34Meiss, figs. 206 and 210. 144

wishes and wants. Given such a function, its was naturally the devil and the irresponsible characters who were given masks in the mystery plays.35

The musicians in Mechenem’s print recall the pagan entertainers whose music and feats bewitch the audience into lewd behavior. Although the minstrels in Meckenem’s print do not wear masks, their sinister expression provides suitable replacements. Indeed, occasionally works depicted minstrels with grotesque features rather than masks, such as the Orosius Master’s Roman Theater.36 A polygonal wall, moreover, surrounds the musicians and entertainers indirectly resembling Meckenem’s work. The Beheading of John the Baptist offers a closer look at Herod and Herodias examining John’s head presented on a platter by Salome.37 Again Meckenem provides a continuous narrative of the beheading to the left and the presentation in the center. Meckenem presents three minstrels as well, however, they all play strait trumpets, which is a more realistic consort. The trumpeters are placed as repoussoir figures that establish a level of depth. The minstrels do not function as a dance . Rather, they provide a signal most likely for the arrival of the Baptist’s head. The signal function of the trumpet also has a religious significance that clarifies the work’s moral tone: A special role was filled by the tuba, that powerful wind instrument which was used for military purposes by the Romans, but variant of which—known by different names—also existed in earlier cultures. (It has nothing in common with the tuba used in today’s symphonic and band music, since this was developed in the nineteenth century.) In the medieval period, various wind instruments of Hebrew origin, variants of the horn and trumpet, were referred to as . Their common characteristic was the fact that they were used to provide signals, and this determined their symbolic significance, too. Even in the Bible this instrument has various roles: on Mount Sinai it represents God with its tremendous fanfare and resonance, overwhelming any human sound (Exodus, 19:16); due to its magic powers, the walls of Jericho tumble down at its sound (Joshua 6:4), which elsewhere Jehovah himself, as the god of war sounds his powerful, destructive trumpet (Zechariah 9:14). The apocalyptic vision is introduced by the blaring horns of seven angels, and the same sound signals the release of the

35Meiss, 52-53.

36Meiss, fig. 218.

37See the copy of Israhel van Meckenem, The Beheading of John the Baptist given in Hollstein German Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings 1450-1700, vol. 24a, p. 153. 145

seven cataclysms. The Angelic Fanfare of the Last Judgment, which announces the resurrection of the final reckoning, also originates from this. . . .”38

The signal, therefore, would also serve as a reminder of the Last Judgment. The trumpets provide a sub-theme that the sinful opulence of King Herod who can afford to employ professional musicians will soon be judged and condemned. Although the Feast of Herod does not appear as often in paintings as in prints, one example is worth examining. Quentin Massys’s Saint John Altarpiece comprises a triptych with a Lamentation scene on the center panel, a Martyrdom of St. John scene on the right panel, and a Feast of Herod scene on the left panel (fig. 25). The left panel shows Herod and Herodias examining the head presented by Salome (fig. 26). Like Lucas’s Golden Calf work, this left panel reflects an exotic richness meant to symbolize extravagant wealth. Evidently, Quentin shared this stylistic theme with other artists who constituted the so-called Antwerp Mannerists. One other important aspect of the choice of “Antwerp Mannerist” pictorial features is the pictorial association of the richness, foreignness, and activity with the agents of evil and ugliness. This association should not surprise us, in the light of the traditional Christian ideal of poverty and humility and consequent rejection of worldly ambitions; corruption is particularly pointed in the martyrdom scenes, on one wing with the opulent surroundings (brocades, imperial insignia, wine, page, musicians) of Herod, on the other with the exotic costumes and dense swarm of agents of Domitian.39

The musicians, therefore, support the reckless wealth of Herod, which, perhaps, may be extended to heretical groups. Although similar to Meckenem, Massys places the minstrels in their box. The scene appears to recreate a more realistic consort of professional musicians in a box rather than a small platform. These minstrels, moreover, are not the signaling trumpeters of Meckenem’s work. Since they are not performing, we may assume they provide more of the music for the banquet dance. Holding their trumpets and shawms, they look down on the grisly scene with sadistic

38Ember, 16-17.

39Larry Silver, The Paintings of Quinten Massys: With Catalogue Raisonné. (Montclair: Allanheld & Schram, 1984), 47. 146 expressions. In this context the musicians maintain their servant status in supporting Herod’s decision, and they emphasize the cultural mistrust of minstrels that is felt since the Middle Ages.

Music in Prodigal Son Scenes

Northern Renaissance scenes portraying the parts of the Prodigal Son parable more often show the sinning passage. This focus on wine, women, and song will also continue to attract artists well into the Baroque period. Indeed, although the parable describes a welcome home feast with music and dancing that expresses the joy of the son’s return, artists more frequently opted to display the son’s reckless behavior usually in a house of prostitution.40 Artists tend to show the uncontrollable revelry of the bad feast with the whores rather than the good feast with his father. Yet, as we might expect, musical instruments play a prominent role in the whore feast. Hemessen’s The Prodigal Son expresses a moral warning against reckless opulence (fig. 27). Although more realistic, Hemessen’s work reflects a debt to Hieronymus Bosch. “Like Bosch, whose work he must have admired, Hemessen viewed the human condition in a negative, pessimistic light. Humanity, trapped by pride and sensuality, is easy prey in an evil world filled with temptations.”41 Moreover, the dangerous world of temptations is not limited to the works of Bosch and his followers. Carla Zecher examines music in Renaissance emblem books. Regarding the musician in the images, she considers them disguised hunters setting traps for the unsuspecting. Emblem books present a gallery of unfortunate male figures—young men, courtiers, and princes—who are corrupted or victimized, like Midas, by listening to beguiling winds. In such emblems Pan, the prototype of the provocative musician, reappears in a variety of guises: as the fickle goddess Fortune, as a rustic tavern minstrel, as a clever

40See Matthew 15.

41Burr Wallen, Jan van Hemessen: An Antwerp Painter between Reform and Counter- Reform, (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1983), 6. 147

bird-catcher. Whatever the details of the scene, music-making with winds evokes the power of the senses to distract men from treading the path of virtue and accomplishing their forensic duties.42

The prodigal son is seen in the foreground between the two women who are taking his money; an older woman looks joyful—she is probably the procuress. The gesture of the women is also important. Since their hands meet, they appear to physically ensnare the son. “The prostitutes in the Hemessen cajole and tempt the wastrel: their arms encircle him in stealthy, snake-like rhythms that reflect their evil intent. The young woman at the left raises on hand in insincere blandishment while the other tensely fingers his purse in the shadows. The old madam nervously clutches the knob of her chair with obscene intensity. Her other hand covers the top of the glass in a way that implies the youth’s erotic entrapment.”43 The gestures of the prostitutes also draw on the gestures of Titian’s Bacchants in The Andrians.44 The son’s inebriation is noted from the tankard in his hand, his expression, and forwardness. His excitement is noted in his extended codpiece. Indeed, almost all of the seven deadly sins are presented in this work.45 The musical instruments in Hemessen’s work support the negative moral tone. Behind the table of food stands a bagpiper who is looking at the foolish son, knowing full well what is happening to him. The bagpiper functions as an accomplice whose music provides a relaxed distraction from the reality of the situation. The symbol of lust is appropriately seen in the bagpipe since the prodigal son allows his appetite to control his actions. Moreover, as the bagpipe’s real-life performers tended to be lower class, the instrument extends the warning of lust to a warning against mingling with lower classes. The prodigal son is shown in more luxurious attire than the other figures and is, therefore, out of his true element. As a symbol of

42Carla Zecher, “Musical Instruments and Public Life in Mid Sixteenth-Century French Emblem Books,” in Poetry and Music in the : Proceedings of the Sixth Cambridge French Renaissance Colloquium, 5-1 July 1999. Edited by Jeanice Brooks, Philip Ford, and Gillian Jondorf. (Cambridge: Cambridge French Colloquia, 1999) 127.

43Wallen, 58.

44Wallen, 54.

45Wallen, 56. 148

gluttony—because of its stomach resemblance—the bagpipe emphasizes the intemperate consumption and waste. Indeed, Hemessen’s scene prefigure Bruegel’s great peasant scenes that often show a bagpipe among gorging and love making. In the background, a man wearing a turban leads another musician, a hurdy-gurdy player, to the table. The approaching hurdy-gurdy player supports the complicity theme. He is led to the table in order to ensure the son’s inattention to his sinful and foolish state. The hurdy-gurdy blends well with the distorted collection of physical human types as well. The beings gathered together with the Prodigal Son in the tavern display a striking assortment of physical types and facial expressions pregnant with associations for those initiated in physiognomic lore. The attention paid to the forehead alone reveals Hemessen’s concern, for this part of the head received special emphasis in treatises on the subject. The prominent round bump on the forehead of the young prostitute at the left would signify, according to Gauricus, her lack of true feeling . . . while the furrowed brow of the old bawd suggests treachery and cunning. . . . The flat forehead of the wastrel accords with the dulled stupor of his expressions. . . . Of greater interest for modern psychology than these phrenological references was Hemessen’s perceptive depiction of emotions distorted by drunkenness, lust and greed. The malicious glee of the madam at the rich youth’s downfall is brilliantly expressed.46

Just as the figures embody distorted emotions and physical characteristics, the hurdy-gurdy represents an instrument far removed from an ideal or pure instrument. Unlike the viol, the hurdy-gurdy has a mechanized hybridization and, therefore, could be considered less pure than the viol or other simpler instruments. In addition, the effect of such mechanization “results in obvious handicaps: no such direct control of timbre and dynamics is possible as a or a lute permits, or even the bow of a , so responsive to the fingers.”47 Hemessen uses the hurdy-gurdy and the bagpipe to enhance the distorted and out-of-control atmosphere that the Prodigal Son inhabits. Moreover, since this foreground scene reflects the lowest point of degradation in the narrative, the choice of “less pure” type instruments appears appropriate.

46Wallen, 57.

47Winternitz, 68. 149

Sebald’s Parable of the Prodigal Son presents a much different scene than Hemessen’s.48 Rather than a disorderly whore house, Sebald depicts an orderly upper class banquet where the members appear to be better behaved than Hemessen’s lower class house. The figures show restrained gestures in contrast the to Hemessen’s figures to the point where they resemble the loving couples of the love garden prints. Sebald even provides a fountain in the lower left side. At any rate, the class conflict is not apparent in this print. Considering the ribald quality of Sebald’s peasant fair prints, one may assume that he chose to keep the classes separate. Since the prodigal son is given an inheritance we may assume that he comes from an upper class family. In continuous narrative we see, through the window, the father giving the son his inheritance while the other son, seen through the other window, plows the fields. To the side of the structure, the son appears with the hogs in a repentant pose. And in the upper left corner, he is welcomed back to the family. In Sebald’s woodcut the musical instruments both support the upper class figures and the moral of ephemeral pleasures. The woodcut contains two viols, one on the wall and one being played, and a case for a recorder consort on the wall next to the viol. The recorder and the viol are considered the soft instruments of the leisure classes. Their position on the wall next to the satyr-like sculptural decoration brings their association closer to lustful pleasures. On the table sit other objects of temporal brevity. The couples enjoy fruit and cards, which signal a relation to the transient nature of music. Zecher notes a connection between , the prodigal son, and fleeting pleasures. “Whether identified by viewers as Damocles, the Prodigal, or simply a generic courtier, flaunting elaborate sleeves and a broad plumed hat, the lesson remains the same: given that one’s allotted time is short, it is better not to waste it on lustful living.”49 The connection of Damocles to the prodigal son emphasizes the sense of warning that attacks carefree leisure. Leisure that focuses on vain pursuits such as cards, feasts, sex, and music charts a dangerous course. This does not mean that all leisure is evil. The Aristotelian theory of leisure

48See the copy of Sebald Beham, Parable of the Prodigal Son given in Landau and Parsall, 232.

49Zecher, 134. 150

examined a productive source of needful relaxation for the body and especially the mind—with music playing an important role. Aristotle states it best: For assuredly it [leisure] should not be employed in amusement, since it would follow that amusement is our end in life. But if this is impossible, and amusements should rather be employed in our times of business (for a man who is at work needs rest, and rest is the object of amusement, while business is accompanied by toil and exertion), it follows that in introducing amusements we must watch the right opportunity for their employment, since we are applying them to serve as medicine.50

The warning of these prodigal son scene, therefore, reflects the hazards of using leisure for simple amusements.

Music in other New Testament Banquet Scenes

Closely related to the prodigal son theme is the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus, which found a large market in the print medium. The parable also warns against uncontrollable greed and waste. The simple narrative describes Lazarus as a poor man seeking charity and not finding it from the rich man who enjoys his luxury during his short earthly existence. The narrative continues into the afterlife where Lazarus has gained eternal rewards in heaven while the rich man burns in hell. The parable ends with an ironic twist as the rich man begs Lazarus for mercy and admittance into heaven but is denied by higher powers.51 Jörg Breu the Younger (1510–1547) devotes several designs for this parable. In The Rich Man and The Poor Lazarus, Brue shows the “sumptuous feasting” of the rich man who is collecting stags for a banquet.52 On one side an ensemble of trumpeters signals the rich man’s invited guests to the feast, while on the other side Lazarus, with a halo, is being threatened by a

50Treitler, 24-25.

51See Luke 16:19-31.

52See the copy of Jörg Breu the Younger, The Rich Man and the Poor Lazarus given in Hollstein German Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etching 1450–1700, vol. 4, p. 189. 151 servant with a whip. In the background a continuous narrative unfolds as we see the dogs licking Lazarus’s sores. And farther back, Lazarus is seen sitting on the lap of Abraham while the rich man is burning in hell. The parable would have appealed to both Catholics and Protestants. Catholics would have responded to the emphasis on good works, while the Protestants value any narrative or theme of the New Testament. The trumpeters emphasize the rich man’s affluence and provide a subtle prefiguration of the Last Judgment. The rich man’s wealth is noted in the fine clothing of the party on the platform including the trumpeters. They are performing field trumpets that had a real-life military function in performing outdoors and signaling the nobleman’s presence.53 An ironic contrast appears in this work. Since wealthy noblemen often saw their courts as extensions of the heavenly court, this print reveals a contradiction. Breu shows that courts that focus on worldly pursuits and ignore God’s commandments are doomed for a short, slippery existence. Like the prodigal son scenes, most rich man and Lazarus scenes focus on the high living and wasteful expense. Heinrich Aldegrever (1502–1555) also produces a series of prints devoted to this parable, which emphasize the banquet scene. The Rich Man at the Table depicts both a feast and a stew, a combination of feasting and bathing.54 Aldegrever shows the rich man in fine clothing at an outdoor table with a female companion to the right and a musician performing a transverse flute to the left. The table has a chicken in the center, other foods, and dishes. In the front of the table sits a nude women in a barrel taking a bath. Next to the bath is a nude male figure who could be in the process of joining her. A dog annoys another woman who has one foot in a bucket while holding a bowl. The scene targets lust and gluttony as the main effects of prodigality. The flute also stresses the decadence of the rich man’s life. As a wind instrument, it symbolizes lustful enticements and the illusory world of materialism. As a military instrument, the transverse flute evokes images of war, disharmony, and licentious behavior from off duty

53Polk, 47

54See the copy of Heinrich Aldegrever, The Rich Man at the Table given in Hollstein German Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings 1450–1700, vol. 1, p. 25. 152 soldiers. All together, the scene resembles the prodigal son images and, therefore, offers the same warning to uncontrolled hedonism. Finally, the marriage at Cana has been produced by northern artists with differing results. The narrative describes Jesus and his Apostles invited to Cana for a wedding feast. Jesus and his mother attend. When the wine runs out, Jesus turns water into better wine than the previous wine. Considered his first miracle, it stresses the sacrament and the Last Supper.55 Hieronymus Bosch’s The Marriage at Cana represents a unique digression from the original biblical passage.56 Bosch shows the wedding as though it is conducted by Herod or some other heretical figure. Tolnay’s analysis of this painting shows that almost all the figures are heretics except for Christ (towards the right blessing the chalice), the man at Christ’s right side, and the mother of Jesus (sitting by the bride).57 As one might expect from heretics, they attempt to match their magic with Jesus’s: In the background a magician, magic wand in hand, performs his office in a “chapel” decorated with pillars before a sideboard that serves as an altar: he is bewitching the food, making a pair of fire-tongs shoot out of the beak of the swan and streams of poison spurt form the mouth of the wild boar and using his magic power to change the cherubim that decorate the capitals of the columns into demons, one of which is aiming an arrow at the other, who is managing to escape through a hole in the wall. . . .All this becomes understandable when we recall that from the second half of the thirteenth century onwards the Church regarded all magic as heresy and every magician as a tool of Satan. . . .Bosch contrasts the false miracle of the magician with the true miracle of Christ: the transubstantiation of the wine into the blood of Christ is taking place without the knowledge of the company, who are entirely given over to the pleasures of the table.58

55See John 2:1-12.

56See the copy of Hieronymus Bosch, The Marriage at Cana given in Tolnay, 70-77. Recent analyses have dated this work to 1555/61 well after Bosch’s death. See Vermet, 98. However, Vandenbroeck suggests that Bosch painted an original version that did not survive implying that the extant version is a copy. See Vandenbroeck, 159-160. For reasons of simplicity I will refer to this work as if it were Bosch’s.

57Tolnay, 13.

58Tolnay, 13.. 153

Bosch’s works that show the world overrun with evil magic turns this traditional wedding feast into an example of the decadent state of humanity. The bagpiper on the platform conforms to the heretical atmosphere. With an evil , he looks at the bewitched food as it enters the hall. Here, the bagpipe functions as a tool of magic that creates an illusion of security leading to licentiousness. Being situated nearest to the demon that was once a cherub, the piper reflects a close association to the phantasms that inhabit many of Bosch’s great triptychs. Moreover, the bagpiper’s sitting position evokes the sin of sloth that is often associated with the itinerant minstrel—a paid professional that does not produce a tangible product. Bosch’s Marriage stands in contrast with Martin de Vos’s work (fig. 28). A comparison of magic does not seem to be apparent in Martin’s work. Instead the wedding guests are dressed in contemporary clothing while Jesus and Mary wear the ancient robes. The anachronistic clothing both separates the figures of Jesus and Mary and brings a timeless quality to the work. Moreover, Jesus and Mary are the only guests with their backs turned to the table as if to accent their ascetic lifestyles. Jesus is in the act of performing the miracle as he points to the six vessels on the floor. Like Bosch’s work, none of the guests save Jesus and Mary are aware of the miracle. Above the scene in the instrument box are two lutes, a cittern, and a boy vocalist. One may notice that these are soft instruments in the high instrument box, which contradict the categorizations of high-loud and low-soft. Martin’s painting shows that these categories may not have been strictly enforced. The ensemble of lutes, cittern, and voice reflect real-life instruments often associated with the Renaissance banquet. Indeed, Messisbugo’s work often includes lutes, voices, and occasionally a cittern or .59 Thus, Martin’s work shows a more typical court banquet and musical ensemble that would accompany it, and it bears a resemblance to Veronese’s Marriage at Cana. The lutes reflect a higher class setting than the bagpipe. While Martin’s work does not relegate the wedding guests to the realm of magic, it does not exalt them either. While the guests do not practice magic, they are oblivious to the miracle and the presence of Jesus and Mary most likely due to the musical festivities.

59See Appendix B. 154

Music in biblical banquet scenes supports the high moral tone of the specific narratives. The prodigal son scene shares a warning that is similar to the worshiping of the golden calf; both subjects point out the futile attempt of man to enjoy the pleasures of material life without God. In Lucas’s Worshiping the Golden Calf, the fife and drum equate the revelry to war, perhaps meant to reflect the Israelite’s war with God. Similarly, the bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy in Hemessen’s Prodigal Son support a more satanic banquet away from the son’s God-fearing family. In, Oostsanen’s Witch of Endor, the witchcraft element is given precedence over the biblical narrative. The hurdy-gurdy-playing satyr does not appear in the narrative, and is, therefore, meant to support the witchcraft element. The hurdy-gurdy’s composite structure augments the strange atmospheric colors and distorted figures. Musical instruments inserted within these scenes reflect man’s almost hypnotic illusory world that takes false security in pleasure. A similar theme, although in a much more advanced stage, can be drawn from the feast of Herod. Quentin incorporates an elaborate style in order to bring the pomp of Herod to the surface. Part of the pomp included musicians. Yet music fulfills a deeper role than an element of splendor. In effect the musicians create an illusory ambiance that distracts the other figures from the evil taking place. Similarly Bosch’s Marriage at Cana includes a bagpiper among magicians who compete against Christ and cast spells on the food. The bagpipe’s symbol of lust and gluttony infuses a secular element to the heretics. Bosch’s interpretation of the biblical event reflects his more negative view of humanity. The goodness of the world, in Bosch’s works, are usually only found in the exemplary lives of the saints. Yet Bosch’s satanic world contains an element of intrigue that has captivated his audience and followers. Martin’s Marriage at Cana does not emphasize the evil world in the way Bosch’s works do. Rather Martin’s world view is more oblivious than decisively evil. The participants at the marriage are too involved with the music and food to recognize the presence of Jesus, Mary, and the miracle. However, on the whole, music in these biblical scenes reflects a more negative view of musical performance. These scenes show music as a distraction from God that can lead one into oblivious licentiousness. CHAPTER 4

MUSIC IN PEASANT SCENES CONTAINING FESTIVALS, BANQUETS, AND MEALS

Introduction: The Peasant Feast and Music

Perhaps the most famous banquet scene in northern Renaissance works includes peasants. Peasants appear both in the print at painting media to such an extent that they became almost iconic. It is not uncommon to see playing cards ornamented with frolicking peasants. Images of dancing peasants occupies woodcuts that comprise a series of blocks usually for wallpaper. To some extent Pieter Bruegel creates a higher interest into the workings of the lower classes. Bruegel’s interest in peasants is shared by artists such as Pieter Aertsen, Joachim Beuckelaer, and Sebald Beham. Since images of peasants broach several social and historical issues that include the Great Peasant Revolt, many scholars have been attracted to these artists. Scholars tend to be divided concerning the possible positive or negative representations of the peasants. Some scholars maintain that peasant scenes were an upper class weapon fueled by the peasant revolts. Others stress that peasant scenes are innocuous products meant for comical effect. Both stances rely on iconographic material that includes musical instruments. Among the various iconographic images that accent the typical peasant scene, musical instruments serve as regular symbols. For the most part they function as class symbols that alert the viewer concerning the social station of the figures. Yet the musical instruments are often disguised symbols that contain many nuances and sub-associations. Invariably, peasant scenes with music also contain tables, food, and wine jugs. The instrumentalists often do not partake of the food, but rather stand to the side of the compositions, which reflects a more professional

155 156

status. Yet these professional musicians are also peasants because they more frequently dress in the same type of lower class attire that the rest of the group wears. The theme of music in the peasant banquet scenes delineates the figures’ social status and character while supporting the comical nature of the theme. This chapter will examine the musical iconography of the peasant scene from the larger banquets to the smaller feast scenes. The kermis scenes are often large enough to contain more than one table and usually include several sets of musicians. The single banquet scene usually shows a single event such as a wedding feast or dance.

Music in Festival Scenes

The large church festivals, called kermises or church masses, provide artists with the opportunity to instill these scenes with irony that contain a real-life basis. Although these festivals are considered holy occasions by the clergy and the more prudish nobility, the scenes often show a high level of reckless behavior among lower class citizens. Effective examples come from the works of Sebald Beham. Sebald’s -Dance in Grimpelsbrunn depicts several tables, musicians, and peasants.60 Large-nosed peasants are further shown dancing around a pole, suggesting a pagan activity. The dance is expressed with exaggerated gestures and facial expressions. In the background, more peasants dance below a pole surmounted by a cock. To the right, a group has drawn their swords and are about to battle. Keith Moxey’s study of the social aspects of this and other prints noted the significance of the cock. As in English, the word Hahn or ‘cock’ was used to refer to the male sexual member. This dance was used in Nuremberg carnival plays of the late fifteenth century as part of a satirical form of humor based on the figure of the peasant. In the play entitled The Old Cock Dance, peasants compete for a cock and a pair of men’s underpants. The

60See the copy of Sebald Beham, The Nose-Dance in Gimpelsbrunn given in Hollstein German Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings 1450–1700, vol. 3, p. 259. 157

humor depends on the boastful way the peasants describe their dancing abilities before demonstrating them.61 The musical activities also reflect the ribaldry. In the foreground two musicians perform on a bagpipe and a soprano shawm for the “nose dance.” Another bagpiper sits at the table behind the “nose dance” and yet another bagpiper performs for the “cock dance.” All four musicians appear somewhat corpulent and because of this blend well with the rest of the peasants. The image of the large bagpiper is common and re-appears in the works of Bruegel discussed below. Their music, however, enhances the excitement that leads to silly behavior, immoderate drinking and dangerous sword fighting. Indeed, Sebald seems to go out of his way to increase the level of cacophony that would result from three bagpipes and a shawm performing in the near vicinity of each other. We may assume that they are performing different music since they are isolated and accompany different activities. The pictorial discord, therefore, supports the uncontrolled behaviors of the peasants. Moreover, the three bagpipes overemphasize the lower class setting and figures. Granted, the high dynamics of the bagpipe make it useful for outdoors. Yet had this been an upper class scene, the instruments would have been most likely trumpets, which the nobility desire an exclusive use. “Contemporary notion concerning the trumpets as symbols of status were such that Emperors and kings evidently struggled to restrict the privilege of their use.”62 Authorities also attempt to limit the number of musical instruments for festivals.63 The need to limit musical instruments underlines a fear of violence, to which loud music is considered a major contributor. The Peasant’s war of 1525 leads to prints that show the dangerous aspects of the peasants. Moxey considers these prints to be upper class propaganda or “false consciousness” imposed upon the public: Just as important as adopting a semiotic view of the work of art is recognizing its status as an ideological construct. By ideology, Marx and his followers meant what they called ‘false consciousness’—systems of thought sponsored and promulgated by the

61Keith Moxey, Peasants, Warriors, and Wives: Popular Imagery in the Reformation, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 47.

62Polk, 48.

63Schama, 186. 158

dominant classes as a means of concealing the true nature of class relations. According to this view, ideology offered people a means of rationalizing their existence in such a way that they remained unaware how far their economic welfare and social experience were dictated by the class that controlled the means of production.64 He further clarifies the role of print making and distribution by claiming that while the print relies on a popular audience for sales, it does not represent the popular mind set.65 Moreover, “In attempting to understand the artistic character of late medieval woodcuts, it is important to see through the distinction between ‘high art’ and ‘low art’ that has been imposed on them by the notion of the aesthetic. Unlike the modern period, the Middle Ages had no such notion, or even a category for ‘art.’”66 Therefore, as tools to manipulate the social reality of the lower classes, the music iconography of Sebald’s work reproduce the lowest form of musical expression. There, evidently, is a pressing religious need for the attempt to control public opinion: There are important religious and social changes resulting from the Peasants’ War, some of which offer us a glimpse of the mechanism through which this change in attitude was effected. . . .As the conflict grew in scale Luther’s appeals to the peasants went unheeded, he became increasingly anxious lest the destruction of the existing social order also threaten the success of the new faith. . . .In a treatise entitled Against the Robbing Murdering Hordes of Peasants, published in Wittenberg in 1525, he wrote: “Furthermore, anyone who can be proved to be a seditious person is an outlaw before god and emperor; and whoever is the first to put him to death does right and well . . . .Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful or devilish than a rebel.”67

The mass production quality of prints enable the distribution of caustic propaganda that target peasant violence. Prints that depict peasant celebrations are often based, moreover, on carnival plays that reduce the peasant to the level of animal behavior: Their subject matter often dealt with the life of the peasantry, and they were filled with obscene and scatological humor. These coarse peasant satires may be traced to chivalric literature of the High Middle Ages, in which the figure of the peasant had been used both to mock the mannered conventions of courtly society and also to uphold them

64Moxey, 7.

65Moxey.

66Moxey, 3.

67Moxey, 58-59. 159

be contrast with the manners of a class for which they had no meaning. . . .By making their transgression in the clothing of those who were traditionally excluded from the circle of civilized society, they also asserted the superiority of their own urban culture to that of the surrounding countryside. Although the carnival plays were not banned when carnival was abolished, their character changed significantly during the course of the sixteenth century. In the hands of the Lutheran playwright Hans Sachs, the plays were toned down and altered by adding moralizing conclusions that left no doubt in the spectators’ minds as to the instruction they were meant to draw from the outrageous behavior they had seen.68 Moxey also notes that since the peasant could not read, the consumers of these prints are upper class. “Since broadsheets consisted of both image and text, we must suppose that those who bought them were literate enough to use the latter to elucidated the former. It has been estimated that at the beginning of the sixteenth century only 5 percent of the total population of Germany was literate.”69 The carnival play, therefore, serve as both comedy and class ideology. The image of the bagpipe functions as an identifying class label in order to aid the theme of the carnival play and the prints that follow. A similar use of the bagpipe is found in Pieter Bruegel’s Kermis At Hoboken.70 The high- angle view distances the viewer from the energetic peasants. To the left we see a large tavern full of peasants who are dancing, urinating, and drinking. To the right sits another tavern with a circle of peasants dancing to a bagpiper. In the center are two carts surrounded by hogs and chickens. A peasant squats—possibly defecating—next to the church in the top center. Moxey considers this drawing to be influenced by the Beham brothers’ prints in attempting to expose the “abuse of church holidays.”71 Several fulminations attacking the church festivals are reproduced in Moxey and Roberts-Jones’ monographs. Moxey cites Luther’s discussion of these church festivals: Luther attacked the institution of the church holiday as early as 1520 in his epistle to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation: “All festivals should be abolished and Sunday

68Moxey, 15.

69Moxey, 23.

70See the copy of Pieter Bruegel’s Kermis at Hoboken given in Roberts-Jones, 263.

71Moxey, 55. 160

alone retained. If it be desired however, to retain the festivals of Our Lady and of the major Saints, they should be transferred to Sunday, or observed only by an early morning mass after which all the rest of the day should be a working day. Here is the reason: since the feast days are abused by drinking, gambling loafing and all manner of sin, we anger God more on holidays than we do on other days. Things are so topsy- turvy that holidays are not holy but working days are. . . . Above all, we ought to abolish church anniversary celebrations outright, since they have become nothing but taverns, fairs and gambling places and only increase the dishonoring of God and foster the soul’s damnation.72

Emperor Charles V, although in agreement, is less draconian:

Consequently, as a remedy to the disorderly drinking bouts and drunkenness which are occurring in our country in various inn, taverns, and hostelries, held in secluded places away from towns, market towns, and villages, away from the high roads and other places, in fairs and kermises, and as a remedy to the brawls, murders, and other problems that result, we decree and order that. . . the said fairs and kermises shall last but one day, on pain of a fine for each of those who hold said fairs and kermises beyond and longer than this limit of one day, as for those who attend them. And for each time that they do so, of thirty livres for each offender.73

These prints provide a visual aid to such sermons and secular decrees drawing attention to the corrosive effect that the kermis supposedly have on the town’s spiritual and temporal health. Morever, several reforming treatises that attack the increase of feasts days and monastic orders target the festivals for deteriorating into the proliferation of simony articles.74 Although peasants are often the target for blame regarding the misuse of church holidays, other sources show that they are merely comical scapegoats. Huizinga notes that the abuse of the church festivals—or any other church function—includes the nobility as well: The most sacred festivals, even Christmas Eve itself, are spent in debauchery with card games, cursing, and blasphemy; if the people are admonished, they point to the example of the nobility and the higher and lower priesthood who behave with impunity. During vigils there is dancing in the churches themselves to the accompaniment of lascivious songs. Priests set the example by dicing and cursing during their nightly wakes. These are the practices documented by the moralists, who are perhaps always given to taking

72Moxey, 61.

73Roberts-Jones, 262-63.

74Huizinga, 175. 161

the darkest view, but the sources more than once confirm this dark image. The city council of Strasbourg every year dispensed eleven hundred liters of wine to those who spent the night of St. Adolf in the cathedral “holding a wake and in prayer.” A city councillor complained to Denis the Carthusian that the annual of the holy relics provided the occasion for drinking and numerous improprieties. . . .Going to church was an important element of the social life. People went there to enjoy dressing up, to show off their rank and prominence and to compete in courtly manners and deportment. . . . If a young nobleman enters, the gracious lady stands up and kisses him on the mouth even while the priest elevates the host and the people are on their knees praying. Walking about and talking during mass must have been quite customary. The use of the church as a trysting place for young lads and girls was so common that only the moralists were still upset about it.75

Images and literature, therefore, often use the peasant as a buffering symbol in order to document these irreverences while protecting the upper classes’ reputations. The manipulation of the peasant’s behavior is exemplified further in Sebald’s use of types rather than naturalism or individual traits. “The peasant figures of both Barthel and Sebald possess a curiously depersonalized air. Far from representing particular individuals, the Beham peasants seem to repeat basic types, using different gestures and clothing as the principal means of differentiating them. Both men and women are short and stocky, the men characterized by strong features remarkable for their ugliness.”76 Breugel’s drawing offers a less individualized peasant as well. The stereotypical peasant behaves in predictable ways, such as wild dancing, public defecation, drinking, and vomiting. The abuse of the church is also apparent as one peasant even dares to defecate on the church itself. The abundance of hogs in Kermis at Hoboken brings another level of meaning to the bagpipe. Among the few animals that are shown in prints playing the bagpipe, the hog represents a significant image. In her analysis of the miller in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Kathleen Scott draws attention to several carved images on English churches of sows playing bagpipes.77 She claims that the images provides a further metaphor for peasant characteristics.

75Huizinga, 183-84.

76Moxey, 65.

77Kathleen L. Scott, “Sow-and-Bagpipe Imagery in the Miller’s Portrait,” The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 18, Issue 71 (Aug., 1967), 287-88. 162

“The meaning of the combined images has to do with the music of the bagpipes. The piping sound was considered unpleasant in the Middle Ages, and medieval iconography took a direct means of communicating its distaste: it represented the ugly-sounding pipes in the arms of an ugly-sounding animal.”78 While the hogs may not have an obvious connection to the bagpiper in Bruegel’s drawing, their inclusion amplifies the noise intended to defame the celebration. The bagpipe in this work joins with the tavern forces that threaten the importance the church. Paintings, although maintaining a level of ideology, reflect a more ambiguous depiction of class and music iconography. Joachim Beuckelaer’s Village Feast depicts a benign scene that appears to include more upper class figures (fig. 29). The point of view is lower to the ground giving us a more equal position. Acts of charity replace the violence as one woman offers alms to an old man with a crutch and a younger boy. Behind, figures play games, juggle, and dance to the bagpipe (fig. 30). The scene is thickly wooded providing a more secluded area that offers more privacy for defecations that Bruegel unabashedly displayed. In general, Beuckelaer renders an inviting, harmonious, and polite scene that lacks the satirical humor of the other works. Music in this painting lacks the presence and representation normally given to festival scenes. Beuckelaer relegates the bagpipe, drinking, and dancing to a small and distant area in the composition. One may dismiss this point as trivial, yet the intentional distancing of music betrays his support of notions regarding the corrupting influences of music on the human soul. Indeed, the better dressed upper-class figures seem almost isolated from the peasant revelry next to the inn. Castilgione expresses the careful way in which nobles should mingle with the peasants in order to maintain the class divisions: At this, signor Pallavicino said: “In Lombardy we are not so fussy. On the contrary, many of our young gentlemen are to be found, on holidays, dancing all day in the open air with the peasants, and taking part with them in sports. . . .” “Well, to me,” replied Federico, “This dancing in the open air is most displeasing, and I can see no advantages in it at all. . . .Neither should he behave like those people who are fond of music and, whenever they are speaking with someone, if there is a lull in the conversation always

78Scott, 289. 163

start to sing sotto voce; or like others who, walking through the streets or in church, are for ever dancing.”79

Beuckelaer maintains a class division by placing a boundary between the upper classes nearer to the picture plane and the lower classes farther away in the town square. Moreover, the music and exaggerated gestures of the peasants are also pushed to the background reflecting Castiglione’s disfavor of the nobility joining the peasant musical activities. Contrasting this wooded scene is Gillis Mostaert’s (1534–1598) Village Feast (fig. 31). No longer do we have a class division, rather the scene now concentrates on the town square. Here, peasants dance in a circle in front of a tavern to a bagpiper who leans on a barrel. Beside the dancing circle is a table with dishes. Seated at the table a woman cleans her child’s behind. Shop keepers appear selling articles on tables. A minor struggle is seen behind the tree stump. In the right corner, the dancing becomes so energetic that one woman falls in the mud. One remarkable characteristic in this and other peasant scenes is the depiction of the lower classes in clothing that is usually not associated with peasants. George Fenwick Jones’s article concerning the “peasant brawl” writes the following: “the grievance of the upper classes was partly economic; for, if the peasants had spent less money for cloths, they could better have paid their landlords. . . .Such prejudices influence not only literature but also legislation. For example, in 1457 the Scottish Parliament resolved that the realm was being impoverished by ‘sumptuoss clething bath of men and wemen. . .’ and it passed various measures regulating clothing according to the wealth and social status of the subjects.”80 The woman falling in the mud heightens the comic value while stressing the irresponsible behavior of the peasants. Not all artists and thinkers, however, share the use of clothing for class distinction. In Thomas More’s Utopia the perfect society’s citizens dress the same maintaining a sense of equality. “These diplomats. . .knew it was a country where expensive clothes were not admired, silk was

79Castiglione, 117-118.

80George Fenwick Jones, “Christis Kirk, and Peblis to the Play, and the German Peasant- Brawl,” PMLA, Vol. 68, Issue 5 (Dec., 1953), 1111-1112. 164 despised, and gold was a dirty word, so they’d dressed as simply as they could. . . .”81 Nevertheless, More’s work is atypical of the prevailing thought. Music in this work represents a similarly corrupting force as Bruegel’s Kermis at Hoboken. Mostaert paints a with bagpipe outside the entrance of a tavern. The barrel that the bagpiper leans against reminds us of the Carnival personification where a corpulent man sits atop a barrel. Directly behind the bagpiper stands a man urinating against the wall. Urinating, fighting, love making, and dancing reflect the effects of binge drinking, all of which appear under the influence of the bagpipe. Like the expensive clothing on which peasants presumptiously waste their money, the illusory effect of music that causes foolish behavior leads to fears and distrusts regarding the paid minstrels. Of all professions, excepting possibly the tailors, the minstrels were reputedly the most cowardly, and perhaps this was one of the reasons they were declared “dishonorably” by old German law. This charge of cowardice may have been partly due to their custom of withdrawing from battle to some safe place whence they could return to sing the praises of the victor. . . .The minstrel was also scorned because of his greed, a quality often attributed to the peasants in general, who thus contrasted with the gentle (i.e., generous) nobles.82

Considering this prejudice against even minstrels of more upper class instruments such as lutes, the minstrels who perform on the lower class bagpipe, one may assume, would attract more disdain. Moreover, since the construction of the bagpipe resembles a purse, it may also be considered as a symbol of greed. In addition, cowardice is noticeable in these peasant scenes since the bagpiper almost always occupies a peripheral position in the composition. One never sees a bagpiper, or other musician, embroiled in the melee. Indeed, the bagpiper in Mostaert’s work has a safe position away from the fighting or from the other accidents.

81More, 87.

82Jones, 1117. 165

Music in Smaller Peasant Banquet Scenes

Smaller peasant banquet scenes usually portray an event like a wedding. The peasant works of Bruegel maintain such a dominant place in art that scholars consider these works to represent a new genre.83 Although artists have painted peasants since the Limbourg Brothers, Bruegel is noteworthy for giving the peasants monumental characteristics. Carel van Mander who documents the lives of many northern artists writes the following concerning Bruegel: With this Franckert, Breughel often went out into the country to see the peasants at their fairs and weddings. Disguised as peasants they brought gifts like the other guests, claiming relationship or kinship with the bride or groom. Here Brueghel delighted in observing the droll behavior of the peasants, how they ate, drank, danced, capered, or made love, all of which he was well able to reproduce cleverly and pleasantly in water colors or oils, being equally skilled in both processes.84

Yet later in the passage when van Mander discusses Bruegel’s works, he betrays a snide view of peasants. “The peasants’ faces and the limbs, where they are bare, are yellow and brown, sunburnt; their skins are ugly, different from those of town dwellers.”85 Van Mander also gives an indication Bruegel was a peasant himself before he became a respected artist.86 Breugel’s delightful yet “ugly” peasants create differing opinions among modern scholars. Moxey considered that the ambiguity of peasant images results partly from our more politically correct modern society: From our twentieth-century perspective as inhabitants of a culture whose values have taught us not to laugh at those less fortunate than ourselves, not to disdain poverty or notice deformities, not to enjoy vulgar and obscene forms of language, we may find it difficult to appreciate a brand of humor that invites us to do just these things. We are

83Albert Deblaere, “Bruegel and the Religious Problems of his Time,” Apollo, vol. CV, no. 181 (March, 1977), 180.

84Wolfgang Stechow ed., Northern Renaissance Art 1400-1600: Sources and Documents. (New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs, 1966), 38-39.

85Stechow , 40.

86Stechow , 38. 166

asked, that is, to laugh at the credulous victim of the unscrupulous dentist, to find amusing the plight of the drunkard who vomits in the foreground, to regard the clodhopping dancers as ridiculous.87

While Bruegel’s peasants maintain the comical aspects of Sebald’s peasants, van Mander suggested that Bruegel, in painting peasants, strove to capture a form of nature uncorrupted by civilization. Bruegel shades the clear line between comedy, morality, and nature delineated by other artists. In The Wedding Dance, Bruegel expresses the peasants’ liberation from the stricter limits of upper classes (fig. 32). Bruegel shows us a peasant dance that is somewhat more graceful than Mostaert or even his own Kermis at Hoboken. “Seen from above, and excompassing a large company of peasants who are enjoying themselves at the wedding of one of their daughters, the scene captures in depth—from the foreground to the distance, along lines that guide the eye to the horizon almost on the edge of the picture—and condenses a crowd of men and women, in groups, drinking, gossiping, and dancing to the sound of bagpipes.”88 The Wedding Dance’s popularity led to print reproductions and copies.89 Despite its simple and conventional subject, The Wedding Dance has attracted much discussion regarding its ambiguous rendering of a possible moral or comical theme. The erect codpieces—that at one time were censored by being painted over—evoke a comical aspect that to modern eyes is distasteful and may even strike one as applying an oversexed stereotype to an entire class. However, in her article on Bruegel’s peasants, Svetlana Alpers writes, “This is after all a wedding. And, to turn the current interpretation back on itself, one could not have a wedding whose consummation did not involve the satisfaction of human instincts.”90 Indeed, the very function of the codpiece seems to provide male genitalia space that contrasts with the more limited modern dress standards and trends. Also considering that the codpieces were censored

87Moxey, 65.

88Roberts-Jones, 256.

89Roberts-Jones, 260.

90Svetlana Alpers, “Bruegel’s Festive Peasants,” Simiolus, vol. 6, issue 3/4 (1972-73), 165. 167

supports a later standard than a contemporary one. “Bruegel respected people too much to want to disparage them. He could view them with humor, yes; he could seek out the ridiculous, no doubt—but derision was not in his character.”91 One possible didactic moral that arises in The Wedding Dance is the more negative view of dancing during the late Middle Ages. As a follower of Bosch, Bruegel is to some degree influenced by late medieval biases. His Seven Deadly Sins and Virtues series attest to his moral devotions. While dancing may appear innocuous or natural for peasants, it poses a palpable threat to the human soul. “Its [dancing] usefulness in characterizing the peasantry as wild and unruly undoubtedly derives from the moral opprobrium in which dancing was held by religious and civil authorities alike. Not only were sermons and devotional treatises continually directed at what was regarded as a vice, but in Nuremberg, city ordinances also regulated it.”92 Dancing is also considered evil in . It is evident that the clergy fulminated against dancing. . . .Among other things dancing leads to vanity and causes young girls to lose their chastity and to abort the consequences of their folly. . . . Men as well as women wished to flaunt their sexuality, as we see in the Neidhart songs and in the uncensored version of Breughel’s Peasant Dance. In addition to causing sin, dancing was also a waste of energy. . . .Country dances were ridiculed in social as well as in moral satire, since the upper classes considered them crude and backward. . . .The nobles looked down on the peasants with kindly condescension when they danced their native dances, but with bitter resentment when they tried to imitate the foreign ways of their social betters.93

For Jones, Bruegel’s Wedding Dance appears charmingly comic only because it afforded upper class patrons a sense of superiority. Unlike the peasants, the nobility take assurance from these works that they are able to control their passions for pleasure. The sinful nature of dancing only heightens the comic effect at the peasants’ expense. Alpers seems to disagree with Jones’s more class conscious analysis. “Bruegel has chosen to emphasize the dance to de-emphasize, in fact to leave out altogether, the kinds of excesses—urinating, defecating, fighting and so on—that so

91Roberts-Jones, 260.

92Moxey, 47.

93Jones, 1106. 168

often appear in such scenes.”94 Moreover, Alpers notes that dancing is becoming more accepted during the latter half of the sixteenth century. Bruegel’s dancers do not indulge in any of the steps or gestures which were considered undecorous, such as exposing one’s knees, parting one’s legs, elevating the female partner high up in the air. . . . It is important to recognize that in spite of all the argument about dancing in the 16th century, and the extraordinary antagonism of the Calvinists, the wedding dance was exempted from the stricture by even some of the severest reformers. The dance was but one of the myriad events surrounding a wedding, and it would seem that the indulgence of human instincts was accepted custom here.95

Whatever Bruegel’s intentions are, the sense of heavy moralizing noticeable in other works appears softened in The Wedding Dance. While many of the peasants are overweight, they are not excessively obese, which evokes prosperity rather than gluttony. The extended codpieces denote fertility that the dance celebrates. Although the class ideology that Moxey and Jones draw attention to is present in Bruegel’s works, one could also claim that most art in any age contains some level of class ideology—indeed our own television programs and films are full of it. Music plays a key role in The Wedding Dance. While the bagpipers occupy a peripheral area in the composition, the entire scene echoes their strains. Roberts-Jones noted the rhythmic evolvement of the figures. “The concentration and repetition of movements here create the rhythm, which is also marked by colors—red and white—and especially by the way they punctuate the painting: white caps, red bonnets, aprons, skirts, breeches, and jerkins.”96 The inclusion of two bagpipers reflects the willingness to spend extra for an important event. A sense of accuracy is also noted in the large drone-pipes that would have been more appropriate in a large setting due to the need of a higher dynamic level. The large bagpipes would generate a deeper and richer timbre. The bagpiper nearest to the picture plane has also an erect codpiece, which reflects the lustful symbol of the instrument. It also, however, enhances the pleasure

94Alpers, 165.

95Alpers, 167-68.

96Roberts-Jones, 257. 169

association attributed to music. Yet Bruegel does not appear to cast a moralizing judgment on the musician. Rather the purpose for the bulging codpiece is motivated for comic effect. One should keep in mind that this “rib-nudging” comedy is not exclusive to peasants. During the sixteenth century, prints occasionally display decorative penises.97 In addition, the ornamental fruit in Raphael’s Farnese gallery shows fruits in the shape of a penis and vagina. Therefore, sexual licence did not rest entirely with the peasants. In addition, Alpers considers these extended codpieces as not sexually explicit in Bruegel’s day. “I think that we have tended to read as moral commentary what is so often in Bruegel’s works simply ethnographically accurate description. The large codpieces—only recently uncovered from a protective guise of over- painting—were a fashion at the time and there seems to have been more frank banter about this than we are accustomed to in our own day.”98 Since these bagpiper peasants are considered closer to nature, they are more susceptible to earthly drives. The bagpipe in this context evokes popular rustic mythology of Pan and Marsyas and the humble shepherds at the Nativity, which also popularize the peasant image. “There was a true flowering of interest in peasants, their customs and costumes in the 16th century. Artists started to travel about Europe collecting, compiling and publishing costume-books illustrating the native costumes of various countries, while at the same time writers were collecting proverbs in the vernacular.”99 Nevertheless, Bruegel does not idealize the scene but gives an accurate depiction of a peasant dance. Bruegel’s own painting reveal a more detailed knowledge of peasant mores and a greater responsibility towards ethnographic accuracy than that of any other artist of his time. In Wedding dance, for example, Bruegel has set the festivity at the harvest time—the trees in the middle distance are dropping their leaves and at the right they are changing color—the favorite season, because of the plentiful food, for village weddings. . . .In the distance we see the only representation that I know of the crude earthen tables, the seats for which were apparently dug out of the ground for gusts at large peasant affairs. . .and the musicians’ hats display coins which may have come from the bride’s shoes, another custom that has carried over into our day.100

97See Landau and Parshall, 94.

98Alpers, 167.

99Alpers, 165.

100Alpers, 166-67. 170

This level of accuracy extends also to the bagpipe, which offers a model for modern instrument makers to reconstruct what is now known as “the Bruegel bagpipe.” The accuracy of Wedding Dance reflects the beginnings of an ennobling of the instrument that would reach a climax in the works of Watteau. Since the bagpipes are not prominently displayed, Bruegel appears to be softening the bagpipes as a symbol of gluttony or lust. The music is not promoting violence or public exhibitionism. Bruegel’s peasants are also the subject of feasting in The Wedding Feast (fig. 33). This work depicts a large indoor wedding feast. Large figures occupy the foreground: others decrease in size with increasing distance, following the painting’s perspective. The perspective is oblique, allowing the guests to be arranged around the table while keeping a special place for the bride, in the right- hand third of the painting. She faces the viewer, and her presence is emphasized by a drap d’honneur and a paper crown. . . .Two crossed wheat sheaves are held in the straw by a rake, as a sign of blessing.101

Peasants are shown bringing pancakes on a makeshift wooden door. Near the left corner, a peasant pours wine into smaller jugs. This image draws on the Marriage at Cana scenes where the miracle of water turning into wine escaped the guests notice (discussed in Chapter Three). This subtle religious hint serves as a reminder that Christ sanctioned marriage. The religious theme is deepened further by the confusion of the groom’s presence. “The identification of the characters, and their roles in the wedding, raise questions. While the bride is clearly visible and framed by the two figures in the foreground, where is her spouse?”102 Perhaps Bruegel intends another secular handling of a religious parable. Christ is also known as the bridegroom, and his absence alludes to the Parable of the Ten Virgins. It may, therefore, function as a warning for the proper preparation for the kingdom of God. In a print design attributed to Bruegel titled The Wise and Foolish Virgins, the five wise and foolish virgins are depicted in the dexter and sinister sides respectively.103 The five wise virgins are seen working at productive jobs such as weaving,

101Roberts’Jones, 264-65.

102Roberts-Jones, 270.

103See the copy of Philip Galle, The Wise and Foolish Virgins, after Pieter Bruegel given in Roberst-Jones, 121. 171

spinning, and washing, while the five foolish virgins are seen dancing. Four of these foolish virgins dance while one plays the bagpipe. Below their feet sit empty goblets, a larger jug, and a broom. Above the foolish virgins is a scene that shows them shut out of the palace, and above the wise, they are received with welcome by Christ. While the hint of the absent bridegroom in Peasant Feast is not strong enough to suggest that these peasants’ merry making is equivalent to the foolish virgins, the subtle clue to this parable reflects the current tradition of placing a small biblical scene within a common secular event. Indeed, Bruegel’s other works, like Carrying the Cross (1565) or (1566) show a biblical narrative in the context of common peasant activities. Both remind the viewer to consider these religious themes in their daily lives. These subtle religious themes in Peasant Feast also elevates this common event to a higher religious level. Regarding the absence of the bridegroom, Alpers states, “the absence of her husband—a puzzle to many viewers—is also due to custom, for, at least in certain parts of Europe, the bridegroom was not invited to the feast with the other guests but rather waited on them.”104 Nevertheless, this custom may have roots to the biblical theme. “Weddings, be they at Cana, in more familiar settings as depicted by Pieter Aertsen or Joachim Beuckelaer, or caricature by Frans or Jan Verbeeck and Pieter van der Borcht . . . can be cited as immediate sources, but The Wedding Feast is striking above all because of its authenticity and its form. . . .”105 The form that Roberts-Jones refers to reflects the more grand and monumental figures one would expect from more religious themes. The Wedding Feast marks a new representation of the peasant that markedly differs from the previous, or even and future views of the lower classes. “It is important to note that the painter no longer places himself in an elevated position to capture his subject; he places himself at the same level as the scene, and the viewer thus takes part on an equal footing.”106 Indeed, this new egalitarianism, that is an almost complete turn around from the festival scenes showing peasants, reflects a more sympathetic representation that prefigures the Le Nain

104Alpers, 168.

105Roberts-Jones, 270.

106Roberts-Jones, 270-71. 172

brothers who ennoble the peasant classes.107 Albert Deblaere’s article examines the religious influences that led to Bruegel’s more egalitarian paintings of peasants. “Bruegel’s art announces a departure from a supernatural world, blindly believed in for centuries, and he reveals himself as a enlightened humanist, whose scepticism permitted him to look boldly, though sadly, at the unsolved problems behind the illusions of faith.”108 He claims further that the religious turmoil in the wake of Charles V’s reforms that led to inquisitions and the abusive treatment of Count Alva led Bruegel to soften his moral bent during the last few years of his life. “It appears that it was only in the last two years of his life, that is from just after Alva’s appointment, that Bruegel gave up surveying mankind from aloft and, abandoning his humanistic moralizing, acquiesced in their everyday joys and pitiful blindness; even the human figures are now in complete harmony with nature and of epic stature, and they evolve on the same level as the spectator.”109 Moralizing does appear less obvious than in Bruegel’s earlier works. The popularity of the peasants have been attributed to the rising popularity of epical comic figures leading to Cervantes’s Sancho Panza and Shakespeare’s Jack Falstaff. “The two strains of 16th-century comedy with which we are primarily concerned are humanist wit, on the one hand (for example in Erasmus’s Praise of Folly), and the medieval folk carnival tradition as found in popular farces and songbooks. . . .Both of these find their way into the high art of a Rabelais, or a Shakespeare, or I would now add, Bruegel. . .for they see folly not as something to be scourged, but as the human condition.”110 Deblaere also draws a similar connection to Erasmus. “The religious character of Bruegel’s art is that of Erasmus’s writings; precisely against sectarianism and argumentation. Both regard reforming zealots and excommunicating friars as belonging to the same breed of narrowminded, power-seeking, obscruantist clerics.”111 Indeed, Erasmus’s Folly

107Roberts-Jones, 271.

108Deblaere, 176.

109Deblaere, 178.

110Alpers, 174.

111Deblaere, 179. 173

does more to praise the naturalness of the peasant and condemn the conceit of the nobleman than moralizing on the evils of dancing, music, or lovemaking. The more elevated comical peasant ennobles the bagpipe, dancing, and music in general. Granted, the bagpipers in The Peasant Wedding have red noses and cheeks due to their inebriation. Nevertheless, their presence at the wedding table is more privileged. No longer do they occupy a peripheral area in the composition, but stand directly at the bride’s table which contrasts with the throng entering the barn. Their more prominent position also balances the painting’s color scheme. “Color, as always, fulfills its function of giving rhythm to the picture, with many whites, grays, and blacks conspicuous in the barn’s monochrome tonality. Other figures also draw the eye, such as the bagpiper in red and white, a stabilizing element in the composition who corresponds to the bearer on the right.”112 While the bagpipers may recall the print of the Ten Virgins, Breugel avoids using the bagpipe as a symbol of vice. It is not suggestively positioned like Bosch’s phallic bagpipes. While its connection to gluttony may recall Breugel’s Seven Deadly Sins series, this work avoids the other more obvious images—such as the figure carrying his huge stomach in the wheelbarrow. Rather, the bagpipe’s function evokes notions of abundance, joy, and union. Abundance is shown by the red-vested piper’s bag that inflates even though he is not blowing in the blowpipe. The use of two pipers reflects the union of the bride and groom and both families as well as the harmony of the occasion. Their drone pipes tower over the table occupants as though offering a gesture of support, praise, and protection. Although wine and loud music combine forces, none of the peasants are fighting, relieving themselves, or offering a dancing spectacle. Indeed, the bagpipe in this context resembles the shepherds’ bagpipes in Nativity scenes and, therefore, could symbolize humility. Granted, the bride appears comical in her out-of-character ostentation. However, her seemingly effected manner could also be attributed to custom. “Examples of the ethnographic basis of descriptive details in Bruegel’s works are numerous. It helps us to understand the contented-looking bride, so often described as smug. . . if we know that at the wedding feast the bride was supposed to sit still and unmoving, to look lazy. A German saying existed to the effect that if someone was exceptionally lazy he looked as if he had come with the

112Roberts-Jones, 270. 174

bride.”113 The overall scene shows an enjoyment of nature in its most simple expressions. Filial harmony is reflected also in the acceptance of the youth sitting on the floor tasting a pancake and the other youths sitting at the table next to the adults. The bagpipers also give us psychological association to sound that animates the scene with implied music. Bruegel depicts a banquet that rivals the great medieval feasts in celebrating life lived through the senses. Bruegel continued to show a less critical view of comedy in The Peasants’ Dance (fig. 34). Although highly organized, Bruegel emphasizes the festival is beginning. “The festival has started but is not yet in full swing. The revelers are still arriving. The fool, in the middle, behind the dancers, is waiting to open the proceedings. The bagpiper on the left balances, by his size, the couple running on the scene.”114 Although the scene depicts kissing, dancing, and drunkenness—with the man’s red nose by the bagpiper—the religious moralizing seems all but absent. “There is nothing to justify a symbolic interpretation of anger here, nor anything to suggest that the couple’s kiss is one of lust. Eating, drinking, and having fun in no way imply gluttony or intemperance.”115 Perhaps Bruegel began to see the old stereotypes of peasants in major conflict with reality as Huizinga notes: God created the common people to work, to till the soil, to sustain life through commerce: he created the clergy for the works of faith; but he created the nobility to extol virtue, administer justice, and so that the beautiful members of this estate may, through their deeds and customs, be a model for others. . . .This underestimation of the bourgeoisie resulted from the fact that the stereotype usually associated with the third estate had not been corrected by reality. This stereotype was still as simple and as summary in nature as a calendar picture or a bas-relief depicting the labors of the season: the toiling worker in the field, the industrious craftsman, or the busy merchant. The figure of the powerful patrician who was pushing the nobility from its place, the fact that the nobility constantly renewed itself with the blood and the strength of the bourgeoisie, had as little room in this lapidary type as the figure of the combative guild brother and his ideal of freedom. In the concept of the third estate, the bourgeoisie and the workers remained undifferentiated up until the time of the French Revolution.116

113Alpers, 168.

114Roberts-Jones, 271.

115Roberts-Jones, 277.

116Huizinga, 63-4. 175

Bruegel’s works in his last years appear sensitive to the rising middle class or at least the inaccuracies of peasant stereotypes. Humor aside, Bruegel offers a glimpse at a culture unaffected by the corrupting agents of the large cities such as Antwerp and Brussels. Once again the spectator exists at the same level with the peasants. Moreover, the peasants are given a monumental quality more often afforded to noble figures like Van Eyck’s Chancellor Rollin or Cannon Van der Paele.117 Indeed, Bruegel rarely paints religious figures as large and close to the picture plane as his peasants. Bruegel’s love of nature seems to have been extended to the peasant figure. Bruegel uses the bagpipe again as the preferred instrument of the peasant. Furthermore, like The Peasant Wedding it no longer has a marginalized position in the work. This bagpiper sits at a table, and since the festival is just beginning, he could be simply warming up. Yet, his casual sitting position has not deterred his strains from affecting the group. Below the bagpiper dance two young girls, which tenderly shows the acceptance of all ages at the banquet. The man and women just arriving appear to be dancing and running to the scene. Perhaps the most comical element of the scene is found in the clumsy dance gestures of the man in the center middle ground. He is slumped over and his gestures are excessive and uncontrolled. Yet he is not falling, which reflects a more subtle humor that seems less important in the overall energy of the scene. For Bruegel’s peasants, music is meant to be enjoyed regardless of prevailing instrument or dancing restrictions. Granted, Bruegel does not elevate the figures and instrument’s individuality to the level of a portrait the way the Le Nain brothers do. However, Bruegel’s peasants are remarkable in their unabashed roughness. The central position of the bagpipe reflects Bruegel’s willingness to attribute the roughest and most natural instrument with the similar qualities of people. Bruegel’s bagpiper in The Peasants’ Dance is large and has a dominant presence. The unshaven and contorted facial features certainly recall the myth of Apollo and Marsyas. After Athena invents the aulos she notices that playing it contorts her face. She then curses the

117Deblaere, 176. 176

instrument.118 By contorting the bagpiper’s face, Bruegel is linking the musician to the legendary shepherd instrumentalist, Marsyas. While some may see this link as more damning evidence regarding class antagonism, we should remember that nature mourned following Apollo’s execution of Marsyas. Indeed, Marsyas’s music rivals the gods, and Bruegel is drawing on the power of music on the most simple of souls. Music in the painting has a deeper significance than the more cosmetic concerns of noble behavior. His large drone pipes stretch over the table behind him reflecting the influence on love and the feast. The drone pipes are counterbalanced by his right leg that extends out to the dancing scene, which shows his influence over the dance. The inebriated person holding the tankard next to the piper appears in need of communication with the musician. With this pair, Bruegel shows the similar effects of wine and music. Yet since Bruegel does not include more noticeable moralizing images connected to wine such as fighting or vomiting, his judgment is more ambiguous. The effects of wine have not always been portrayed negatively especially in art. For example, Michelangelo’s Bacchus is a classical free standing nude; his inebriation draws on the mystical qualities of wine that are comparable to music. To be sure, Bruegel’s work has more of a relationship to the bacchanals of Titian than to the moralistic apocalyptic landscapes of Bosch.119 Bruegel’s move to realism in the last years of his life led to a more objective portrayal of the bagpipe than the more negative Boschian iconography. From the advent of printing, artists often limited the number of figures in order to expedite works for a growing demand. Smaller peasant scenes often appear on playing cards and reflect a more simple format. However, the great prints of Albrecht Dürer and paintings of Aertsen occasionally limit the number of figures showing that the practice was not strictly functional. Pieter Aertsen’s Egg Dance shows a small indoor scene with seven figures, four inside and four entering (fig. 35). While a youthful person dances above an egg on the floor, another figure tips on his chair near the table. This latter figure is the most conspicuous person in the

118See Winternitz, 156.

119Roberts-Jones, 277. 177

work due to his exaggerated gesturing and his placement next to the picture plane. His precarious situation is enhanced by the position of the knife, bread plate on the table, and the tipping vase in the background just over his head. He holds his tankard high and lifts his leg as if to join in the music. His other arm rests on the woman’s shoulder. The bagpiper in the background stops playing for a split second to warn the central figure of his impending disaster. Aertsen draws on a traditional dance considered foolish by upper-class standards. Rural dances, for instance, —particularly the Egg Dance—offered artists an avenue for ridicule, an opportunity to comment on the social and intellectual inferiority of the peasant. The performer stomped heavily, creating vibrations in the floor that dislodged an egg from its perch atop an overturned bowl. The object was to cause the egg to roll unbroken outside a circle drawn on the floor. The dance is clearly related to fertility rituals, though its origins were presumably obscure to the peasantry of the sixteenth century. To urban eyes the Egg Dance was a senseless activity.120

Yet like Bruegel’s later peasant scenes, Aertsen’s Egg Dance shows the rural lower class in a more harmless comical mode.121 Nevertheless, the class ideology is still noticeably present. While the comic element reflects Bruegel’s great peasant scenes of the 1560s, the comical and social effects of music are more pronounced. With Egg Dance, Aertsen displays the unstable results of spirits and music. The disaster of the man falling on the table behind is unintended because the music is meant for the dance; yet the combination of wine and music are more unstable than the Vienna’s Peasant Dance. The scene resembles Hemerssen’s Prodigal Son (fig. 27). Aertsen places the bagpiper behind the unstable scene that also includes an old and young woman. However, the egg dance is a popular theme in the prints, which tends to ridicule human behavior more than paintings. Martin de Vos’s Egg Dance displays a group of upper class dressed figures surrounding a similar dance.122 In the background near the table sits a bagpiper performing for the dance. A man wearing a pot on his head accompanies the bagpiper with a griddle harp and knife. The pot reflects a Boschian symbol of gluttony. The

120Ethan Matt Kavaler, “Pieter Bruegel and the Common Man: Art and Ideology in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp,” (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1992) 16.

121Kavaler, 32.

122See the copy of Martin de Vos, Egg Dance given in Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings 1450-1700, vol. 46, p. 160. 178

young man behind the dancer places his hand on a woman’s dress, which further links the theme to Hemessen’s Prodigal Son. In the background is another dance scene with a bagpiper. The dance, therefore, is a lustful sense that draws on the egg’s connection to pagan spring festivals.123 Banquet scenes containing peasants use the bagpipe as both a social and comic symbol. In most kermis scenes the bagpipe enhances the lower class corruption of church festivals by being placed among those people behaving lewdly. Sebald’s prints show the peasant under the dangerous influences wine and loud music. In the context of the Peasant War, the bagpipe and possibly shawm represent rebellion, riot, and intemperance. The peasant banquet scenes of Pieter Bruegel, however, reflect a change in focus. No longer does Bruegel highlight the uncontrolled behavior, but he places the humor and natural aspects in the foreground. The comical element of Bruegel’s peasant works avoid the bathroom humor of Sebald’s prints. One exception may be the erect codpieces in the Detroit Peasant Dance. Yet erect codpieces are not intended to criticize peasant classes. Rather Bruegel uses these codpieces to express the peasants’ unrestrained zeal for life. They are considered part of nature, and this is undoubtedly the characteristic that attracted Bruegel to the peasant. Indeed, the rural working classes are not responsible for providing a moral model. In the context of Bruegel’s peasant scenes, the bagpipe symbolizes the natural qualities. The bagpipe’s connection to the shepherd and its bag construction from animal skin associates it with nature. Therefore, Bruegel uses the bagpipe as a reflection of nature rather than morality. Bruegel’s humorous elements resemble that of Cervantes’s Sancho Panza and do more to endear than estrange. The smaller peasant scenes also reflect the humorous elements that show prodigal son scenes. Aertsen’s Egg Dance differs in its less caustic vision of peasant life than previous prints based on the same subject. The peasant works of Bruegel and Aertsen show a softening of lower-class criticism that perhaps under the influence of humanistic moderation give the scenes a sense of subtle reverence blended with humor.

123Hall, 110. CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION: THE VARIED EXPRESSIONS OF NORTHERN RENAISSANCE MUSICAL BANQUETS

Musical instruments in northern Renaissance banquet scenes reflect the multifaceted nature of concurrent ideas concerning philosophy, symbolism, religion, and class systems. One has only to note the disparate examples of the Rhenish Master’s Paradise Garden and Hieronymus Bosch’s St. Anthony Triptych in order to realize their different artistic conceptions of the world. Granted, both artists work within a religious—albeit fragmenting—hegemony. Nonetheless, artistic world views reflect marked contrasts even within supposed shared styles, such as Bosch and Bruegel. The artistic contrasting styles mirror a rich and developing culture and the rising of bourgeois values in which music plays a defining role. Music graces the meal with dignity, temperance, and tradition; it allies the participants in a harmonious activity; and it provides a complementary stimulant to olfactory and savory senses. Philosophically, musical feasting scenes in northern countries reflect the humanist value of moderation. Northern humanists such as Erasmus and More stress the need for practicality in both sacred and secular matters. Both the strict lifestyles of religious zealots and the hedonistic revelries of carnival indulgences are condemned as radical extremes. Acting under the influence of Petrarch and Augustine, northern Humanists espouse moderation as an important key to happiness. Pieter Bruegel’s Battle of Carnival and Lent effectively expresses the need for moderation in a world torn by two extremes. Music appears with the carnival revelers as either cooking utensils transformed to griddle harps and rummel pots suggesting a rebellious tinkering extreme to the sonorous quality of religious vocal music. The utensil instruments celebrate the god of pleasure in their double function as gastronomical tools and instruments of revelry. By

179 180

showing a mock battle between these two extremes, Bruegel stresses the need for a middle way that avoids the dangers of both abstinence and intemperance. Music in the symbolic banquet may be found in several forms of expression including bathing scenes, mythological scenes, and fantastic scenes. Lucas Cranach’s Fountain of Youth links the legendary youth to Christian ideas of baptism and rebirth, in which music is attributed to youthful feasting and love making. Sebald’s Fountain of Youth shows a realm of pleasure with soft musical instruments accompanying love making couples. Sebald’s nude figures resemble Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights in which the center panel shows also bathing nude figures perhaps in order to portray a false paradise. Dürer’s Mens’ Bath similarly displays nude bathing men with soft musical instruments. Dürer’s figures exhibit the negative effects of uncontrolled sexual pleasure since they function as corruptions of the five senses and an apocalyptic warning in the wake of a syphilis outbreak. The banquet of the gods provides impetus to works that associate music and feasting with divine forces. Floris’s Feast of the Gods includes nude figures that resemble the Italian male nudes. It also portrays music as a more symbolic, unheard force used by celestial deities. The fantastic works of Bosch often mix feasting with musical images in order to express the pervasive evils of worldly indulgences. Bosch draws on illuminated manuscripts, folklore, and literature for inspiration. The St. Anthony Triptych and Garden of Earthly Delights include many musical images. Bosch’s musical hells have led some to infer that the artist disdained secular music and instruments. Bosch, however, betrays an intense interest in the effects of evil, and in this context, the musical imagery takes on sinister elements. Indeed, Bosch’s musical images symbolize the evil potential that resides in human kind. While real-life influences such as minstrels may be seen affecting these musical images, Bosch appears more interested in the demonic forces that caused the degenerate process. Bosch’s use of fantastic musical imagery expresses a more abstract, hence symbolic, theme than a physical reality. Both music and feasting lend themselves well to less realistic representations since they are often attributed to emotions, such as pleasure or pain. The religious implications of the banquet include music as a major component. Music accompanies the various liturgical feasts and helps to elevate the service to a higher spiritual level. It also reminds the congregation of the eternal value of spiritual food, which overshadows the transient nature of the physical world. Singing the Psalms after or before meals aids 181 contemplative efforts of the divine world in the context of earthly needs. Psalmody at the table also provides an alternative to secular entertainment, which heightens the pleasurable experience of eating. Perhaps the best example of the Christian contemplative meal is the Garden of Paradise. By showing the Virgin at a table and the child with a psaltery, the unknown master emphasizes the importance of music in areas of divine contemplation and spiritual feasting. The psaltery’s religious symbol enhances the harmonious, royal, and sacrificial nature of the Christ child. Biblical scenes depicting feasting often contain music. Lucas Van Leyden’s Worshiping The Golden Calf includes a group of musicians performing on military type instruments such as the large tabor. Lucas shows the level of revelry becoming more violent and war-like. In this case the music accompanies the dance that celebrates the false god and parallels northern Europe’s anxiety over the enjoyment of wealth. Oostsanen’s Saul and the Witch of Endor shifts the emphasis away from the Israelite king to the conjuror. By including the hurdy-gurdy, Oostanen exposes the distrust of secular music and the fear that these instruments may be used by wicked persons for evil purposes. Quentin Massys’s St. John’s Altarpiece includes a feast of Herod with minstrels in a box observing the grisly results of Herod’s lust and barbarism. In this context the minstrels reflect the wealth and corruption of Herod’s court. Music in the peasant banquet scene delineates class distinction and aids in the comical effect. Artists frequently use rustic instruments such as the bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy as a signal of status. The use of the bagpipe in peasant scenes also has a real-life connection since the instrument is used by farmers and shepherds. Many negative symbols are associated with the bagpipe. Its construction reflected the digestive system with gullet and stomach, hence it symbolized gluttony. The chanter and bag are used by Bosch as a kind of parallel to the scrotum and penis, thus it also symbolized lust. Moreover, its sound is considered loud and coarse in relation to the other more soft and delicate instruments, and its form was bulky and awkward. Since these same characteristic are also attributed to the peasant, the bagpipe became the attributive choice for artists painting peasant scenes. Sebald’s kermis scenes invariably show bagpipers accompanying dances, feasts, and brawls. Although Bruegel began his peasant scenes in the style of Sebald, a noticeable change in his peasant depictions occur in his later peasant images. No longer does he show the more scatological elements of earlier peasant scenes. Rather he places the viewer on the level of the peasant and paints the figures on a monumental 182 scale. Moreover, Bruegel’s attention to realistic detail betrays a sincere interest in the cultural qualities of the rural workers. Bruegel’s use of the bagpipe dominates these works, and stands in contrast to the earlier more peripheral placements. In the Wedding Feast and the Vienna Peasant Dance, the bagpipers embody the natural, unaffected, and life-zealous quality of the rural workers. The northern Renaissance musical banquet expresses many levels of meaning and extends to all class systems. In a religious context, it stresses the sacrificial banquet of God and reminds the viewers that they should receive the bounties of life with humility and praise. The idea of feasting frequently becomes associated with music even on a symbolic level. Moreover, music is not restricted to the nobleman’s table, but also appears at the feasts of humble workers. The musical banquet’s varied associations helps to attract a wide array of artists and patrons. APPENDIX A

FIGURES

Fig. 1. Pieter Bruegel, Battle of Carnival and Lent, 1559. Oil on panel, 46½ x 64¾ in. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Musuem

183 184

Fig. 2. Rhenish Master of the Paradise Garden, Garden of Paradise. C. 1410-20. Panel, 9½ x 12¼ in. Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfort. 185

Fig. 3. Rhenish Master of the Paradise Garden, Garden of Paradise, detail

Fig. 4. Unknown German Master, Virgin and Child with Psaltery and Angels, 1415. Tempera on Oak, 20.2 x 16.2 cm. Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne. 186

Fig. 5. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Rest on the Flight into Egypt. 1504. Panel, 27c x 20c in. Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin. 187

Fig. 6. Albrecht Altdorfer, Rest on the Flight into Egypt. 1510. Panel 57 x 38 cm. Staatliche Museen, Berlin. 188

Fig. 7. Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights, detail Hell Panel. C. 1510-15. Panel. 86e x 38 ¼ in. The Prado, Madrid. 189

Fig. 8. Pieter Bruegel, Mad Meg, detail, 1562. Oil on wood. Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp.

Fig. 9. Pieter van der Heyden (attributed to a Hieronymus Bosch drawing), The Blue Ship, 1559, engraving, 23 x 29.7 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. 190

Fig. 10. Lucas Cranach the elder. Fountain of Youth, 1546. Panel 47e x 72f in. Museen, West Berlin. 191

Fig. 11. Albrecht Dürer, Mens’ Bath, 1498, woodcut, 393 x 283 mm. British Museum, London. 192

Fig. 12. Hieronymus Bosch, Ship of Fools, 1490–1500, oil on panel, 58 x 33 cm. The LouvreMuseum, Paris. 193

Fig. 13. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Triumph of Death, 1562, oil on panel, 46 x 64¾ in. , Madrid. 194

Fig. 14. Frans Floris, Feast of the Gods, 1550. Oil on Panel 150 x 198 cm. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp.

Fig. 15. Giorgione, Pastoral Concert. 1508-9, oil on canvas, 110-138 cm. The , Paris. 195

Fig. 16. Hieronymus Bosch, St Anthony Triptych. Left panel, 1501. 131.5 x 53 cm. Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon. 196

Fig. 17. Hieronymus Bosch, Saint Anthony Triptych. Center panel, 131.5 x 119 cm. 197

Fig. 18. Hieronymus Bosch, Saint Anthony Triptych. Right wing,1501, 131.5 x53 cm. 198

Fig. 19. Hieronymus Bosch, Last Judgment Triptych, 1486. Center panel. Oil on wood, 99.5 x 60.3 cm. Groeninge Museum, Bruges. 199

Fig. 20. Hieronymus Bosch, Last Judgment Triptych, center panel. 1482 Oil on panel. 163.7 x 127 cm. Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna. 200

Fig. 21. Hieronymus Bosch, Last Judgment Triptych, right panel, 167 x 60 cm. 201

Fig. 22. Hieronymus Bosch, The Seven Deadly Sins, 1480, oil on panel, 120 x 150 cm. The Prado, Madrid. 202

Fig. 23. Lucas van Leyden, Worshiping the Golden Calf, 1530. Center panel, oil on panel 36e x 26d in. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. 203

Fig. 24. Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Saul and the Witch of Endor, 1526. Oil on panel, 83.3 x 123 cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Fig. 25. Quenton Massys, Saint John Altarpiece, 1507-08. Oil on panel, 260 x 504 cm. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. 204

Fig. 26. Quentin Massys, Saint John Altarpiece, left wing. 205

Fig. 27. Jan Sanders van Hemessen, The Prodigal Son, 1536. Oil on panel, 140 x 198 cm. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels 206

Fig. 28. Martin de Vos, Marriage at Cana, 1596-97. Oil on panel, 268 x 235 cm. O.-L. Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp. 207

Fig. 29. Joachim Beuckelaer, Village Feast, oil on canvas. 116 x 162 cm. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Fig. 30. Joachim Beuckelaer, Village Feast, detail. 208

Fig. 31. Gillis Mostaert, Village Feast, oil on wood. 79.1 x 107.4 cm. Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent. 209

Fig. 32. Pieter Bruegel, The Wedding Dance, 1566. Oil on panel. 119.4 x 157.5 cm. Detroit Institute of Art

Fig. 33. Pieter Bruegel, Peasant Wedding, 1568. Oil on panel. Kusthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 210

Fig. 34. Pieter Bruegel, The Peasants’ Dance, 1568. Oil on panel, 44f x 64e in. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Fig. 35. Pieter Aertsen, Egg Dance, 1552. Oil on panel, 84 x172 cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam APPENDIX B

THE MUSICAL ENSEMBLES IN MESSISBUGO’S EIGHTEEN-COURSE MUSICAL BANQUET

The following list of musical ensembles is taken from Cristoforo da Messisbugo, Banchetti Composizioni Di Vivande e Apprarecchio Gerernale, 1549.1 This is the first of several banquets and took place on May 20th, 1529. It was held in Milan at the court of Don Ippolito Estense.

Course one: a citole, a lute, a harp, and a recorder.

Course two: 3 trumpets, three , and .

Course three: a dolzaina, a , and a recorder.

Course four: a harp, a recorder, and a .

Course five: a dolzaina, a viol, two , and a citole.

Course six: bergamasca.

Course seven: the nobility sing.

Course eight: Spanish basse dance with a small drum.

Course nine: three recorders, three cornemuses, and one viol.

Course ten: shawms.

Course eleven: solo (fagotto).

Course twelve: voices and lute (for a ).

1Cristoforo da Messisbugo, Banchetti Composizioni di Vivande e Apparecchio Generale, (Venezia: Neri Pozza Editore, 1960): 31-42.

211 212

Course thirteen: “songs in the pavan and villanesco”

Course fourteen: five viols, and a voice.

Course fifteen: shawms playing a Moresca

Course sixteen: a singer with a lire in the manner of Orpheus.

Course seventeen: four putti voices.

Course eighteen: six voices, six viols, a lire, a lute, a cittern, a trombone, a , a , an , a , and two instruments using plectrums, one large and one small. APPENDIX C

COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR IMAGE REPRODUCTION

Web Gallery of Art:

At 20:20 2004. 01. 26. -0500, you wrote:

May I use your images for my dissertation?

Robert Quist

Yes, you can use them.

Regards,

Dr. Emil Krén [email protected]

Detroit Institute of Art:

Dear Sylvia Inwood, My dissertation is not being published at this time. It will only be photo-copied for binding. Thank you for your consideration. Robert Quist

OK, well in that case, feel free to download and print the image off our website.

Sylvia Inwood Rights & Reproduction The Detroit Institute of Arts 5200 Woodward Avenue Detroit MI 48202 313-833-7913 313-833-9161 FAX

213 214

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen:

Dear Mr. Quist, Permission is granted to use the engraving by Pieter van der Heyden (attributed to the drawing by Hieronymus Bosch)-'The Blue Ship', 1559.

Please mention as a credit-line: Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. The museum would be very pleased if you could send an off-print of the forthcoming dfissertation to the attention of our museum library.

Question: 'Do you already have a black and white photograph of the engraving involved'?

Succes with the dissertation and Best Regards.

Frans de Jong Department of Visual resources. Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten: Dear Robert,

We grant permission to use Frans Floris's Banquet of the Gods in your dissertation.

Sincerely, Greta Toté

Aan: [email protected] Onderwerp: Permission Van: [email protected] Datum verz. Mon, 12 Jan 2004 16:11:17 -0500 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Education and Experience:

2002–2004: Ferris State University, Big Rapids, MI Temporary Faculty in Humanities.

1999–2004: Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL Teaching Assistant in Humanities. Ph.D. Candidate in Humanities. M.I.S Library Studies.

1991–1996: Brigham Young University, Provo, UT Teaching Assistant in Musicology B.A. Musicology.

1984–1990: Brigham Young University, Provo, UT B.A. Humanities.

Publications, Activities, and Papers:

Article: “Spatial Relations as Metaphors in Blomdahl’s Aniara.” Scandinavian Studies. Vol. 76, no. 1 (Spring, 2004): 71-86.

Textbook Review: Lawrence S. Cunningham and John J. Reich, Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. Vol. 1. Fifth Edition, Wadsworth Thomson Learning.

Web Study Guide: Fleming’s Arts and Ideas. Tenth Edition. Wadsworth Thomson Learning 2004. http://art.wadsworth.com/fleming10

Special Consultant to the Editor of Scandinavian Studies, vol. 68. no. 4 Fall 1996.

Representative of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society, 1994.

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