205

WALTER S. GIBSON

Bosch Hieronymus and the Mirror of Man

The Authorship and Iconography of the Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins*

I

The Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins (Madrid, Museo del Prado; fig. 1) has hitherto been treated as an unwanted stepchild among the works of Hieronymus Bosch. Except for an article of limited value published by Wilhelm Fraenger some years ago', this picture has never been the subject of the kind of thorough iconographical analysis accorded the Lisbon St. Anthony, for example, or the Garden of Earthly Delights. Although this neglect is quite unjustified, as we shall see, it is probably due to the fact that the attribution of the Prado Tabletop to Bosch has been frequently questioned, despite the presence of the artist's name just below the banderol near the lower border 2. Doubts as to the authorship of the painting occur, in fact, as early as the sixteenth century. It appears to have been accepted as an authentic work by Philip II of Spain who acquired the work probably sometime before 1560; in a royal inventory of 1577, it is described as from 'the hand of Geronimo Boscque 3, an attribution which was accepted without question by Fray Jose de Siguenza in the long discussion of Bosch's paintings which he included in his Historia de la Orden de San Ger6nimo of A contrary opinion, however, had already been expressed in the earliest

* This article was presented in abbreviated links the Tabletopto the beliefs and practices of form as a paper at the Seventh Conference on the Adamites or Bretheren of the Free Spirit. Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, His theories have been condemned by several Kalamazoo, Michigan, in May, 1972; and at the scholars; see especially D. Bax, Beschrijving en Fall, 1972, meeting of the Mid-Hudson Medieval poging tot r?erklarin?van het Tuin der Onkuisheid- Circle, Ladycliff College, Highland Falls, N. Y. drieluik r?an JeroenBosch, Amsterdam 1956, 135- A brief summary of several ideas in this article 185. also appears in W. S. Gibson, HieronymusBosch, London and New York, 1973, 33-37, where the 2 The inscription 'fheronimusboschis indiscernible relationship of the Prado Tabletopto Bosch's art in the present illustration, as it is almost the as a whole is discussed at greater length. During same color as the background. For a good the preparation of this study I have benefited illustration of it, see C. de Tolnay, Hieronymus from the many discussions I have had with Bosch, Baden-Baden 1966, 60-61. It is difficult colleagues; for their valuable advice and to determine whether this represents the artist's assistance, I would like to thank especially own signature, or was added by a later hand; Professors Helen J. Dow, Phillips Salman, similar inscriptions appear on pictures which Thomas '1'omasic and Charity Cannon Willard. are obviously copies or pastiches after Bosch. 1 3 W. Fraenger, 'Hieronymus Bosch, 'Der Tisch J. Folie, 'Les oeuvres authentifiees des primitifs der Weisheit', Psyche, V, 1951, 35,5-384. As he flamandes', Bulletin Institut Royal du Patrimoine has done with other pictures by Bosch, Fraenger Art.istique,VI, 1963, 236. 206

1 description of the Seven Deadly Sins which appeared in the Commentarios de la Pintura, 1 The written by Felipe de Guevara around 1560. Guevara thought highly of the picture, Hieronymus Bosch, of the Seven but described it as a work by a pupil of Bosch who 'either out of reverence for his Tabletop Deadl) Sins, Madrid, Museo del Prado. master or in order to increase the value of his own works, signed them with the name of Bosch rather than his own'. 'Nevertheless', Guevara continues, 'his paintings are and whoever owns them praiseworthy ought to esteem them highly, for in his allegorical and moralizing subjects, he followed the spirit of the master, and in their execution, he was even more meticulous and patient than Bosch and did not deviate from the lively and fresh qualities of his teacher' S. Guevara's attribution of the Seven Deadly Sins to a follower of Bosch might be

4 Fray ,Jose de Sigiienza, Tercera parte de la Northern RenaissanceArt, 1400-1600, Sourcesand Historia de la Orden de San Gerónimo, ](j0,5; Documents (Sources and Documents in the reprinted in F. J. Sanchez-Canton, Fuentes History of Art Series), Englewood Cliffs, N. J., literarias par la historia del arte espafiol,I, Madrid 20. Stechow very properly rejects the 1923, 428. interpretation of this passage proposed by 5 Schmidt-Degener and followed by Tolnay and Sanchez-Canton,anc ez- anton, Fuentes ?M??/?mna.? 160-161; others.tti for an English translation, see W. Stechow,