The juggler (Bosch)

The Juggler (also Der Zauberkünstler ) is a painting by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch or his workshop, created around 1502. It shows a situation that was common in Bosch's time: magicians, cardsharps, buffoons or quacks try to use tricks and deceit to pull the money out of their pockets in good faith. The 53 by 65 cm painting is in the Musée municipal of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France).

description

In the center there is a table on which the juggler props his cup game has arranged, two cups, three beads and a wand. Next to it is a funnel-shaped cloak that was used by contemporary sleuths to cover a doll and then make it disappear. The perspective of the table is not inserted precisely - Bosch wanted to enable the viewer to see the table surface. If you turn the picture on its side, the coat forms the nose of a face, which the props form. Such picture puzzles were popular in Bosch's time.

The juggler standing to the right of the table keeps his gaze fixed on one of the people standing on the left. He stands like a priest at an altar and demonstrates a ball like a priest the host . The massive table is clearly not that of a traveling pocket player. He has cast a spell over the person bent over the table. This has already choked out a toad and is about to spit out a second.

Behind the “hypnotized” person, someone else has taken hold of their wallet. It is a pickpocket , a so-called "bag cutter" (the people of the Middle Ages carried their money with them in bags, which a thief acquired by secretly cutting off their bags). Although the cut-purse carries a secular headgear (a typical for the time cap), but his clothing is the - incomplete - garb of a lay brother of the Order of the Dominicans . The pince-nez on his nose is also a hint in this direction: The man is able to read: he has a visual aid for studying the Holy Scriptures, a luxury product that is unaffordable for the common people. With a hypocritical look he raises his eyes to the sky while he grabs the wallet. The negative portrayal of the bag grabber in the form of a Dominican corresponds to Bosch's consistently negative portrayal of the coat of arms of the House of Habsburg , in whose camp the Dominicans were at that time.

The figure of the magician also appears in Bosch's triptych of the temptation of St. Anthony .

Versions

There are several versions of the portrait. The painting in the Musée Municipal in St.-Germain-en-Laye comes from the estate of Louis Alexandre Ducastel, a notary, councilor and mayor of the city in 1835. Most experts consider this version to be the most reliable. The painting was stolen from the museum on December 1, 1978 and returned on February 2, 1979.

other versions

• 

  105 × 139 cm, oil on panel, 16th century, Philadelphia Museum of Art

• 

  84 × 114 cm, oil on panel, 16th century, Israel Museum , Jérusalem

• 

  36.8 × 31.1 cm, oil on panel, 16th century, private collection, California

• 

  23.8 × 32 cm, copperplate engraving, around 1550 (1543–1580), Staatliche Graphische Sammlung , Munich

• 

  27.8 × 20.2 cm, drawing, before 1475, Musée du Louvre , Paris

literature

• Stefan Fischer: Hieronymus Bosch: Painting as a vision, teaching image and work of art (ATLAS. Bonn contributions to art history, Vol. 6), Cologne 2009 (Diss. Uni Bonn), ISBN 978-3-412-20296-5 .
• Fischer, Stefan: Hieronymus Bosch. The complete work, Taschen Köln 2013, ISBN 978-3836526289 .
• Heinrich Goertz: "Bosch" , rowohlt monographs, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-499-50237-2 .
• Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen: "Image surveys - masterpieces in detail" , Benedikt Taschen-Verlag 1995.
• Wilhelm Fraenger: "Bosch" , Verlag der Kunst Dresden, 1975 [out of date]
• Roger H. Marijhnen: Hieronymus Bosch: The complete work, with the participation of Peter Ruyffelaere , Cologne ²1999 [current]
• Du - magazine for culture, 750, Oct. 2004: Hieronymus Bosch: Lost in Paradise [latest research, succinct]

Web links

Commons : The Juggler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Jürgen Müller: Never again a shell game! In: FAZ , March 12, 2018.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Virginia Pitts Rembert: Hieronymus Bosch , Parkstone International, 2012, ISBN 978-1906981617 , p. 22
2. ^ Franca Varallo: Bosch . Skira, Milan 2004, ISBN 978-88-572-0615-8 (Italian)
3. ↑ after dendrochronological examinations; Franca Varallo: Bosch . Skira, Milan 2004, ISBN 978-88-572-0615-8 (Italian)
4. ↑ K. Falk: The Unknown Hieronymus Bosch , Goldenstone Press, Singapore 2008, ISBN 978-1-55643-759-5 , p. 7 (English)
5. ↑ www.saintgermainenlaye.eu ( Memento from March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ Rose-Marie Hagen, Rainer Hagen: What Great Paintings Say (English)