The hay cart
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The hay cart is a triptych by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (around 1450 - 1516). The work exists in two versions; one hangs in the Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial , the other in the Museo del Prado , Madrid. There is no concrete evidence of its time of origin; research assumes that "The Hay Cart" was painted around 1490 .
The triptych
The outside of the wings
When closed, a slightly melancholy or tired looking older man appears in the center of the front side (outer wing), bent over by the weight of a box, who uses his walking stick to ward off a snarling little dog with a spiked collar. The box and walking stick identify the man as a pilgrim or a wandering trader, shopkeeper, peddler . The white hair signals that he may have been in his job for a long time and that death is not far away. The big hole in his pants on the knee shows that he probably didn't make it to (earthly) riches. He carries his little belongings on his back. The compulsion to earn a meager living as a wandering pilgrim or trader is unmistakable.
It is at the bottom of the social prestige: In a decree issued by Emperor Charles V in Dutch in 1531 against everything “pack that is extremely harmful to the common good […]” it says: “Peddlers, cobblers, tinkers , copper hammers, quacks , those who have matches , Selling rat poison and ointments and other stuff of this kind that do nothing but move around the country as swindlers, highwaymen, thieves and evildoers. " Tinkerers and copper hammers were typical gypsy professions back then - the beggars are not mentioned because they largely remained an urban phenomenon and had a function. For in the Christian worldview they had a firm place for a long time, since only with them the Christian-minded empire could prove his charity ( 'caritas' ). The peddler was thus very marginalized socially, if not even outside the society of the time. The aversion of the urban society was extremely great, especially since the merchant guilds saw in them undesirable competition.
The direction in which the painted figures are looking is always important in old paintings: what do they see, what do they not see? The hiker pensively gazes into the distance and is by no means preoccupied with warding off the dog . Nor does he look at the bones directly to his right (death, transience, memento mori) of a horse or donkey , two jackdaws or crows ( scavengers ) - in principle, the sentence of the church father Augustine applies to the non-Italian and non-southern German painting of the time : " Aves sunt daemones ”, that is, of diabolical origin, also and especially at Bosch. Birds also in the murky water under the half-broken footbridge towards which the wanderer, half-turned backwards, is walking. Will he rush in like Pieter Brueghel's “The Blind”? So dog and footbridge as present and future danger. And what's going on in his back? Has he passed the infamous robbery of three highwaymen and thieves apathetically or has he simply not noticed him? The guy with the red curved cocktail feather , who is tying an apparently wealthier man to a tree, who has already been deprived of essential clothing, wears a classic devil symbol on his hat. In the center of the picture, on the other hand, a gallows and crowd for an imminent execution , certainly not unintentionally placed by Bosch in the distance just above the hiker's head : Crime and earthly jurisdiction are pictorially linked here. The wanderer does not see either. Then the last scene behind the peddler: a couple dancing to the music of a bagpiper.
The man goes his way, from left to right, which is important for the interpretation of the inside of the triptych. The path of an old, poor person who does not belong to urban society and will never be found in churches leads through a world of crime, punishment and insubordinate pleasure.
The illustration corresponds to the very similar single portrait The Peddler by Hieronymus Bosch.
Left wing: The Garden of Eden
On the left inner wing, Bosch presents the “ Fall of the Angel ”, the “Creation of Eve ”, the “ Fall of Man ” and the “Expulsion from Paradise ” one below the other .
Apostate angels are expelled from heaven. Above the clouds they can still be recognized as angels (people with wings) who are driven down through the clouds by other angels wielding swords. As they pass through the clouds, they turn into insects and strange flying lizards , which then rush towards the earth. Your ugly appearance says: You have turned away from God and therefore nothing more to look for at his side. In the second scene, Eve has just been created by God. Adam lies asleep on the floor, and it, which according to the Bible originated from Adam's rib, seems to literally rise from him. In the third scene the "Fall of Man" follows. Eve has already eaten a fruit from the tree of knowledge . It covers her genitals . The snake, with the torso of a woman, is about to offer Adam a fruit. Eventually Adam and Eve are driven out of Paradise. An angel armed with a sword leaves them shamefully covering their genitals with no other choice.
Middle panel: The hay cart
While the church can be imagined as the client in the depiction of the “Garden of Eden”, the depiction on the central panel can no longer be assumed to be intended to decorate the sanctuary of a church. Although this subject is taken up in the Dutch proverbs, where it says: "The world is a haystack. Everyone picks as much of it as he can". These popular sayings are based on quotations from the Bible that were rephrased in literary editions, such as the "Disticha Catonis" or the "Proverbia Seriosa", and which were distributed in Flemish from 1487/88 through Leempt's pressure. The hay is symbolic of the colloquial word "do Reibach", which we also know in everyday language, which means something like "benefit a lot from it".
At the center of the scene is a large hay cart pulled by demonic figures, half human, half animal. Next to the vehicle, people walk along and try to pull down hay with their hands and long forks. They argue about it, some get under the wheels. In the middle of the scene the throat of a victim lying on the ground is cut. Another is already dead on the ground because he has been murdered out of greed.
Various scenes in the picture can be understood as references to the seven deadly Christian sins (or un virtues ): accordingly, the group on the wagon embodies lust ( luxuria ), the murder scene the anger ( ira ), the boozy monk the gluttony ( gula ) the train behind the car, the pride ( superbia ), the sleeping man the left edge of the picture laziness ( acedia ), the Up ends between the carriage wheels to envy ( invidia ) and the shirred nuns the price ( avaritia ).
A fat clergyman can be seen in the lower right corner . He's drinking from a mug and it seems he's toasting the scene. He watches unmoved as the nuns continue to fill the sack in front of him with hay - the church has long since secured its lion's share. In the immediate vicinity of the clergyman, a fool is playing the bagpipes - a symbol of sexual desire. A quack has set up his stand right next to it, which is marked with a flag on which a pierced heart is depicted. Above the chariot, in a separate cloud region in heaven, Jesus is central to the earthly goings-on, but has no influence in relation to the events.
There are three musicians on the hay wagon and in front of a bush where lovers are hugging. The bare legs of the lute player and the plucking of the lute allude to the physical and pleasurable side of the music. The middle musician's index finger on the sheet of music, on the other hand, alludes to the intellectual side of the music. To the right of the group, a devil painted in ghostly gray is playing on a shawm . On the left, an angel looks up to Jesus and prays. The two winged figures seem to point to opposing influences and effects of music. A stick protrudes from the bush, from which a jug dangles, and an ugly old man can be seen as a voyeur to the left behind the bush. A large train follows the hay wagon. The Pope and a bishop, the only ones on horseback, lead the procession. The emperor and some nobles follow behind . You seem to follow the vehicle without hesitation and as a matter of course. The direction that the demonic draft animals have taken is unmistakable: it goes undeterred and without stopping to the right and directly downwards into hell.
The fact that the haystack is in motion may indicate the constant change in the world, its inhabitants and their point of view. The rather static worldview of the Middle Ages has changed to the more dynamic one of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment .
Right wing: Hell
The color red shapes the representation of hell. In the background the sky is on fire, in the foreground demonic beings are tirelessly building a tower that is reminiscent of the Tower of Babel . Here God is blasphemed . Naked people are taken to the unfinished building, others are torn by hellhounds or tormented and eaten by strange animals.
Bosch removes the usual image boundaries by having the top of the train crew continue from the middle section in the right panel and have already arrived there in hell.
literature
- Dirk Bax: Ontcijfering van Jeroen Bosch. The Hague 1949. (English edition: His Picture-Writing deciphered , translated by MA Bax-Botha, Rotterdam 1979)
- Bruno Blondé, Hans Vlieghe: The social statue of Hieronymus Bosch. In: Burlington Magazine. 131, No. 2, 1989, pp. 699f.
- Guido Boulboullé: Grotesque fear. Hieronymus Bosch's fantasies of hell. In: Christoph Auffarth, Sonja Kerth (Ed.): Faith controversy and laughter: Reformation and laughter culture in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period. LIT Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 55–78.
- Eric de Bruyn: De vergeten beeldtaal van Jheronimus Bosch: De symboliek van de Hooiwagen-Triptiek en de Rotterdamse Marskramer-Tondo Verklaard vanuit middelnederlandse teksten. 's-Hertogenbosch 2001 (Diss. Brussels 2000).
- Nils Büttner: Hieronymus Bosch. Cape. Hay cart and garden of lust Beck Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63336-2 , pp. 92-105.
- Wertheim Aymès Clement: Hieronymus Bosch - An introduction to his secret logic. Berlin 1957.
- Godfried CM van Dijck: De Bossche optimaten: divorced van de Illustere Lieve Vrouwebroederschap te's-Hertogenbosch 1318–1973. (= Bijdragen tot de divorced from het Zuiden van Nederland. 27). Tilburg 1973. (Study on Bosch's living environment)
- Stefan Fischer: Hieronymus Bosch : Painting as a vision, teaching image and work of art (= ATLAS. Bonn contributions to art history. Volume 6). Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20296-5 . (Dissertation Uni Bonn)
- Stefan Fischer: In the maze of images. The world of Hieronymus Bosch. Reclam, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-15-011003-4 .
- Wilhelm Fraenger: Hieronymus Bosch - the millennial kingdom. Outlines of an interpretation. Winkler-Verlag Coburg 1947
- Heinrich Goertz: Hieronymus Bosch. With testimonials and photo documents. (= rororo. Volume 50237). Rowohlt, Reinbek 1998, ISBN 3-499-50237-2 .
- Rose-Marie Hagen, Rainer Hagen: picture surveys. Masterpieces in detail. Taschen, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8228-6384-X .
- Jos Koldeweij, Bernard Vermet, Paul Vandenbroeck: Jheronimus Bosch: alle schilderingen en tekeningen. Gent / Amsterdam 2001. (German edition: Hieronymus Bosch. Das Gesamtwerk. Stuttgart 2001)
- Roger H. Marijhnen: Hieronymus Bosch: The complete work. with the participation of Peter Ruyffelaere. 2nd Edition. Cologne 1999.
- Gerd Unverfetern: Hieronymus Bosch: Studies on its reception in the 16th century. Berlin 1980. (Dissertation Göttingen 1974)
- Gerd Unverfugt: Wine instead of water: Eating and drinking at Jheronimus Bosch. Goettingen 2003.
Web links
- Museo Nacional del Prado: The Hay Wagon (English)