Death of a curmudgeon
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| Death of a curmudgeon |
|---|
| Hieronymus Bosch , approx. 1485/1490 |
| Oil on wood |
| 93 × 31 cm |
| National Gallery of Art , Washington DC |
Death of a Miser is a painting by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch from around 1485/1490 . The 93 × 31 cm painting (oil on wood) is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC , USA. Its dimensions suggest that this is the original left wing of a triptych , the other parts of which have been lost.
description
The picture shows a suite of rooms, which is framed by columns, merges into the open and disappears towards the back into the darkness. The interior is vaulted like a barrel, the ceiling is paneled with wood. The figure of the curmudgeon can be seen in two scenes, as a man of advanced age dressed in a green robe (center) and further in the background as a dying man in his bed.
The center and foreground show a flashback to his life; he throws coins into a bulging money bag. Parts of a knight's armor that are carelessly on the ground indicate that he has won his fortune in battle and with the blood of others, as well as his privileged origins from the nobility . Rat-like beings help him with money schaffling. The chest is also filled with silver goods and sealed letters that could be bonds or mortgage bonds .
In the upper part of the picture, the curmudgeon lies dying in bed. He looks a little younger on the face - in the Middle Ages it was assumed that one would enter the afterlife in a physically improved condition. Death , armed with an arrow, is in the doorway. An angel standing by the dying man tries to draw his attention to the ray of light coming from the direction of the crucifix in the window. However, the miser has drawn the curtain and is cut off from the “saving light of God”. From below a demon hands him another wallet. The dying looks at the approaching death. The devil crouches over the bed , waiting to catch the soul of the doomed man with his net .
The picture is dominated by reddish or reddish-brown tones (ceiling, bed, curtains, items of clothing, floor) and gray tones. The clothes of the curmudgeon in the center of the picture are green.
classification
With the depiction of the death of a curmudgeon, Bosch dedicates himself to the deadly sin of greed ( “avaritia” ). The seven deadly sins and especially the fixation on worldly possessions are also the subject of the triptych The Hay Wagon . His image can be understood as an admonition not to choose the wrong path in the face of death.
According to experts, the genesis of this picture is in a series with the Ship of Fools (Paris, Louvre) and the Allegory of Excessiveness (1485, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven), as well as the peddler (1487, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam), whose The image carriers date from the same period and on which the painter's unmistakable left-hand signature can be found, also known as the "Wanderer Triptych".
The depiction of a deathbed scene may correspond to an early printed book, the Ars Moriendi (The Art of Dying ), which enjoyed great popularity in the second half of the fifteenth century.
Provenance
The picture was first recorded in a collection in England in 1826. It reached France through intermediate sales in the 1930s. There it was sold in 1951 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation , New York, and in 1952 came to the National Art Gallery in Washington DC
literature
- Stefan Fischer: Hieronymus Bosch. The complete work , Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-8365-2628-9 .
- Jan Koldeweij, Bernhard Vermet, Paul Vandenbroeck: Hieronymus Bosch - The Complete Works . Catalog for the exhibition "Jheronimus Bosch" in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2001, Verlag Belser, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3-7630-2563-3
- Roger H. Marijhnen: Hieronymus Bosch - The complete work. Mercartorfonds Antwerpen / Parkland Verlag Köln, 1999, ISBN 3-88059-971-8
- John Oliver Hand, Martha Wolff: Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-521-34016-0 , pp. 17-22, ( online, PDF )
Web links
- National Gallery of Art website : Death and the Miser
- Image details, layers of color at www.boschproject.org , accessed on July 19, 2018
Individual evidence
- ↑ Will Bosch's Miser Achieve Salvation? Retrieved July 30, 2017 .
- ^ Death and the Miser. Retrieved July 30, 2017 .
- ↑ Provenance at www.nga.gov , accessed on July 19, 2018