The Conjurer | |
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Artist | Hieronymus Bosch and workshop |
Year | c. 1502 |
Type | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 53 cm× 65 cm(21 in× 26 in) |
Location | Musée Municipal, St.-Germain-en-Laye |
The Conjurer is a painting by Early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch or his workshop, [1] executed around 1502. [2]
There are five versions of this painting and one engraving, but most experts believe the most reliable copy is part of the collection of the Musée Municipal in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which is kept locked in a safe [3] [4] and loaned out on a limited basis for special exhibitions in France and abroad. On 1 December 1978 the painting was stolen from the museum and returned on 2 February 1979. [5]
The painting comes from the bequest of Louis Alexandre Ducastel, a notary in Saint-Germain-en-Laye from 1813, who was also city council member and mayor in August 1835 and (provisionally) in 1839. The collection seems especially to have been formed by his father John Alexander Ducastel, a painter and collector. [5]
Bosch depicts how people are fooled by lack of alertness and insight, creating a "spellbinding tension" that reappears in his later paintings. [1] The conjurer on the right of the image captures his apt and diverse audience with a game of cups and balls. The central character and true focus of the image is the man of rank in the forefront who leans in and is fixed on the pearl in the conjurer's hand while unaware of being relieved of his money purse. Bosch depicts the conjurer as a common criminal, luring in the prey. [6] [7]
Beasts are used in the painting to symbolize human traits that allow for deception and victimization. The little owl from the basket at the conjurer's waist signifies his intelligence. [6] Frogs jumping out of the mouth of the central character represent the extent to which the victim let go of reason and gave in to bestial impulses. [8]
The child engrossed in our victim and the man stealing the money purse seems to exemplify the Flemish proverb: "He who lets himself be fooled by conjuring tricks loses his money and becomes the laughing stock of children." Another Flemish proverb, published and widely distributed ca 1480 in Bosch's hometown of 's-Hertogenbosch about the time of this painting, is: "No one is so much a fool as a willful fool." Bosch had used other proverbs as the basis of his painting, such as "The world is a haystack, and each man plucks from it what he can" for his painting, the Hay Wagon. [4]
Elina Gertsman's article about this painting explores this painting from the perspectives of Flemish culture, religious figures and the later body of Bosch's work. [4] A much simpler view by Adrian Maben, filmmaker of Bosch's life and work, is:
The Conjurer, an extraordinary tale of a conjurer trying to persuade the spectator that he's pulling toads or frogs out of his mouth. Meanwhile there's someone standing behind this spectator, who's stealing his wallet. It's a wonderful little painting, we unfortunately don't have the original, but it's a very good copy. It's a secular painting and has got away from the moralising and religious pose which one normally associates with Bosch. This genre painting became very popular in the Netherlands and the north in general, because it was opposed to the mythological painting of Italy. Here you had scenes from everyday life, it was getting away from the porcelain-like saints, down into the street. I think it was very modern. [9]
The conjurer reappears in Bosch's Triptych of the Temptation of St. Anthony . [6]
Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oak wood, mainly contains fantastic illustrations of religious concepts and narratives. Within his lifetime his work was collected in the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain, and widely copied, especially his macabre and nightmarish depictions of hell.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, 19.1 km (11.9 mi) from the centre of Paris.
In theatrical magic, misdirection is a form of deception in which the performer draws audience attention to one thing to distract it from another. Managing audience attention is the aim of all theater, and the foremost requirement of all magic acts. Whether the magic is of a "pocket trick" variety or a large stage production, misdirection is the central secret. The term describes either the effect or the sleight of hand or patter that creates it.
Ship of Fools is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Camille Benoit donated it in 1918. The Louvre restored it in 2015. The surviving painting is a fragment of a triptych that was cut into several parts. The Ship of Fools was painted on one of the wings of the altarpiece, and is about two-thirds of its original length. The bottom third of the panel belongs to Yale University Art Gallery and is exhibited under the title Allegory of Gluttony. The other wing, which has more or less retained its full length, is the Death and the Miser, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The two panels together would have represented the two extremes of prodigality and miserliness, condemning and caricaturing both. The Wayfarer(Rotterdam) was painted on the right panel rear of the triptych. The central panel, if it existed, is unknown.
The Haywain Triptych is a panel painting by Hieronymus Bosch, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. A date of around 1516 has been established by means of dendrochronological research. The central panel, signed "Jheronimus Bosch", measures 135 cm × 200 cm and the wings measure 147 cm × 66 cm. The outside shutters feature a version of Bosch's The Wayfarer.
The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a former royal palace in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the département of Yvelines, about 19 km west of Paris, France. Today, it houses the musée d'Archéologie nationale.
Dulle Griet, also known as Mad Meg, is a figure of Flemish folklore who is the subject of a 1563 oil-on-panel by Flemish renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The painting depicts a virago, Dulle Griet, who leads an army of women to pillage Hell, and is currently held and exhibited at the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp.
The Adoration of the Magi or The Epiphany is a triptych oil painting on wood panel by the Netherlandish artist Hieronymus Bosch, executed around 1485–1500. It is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.
Christ Carrying the Cross is a painting attributed to a follower of Hieronymus Bosch. It was painted in the early 16th century, presumably between 1500 and 1535. The work is housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. The painting is notable for its use of caricature to provide grotesque-looking faces surrounding Jesus.
St. Jerome at Prayer is a painting of St. Jerome by Hieronymus Bosch, thought to have been completed c. 1482. Today it is housed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent.
The Crucifixion of Saint Wilgefortis is a c. 1497 triptych by the Early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch. The subject of the painting has been uncertain, and it has also been known as the Triptych of the Crucified Martyr, or The Crucifixion of Saint Julia, but is now believed to depict Saint Wilgefortis.
The Hermit Saints is a religious oil on panel painting displayed as a triptych, meaning it is one whole painting composed of three separate scenes. This artwork was made by the Renaissance artist Hieronymus Bosch, dating from 1493. The entirety of the triptych painting measures 86 by 60 centimetres. This artwork is currently being housed at the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.
The Temptation of St. Anthony is a painting of disputed authorship, attributed to either Hieronymus Bosch or a follower. It is now in the Museo del Prado, in Madrid.
The Last Judgment is a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, created after 1482.
Jean-Charles Moreux was a French architect, and a representative of a rigorous and poetic classicism.
Jacques Stella was a French painter, a leading exponent of the neoclassical style of Parisian Atticism.
The Triptych of Temptation of St. Anthony is an oil painting on wood panels by the Early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch, dating from around 1501. The work portrays the mental and spiritual torments endured by Saint Anthony the Great, one of the most prominent of the Desert Fathers of Egypt in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. The Temptation of St. Anthony was a popular subject in Medieval and Renaissance art. In common with many of Bosch's works, the triptych contains much fantastic imagery. The painting hangs in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon.
The Last Judgment is a triptych of disputed authorship, either by Hieronymus Bosch, his workshop, or a collaboration between artist and workshop. It was created after 1486.
The Adoration of the Magi is an oil painting on wood panel attributed to the workshop of Netherlandish artist Hieronymus Bosch, executed around 1499. It is housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA. The museum's catalog assign it to around 1518, as having been finished by Bosch's workshop. According to Dendochronologic research, it could have been painted in 1493–1499.
The Musée Claude-Debussy, or Maison Claude Debussy, is the birthplace of the composer Claude Debussy, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a western suburb of Paris, France. It contains a small museum about the composer.
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