Death and the Miser (also known as Death of the Usurer) is a Northern Renaissance painting by Hieronymus Bosch produced between 1490 and 1516 in Northern Europe. The piece was originally part of a triptych, but the center piece is missing. It is a memento mori painting, which is meant to remind the viewer of the inevitability of death and the futility of the pursuit of material wealth, illustrating the sin of greed.
There is still debate about the exact symbolism of the man and the objects in the foreground. Bosch was influenced by the Ars moriendi, religious texts that instructed Christians how to live and die. It is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.[1]
It measures 93 x 31cm (36 5/8 x 12 3/16 in) overall, and as framed 105.9 x 43.5 x 5.4cm (41 11/16 x 17 1/8 x 2 1/8 in).[1]
Description
Death and the Miser belongs to the tradition of memento mori, a term that describes works of art that remind the viewer of the inevitability of death. The painting shows the influence of popular 15th-century handbooks (including text and woodcuts) on the "Art of Dying Well" (Ars moriendi), intended to help Christians choose Christ over earthly and sinful pleasures.
The scene takes place in a narrow, vaulted room that holds a man on his deathbed, similar to the unclothed, thin, and sickly representation of souls in other Bosch triptychs.[2] The skeletal figure of Death emerges from a closet on the left with an arrow pointed at the dying man. An angel lays a hand on the man's shoulder, with a hand outstretched to the ray of light emanating from the window on the left, where a small crucifix also hangs. There is a nefarious creature holding a lantern peeking down from the canopy of the bed, while a "devil" offers the man a large sack of coin.[2] These fantasy type creatures can be seen in many of Bosch's other paintings, most famously The Garden of Earthly Delights.
In the foreground, an old man dressed in green deposits coins into the sack of a demon in the trunk while gripping his cane and rosary in his left hand.[3] The trunk contains worldly possessions: a knife, money, armor, a gold weight (that looks similar to a chesspawn), and envelopes, notes, or letters. Discarded garments and a winged demon figure are closer in the foreground, with other weapons and pieces of the suit of armor.[3] The room is seen through a pointed archway flanked with columns, but the foreground appears to be outdoors. It is unknown what sort of structure the room is attached to, if any.
Subject and interpretation
Death and the Miser combines different timelines into a single scene. It depicts the final moments of man called a miser, a hoarder of wealth, or an usurer, who gives loans while profiting from an often unfair interest rate. It's widely accepted that the old man in green is a slightly younger version of the miser, in full health, storing gold in his money chest (which abounds with demons) while clutching his rosary, indicating both his desire for piety and wealth.[3]
Usury was considered immoral and a great sin (a "sin against justice"[2]) in the early Renaissance period, mentioned specifically in the Bible in Luke 6:35, where Christ recommends free lending rather than profiting from the issuance of a loan. MedievalChurch law followed these instructions and denounced usury as a practice and excommunicated members for it until the Council of 1516 passed montes pietatis (mount of piety), which stated that charitable institutions were allowed to issue low interest rate loans to the poor.[2] This law implies that usury was not often practiced, but the opposite is true, and many people, poor and well-to-do alike, could not survive without a loan at some point in their lives. It became so common that authorities developed a modus vivendi, or agreement to peaceful coexistence, with pawnbrokers, then known as lombards (named after the region of their origin). It became so common and legal that they were regulated by authorities until a more fair and stable public loan policy was established in 1618.[2]
"Bona inspiratio angeli contra avariciam,", Cologne, woodcut from Ars moriendi, chapter 10, c. 1450.
The scene is highly reminiscent of an earlier illustration in the Ars moriendi where a dying man is cautioned about his avarice in chapters nine and ten of the book. In chapter nine, the man is tempted by avarice (greed) upon his deathbed, with his wealth shown by expensive treasures, similar to the trunk at the foot of the bed in Bosch's painting. In chapter ten, an angel warns him of the dangers of avarice, telling the miser, "Protect yourself against the putrid and deadly words of the devil, for he is nothing but a liar… In the end everything he does is deceitful."[3] Here we see the angel with one hand upon the miser's shoulder, lifting his other to the light of Christ, imploring him to make the Christian decision rather than succumb to temptation and sin.[2] The crucifix in the window seen in the miser's room is also a key feature of the Ars moriendi illustrations in these chapters, and reminds us how separate and disparate Christ is from all of the worldly troubles and possessions depicted in the room below.[3] Even with the angel's intervention at his bedside, as Death looms, the miser's gaze and hand are directed downward, unable to resist worldly temptations, reaching for the bag of gold offered by a tempting demon.[4] Whether or not the miser, in his last moments, will embrace the salvation offered by Christ or cling to his worldly riches, is left uncertain.[5] This is in stark contrast to the Ars moriendi, where the angel successfully persuades him to embrace Christ. It implies that, rather than otherworldly creatures battling for the soul of a person, the decision lies in their own hand and no one else's.[6]
Bosch's familiarity with the visual tradition of the Ars moriendi can also be seen in the top left roundel (pictured) depicting the death of a sinner in The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things. There are several points of similarity, such as the figure of Death and the juxtaposition of an angel and devil at the headboard.[7]Death and the Miser could be Bosch's illustration of the sin of avarice, intended to be a part of this series, meant to depict each of the biblical deadly sins as shown through contemporary life.[2]
Another interpretation of the gesture between the man and the demon suggests that the man is not only tempted by wealth, but is offering it to Death as a ransom. Usury was not just a display of avarice as a sin that simply required the offender to confess and seek God for forgiveness internally, but demanded a specific type of repentance. According to the Church, reparations for damages or reimbursement of monetary loss must be paid for this crime, but this is not something a miser on his deathbed would be able to do. He could, however, rectify this at the moment of death by providing this indemnity in his will, though this particular man shows no intention of doing so.[2]
The conflict depicted here casts doubt on who exactly the man is supposed to portray. A lombard would not worry about his afterlife or any façade of piety, as they were excommunicated from the Church, publicly shamed, and denied sacrament and Christian burial. That this man is worried with at least an illusion of piety suggests that he may be a surreptitious pawnbroker rather than an obvious lombard. This concept is strengthened by the setting; an official lombard in Augsburg or Bruges, both hubs of Northern Renaissance merchants and artists, would have a normal place of business, akin to a small warehouse with a public facing office and storerooms to house and organize goods. The man in Death and the Miser does not have that, shown instead with pawned items scattered in his room and locked in a trunk, which indicate that he may want to keep these items and his activities a secret.[2]
The foreground
The meaning of the foreground is still unclear and debated by art historians, though they're reasonably certain about the symbolism inside the room. The Ars moriendi does not contain a depiction of armor, or even pieces of it, and no other influence has satisfactorily explained their presence. Most hypotheses fall into two schools of thought; the fabric, weapons, and armor are of symbolic significance, or they represent the miser's former life, before Death came to take him.[3] Art historians' opinions have seem to run the gamut of possibilities just in the 20th century alone, which include the following by no less than a dozen art historians:
The objects represent an evil or malevolent force, the vanity of earthly goods, and the folly of earthly desires. They are placed there to be traps by the devil, to tempt you away from the Christian path, but their disregard in the scene shows that these earthly goods cannot help you against death.[8][7] The depiction of such inorganic objects to symbolize earthly vanity, transience or decay would become a genre in itself among Flemish artists.[4][5]
They symbolize power, potentially even anger, and how the miser came to be wealthy.[9]
The miser died as a knight; the weapons and armor are representative of his station.[10]
The man might have been a knight, but he was also a dishonest steward and death has come for him.[11]
Gold is more useful than a knight's courage and bravery, implied by placing the gold as a central subject and part of the miser's final struggle while his knightly attire has been discarded in the foreground and outside the main events of the scene.[12]
The red fabric could be evil, but combined with the armor has also been interpreted as a symbol for St. Martin of Tours, who famously used his military sword to cut his cloak in half to give to a beggar who lacked sufficient clothing for the winter. The architecture serves as a line between Christian generosity, symbolized by St. Martin's items in the foreground, and greed, illustrated within the room.[14]
The objects represent items that would have been pawned by knights, i.e. jousting equipment, or textile goods from the poor, as an allusion to usury.[15][2]
No single theory has been accepted as the most correct, with art historians themselves admitting that none of the proposed explanations are entirely appropriate or suitably thorough.[3] Schlüter and Vinken propose an alternate source to their predecessors in the form of biblical texts themselves, namely Letter to the Ephesians 6:10-17, where St. Paul makes several mentions of the armor of God: "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the while of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11); "Whereupon take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand" (Ephesians 6:13); "Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace" (Ephesians 6:14-15).
Throughout the following verses, St. Paul mentions specific pieces of armor, assigning certain aspects of Christianity to them; the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the hauberk of justice, and the sword of spirit, which represents the word of God itself. There are also other references to armor with assigned moral attributes in non-religious texts of the time period, such as the pieces of Lancelot's armor representing a knight's duty to the Church, and chivalry.[3]
A reconstruction of the left and right wings of the triptych: at upper left The Ship of Fools; at lower left: Allegory of Gluttony and Lust. Panel at right is Death and the Miser. At bottom The Wayfarer which would have been on the outside of the triptych.infrared reflectogram showing the miser with money bag and goblet
Physical analysis
The painting is believed to be the inside of the right panel of a triptych, which has since been divided and no longer exists as a whole. The other surviving portions of the triptych are The Ship of Fools and Allegory of Gluttony and Lust, with The Wayfarer painted on the external right panel. It is one of the five fragmented triptychs by Bosch that have survived.[16]
Several changes were made to the final painting as revealed by modern infrared analyses. A very faint remnant can be seen on a high resolution photo, but the items are not clear. Originally, a flask, rosary, and tumblers were intended to be part of the collection of items in the foreground, but they were never painted. The scan also revealed that the miser's left hand held a goblet while the right, as it appears today, is gesturing toward the money bag. This has been interpreted as an offering to Death. The meaning of the change is unclear, but it has been hypothesized that it could mean an offer of ransom; take my money, don't take me, or an appeal to Death to allow the miser to take his riches with him when he dies.[2]
Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch 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.
A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend money, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions. Although the word is sometimes used loosely to characterise anyone who is mean with their money, if such behaviour is not accompanied by taking delight in what is saved, it is not properly miserly.
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 Garden of Earthly Delights is the modern title given to a triptych oil painting on oak panel painted by the Early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch, between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between 40 and 60 years old. It has been housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain since 1939.
The Ars moriendi are two related Latin texts dating from about 1415 and 1450 which offer advice on the protocols and procedures of a good death, explaining how to "die well" according to Christian precepts of the late Middle Ages. It was written within the historical context of the effects of the macabre horrors of the Black Death 60 years earlier and consequent social upheavals of the 15th century. The earliest versions were most likely composed in southern Germany. It was very popular, translated into most West European languages, and was the first in a western literary tradition of guides to death and dying. About 50,000 copies were printed in the incunabula period before 1501 and further editions were printed after 1501. Its popularity reduced as Erasmus's treatise on preparing for death became more popular.
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 Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things is a painting attributed to Hieronymus Bosch or to a follower of his, completed around 1500 or later. Since 1898 its authenticity has been questioned several times. In 2015 the Bosch Research Conservation Project claimed it to be by a follower, but scholars at the Prado, where the painting is on display in a sealed case, dismissed this argument. The painting is oil on wooden panels and is presented in a series of circular images.
Ecce Homo is a painting of the episode in the Passion of Jesus by the Early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch, painted between 1475 and 1485. The original version, with a provenance in collections in Ghent, is in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt; a copy is held the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The painting takes its title from the Latin words Ecce Homo, "Behold the Man" spoken by the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate when Jesus is paraded before a baying, angry mob in Jerusalem before he is sentenced to be crucified.
Allegory of Intemperance is an oil on wood painting by Hieronymus Bosch made c. 1490–1500. It is held in the Yale University Art Gallery, in New Haven, Connecticut.
The Wayfarer is an oil on panel painting by Hieronymus Bosch(1450-1516), created c. 1500. It is currently in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. This painting is round and 71.5 cm (28.1 in) in diameter. It is one of the fragments of a partially lost triptych or diptych, which also included the Allegory of Gluttony and Lust, the Ship of Fools and Death and the Miser.
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 Crowned with Thorns, sometimes known as Christ Mocked, is an oil on panel painting by Hieronymus Bosch. It is held in the National Gallery in London, which dates it to around 1510, though some art historians prefer earlier dates.
Christ Crowned with Thorns is an oil on panel painting made in the 1530s by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch. It is now in the Monasterio de San Lorenzo at El Escorial, near Madrid, in Spain.
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 Last Judgment is a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, created after 1482.
Gillis Mostaert the Elder was a Flemish Renaissance painter and draughtsman active in Antwerp in the second half of the 16th century. He was a versatile artist who worked in various genres including landscape, genre and history painting. Gillis Mostaert was known in particular for his winter landscapes and his scenes with fires and nocturnal scenes and his works in this genre were among the most sought after pieces of his time. The artist operated a large workshop in Antwerp, which supplied works to prominent patrons. He was a regular collaborator with leading Antwerp artists of his time.
The Fall of the Rebel Angels is an oil-on-panel painting of 1562 by the Netherlandish Renaissance artist, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The painting is 117cm x 162cm and is now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, Belgium. The Fall of Rebel Angels depicts Lucifer along with the other fallen angels that have been banished from heaven. Angels are falling from the sun in a stacked manner along with ungodly creatures that Bruegel created. This piece by Bruegel was previously thought to be by Hieronymus Bosch. Bruegel was influenced by a variety of artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Frans Floris I, and Hieronymus Bosch. He also got ideas for the creation of his creatures in his previous works.
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.
↑ de Tervarent, G. (1958). Attributs et symboles dans l'art-profane 1450-1600. Geneva. p.34.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Walker, J. (1995). National Gallery of Art. New York. p.166.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Reuterswärd, P. (1970). Hieronymus Bosch. Stockholm, Sweden. p.266.{{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Chailley, J. (1978). "Jerome Bosch et ses symboles. Essai de decryptage". Académie Royale de Belgique, Mémoires de la Classe des Beaux-Arts. 15: 106–108.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
