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The Turnip Wagon: A Boschian Motif Transformed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Walter S. Gibson
Walter S. Gibson*
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University
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Extract

The theme of the Haywain, Hieronymus Bosch's great allegory of avarice (Fig. I), seems to have enjoyed a certain vogue in Brabant during the third quarter of the sixteenth century. Two manifestations of its influence were published and extensively analyzed some years ago by Lebeer, Grauls and Keyser. One of these is an etching by Frans Hogenberg, issued in 1559 by the Antwerp print publisher Bartholomeus de Mompere (Fig. 2). It depicts a broad plain crowded with figures whose acts of folly are epitomized by the large hay cart dominating the middle distance. The cart unmistakably shows Hogenberg's debt to Bosch, although he replaced the music-making lovers seated on Bosch's wagon with a devil triumphantly displaying two tufts of hay.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Summer 1979 , pp. 187 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1979

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References

1 See Lebeer, L., ‘Het hooi en de hooiwagen in de beeldende kunsten,’ Gentsche Bijdragen, 5 (1938), 152—155 Google Scholar; Grauls, J., ‘Taalkundige toelichting bij het hooi en den hooiwagen,’ Gentsche Bijdragen, 5 (1938), 156–175 Google Scholar; de Keyser, P., ‘Rhetoricale toelichting bij het hooi en den hooiwagen,’ Gentsche Bijdragen, 6 (1939-40), 127-138Google Scholar. For representations of the hay motif in Netherlandish art not influenced by Bosch's Haywain, see Haverkamp-Begemann, E., ‘Frans Pourbus the Elder as Draughtsman,’ Miscellana I. Q. van Regteren Altena (16/V/1969 Amsterdam, 1969), 65–66 Google Scholar.

2 The impression illustrated in my Fig. 2 is in the Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels. For a transcription of the inscriptions on the print and a discussion of the iconography, see Grauls, pp. 161-169.

3 Quoted from Ordinantie van de nieu Punten van onser Vrouwen Ommeganck half Oogst 1563, printed by Hans de Laet, Antwerp, 1563; reprinted in Keyser, pp. 134-136. A recent discussion of this procession can be found in S. Williams and J. Jacquot, ‘Ommegangs anversois du temps de Bruegel et de Van Heemskcrk,’ in J. Jacquot, ed., Les fêtes de la Renaissance, II, Fêtes et ceremonies au temps de Charles Quint (Paris, 1960), 377-382.

4 Dictionnaire des monogrammes, marques figurées, lettres initiates, etc., 2nd ed. (Munich, 1832-1834), II, 327, nr. 2388b, where the inscription is transcribed with several errors. I have not been able to ascertain if the print is included in Brulliot's first edition of 1817. See also Nagler, B. K., Die Monogrammisten (Munich and Leipzig, 1858-1879), IV, p. 1018, nr. 3567Google Scholar.

5 See Nagler, , and Hollstein, F. W. H., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700 (Amsterdam 1949-) IX, p. 65, nr. 3Google Scholar, where the subject is described as ‘a waggon with fruit'; XIII, p. 119, nr. 1, with illustration. The impression in Brussels is described, with a correct interpretation of the inscription, in Brussels, Bibliotheque Ier, Royale Albert, Quinze années d'acquisitions de la pose de la première pierre a l'inauguration officielle de la Bibliothèque (1969), pp. 240–242 Google Scholar.

6 For the distaff as a symbol of women, sec Woordenboek der nederlandsche taal (The Hague and Leiden, 1882- ), XIV, 2846.

7 This is one of the meanings of the expression kwaad garen spinnen; see Woordenboek der nederlandsche taal, IV, 291, under garen.

8 For the relevant meanings of the verb rapen, see Woordenboek der nederlandsche taal, XII, part 3, 322-323, section 3, with several sixteenth-century citations. The first words of Remigius’ inscription, ‘Elck is wttc om rapen,’ appears in a proverb book of 1612 (Woordenboek, col. 323), but the pun implied in the print, curiously enough, is not recorded in a proverbial form before the eighteenth century; see Harrebomée, P. J., Spreekwoorden der nederlandsche taal (Utrecht, 1858), I, 453, and III, 268-269Google Scholar: ‘Rapen is een edel kruid, heel de wereld is op rapen uit,’ which may be translated ‘turnips (rapen) are a noble vegetable, the whole world is out to steal (rapen).’

9 Although the pig was a traditional symbol of gluttony, it could also symbolize the sin of avarice; see Bloomfield, M. W., The Seven Deadly Sins (Michigan, 1952), p. 246 Google Scholar. In any case, both connotations probably account for its fairly prominent place in Remigius’ print.

10 See Bax, D., Beschrijving en poging tot verklaring van het Turn der Onkuisheiddrieluik van Jeroen Bosch (Amsterdam, 1956), p. 121 Google Scholar, with further references. A similarly shaped object suspended from a pole carried by one of the people behind the cart would seem to be a basket of some type; its texture resembles that of the baskets seen elsewhere in the composition.

11 Keyser, p. 134.

12 For the meaning of the blauwe huyck, see Grauls, p. 151; and Idem, Volkstaal cti volksleven in het werk van Pieter Bruegel (Amsterdam and Antwerp, 1957), pp. 89-90.

13 For the significance of the figures on Bosch's haycart, see Gibson, W. S., Hieronymus Bosch (London and New York, 1973), p. 73 Google Scholar.

14 Literature on.Remigius Hogenberg may be found in Hollstein, IX, 65.

15 Kurz, O.. ‘Four Tapestries After Hieronymus Bosch ,’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 30 (1967), 150–162 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially 153—156; and S. Schneebalg-Perelman, ‘Richesses du gard-rneuble parisien de François Icr, inventaires inédits de 1542 et 1551,’ Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6c per., 78 (1971), 264.

16 These shortcomings are criticized, for example, in two allegorical plays written by the Bruges playwright Cornells Everaert (1485—1556): Sanders Welfaren, a plea to consider the welfare of others, first performed in 1511, and the much later Crygh, whose title, perhaps best translated as ‘Take,’ clearly describes its theme of greed and selfseeking. See Muller, J. W. and Scharpé, L., Spelen van Cornells Everaert (Leiden, 1920), pp. 55–74 Google Scholar and pp. 211-231 respectively.

17 For an authoritative account of the economy in Antwerp in the sixteenth century with references to other parts of the Netherlands, see van der Wee, H., The Growth of the Antwerp Economy and the European Market, II (The Hague, 1963), 113–127 Google Scholar; the economic crises of the 15 50's and 1560's are discussed on 209-243.

18 See Kryskamp, C., Het Antwerpse landjuweel van 1561 (Antwerp, 1962), p. vii Google Scholar; and Kuttner, E., Het Hongerjaar 1566 (Amsterdam, 1974; 1st ed. 1949), p. 149Google Scholar. Kuttner also sees the rederijker questions as reflecting the economic troubles of the time. These subjects were among the ones submitted by the Violieren for government approval.

19 Refereinen en anderen gedichten uit de XVle eeuw, verzameld en afyeschreven door Jan de Bruyne, ed. by K. Ruelens, 1 (Antwerp, 1879), nr. XXII, 97-100. According to a postscript to the poem, it received second prize in the landjuweel of 1561.

20 Lebeer, L., Beredeneerde catalogue van de prenten naar Pieter Bruegel de Oude (Brussels, 1969), pp. 136–137 Google Scholar, nr. 54. Lebeer dates the original drawing, now lost, around 1563.

21 For the iconography of Bruegel's Elck drawing and its relationship to the ‘Elck’ procession of 1563, sec Grauls, , Volkstaal en volksleven, pp. 175–186 Google Scholar, and the same author's ‘Uit Bruegels sprcekwoorden,’ Annuaire des Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 21 (1939), 91-107.