El Simbolismo Lunar en El Barco de Los Locos Del Bosco

The Lunar Symbolism of The Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch
Author(s): ANNA BOCZKOWSKA and ANNA BOZCKOWSKA

Source: Oud Holland, Vol. 86, No. 2/3 (1971), pp. 47-69
Published by: Brill
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A. BOCZKOWSKA
The Lunar Symbolism of

The Ship of Fools by Hieronymus B
Up to now no exhaustive explanation has been offered for all the ideas behind
The Ship of Fools (Paris, Louvre)1, two elements as yet unelucidated being the
that forms the mast of the ship and that of the moon which appears in crescen
hanging from the tree-mast (Figs. 1 , 2).
Enklaar has suggested that Bosch's painting was inspired by Jacob van Oest
De Blauwe Schuit ('The Blue Boat')2, which was composed in the form of a cha
Society, in which people of various social classes gathered together for the purp
tion consisting of the organization of theatrical performances, music-making a
of this hypothesis, Enklaar cites an engraving from the workshop of Hieronym
all probability executed after a missing work by Bosch4. It depicts a boat with
Schuit and figures of music-makers like those in The Ship of Fools. Enklaar a
analogy: a representation of the carrus navalis , a boat on wheels pulled along
carnival procession celebrating the return of Spring, which is depicted in a 16t
the so-called Schnbartbuch , now in Hamburg University Library (Fig. 3)5. Sin
blue and bears on its mast a pennant with a crescent moon similar to the one i
klaar concludes that the blue boats in Oestvoren's poem, Cock's engraving and
are all derived from it. However, as H. Adhmar has pointed out6, he has still
bolism of the blue colour or the moon, nor the reason for the choice of a boat
representations: he has left the problem of their formal and iconographie str
element connecting The Ship of Fools with the representation of the carrus navalis
is the sign of the moon, but so far the moon, on which both the theme and fo
based, has been interpreted only superficially as a sign of disbelief and Satan
looked it altogether.
* I am greatly indebted to doc. dr. P. Skubiszewski of University of

Warsaw for his helpful comments. 4. Ibid., 84 f.
1. In a recent article 'Bosch and the Narrenschiff: A 5.
Problem in
Ibid., 90 f.
6. H.
Relationships', The Art Bulletin, 51, 1969, 272-276, Ch.D. Adhmar,
Cuttler Le Muse National du Louvre, Paris, I, Les Primi-
men-
tions many interesting formal analogies although he does
tifs not explain
Flammands , I, Corpus de la Peinture des Anciens Pays-Bas-Mridio -
the idea behind the painting. naux aux quinzime sicle, 5, Bruxelles 1962, 22.
2. D. Th. Enklaar, Varende Luyden. Studien over de7. Middeleeuwse
Adhmar, Les Primitifs Flammands, 21 ; R. L. Delevoy, Hiero-
Groepen van Onmaatschappelijken in de Neder landen,nymus
Assen 1956,
Bosch, 77 f.
Genve 1960, 31 ; Cuttler, 'Bosch and the Narrenschiff',
3. Ibid. 44-47. IIA.
47
As the water planet, governing all possible kinds of water complexes, and as a wandering planet
undergoing constant change, the moon was the patron of travel both on water and land, and of those
infatuated by travelling, wandering and roaming8. All possible kinds of occupations associated with
wandering were subject to it. In 'Picatrix' it is stated that: 'Subject to the moon are officers of the post,
couriers, travellers and the wandering people of the sea and those at the helm'9, and the moon is
referred to as "the lord of boats"10. In the treatise, Matheseos, Firmicus Maternus writes about the
influence exercised by the moon: 'People born under the moon's influence are always disposed
towards activities connected with water. They travel unremittingly either by land or sea to win goods
from foreign lands so as to secure a livelihood for themselves'11. In a 15th-century astrological
manuscript in the Landesbibliothek in Kassel we read that among others subject to the influence of
the moon are the wandering scholars, sailors, fishermen, people who have dealings with water and
all those who travel on land or sea12. In the prologue to his edition of the Aeneid ( Boke of Enedos
Compyled by Vyrgylex, 1490), the English scholar Wyclif writes that the English travel unceasingly
because they are born under the sign of the moon: 'For we englysche men ben born under the
domynayon of the mone, which is never stedfaste but ever waverynge'13.
In a 15th-century astrological manuscript (1480) in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena there is a
representation of the sign of the Moon which is composed of the fundamental elements of its complex
iconography (Fig. 4)14. Here Luna is personified as a woman with her feet on wheels, above a seascape
with two ships. The rhyme below begins with the words: La Luna al navigar molto conforta. A similar
group of symbols is seen in the representation of Luna on the astrological fresco of the Palazzo della
Ragione in Padua: here she is holding a crescent moon in the palm of her hand and riding in a cart
(Fig. 5). Near her are various 'children of the moon', including a rider and pilgrims (Fig. 6) as well as
three figures in a boat. People sailing in boats also occur among the children of the moon in the 15th-
century Hausbuch of Wolfegg (Fig. 7) and in a 15th-century manuscript at Tbingen (Fig. 7a). The Ship
of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch with its moon sign is, therefore, first and foremost a lunar boat and the
wanderers in the boat are 'children of the moon'.
The boat on wheels in the Schnbartbuch is, likewise, another of the numerous versions of a com-
position made up of the lunar symbols of wandering: the boat and the cart. On this boat (Fig. 3) are
depicted sea creatures which were also subject to the moon's influence15. The image of Cancer is
particularly prominent because, as a sign of the Zodiac, it assumes the role of the astrological 'house'
8. A. Hauber, Planetenkinderbilder und Sternbilder , Strassburg 1916, MDCCCXCVII, ed. W. Kroll, F. Skutsch, Bk. IV, 214.
48, 141 ; P. Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire tudie spcialement dans les 12. Landesbibliothek, Kassel. Manuskript Astron. 1. 2, fol. 49r -
doctrines et les traditions relatives V influence de la lune , Paris 1937, 'Mond'. See Hauber, Planetenkinderbilder , 48.
139. 13. See J. J. Jusserand, English wayfaring life in the Middle Ages ,
9. '"Picatrix'. Das Ziel des Weisen von Pseudo-Magriti". Studies of London 1920, 402.
Warburg Institute , 27, London 1962, 208. 14. Reale Biblioteca Estense, Ms. Lat. No 209, Hauber, Planeten -
10. Ibid., 236. kinderbilder , Fig. XXXVI.
1 1 . Julii Firmici Materni Matheseos Libri VIII, Lipsiae, 15. Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire , 224 f., 231 f.
48
(1). Hieronymus Bosch, The
Ship of Fools, Paris , Louvre .
49
(2). Detail of Fig. 1. - (3). Carrus Navalis from the Schn-
bartbuch. 16th century. Hamburg , University Library. -
(4). Luna from a manuscript in the Reale Biblioteca Estense ,
Modena (Ms. lat. 209). 15th century.
50
(5). Luna. Padua , Palazzo della Ragione. - (6). Children ol
Luna, Palazzo della Ragione. - (7). Children of Luna, Haus-
buch of Wolfegg. - (7a). Children of Luna, manuscript at
Tbingen.
(8). Master of the Banderoles, The Tree of Life. 15th cen-
tury. - (8a). The Tree of Life from the Erbauungsbuch of
Wilhelm Werner von Simmern. 1 5th century. - (9). The Tree
of Life from a manuscript of De Civitate Dei. 15th century.
Brussels , Bibliothque Royale (Ms. lat. 9006). - (10). The
Tree of Life from the missal of Bernhard von Rohr, Bishop
of Salzburg. 15th century. Mnchen , Staatsbibl . (Cod. lat.
15710).
52
(11). Pieter de Jode after Marten de Vos, Phlegmatics. 16th
century. - (12). Jost Amman(?), Flegmaticus. 16th century. bourg Calendar. 15th century. - (14). Simon Vostre, The
Wolf egg, Frstliche Sammlungen. - (13). Phlegmatics, Stras- Four Temperaments, from a Book of Hours, Paris, 1 502.
53
(15). Giovanni Bellini, Inconstanza. Venice , Accademia di
Belle Arti. - (16). Hieronymus Bosch, The Allegory of Glut-
tony. Yale University Art Gallery. - (17). Engraving from
the studio of Hieronymus Cock. Inscribed Heronymus Bos
inve. H. Cook exc. 1 562.
54
(18). The children of Venus. 15th century Netherlands print.
- (19). Virgil Solis, The Phlegmatic Temperament. 16th cen-
tury.
(20). An imitator of Hieronymus Bosch,

Concert in an egg. Lille , Muse des
Beaux- Arts.
55
(21). P. Breughel, The sin of gluttony. Drawing.
Paris , F. Lugt Collection- (22). P. Breughel,
The sin of idleness. Drawing. Vienna , Alber-
tina. - (23). P. Breughel, The sin of envy.
Drawing. Basle , Baron R. von Hirsch Collec-
tion.
of the moon16. The signs of the Zodiac often determined the character of a journey since they were
connected with the moon's course through the sky : 'If you are about to travel by boat the moon should
be found in the water sign.' - Zahelis writes - 'Be forewarned against a journey if the moon is in the
sign of Scorpio. Bear in mind that land signs are the best for those wishing to travel on land, and water
signs for those wishing to travel by sea'17. So Pisces and Cancer are depicted on the side of the carrus
navalis as water signs, no doubt in augury of a propitious voyage, for they favoured journeys by sea.
The carrus navalis is painted blue, the colour of the water in which the crab and fish are swimming.
But blue is the colour of the moon as well, appearing in numerous representations of the Luna sign18.
For example, the crescent moon is coloured blue in a water-colour of the first half of the 15th century
from a South German workshop, which is now in the collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
and in a miniature from a manuscript of 141 1 by Hans Wintler, Die Bliimen der Tugend, in the Landes-
bibliothek in Gotha19. Moreover, the magician represented in the latter is wearing a blue costume and
casting his spells by the light of a blue Luna. Again, in an early 16th-century picture by Martin Schaff-
ner (Kassel, Hessisches Museum), which shows the planets with their subordinate elements (days,
weeks, colours, metals, virtues), Luna is portrayed in a light blue dress with a large blue collar, and
there is an inscription on a banderole : 'Blue is my colour'20.
The miniature in the Schnbartbuch, with its blue moon boat, depicts the celebrations connected
with the approach of spring, the Spring Festival being held on the day of the new moon coinciding with
the spring solstice21. There are numerous rerpesentations of the lunar carnival boat with music-makers
in illustrations of this festival in 15th- and 16th-century calendars. For instance, a woodcut for the
month of May by Hans Sebald Beham22 shows music-makers in a boat which has a flat bottle hanging
over the side and is being pushed by naked figures, all of which elements also occur in Bosch's repre-
sentation of the lunar boat.
Bosch's boat has a tree for a mast and the symbolism of this, too, can only be understood when it is
related to lunar symbolism, since a tree is one of the moon's permanent attributes, signifying its in-
fluence over the plant world. For, according to Arabic and Greek astrology, it was the moon that
directed the growth, blossoming, ripening and withering of plants23.
A tree was the basic form in which the Arabian moongoddess, Al-Uzza, was worshipped in Mecca,
16. W. Donna, The Crab and the Butterfly: a Study in Animal
Symbolism', Journal of the Warburg and Cour tauld Institutes, 17, 1954, 20. Reprod. in: A. Chastel, R. Klein, Die Welt des Humanismus,
58 f.; Encyclopdie astrologique franaise, 1936, 157: 'la lune, gou- Mnchen 1963, 323, Tb. IX.
verneur du Cancer'. 21. Saintyves, V Astrologie populaire, 381.
17. Zahelis, De Elect ionibus Liber, a treatise included in the col- 22. Reproduced in: C. Dodgson, 'Rare Woodcuts in the Ashmo-
lection with the general title, Julii Firmici Materni Iunioris Matheseos,lean Museum-II', Burlington Magazine, 63, 1933, 117; see D. Bax, Ont-
Basileae, MDXXXIII, 111. cijf ering van Jeroen Bosch, 's-Gravenhage 1949, 194.
18. F. Piper, Mythologie der Christlichen Kunst, Weimar 1851, 2, 23. Hildegar dis Causae et Curae, ed. P. Kaiser, Lipsiae 1903, 79;
69; R. Much, 'Mondmythologie und Wissenschaft', Archiv fr Reli- D. Nielsen, Die altarabische Mondreligion, Strassburg 1904, 109; R.
gionswissenschaft, 37, 1941/2, 258; Encyclopdie de la Divination, Paris Briffault, The Mothers. A Study of the Origins of Sentiments and Insti-
1964, 211, s.v. Lune. tutions, London 1927, 2, 589; Saintyves, V Astrologie populaire, 230 ff.,
19. See E. Vayer, Chef s- Oeuvre du Dessin de la Collection du Mu- passim.', J. Bidez, F. Cumont, Les Mages hellniss, Bruxelles 1938, 2,
se des Beaux- Arts de Budapest, Budapest 1957, Fig. 4; E. Rothe, 189, 227, 302 ff.; M. Eliade, Trait d'histoire des religions, Paris 1959,
Buchmalerei aus zwlf Jahrhunderten, Berlin 1965, Fig. 71. 148.
57
all Semitic divinities being connected with trees and sacred shrubs. On certain Babylonian seals the
identification of the moon with a tree was represented in a realistic and yet, at the same time, sur-
realistic way, often by a boat or cart either decorated with branches or with a tree standing upright in
the centre. Conversely, the moon god was thought of as a tree-trunk with a crescent moon24. The lunar
boat with a tree standing in its centre also crops up in illustrations on Egyptian papyruses, in primitive
Oceanic art and in Africa25. In Crete and Greece, too, moon deities were worshipped and represented
in the form of a tree26.
These symbols and ideas came to the fore again later in European art. For example, in the Palazzo
della Ragione in Padua, Luna holds a tree in one hand and a crescent moon in the other (Fig. 5), while
on the fresco to the left of her there are three trees by a river illustrating the influence exercised by the
moon (Fig. 6). Trees also occur in the miniature in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena (Fig. 4), while the
figure of Luna with a branch in her hand can be seen in 14th-century Spanish miniatures illustrating the
influences exercised by the moon27. In the representations of the May Spring Festival in Netherlandish
calendars the lunar boat is often decorated with a small tree or branches of trees as, for example, in a
Flemish calendar of the beginning of the 15th century in the British Museum (Add. Mss. 24098, f.22b),
and one formerly in the Dyson Perrins Collection (Mss. Lot 28, f.5v - Sotheby's Sale 4.xii.58)28.
However, although Bosch's representation of a boat with a tree belongs to the well-defined group of
traditional lunar representations signifying the cosmic function of the moon, it cannot be classed with
those works which are simply concerned with depicting popular celebrations connected with the spring
new moon. It lacks the free decorative character which marks the illustrations by contemporary minia-
turists in Netherlandish calendars, for, in contrast to these, the symbolism of boat and tree is here
absolutely central to the composition. In this respect it finds analogies in two compositions of the
second half of the 15th century. One of these is a wood-engraving made, in commemoration of the
tragic death of Mary of Burgundy, the wife of Maximilian I, by the Master of the Year 1464, also
called the Master of the Banderoles, who was working at the same time as Bosch (Fig. 8)29. The other
is a drawing with exactly the same iconography in the Erbauungsbuch of Wilhelm Werner Graf von
Simmern (Fig. 8a)30. Both these works depict a moralizing metaphor of human life in the context of
late medieval ideas about the transience of universal matter. The metaphor takes the form of a tree in a
boat, with representatives of the state depicted amongst the foliage and two mice, symbolizing day and
night, gnawing at its trunk. The boat is approaching a bank on which stands the figure of Death aiming
24. Briffault, The Mothers , 630 f. 28. Cuttler refers to examples of the May Boats; 'Bosch and the
25. H. Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism , London 1919, 2, NarrenschifT, Figs. 3, 4, 6.
309, 314, Fig. 1287; K. Tallqvist, Manen . Myt och Dikt , Folktro och 29. W. Hughes Willshire, Catalogue of Early Prints in British Mu-
kult , Stockholm 1948, 81, Fig. 52; M. Lurker, Der Baum in Glauben seum , London 1883, 2, 153; F. W. H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish
und Kunst unter besonderer Bercksichtigung der Werke des Hieronymus Etchings Engravings and Woodcuts , Amsterdam 1949, 12, 63 ; This ana-
Bosch , Baden Baden 1960, 32; H. R. Engler, Die Sonne als Symbol , logy is mentioned by O. Benesch, 'Der Wald der sieht und hrt. Zur
Ksnacht, Zrich 1962, 171 f., Figs. 334a, 335. einer Zeichnung von Bosch'. Jahrbuch der Preuszischen Kunstsamm-
26. Briffault, The Mothers , 630. lungen, 4, 1937, 261.
27. Bibi. Vaticana, Cod. Reg. lat. 1283, fol. 23 v, see F. Saxl, Lec- 30. Hughes Willshire, Catalogue of Early Prints , 153 ; see W. Fraen-
tures, London 1957, 65, Fig. 38a. ger, Hans Weiditz und Sebastian Brant , Leipzig 1930, 103.
58
with his bow at the people in the tree. Behind Death lies a dead man in an open grave.
The source of this symbolic composition is a 7th-century legend about St. Barlaam and King
Josaphat, which was originally written in Greek and then translated into Latin and enjoyed great
popularity during the late medieval period31. It is bound up with the secular iconography of the tree of
life which symbolizes the human body in its physiological impermanence and the course of human
life32: 'This tree, perpetually gnawed by two mice, represents the life of man who, throughout all the
hours of day and night, is consumed and destroyed, slowly drawing near to disintegration. The four
snakes, however, signify the composition of the human body which is made up of four unstable and
uncertain elements. When the balance of these elements is disturbed, the body loses its cohesion and
then disintegrates'33. We meet a similar motif in Innocent Ill's The Misery of Human Fate , where the
biological changes taking place in the tree are compared to the functions of the human organism34, and
in a 13th-century poem by Wilhelm Klerikers, Three Sorrows of Man, where the description of the tree
of life, symbolizing human life, is accompanied, as it so often is, by the motifs of death, in the form of
a unicorn, and time, symbolized by the two mice nibbling at the trunk35.
An example of the pictorial rendering of this idea is the 12th-century relief on the south portal of the
Baptistery at Parma, in which a man is shown sitting in the tree of life. Behind the tree is a dragon,
symbolizing death, while two mice gnaw the trunk. Here the passing of time is indicated by the chariots
of the sun and moon36. Among other depictions of the tree of life with the same iconography may be
mentioned a miniature in a manuscript of St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei (Fig. 9; Brussels, Biblioth-
que Royale, Ms. 9006, fol. 48 v, 1410), an illustration in a 15th-century manuscript at Turin (Archivo
di Stato Ms.b. Ill, 12, fol. 59v), of 146637. In all these Death is represented as guarding the tree of life
which has a man in its crown.
In his poem Carmina (Bazylea, 1498) Sebastian Brant gave this popular theme a new twist by
describing the tree of life as the tree of time gnawed by two mice. This tree has twelve branches sym-
bolizing twelve months, and each branch bears thirty nests signifying the number of days in the month.
Twenty-four eggs in each nest stand for the hours of the day, and sixty-two birds represent the minu-
tes38. The print by the Master of the Banderoles and the drawing in the Erbauungsbuch give yet another
variant: in them the tree of life is placed in a boat which symbolizes the conception of time and its
passing like the chariots of the sun and moon in the Baptistery at Parma, while Death is represented
on the bank aiming with his bow at the figures depicted in the branches (Figs. 8, 8a).
31. A. Didron, 'Legenda Aurea de Sancto Barlaam', Annales ar-

chologiques , 15, 1855, 415; H. Peri, 'Der Religionsdisput der Barlaam 73, col. 493.
Legende, ein Motiv abendlndischer Dichtung', Filosofia y Letras , 34. See Kozky, Geschichte der Totentnze , 151.
Salamanca, 14, 1959, 272; P. S. Kozky, Geschichte der Totentnze , 35. See Kozky, Geschichte der Totentnze , 152.
Budapest 1944, 185, 266 ff. 36. Reproduced in: A. Didron, 'Symbolique Chrtienne, La vie
32. L. Stauch, s.v. Baum, in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstge- Humaine'. Annales Archologiques , 15, 1855, 413, 416; Kozky, Ge-
schichte, Stuttgart 1948, col. 74; J. E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols , schichte der Totentnze , 185.
London 1962, s.v. Tree, 329; Kozky, Geschichte der Totentnze , 109, 37. Kozky, Geschichte der Totentnze , 200; Bax, Ontcijf ering van
156, 160, 168, passim. Jeroen Bosch , Fig. 61.
33. Yoanne Damasceno, Vita Sanctorum Barlaam . . ., Migne, PL 38. Fraenger, Hans Weiditz und Sebastian Brant, 103 f.
59
In Bosch's painting the moon is shown as the attribute of the tree of life in the boat because it was one
of the most popular symbols of change and the passing of time, as well as of birth, life and approaching
death39. Like the tree of life, it represented the physical transitoriness, the mortality of man. It was,
moreover, thought of as directing the organic functions that limit the human, plant and animal worlds;
as the planet closest to Earth it governed the changes taking place in the material world which was, for
this reason, called the 'sublunar world'40. The tree of Ufe, Unking the two opposites, life and death,
with the idea of change, was an archetypal moon tree41.
The fullest explanation of the connection between various lunar symbols is given in Hildegard of
Bingen's famous medical treatise, Causae et Curae: 'Today the tree becomes green but tomorrow it
will fade. In the same way man now nourishes himself so that a little later he can take food again; the
blood in him increases in order to diminish again. The same thing happens to the moon - today it
waxes and tomorrow it wanes. According to this law man is a being in process of change (homo in
mutatione). When the moon wanes the stars are lit by its flame and shine more strongly; when the
moon dwindles, it calls to mind the figure of a dying man. Through the image of the moon we can com-
prehend man as mutable man" (homo mutatus)'42. Gregory the Great writes: 'The moon . . . points
to the falling away of the flesh, its monthly waning and disappearance signifies our mortality'43. How-
ever, the moon only held sway over man's physical aspects : in De natura rerum Isidor of Seville states :
ex Sole spiritum, ex Luna corpus (Cap. Ill)44, while Hildegard of Bingen writes: '. . . the natural
strength of the moon directs the life of our bodies . . . whereas the sun assumes control over the whole
of the human personality, the moon only works in a limited way'45.
In the later Middle Ages, knowledge about the influence of the moon on the human body46 was
spread throughout the whole of Europe by the famous medical treatise, Regimen Sanitatis Salernita-
num, of which no less than 240 editions were published between 1474 and 184647. The popularity of
lunar symbolism is also testified by an astrological manuscript of the first half of the 14th century,
which was rediscovered by Warburg. (Bibl. Vaticana, Cod. Reg. lat. 1283, fol. 23v). This manuscript
contains a representation of a wheel divided into segments, showing scenes from the life of man as
39. F. Quarles, Hieroglyphikes of the Life of Man , London 1638,

see S. C. Chew, The Pilgrimage of Life , London 1962, 31, 168, Fig. 43. Homilia 18, 31-43: . . . Luna autem in sacro eloquio pro defectu
122; W. H. Roscher, ber Selene und Verwandtes , Leipzig 1890, 61, carnis ponitur: quia, dum menstruis momentis decrescit, defectum nos-
67; Bouch-Leclercq, V Astrologie Grecque , Paris 1899, 91; F. Dorn- trae mortalitatis dsignt ,' quoted after Kozky, Geschichte der Toten-
seiff, Das Alphabet in Mystik und Magie , Leipzig 1925, 82 if.; F. Boll, tnze, 171.
Sternglaube und Sterndeutung. Die Geschichte und das Wesen des Astro- 44. F. Boll, Die Lebensalter. Ein Beitrag zur antiken Ethnologie und
logie, Leipzig 1926, 46; Briffault, The Mothers, 589, 600; Saintyves, zur Geschichte der Zahlen, Berlin 1913, 38.
V Astrologie populaire, passim.; S. W. Hirschberg, Der 'Monatkalen- 45. Migne, PL, vol. 197, col. 778 B, cf. Saxl., Lectures, 64.
der' in der Mutterrechtskultur, Anthropos, 26, 1931, 461 ff.; E. Neu- 46. See Saintyves, V Astrologie populaire, 143, 146, 151, 189,
mann, 'ber den Mond und das Matriarchale Bewusstsein', Eranos- passim. ; L. Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science,
Jahrbuch, 18, 1950, 331, 335, 346; Eliade, Trait histoire des religions, London 1934, 1, 150; W. Wolf, Der Mond im deutschen Volksglauben,
Chap. IV - 'La Lune et la Mystique Lunaire'. Bhl 1929, 39, 40; Four Treatises ofTheophrastus von Hohenheim called
40. Ibid. Paracelsus, ed. by Henry E. Sigerist, Baltimore 1941, 152-155; R.
41. C. Hentze, Mythes et symboles lunaires, Anvers 1932, 20; Neu-Eisler, The Royal Art of Astrology, London 1946, 144; Grabner,
mann, ber den Mond, 361. Mondglaube und Mondkfrat, 80, 81, 83, 85, 88.
42. Hildegar dis Causae et Curae, ed. P. Kaiser, Lipsiae 1903, 73. 47. See Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire, 139.
60
determined by cosmic influences; in the centre of the circle appears a personification of the moon with
a tree in her hand and around her the human activities subordinated to the moon's disposition in the
twenty-eight stations of its orbit48. The significance of the moon in late medieval medecine is empha-
sized by the fact that in 1465 Louis XI issued an order prohibiting doctors from prescribing medicines
or performing operations without previously ascertaining whether the moon was passing through a
phase favourable to the treatment49.
The curriculum vitae, which was often, as in the example just mentioned, symbolically represented
by the wheel of life, was also compared to the course of the moon50. According to Gregory the Great,
the new moon signified the child, the crescent moon the young man and the full moon the mature man51 .
Similarly the waning moon signified the twilight of life. This group of symbols crops up again and
again in the many 15th-century prints that contain symbolic images of the consecutive stages in human
life. On one of them we read: 'The moon is now full, for it is the autumn of life. The bunches of grapes
are ripe and fresh . . . The moon wanes and the ripeness passes. Similarly man makes his way towards
maturity and then declines again. The tree which long defended itself stands dried up, denuded and
destroyed'52. Similarly the moon which appears as the attribute of the tree of life in The Ship of Fools
is a symbol of the curriculum vitae. It signifies the material sublunar existence of man, subject to the
laws of nature and the drift towards death. The moon was, indeed, used as a symbol of death in secular
European art at various other periods apart from the Middle Ages53.
The symbolism of the tree of life as a sign of sublunar existence is supplemented by the related sym-
bol of death. But here, instead of the traditional image of the skeleton which appears, for example, in
the engraving by the Master of the Banderoles (Fig. 8), we see 'une tte de mort' in the crown of the
tree, a symbol found in other late medieval representations. For instance, in a miniature of 1481 by
Berthold Furtmayr, which shows a tree of life with a twofold antithetic significance (Fig. 10)54, there is,
on the right hand side, a skull emerging from the foliage of the crown like the one in Bosch's painting,
and in a similar miniature in a Burgundian missal of 1535, dedicated to the Emperor Maximilian I, we
again find Mary and Eve standing beside a tree with a skull in its crown55. Thus we find symbols of
death associated with both aspects of the iconography of the tree of life that were popular during the
late medieval period, the one concerned with theological problems and the other with the problems of
earthly human existence.
As the patron of The Ship of Fools the moon conditions the temperament of all the people Bosch
48. A. Warburg, 'Heidnisch-antike Weissagung in Wort und Bild
zu Luthers Zeiten', in Gesammelte Schriften , Leipzig 1932, 2, 515, mains , Paris 1942, 182 f.; Kozky, Geschichte der Totentnze , 171;
note 3 ; Saxl, Lectures , 65, Pl. 38a. Eliade, Trait d'histoire des religions , 155.
49. Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire , 146; Saxl, Lectures , 65. 54. The Mass Book for the Salzburg Bishop Bernhard von Rohr,
50. Kozky, Geschichte der Totentnze , 170 f. Mnchen, Staatsbibl. Cod. lat 15710, fol. 61 v, reproduced in A. Mayer,
51. Homilia 18, 31-43, quoted after Kozky, Geschichte der Toten- Das Bild der Kirche , Regensburg 1962, Fig. 29, 49-50; T. Dobrze-
tnze , 171. niecki, Legenda o Secie i Drzewie Zycia w sztuce Sredniowiecznej (The
52. Quoted after A. Freybe, Das Memento Mori in deutscher Sitte , Legend of Seth and the Tree of Life in Medieval Art), Rocznik Mu-
bildlicher Darstellung und Volksglauben deutscher Sprache , Dichtung zeum Narodowego w Warszawie, 10, 1966, 184; E. Guldan, Eva und
und Seelsorge, Gotha 1909, 18, 19. Maria. Eine Antithese als Bildmotiv , Graz-Kln 1966, 143, Fig. 158.
53. See F. Cumont, Recherches sur le symbolisme funraire des Ro- 55. Reproduced in: Guldan, Eva und Maria, 143, fig. 159.
61
depicted in it; in other words, he has given us a picture of the phlegmatic temperament that results
from its influence - . . . quod natura lune sit frigida hmida, et hoc congruit natura flegmatica . . .56 These
people are primarily wanderers, such as appear, for example, in the classic illustration of the moon's
influence in the fresco in the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua57, or in representations of the phlegmatic
temperament such as that in the Ledgers of the Barbers and Surgeons of York dating from the end of
the 15th century (London, British Museum, Ms. 2572, fol. 51 v)58. Representations of the phlegmatic
temperament with an emphasis on the lunar characteristics are met with in the 16th century too. In an
engraving entitled The Phlegmatics (Fig. 1 1) by Pieter de Jode after Marten de Vos (1532-1602), a man
and a woman are shown sitting by the seashore, with fishing-nets, and fish in a wooden bucket and on
a plate ; in the background there is a seascape with people in boats. In a print entitled Phlegma by
Jacob I de Geyn (1 532-83), a man is portrayed leaning against a basket from which fish are spilling out
into the wooden bucket in front of him ; another basket of fish lies beside him and in the background
appears the sea with a boat sailing on it59. As we have already noted, fish were depicted as the moon's
attribute on the side of the lunar boat-cart in the Schnbartbuch , and Bosch's lunar boat is also deco-
rated with a fish hanging from a branch sticking over the side. Among other examples of fishermen as
representatives of the phlegmatic temperament are those depicted as 'children of the moon' in the
Tbingen manuscript (Fig. 7a).
By the side of The Ship of Fools there are two swimmers, reminiscent of those depicted in the Palazzo
della Ragione in Padua as well as in numerous 15th-century miniatures and prints60. (Fig. 7, 7a) Men
standing in water are frequently found in illustrations of the phlegmatic temperament as, for example,
in a French manuscript of the first half of the 15th century, Problmes d'Aristote (Paris, Bibliothque
Nationale, Ms. Nouv., acq.fr.3371, fol. 4V) or in a German broadsheet of the middle of the 15th cen-
tury (Zrich, Zentralbibliothek, Schreiber 1922 m)61.
Bosch's boat is further notable for the large number of vessels it contains : there is something that
looks like a bottle hanging from the bulwarks ; one of the swimmers is holding a bowl filled with liquid,
like the one the jester on the branch is drinking from; on the board across the boat there stands a pot,
with a plate of cherries beside it; a woman is holding up a jug and there is another one on the end of a
twig sticking out from the boat; another figure is holding on to a ladle half immersed in the water and
there is a barrel at the bottom of the boat. But these people are not concerned only with drinking:
there is a flat bun hanging on a string from the mast and those around it have their mouths open ; a man
with a knife in his hand is reaching up for a roast fowl tied to the tree-mast, and one of the passengers
is being sick over the side of the boat. In short, these 'children of the moon' are obsessed by the thought
of food and drink.
56. MS. No. 248, fol. 33ra, Corpus Christi College, see R. Kli- 59. Reproduced in Klibansky, Saxl, Panofsky, Saturn and Melan-
bansky, F. Saxl, E. Panofsky, Saturn and Melancholy , New York 1964, choly , Figs. 141, 142.
127 f., 397. 60. F. Lippmann, The Seven Planets, ed. International Chalco-
57. See notes 8, 9, 10, 11. grafical Society, London 1895, Figs. A VII, B VII, C VII, D VII.
58. Reproduced in Klibansky, Saxl, Panofsky, Saturn and Melan- 61. Reproduced in Klibansky, Saxl, Panofsky, Saturn and Melan-
choly , Fig. 80. choly , Figs. 77, 78.
62
In fact, the whole digestive system, the stomach, stomach ailments and nausea were subject to the
moon's control62. 'Picatrix' records that 'children of the moon' are characterized by their gluttony and
drunkenness63, and Abraham Ibn Esra also notes their gluttony64. In the treatise Regimen Sanitas
Salernitanum we read that the moon, through its association with certain of the signs of the Zodiac,
causes stomach paints, vomiting and nausea65. For our present purpose, however, the most significant
source remains the basic medieval medical work, Causae et Curae by Hildegard of Bingen. In the
chapter De Lunae Effectu she writes that people under the moon's influence are easily aroused and in-
clined to regale themselves66, while in another chapter, De Flegmaticis, we read that phlegmatics under
the moon's influence are characterized by their immoderate eating and drinking: 'Phlegm conjures up
various inclinations in people. It induces intemperate eating and drinking, careless gaiety, sorrow, anger
and inordinate lust'67. In 16th-centruy representations of lunar children, for example in Melancholia by
Matthias Gerung (1558, formerly Vienna, Trau Collection), there are figures feasting at a laden table as
well as others bathing in a basin68. In a drawing illustrating the phlegmatic temperament by a South
German Master (Fig. 12; Jost Amman?, 1570; Wolfegg, Frstliche Sammlungen), a man is depicted
holding a vessel in his hand and seated on a pig, a symbol of gluttony69. Of the seven deadly sins, each
of which was associated with one of the planets, it was gluttony that fell to the moon70.
Another characteristic of the phlegmatic character, irritation, is expressed in Bosch's painting by
the woman in the boat aiming with her jug at the man lying below her71. Phlegmatics are also, ac-
cording to Albertus Magnus, characterized on the one hand by flushed and florid complexions and on
the other by an inclination to be pallid72. This, too, was represented by Bosch: the pale faces of the
woman holding the guitar and the man sitting opposite her contrast with the ruddy faces of the other
figures.
Some of the figures in The Ship of Fools are making music. A fondness for music, song and the
playing of instruments is yet another typical characteristic of the phlegmatic temperament73, and cou-
ples making music often occur in illustrations of it. For example, a woodcut in a German calendar
from Augsburg (1489) shows a man playing a guitar and a woman a harp74, and in a calendar from
Strasbourg (Fig. 13; 1500) we find a similar couple seated on either side of a well, in which a round
vessel is hanging partially submerged like the one in Bosch's painting.
62. Henri-Corneille Agrippa, La Philosophie Occulte , I, 22, ed. 68. Klibansky, Saxl, Panofsky, Saturn and Melancholy, Fig. 123,
Paris 1910, 1, 62; 'L' cole de Salerne' trad, by Ch. Meaux de Saint- 381.
Marc, ed. Paris 1880, 180-183; Introductorium Astronomiam Albuma - 69. Klibansky, Saxl, Panofsky, Saturn and Melancholy, Fig. 127,
saris Abalachi . Octo continens libros partiales , Venetiis 1506, 109; 378 f.
Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire , 139, 149, 191. 70. Boll, Die Lebensalter, 37.
63. 'Picatrix', 212. 71. Hildegardis Causae et Curae, 19.
64. The Beginning of Wisdom . An Astrological Treatise by Abraham 72. Albertus Magnus, De Animalibus, Bk XX, 1, cap. II, quoted
ibn Ezra. An edition of the French version of 1273, Baltimore 1939, 201 . after F. M. Barbado, 'La physionomie, le temprament et le caractre
65. L'cole de Sleme , 80-83, - De V astre voyageur quand la lueur d'aprs Albert le Grand et la science moderne', Revue Thomiste , 14,
divine a frapp le Lion, ne prends pas mdicine. V estomac alangui craint 1931, 339.
un festin pompeux et du vomissement , le dgot odieux. Quoted after 73. Klibansky, Saxl, Panofsky, Saturn and Melancholy, 127, 130,
Saintyves, V Astrologie populaire , 139 f. note 10.
66. Hildegar dis Causae et Curae, ed. P. Kaiser, Lipsiae 1903, 19. 74. Reproduced in Klibansky, Saxl, Panofsky, Saturn and Melan-
67. Hildegar dis Causae et Curae, 38. choly, Figs. 89a, 90b.
63
The dominating figure in Bosch's boatload of phlegmatics is the jester sitting on the withered
branch, drinking from a bowl, and it is this figure, linked with the lunar symbolism, that gives the work
its decidedly moralizing meaning. In the 15th and 16th centuries the jester was represented at the feet
of the so-called anatomical man, for he signified a wandering mind and was subject to the influence of
the moon as the planet which provokes mental illness (Fig. 14)75.
According to traditions dating back to Aristotle, the brain, as the most moist part of the human
organism, was subject to the moon's influence since the moon was the 'lord of water'76. In his Summa
Theologica St. Thomas Aquinas writes : 'It is obvious that the brain, as Aristotle has observed, is the
most moist part of the human organism. It is for that reason especially susceptible to the activities of the
moon whose right it is to work on damp matter'77. In his basic work on medieval medical knowledge
Bartholomeus Anglicus writes : 'The brain according to its very nature imitates and is sensible to the
changes of the moon. For if the moon waxes the brain increases in size; if the moon wanes the brain
contracts and does not obey the spirit'78. In the Middle Ages the time for performing a brain operation
was fixed in strict accordance with the various phases of the moon79. Theophrastus von Hohenheim,
called Paraselcus, wrote as follows about the moon's influence : '. . . Owing to the unusual nature of
the moon there are various degrees of attraction. It so happens that the humor is drawn out of the
brain when the moon is at its smallest. The explanation is that the new moon does not draw out the
same humor as the old one: the new moon draws out the body's humor less than the old moon, which
is rough and hard and therefore draws out the rough and hard humor'80. All types of mental illness -
epilepsy, hysteria, idiocy and brain infirmities - were derived from the moon81. In 15th- and 16th-cen-
tury literature the word lunaticus was a synonym for stultus 82. In a medical treatise of 1582 Jean Li-
bault writes: . . . Ceux qui sont conus la lune nouvelle naissent non seulement difformes, mutils
chtifs, tortus, bossus, contrefaits et maladivs, mais sont aussi stupides, dpourvues de tous bnfices et
dots de nature, de tout sens et entendement, de tout conseil, sagesse et jugement . . . les Latins ont tir
leur proverbe: quarta luna natus, quand ils veulent decrire une personne disgracie en toutes ses actions 83.
It is thus no mere accident that Bosch's jester, the symbol of lunar folly, is a hunchback. Jesters were
also represented in illustrations of the phlegmatic temperament (Fig. 13), for, according to traditions
reaching back to Hippocrates, phlegma was the source of mental deficiency84.
75. Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire, 289; P. Lacombe, Livres
heures imprims aux XV-me et XVI-me sicles , Paris, Pis. 18, 22, 42: 79. 'Picatrix', 70; L. Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experi-
(Heures de Vrard (1489), Heures de Simon Vostre (1491, 1498, 1508), mental Science, New York 1934, 139.
Heures de Gilles Hardouyen (1504)). 80. Four Treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim called Paracelsus,
76. Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire, 139, 151, 189; Boll, Stern- 154.
glaube und Sterndeutung, 125; W. Pagel, 'Medieval and Renaissance 81. Briffault, The Mothers, 608 ff.; Saintyves, L'Astrologie popu-
contributions to knowledge of the brain and its functions', in: The His- laire, 189 , passim.', Neumann, ber den Mond, 352, 372.
tory and Philosophy of Knowledge of the Brain, Oxford 1958, 108; 82. B. Swain, Fools and Folly during the Middle Ages and the Renais-
A. Zemitz, La Luna nelle credenze popolari e nella poesia, Trieste 1889, sance, New York 1932, 3.
13; Eisler, The Royal Art of Astrology, 141, 144. 83. Y. Libault, Trois Livres de la Sant Fcondit et Maladies des
77. Summa Theologica, P. I, q. CXV, A V, (ed. Rome 1889, 546), Femmes, Paris 1582, 49-51.
quoted after Saintyves, V Astrologie populaire, 184 f. 84. Hildegardis Causae et curae, 74: De flegmaticis; A. O'Brien-
IS. De propriet atibus rerum, VIII, 29, quoted after Saintyves, Astro- Moor, Madness in Ancient Literature, Weimar 1924, 26; Klibansky,
logie populaire, 139. Saxl, Panofsky, Saturn and Melancholy, Fig. 90b.
64
Moreover, in medieval literature the jester was connected with the conception of folly not only from
a medical but also from a moral point of view85. The jester-fool was the type of the sinner who was
subject not to the direction of the spirit but to sublunar matter, which the moon dispensed with its
characteristic inconstancy86. This tradition goes back to a text in Ecclesiasticus / 27 : 12 /: ' Homo
sanctus in sapientia manet sicut sol; nam stultus sicut luna mutatur'. These words are cited by St. Am-
brose in Hexameron: 'Unde et scriptura ait: Stultus sicut luna mutatur. / Eccl. XXVII, 12 /. Et ideo
sapiens non cum luna mutatur, sed permanebit eum Sole. Unde non Luna est particeps stulititae : quia
non luna mutatur ut stultus, sed stultus ut luna'87. Maximus develops this same train of thought.
He writes: 'Hoc est plane, quod ait Salomon dicen: Stultus ut luna mutatur. Mutaris enim, sicut luna,
dum stultus et insipiens ad motum ejus, qui Christianus fueras, incipis esse sacrilegus. Sacrilegium
enim Creatori committitur, dum imbecillitas ascribitur creature. Mutaris ergo, sicut lima, ut qui a
paulo ante fidei devotione fulgebas, postea infirmitate delicias, mutaris sicut luna, dum cerebrum tuum
ita exinantur sapientia sicut lunae obscuritas; te vero teterrimae tenebrae mentis invadunt. Atque uti-
nam, o stulte, sicut luna muteris88.
This symbolism runs through literature from the 12th to 15th centuries. In a 12th-century Latin
poem entitled The Doctrine of Master Petri Abelardi we read : 'The foolish man alternates according to
the shape of the moon. The wise man remains as constant as the sun. The foolish man's mind wanders
hither and thither, whereas the sensible mind takes sure steps everywhere'89. Christine de Pisan broa-
ches the same problem in her poem Epitre Otha desse de la prudence Hector, chef des Troyens:
Phbe qui est la lune que nous notions inconstance que ne doit avoir le bon chevalier et semblablement le
bon esprit. Comme dit Saint Ambroise en les pitre a Simplician que fol est muable comme la lune, mais le
sage est toujours constant ... L o est sapience l est vertu ... Le sage /. . ./ nappetice, ne croist pour
mutation des choses, il ne flotte point en diverses opinions mais demeure parfait en charit enracin en
foy 90. Erasmus of Rotterdam writes as follows in In Praise of Folly : While the wise Ecclesiasticus said :
The foolish change like the moon, the wise endure like the sun", what else did that mean if not this,
that the whole human race is foolish and only God is entitled to the name of wisdom? The moon is
always interpreted as meaning human nature and the sun, the source of light, signifies God'91. Thus in
medieval literature the basic characteristics of stupidity were recognized as being derived from the in-
constancy of the moon. Bosch has represented them in his lunar boat full of phlegmatics by the figure
of a jester.
All the lunar symbols of inconstancy were brought together by Ripa in his Iconologia, where Incon-
stancy is conceived of as a woman in a blue costume holding a crescent moon, with Cancer under her
85. Swain, Fools and Folly , passim; W. Gaedick, Der weise Narr in
der englischen Literatur von Erasmus bis Shakespeare , Leipzig 1928, 88. Maximi Tauriensis Homilia C, De defectone lunae , Migne, P. L. .
passim; S. Brant, The Ship of Fools. Translated with introduction and 57, 486C.
commentary by S. H. Zeydel, New York 1944, Introduction: Ante- 89. See Swain, Fools and Folly , 10.
cedents and genesis of the Narrenschiff, 8 ; M. Foucault, Folie et Drai- 90. Christine de Pisan, Epitre Otha Desse de la Prudence Hec-
son. Histoire de la Folie V Age Classique , Paris 1961, 10, 12, 17. tor Chef de Troyens , Paris, BN, Ms Fr 606, fol. 7V.
86. Ibid. 91 . Erazme de Rotterdam, L'loge de la Folie , ed. Amsterdam 1 828,
87. St. Ambrosius, Hexameron IV, 8, 31, Migne, P. L. XIV, 77 B C. 150.
65
left foot. Ripa's commentary states : Il vestimento turchino posto per la similitudine delle onde marine,
le quali sono inconstantissime, e di tempo in tempo paiono alterazione, come si vede. La luna medesia-
mente mutabilsima, per quanto ne guidicano gli occhi nostri . . ,92 In Ricci's description of 'Incon-
stanzy', which Ripa cited as a development of his idea, the personification takes the form of a woman
standing in water, her attribute being a branch of a tree. In the commentary we read: le onde del mare
che non istanno mai ferme e che ora sono tranquille ora torbide, ombreggiano Vinstabilit, ed incostanza.
(. . .) Il ramo verde danno segno dell' instabilita, ... e le foglie verdi non sono stabili, perch ora perdono
il loro colore, e marcifcono ed ora, secondo le stagioni, nuovamente lo riprendono 93. Gerard van Hont-
horst composed a picture of Inconstanzy after Ripa (Fredenborg Palace, Denmark), which depicts a
woman dressed in a blue garment, and holding in one hand a crescent moon and in the other a crab94.
Giovanni Bellini's picture of Inconstanza (Fig. 15, Venice, Accademia di Belle Arti) has several
symbols in common with Bosch's Ship of Fools, i.e.a boat and figures bathing and playing instruments.
The 'Blue Boat' in Oestveren's poem is likewise undoubtedly a symbol of inconstancy and wander-
ing, closely connected with the symbolism of the moon, while symbolic attributes of inconstancy ap-
pear again in the blue boat in the Schnbartbuch, in the blue boat of Hieronymus Cock and in The
Ship of Fools with its vagrant phlegmatics of Hieronymus Bosch. The conception of folly derived from
the moon was closely associated with the idea of wandering and straying in the 15th century; a boat,
being the attribute of the moon, became the attribute of folly as well95. Moreover, at the same time the
term 'fool' stood for the man who was wandering in a symbolic boat over 'the sea of the world', an
idea which found expression in a great many anonymous poems with such titles as 'ber vagatorum',
'ordo vagorum' or 'de vita vagorum'96. A characteristic fragment of the 'Ship of Fools' by Brant states
in the translation by Pierre Rivire : 'Je suis des compaignons vagans / Je suis des grans folz navigans /
Sur la mer de mond profonde / En sens et raison mal me fonde / Et suis bien fol de me fier97. Through
moon symbolism and closely related symbolism of the phlegmatic temper describing the sins of glut-
tony, and drunkeness Bosch reconstructed the popular, in the late medieval period, motif of a fool's
boat. The fool's boat, in which the dominating figure of the jester symbolizes the folly derived from
the moon as the source of sin and death.
Another painting attributed to Bosch and dating from the same period as The Ship of Fools, Th
Allegory of Gluttony (Fig. 16, Yale University Art Gallery), has never been fully explained but can
now also be seen to be based on the lunar iconography of the phlegmatic temperament98. In it a figu
is depicted seated on a barrel floating on water. This barrel, like the ship of fools (which also contai
a barrel), is being pushed along by a figure in the water, while from its outlet drink is pouring into
92. Cesare Ripa, Iconologia , Padoua MDCXI, s.v. Inconstanza , 245.

93. Cesare Ripa, Iconologia, Perugia MDCCLXV, vol. III, 257. Jahrhunderts', Sitzungberichten der Preussischen Akademie der Wissen-
note a. schaften, 31, 1928 , passim.', Swain, Fools and Folly, 47.
97. See Sebastian Brant, Narrenschiff, ed. E. Zarncke, Leipzig 1854,
94. G. de Tervarent, Les nigmes de l'Art. V Art Savant, Bruges
1952, 61 f. 220.
95. Swain, Fools and Folly, 10. 98. See Tolnay, Hieronymus Bosch , Baden-Baden 1965, vol. I, 94,
96. J. Boite, 'Fahrende Leute in der Literatur des XV. undvol.
IXV.II, 348, No. 9.
66
bowl held by another figure. The man on the barrel has a funnel on his head to express the idea of
gulping down an excessive amount of the liquid element; he is playing a musical instrument, a symbol
of the phlegmatic temperament, and holding a branch of a tree, a typical attribute of the moon. In the
water can be seen a swimmer, a lunar figure. On the bank stands a tent sporting an emblem featuring a
pig's trotter, a symbol of gluttony. In the tent two figures, one of whom is holding a bowl of liquid, are
seated at a table on which stands a pot, while on a nearby bench there stands a jug. This, then, like
The Ship of Fools, is not an irrational composition but a representation of phlegmatics as children of
the moon, with a complete set of the symbols of gluttony and drunkenness that are associated with the
moon in addition to the surrounding lunar water complexes.
The group of symbols associated with the iconography of the moon also provide an explanation for
an engraving from the studio of Hieronymus Cock (Fig. 17), which is inscribed Heronimus Bos inve.
PAME ( = Pieter van der Heyden sculpsit) H. Cock exc. 1562. It shows a group of people, who be-
tween them illustrate all the characteristics of the phlegmatic temperament, sailing in an open shell, the
shell being a typical attribute not only of the Moon but also of Venus, the second planet of the phleg-
matics". Four of the figures represent gluttony and drunkenness: one of them is holding up a leg of
lamb and a roll and another a roast chicken on a plate, while a third is being sick but nonetheless
keeping a tight hold on his tankard of drink and the fourth is leaning over the side filling a bowl
with water.
The embracing couple on the left symbolize the proneness of phlegmatics to licentiousness. In
Causae et Curae Hildegard of Bingen writes: '[Phlegm] induces . . . inordinate lust'100, while Julius
Firmicus Maternus describes the results of the conjunction of Venus and the Moon: 'Venus united
with the moon signifies a love trap . . ., it makes people perfidious through impure and debauched
cravings or else smites them with a great infamy because of their impure love affairs'101. A similar pair
of embracing lovers can be seen in a 1 5th-century Netherlandish print of the children of Venus (Fig. 1 8).
Fertility was also dependent on the influence of the Moon and Venus102 and this is symbolized here by
the four children.
The remaining figures are making music, either singing or playing instruments. Elsewhere can be
seen typical lunar attributes such as the little tree with a fish hanging on it, which is growing out of the
shell and which also occurs in The Ship of Fools. There is also a jug hanging from this tree, and the owl
perched on it is a symbol of the phlegmatic temperament, cf. a representation of the latter (Fig. 19) by
Virgil Solis (1514-62)103. The owl Bosch depicted in his representation of Gluttony in the painting of
The Seven Deadly Sins (Prado) suggests a connection between these sins and the iconography of the
phlegmatic temperament.
99. Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire , 229; J. Seznec, La Survivance 102. T. O. Wedel, The Mediaeval Attitude toward Astrology , New
des Dieux Antiques , London 1940, 44, 141, Figs. 31, 86; A. A. Barb, Haven, 1920, 28 f.; Briffault, The Mothers , 589; Roscher, ber Selene ,
'Diva Matrix'. A faked gnostic intaglio in the possession of P. P. Ru- 82; Neumann, ber den Mondy passim.; Barb, Diva Matrix , passim.;
bens and the iconology of symbol', Journal of the Warburg and Cour- Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire , 203, 206; Libault, Trois Livres de
tauld Institutes , 16, 1953, 204 f. la Sant , Fcondit et Maladies des Femmes , 49-51.
100. Hildegar dis Causae et Curae , 38, 74. 103. Repr. in: Klibansky, Saxl, Panofsky, Saturn and Melancholy ,
101. Matheseos , ed. W. Kroll, F. Skusch, Lipsiae 1897, Bk. III, 153. Fig. 121.
67
Yet another work bearing Bosch's signature, the so-called Concert in an Egg (Fig. 20, Lille, Muse
des Beaux-Arts), was based on the same cycle of symbols104. Here the shell in Cock's print has been
replaced by a cracked egg-shell from which a group of figures emerge. This suggests the idea of incuba-
tion and is linked with the iconography of the moon's influence over the biological world, for the egg is
an attribute of the moon, according to Agrippa of Nettesheim in Occulta Philosophia, and is associated
with the related ideas of fertility and birth105. There was in the Middle Ages a well-known precept,
derived from Pliny's Natural History / X, 75 /, concerning the observance of the incubation period of
the chicken from the egg-shell. The incubation should commence after the new moon106. It was held in
the 14th and 15th centuries that eggs should not be put down during the period of the 'inanimate' moon
for incubation since this would follow its most favourable course at the time of the full moon107.
The figures in the egg-shell are making music. Some of them are playing instruments, including the
harp and guitar which were regarded as permanent attributes of the phlegmatic temperament (cf. Fig.
13); others are singing from an open music book. Growing out of the egg are two of the little trees
which constantly figure as lunar attributes in Bosch's work. From a branch of one of them hangs a
basket of food and drink, symbolizing drunkenness and gluttony. (In a second, somewhat different
version of this composition in the Potalba Collection at Senlis there is a fish hanging from one of the
branches, as in The Ship of Fools). At the bottom of the painting a hand can be seen reaching out of the
shell towards a fish on a griddle, and nearby a group of phlegmatics are revelling at a table. The com-
position also includes a number of birds, one of which is an owl, a symbol of the phlegmatic tem-
perament.
Finally, the symbolism of the phlegmatic temperament is completed by the monkey leaning out of
the shell playing a trumpet, all the negative characteristics being summed up in this creature which
signified the tendency to decadence ( naturae degenerantis homo ) 108, of which the moon was the symbol
par excellence. Lunacy meant the victory of man's animal nature over his mind, the domination of
physical over spiritual needs. This conception appears in the writings of Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.),
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), Pliny (23-79), Ptolomy (100-168) and Galen (131-201) and in the Middle
Ages in those of Bartholomeus Anglicus and Arnauld de Villeneuve (13th century), Agrippa of Nettes-
heim (15th century) and Paracelcus (16th century)109.
The same cycle of lunar iconography that we find in Bosch's work underlies a drawing by Brueghel
illustrating the sin of gluttony (Fig. 21)110. This composition is, indeed, incomprehensible unless one
recognizes the influence of lunar symbolism closely bound up with the water element, for it is basically
a landscape with a river. Floating on the river are a boat with figures and a barrel with a jug standing
on it, while other typical features of lunar symbolism, such as also occur in The Ship of Fools and The
104. See Catalogue: Hieronymus Bosch , Noordbrabants Museum, the Renaissance', Studies of the Warburg Institute, 20, London 1952,
's-Hertogenbosch 1967, No. 38. 29, passim.
105. See Briffault, The Mothers , 636. 109. Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire , passim.
106. See Saintyves, V Astrologie populaire , 228. 110. C. G. Stridbeck, Bruegelstudien. Untersuchungen zu den ikono -
107. Saintyves, L'Astrologie populaire , 229. logischen Problemen bei Pieter Bruegel d. A. sowie dessen Beziehungen
108. H. W. Janson, 'Apes and Ape Lore in the Middle Ages and zum niederlndischen Romanismus , Stockholm 1956, 113-118.
68
Allegory of Gluttony (Figs. 1,16) are the figures swimming in the water, the figure being sick over the
side of the bridge, the fish suspended from a withered branch and the figure drawing off drink from
a barrel.
Brueghel also used lunar iconography as the basis of two other drawings with seemingly irrational
compositions. In one of them, which illustrates the sin of idleness to which the phlegmatic tempera-
ment is subject (Fig. 22)111, we find the liquid element emphasized once again, for it features a river
with figures standing in it, a boat with figures and a figure in the act of defecation (excretion was also
controlled by the moon)112. The boat with a jug in it and the leaning tree nearby form another typical
group of lunar attributes, and there is an owl, a lunar bird associated with the phlegmatic tempera-
ment, sitting inside the home made of the trunk of a tree. The second drawing (Fig. 23) illustrates the
sin of envy (Invidia) which, like Gluttony, came under the domination of the moon113. In the back-
ground can be seen a landscape with a river on which float boats with human figures, one of whom is
defecating, and the connection with glutony is stressed by the fact that the central figure personifying
envy is taking a bite of food. In all this work the idea of the domination of the moon over the sublunar
earthly existence is fully expressed. Bosch's works, described in this article, constitute a pessimistic
image of a sinful humanity, without will and intellect, which is directed by the Moon.
111. Stridbeck, Bruegelstudien, 119, Barbado, La physionomie , le 112. See Saintyves, V Astrologie populaire , 149.
temprament et le caractre aprs Albert le Grand , 339. 113. Boll, Die Lebensalter , 37.
69

El Simbolismo Lunar en El Barco de Los Locos Del Bosco

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El Simbolismo Lunar en El Barco de Los Locos Del Bosco

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The Lunar Symbolism of The Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch

Author(s): ANNA BOCZKOWSKA and ANNA BOZCKOWSKA

The Lunar Symbolism of

* I am greatly indebted to doc. dr. P. Skubiszewski of University of

(20). An imitator of Hieronymus Bosch,

31. A. Didron, 'Legenda Aurea de Sancto Barlaam', Annales ar-

39. F. Quarles, Hieroglyphikes of the Life of Man , London 1638,

92. Cesare Ripa, Iconologia , Padoua MDCXI, s.v. Inconstanza , 245.

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