Existing comment:
PIETER VAN DER HEYDEN, AFTER HIERONYMUS Bosch
Flemish, active c. 1551 - 1572
Die Blau Schuyte (The Ship of Fools)
1559
engraving
Rosenwald Collection, 1964
The Ship of Fools had become a popular metaphor for society and its hypocrisy in the fifteenth century. Its most elaborate and influential expression was Sebastian Brant's moralizing poem; a copy of the first Latin edition (1497) is displayed in the case nearby. Based upon a composition by Hieronymus Bosch, this Ship of Fools is a parody of the Christian church, commonly referred to as schip in Dutch. The vessel is inadequate, its pilot feeble, and his passengers dissolute. Their postures and dress suggest traffic between prostitutes and customers, with music-making a metaphor for sex and "Blau" (blue) connoting deceit. |