c. 1490-1500 (220 Kb);
Oil on wood, 58 x 33 cm (23 x 13");
Musee du Louvre, Paris
Illustrated allegories
In
The Ship of Fools
Bosch is imagining that the whole of mankind is voyaging through the seas of
time on a ship, a small ship, that is representative of humanity. Sadly,
every one of the representatives is a fool. This is how we live, says
Bosch--we eat, dring, flirt, cheat, play silly games, pursue unattainable
objectives. Meanwhile our ship drifts aimlessly and we never reach the harbour.
The fools are not the irreligious, since promiment among them are a monk
and a nun, but they are all those who live ``in stupidity''.
Bosch laughs, and it is sad laugh. Which one of us does not sail in the
wretched discomfort of the ship of human folly? Eccentric and secret genius
that he was, Bosch not only moved the heart but scandalized it into full
awareness. The sinister and monstrous things that he brought forth are the
hidden creatures of our inward self-love: he externalizes the ugliness within,
and so his misshapen demons have an effect beyond curiosity. We feel a
hateful kinship with them.
The Ship of Fools
is not about other people, it is about us.