“This striking roundel by Hieronymus Bosch depicts a lone wayfarer navigating a world of subtle dangers and moral choices, inviting viewers to ponder the journey of life itself.”
A lone figure, a wayfarer with a basket on his back and a staff in hand, strides through a fragmented landscape, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the frame. This round painting, nearly 28 inches in diameter, invites us to consider the choices faced by a traveler on life's journey. Is he choosing virtue, represented perhaps by the gate on the right, or the path of debauchery hinted at by the ramshackle house on the left? This work is thought to be a surviving fragment from a larger triptych or diptych, possibly including other allegorical scenes. The Wayfarer's path is fraught with subtle dangers and temptations, a visual parable on the human condition. Hieronymus Bosch created this around 1500, using oil on an oak panel, a common medium for artists of the Early Netherlandish school.
- Artist
- Hieronymus Bosch
- Date
- 1500
- Location
- Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
What to Notice
Five details hide in plain sight. Here’s where to look.
The wayfarer's mismatched shoes, one a boot, the other a slipper.
The gallows and a bird skeleton in the upper right background.
The pig-like creature nuzzling a woman near the ramshackle house.
The wayfarer's wary glance over his shoulder at the chaos behind him.
1 more detail is waiting.
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Hieronymus Bosch
1450–1516 · Northern Low CountriesHieronymus Bosch, a Dutch painter from the Northern Low Countries, filled his oak panels with fantastic illustrations of religious concepts, from the Garden of Eden to macabre depictions of hell.
Further Works by Bosch
The Garden of Paradise
1495 · Art Institute of Chicago
The Conjurer (The Juggler)
1502
The Adoration of the Magi
Noordbrabants Museum
Head of an old woman
1500 · Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child
1500 · Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Two Medallions with Symbolic-Religious Representations
1515 · Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
The Last Judgment
1478 · Art Institute of Chicago
Christ Child with a Walking Frame
1480 · Kunsthistorisches Museum
More from Northern Renaissance
More works to explore
Beyond Bosch and Northern Renaissance: works from the same years.
Same era · 1480s–1510s
Portrait of a Musician
Leonardo da Vinci · 1485 · Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
Same era · 1480s–1510s
Jacopo Pesaro, Bishop of Paphos, being presented by Pope Alexander VI to Saint Peter
Titian · 1504 · Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
Same era · 1480s–1510s
Drunkenness of Noah
Michelangelo · 1509 · Sistine Chapel
Same era · 1480s–1510s
Sistine Madonna (Madonna di San Sisto)
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino) · 1512
Same era · 1480s–1510s
Embroidery Pattern with Seven Six-pointed Stars and Four Corner Pieces
Albrecht Dürer · 1500 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Same era · 1480s–1510s
Plate with arms of the Tosinghi family
Artist Unknown - The Mercat Cross, Aberdeen · 1495 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Same era · 1480s–1510s
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and Sebastian
Pietro Perugino · 1493 · Uffizi Gallery
Same era · 1480s–1510s
The Archangel Michael
Master of the View of Saint Gudula · 1495 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art