Hurdy-Gurdies from Hieronymus Bosch to Rembrandt

This extensive study of the use and meaning of blind hurdy-gurdy players in works of art from Hieronymus Bosch to Rembrandt gathers together over 150 Netherlandish depictions of the motif in such diverse sources as high altars and broadsheets for children. The earliest artistic renditions of the blind hurdy-gurdy player occur about 1500 in two Bosch triptychs, the Temptation of St. Anthony in Lisbon and the Garden of Earthly Delights in Madrid. An examination of the art historical literature on these two well-known triptychs, together with an investigation of contemporary morality plays and beggars' books, reveal four essential characteristics of Bosch's hurdy-gurdy players: he may be a musician, a beggar, a blind man and/or a devil. In both triptychs Bosch clearly warns the viewer about these wicked itinerants. The artist's disdain for this figure is continued in several other of his compositions, including the Feast of St. Martin and the Blind Leading the Blind.
As almost all representations of the Blind Leading the Blind contain a hurdy-gurdy, the iconography of this theme is examined in detail. Beginning with a lost Bosch painting, the proverb became quite popular among northern artists during the sixteenth century. This discussion includes a chronological survey of the history of the development of this theme together with an examination of each artist's use of the hurdy-gurdy. One outcome of this study is a reconstruction of a lost Bosch painting.
Once the motif of the blind hurdy-gurdy player enters the plastic arts, it quickly becomes quite common. However, the figure seldom carries with it Bosch's original connotations. The hurdy-gurdy player appears as a musician in Flemish kermis scenes, a beggar at food distributions and a blind man in scenes of Christ's miracles. In all of these works the blind hurdy-gurdy player is only one of a large number of figures populating the scene. The artist David Vinckboons, however, makes the blind hurdy-gurdy player the focal point of at least eight paintings. Though some art historians believe Vinckboons sympathizes with the hurdy-gurdy player in his versions of the Blind Hurdy-gurdy Player Followed by Children, his use of the figure in scenes of the kermis or of bread distribution, for example, suggests otherwise.
Rembrandt's source for one of his well-known etchings, the Beggars Receiving Alms at the Door of a House (Bartsch-176), was a painting by Vinckboons of a Blind Hurdy-gurdy Player Followed by Children. This relationship has never been suggested before because the instrument in the Rembrandt etching had not been detected. A Rembrandt drawing of a beggar family (Benesch-749r) which has been tentatively suggested as preparatory for the etching contains a similarly unnoticed hurdy-gurdy. A solid relationship between the etching and the drawing can now be made.
The discovery of a hurdy-gurdy in Bartsch-176 has further ramifications for the study of Rembrandt's art, as several other drawings can now be related to it: Benesch-745, 750 and 1163. Furthermore, Bartsch-176 is not Rembrandt's only etched hurdy-gurdy player. Not only does the most prominent figure in The Strolling Musicians (Bartsch-119) play the instrument, but two other overlooked versions exist under the erroneous titles of The Polander Standing with Arms Folded (Bartsch-140) and The Schoolmaster (Bartsch-128). Therefore, Rembrandt has etched four versions of the hurdy-gurdy player which span thirteen crucial years of his life. Using these examples, his involvement with the theme can now be traced from an early interest in the picturesqueness of these vagrants to his later profound investigation of the inherent dignity of man.