THE HAY-CART

The closed triptych shows The Path of Life where a traveller - possibly the Prodigal Son - is represented exposed to the dangers of the road. Inside, the left-side wing is devoted to the Creation, the Original Sin and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. In the far distance, the Fall of Satan can be seen. The right-side one depicts Hell, where a tower is built, with all its punishments for Man's sins.

The central panel shows the scene in which the hay-cart prevails, giving name to the triptych, and alluding to psalm 102 of David: Man's days are like those of grass; like a flower of the field he blooms; the wind sweeps over him and he is gone, and his place knows him no more.



Technical infformation:
Catalogue nr.: 2052
Size: Central panel 1,35 x 1,00m. Side wings 1,35 x 0,45m.
Oil on panel

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Hieronymous van Aeken Bosch (c.1450-1516)
Flemish School (15th. century)

The episode depicts all social classes trying to get their part of hay, their share of pleasure. And while the mighty (emperors, popes, kings…depicted to the left of the painting) have no difficulty to reach, even from their mountings, the hay they want, the lower classes of the society make an assault on the cart pulled by strange demons: they will trample underfoot and even kill each other.Only two fragments of this lively scene look quieter: the top of the hay where some figures have managed to sit on, and the groups of the foreground where nuns are receiving the hay in bags at their own convent.

This is Bosch's first triptych with a moralizing and critical contents, and a high sense of mockery and irony and popular inspiration.

The moralizing meaning of this triptych is found too in the later Garden of Earthly Delights, with the Creation of Man and the first sin on the left, Mankind in pursuit of worldly pleasures in the centre and, on the right, Hell with its punishments.

This triptych was in El Escorial since Philip II ordered its purchase to its owner don Felipe de Guevara. During the Civil War, the severity of the struggle at the sierra near Madrid advised its moving to a safer place and it is kept in the Prado since then.