Hieronymus Bosch
The Tree-Man
ca.1503-1506
pen
and brown ink on paper
27,7
x 21,1 cm
Albertina,
Vienna
In the centre of the
portrait-format sheet, a tree-man rises above a river. His egg-shaped body,
covered in part with bark and/or feathers, supports itself on two crooked,
partly hollow tree trunks that at the same time resemble arms, and which are
standing in boats as if they were shoes. His head, which is turned back over
one shoulder towards the viewer, is crowned by a flat disc carrying an enormous
jug. They include at least two men and a woman, and one or two other people. A
flag with a crescent moon flies from a long slanting pole, recalling an inn
sign. Higher up, an owl perches in the leafless crown of the tree that rises
skywards from the giant's left foot. The plants motifs in the drawing can be
summed up in terms of 'flourishing/living' versus 'dying'. Near a tall, slender
tree in the lower left corner a deer is poised on the sloping bank, opposite a
stork standing on one leg on the right. Birds are flying around the middle
ground and mobbing an owl on the right. In the background, beneath banks of
clouds, a harbour with a large number of boats extends along the irregular
shoreline, and several villages or small towns are clustered around church
spires.
F.
Koreny for Albertina Vienna, inv.no. 7876, 1967
Uwe Poth (DE/NL)
Branchings -Vertakkingen–
2008
oilpaint
on photocanvas
210
cm x 130 cm
The philosophical tree–man
+ the 3 graces here and now, in the terrestrial world, connecting the 'higher
place' (heaven) and the 'low places' (the underworld). A symbol of the
reconciliation from contradistinctions.
Uwe
Poth, 2015
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