End Notes
Deception and Misdirection: Hieronymus Bosch’s The Conjuror
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[1] “The Conjuror Vanished”, Radio France website, radiofrance, 1 January 2017. The French title for the painting is L’Escamoteur which includes the idea of spiriting something away from you without your noticing. The theft is therefore sometimes half-jokingly referred to as “L'Escamoteur escamoté”]
[2] Blandine Landau & Ors, Tours et Détours de L’Escamoteur de Bosch à Nos Jours (Exhibition catalogue), 2016
[3] Jeffrey Hamburger, “Bosch’s ‘Conjuror’: An Attack on Magic and Sacramental Heresy” Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 14, no. 1 (1984): 5, at 16
[4] It has also been suggested, unconvincingly, that he is fondling the woman or stealing her necklace].
[5] Though often identified as female
[6] French “le Bateleur”), referring to the figure who would later turn up in card games as the “Joker”
[7] Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, “Hocus-pocus, Inquisition and Demons”, in What Great Paintings Say, Vol 1, Taschen, Cologne, 2003, 68, at 73
[8] “Bosch”, BBC Documentaries, 3 May 2006
[9] Elina Gertsman, "Illusion and Deception: Construction of a Proverb in Hieronymus Bosch's The Conjurer", Athanor, Vol 22 (2004) 31, at 32
[10] Translation by JG van Gelder, in L Brand Philip. “The ‘Peddler’ by Hieronymus Bosch, a Study in Detection” in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 9 (1958, 1. The engraving, which dates about 50 years later than the original, differs in some ways. First, it introduces an extra figure at far left, who is evidently assisting the thief with extracting the dupe’s purse. The dark background wall has been reduced, and we can see buildings and countryside beyond the trickster
[11] Gertsman, op cit
[12] Gertsman, op cit
[13] Hamburger, op cit at 17
[14} Gertsman, op cit
[15] Hamburger, op cit
[16] Hamburger, op cit at 8
[17] Hamburger, op cit
[18] Hamburger, op cit at 7,13
[19] Hagen, op cit at 70, 71
[20] I refer to this painting as a “version”, not a copy, as it is so extensively altered by additional content. Another copy/version, currently in Israel, appears to be a cut-down version of the Philadelphia painting
[21] The hat is vaguely suggestive of a victim of the Inquisition
[22] L Brand Philip. “The ‘Peddler’ by Hieronymus Bosch, a Study in Detection” in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 9 (1958): 1, at 29,37.
© Philip McCouat (2025). First published April 2025
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[1] “The Conjuror Vanished”, Radio France website, radiofrance, 1 January 2017. The French title for the painting is L’Escamoteur which includes the idea of spiriting something away from you without your noticing. The theft is therefore sometimes half-jokingly referred to as “L'Escamoteur escamoté”]
[2] Blandine Landau & Ors, Tours et Détours de L’Escamoteur de Bosch à Nos Jours (Exhibition catalogue), 2016
[3] Jeffrey Hamburger, “Bosch’s ‘Conjuror’: An Attack on Magic and Sacramental Heresy” Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 14, no. 1 (1984): 5, at 16
[4] It has also been suggested, unconvincingly, that he is fondling the woman or stealing her necklace].
[5] Though often identified as female
[6] French “le Bateleur”), referring to the figure who would later turn up in card games as the “Joker”
[7] Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, “Hocus-pocus, Inquisition and Demons”, in What Great Paintings Say, Vol 1, Taschen, Cologne, 2003, 68, at 73
[8] “Bosch”, BBC Documentaries, 3 May 2006
[9] Elina Gertsman, "Illusion and Deception: Construction of a Proverb in Hieronymus Bosch's The Conjurer", Athanor, Vol 22 (2004) 31, at 32
[10] Translation by JG van Gelder, in L Brand Philip. “The ‘Peddler’ by Hieronymus Bosch, a Study in Detection” in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 9 (1958, 1. The engraving, which dates about 50 years later than the original, differs in some ways. First, it introduces an extra figure at far left, who is evidently assisting the thief with extracting the dupe’s purse. The dark background wall has been reduced, and we can see buildings and countryside beyond the trickster
[11] Gertsman, op cit
[12] Gertsman, op cit
[13] Hamburger, op cit at 17
[14} Gertsman, op cit
[15] Hamburger, op cit
[16] Hamburger, op cit at 8
[17] Hamburger, op cit
[18] Hamburger, op cit at 7,13
[19] Hagen, op cit at 70, 71
[20] I refer to this painting as a “version”, not a copy, as it is so extensively altered by additional content. Another copy/version, currently in Israel, appears to be a cut-down version of the Philadelphia painting
[21] The hat is vaguely suggestive of a victim of the Inquisition
[22] L Brand Philip. “The ‘Peddler’ by Hieronymus Bosch, a Study in Detection” in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 9 (1958): 1, at 29,37.
© Philip McCouat (2025). First published April 2025
Back to HOME