The Prodigal Son among the Harlots

Entry

The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) is one of the best-known parables from the New Testament. In the traditional Christian Bible exegesis, the son, who personifies sinful mankind, is forgiven because he has come to see the error of his ways and shown repentance for his deeds. The parable relates various episodes in the life of the young man. In the visual and applied arts, the four most commonly depicted scenes often appear in a series: the Departure of the Prodigal Son, the Prodigal Son among the Harlots, the Prodigal Son amid the Swine, and the Return of the Prodigal Son.⁵

The present group of The Prodigal Son among the Harlots shows the son wasting his inheritance on alcohol, women and gambling. In sixteenth-century Netherlandish depictions of the parable, this particular episode occurs quite frequently as an independent theme, primarily because it lends itself well to genre-like scenes of debauchery, featuring seductively dressed ladies of pleasure, dancing couples, musicians, and individuals partaking in other ‘sinfully’ entertaining vices such as games of dice, cards and backgammon.⁶ One figural type frequently appearing in these scenes, especially in paintings and engravings, is the jester.⁷ Jesters moved in all levels of society, from princely courts to market fairs and travellers’ inns. Attired in flamboyant clothing and reputed for their inappropriate behaviour, they sought to position themselves outside the ordinary realm of life. In doing so, they functioned as the social critics of their day, ridiculing human frailty and voicing commentary on those in power without repercussion.⁸ In the context of The Prodigal Son among the Harlots, the jester’s presence serves to remind the onlooker that money-squandering, spirits and physical desire only lead to human misery. The same message is quite clearly conveyed in Lucas van Leyden’s woodcut of the same name which shows a jester presenting the following words of caution (as inscribed on a banderole): [w]acht hoet varen sal (await how it shall fare). ⁹ Other figures appearing in such representations are the woman innkeeper with the chalkboard on the upper left and the musicians in oriental dress on the right. The innkeeper ‘chalks up’ the son’s debts op de lat (on the tally-stick), thus referring to events soon to follow in the parable’s next episode, in which the ‘harlots’ expel the son from the inn after having spent all his money.¹⁰ The musicians resemble figures like those encountered in Pieter Coecke van Aelst’s (1502-1550) series Moers e fachon de Faire de Turcz (Antwerp, 1553).¹¹ Iconographically, these scenes can be linked to Willem Gnapheus’s (1493-1568) comedy Acolastus de filio prodigo (Antwerp, 1529), in which two figures, Pamphagus and Pantolabus, act as intermediaries between the son and the whores.¹² In the Amsterdam group, however, the expression on the prodigal son’s face – with his downward-looking gaze and his pensive attitude – conveys anything but elation. Depicted here is in fact the moment when the son finally begins to come to his senses, no longer wishing to succumb to the offered temptations. Even the jester in the foreground appears sombre, sitting crumpled and forlorn with the realization his role has come to an end: no longer will he or any other member of the company obstruct the prodigal son’s understanding of the gravity of life.¹³ The specific significance of the gesture made by the jester – with the left index finger and thumb seemingly poised as if to whistle – remains unclear.

Leeuwenberg attributed the present group to an Antwerp workshop active in the mid-sixteenth century.¹⁴ He pointed out the thematic and formal similarities found in more or less contemporaneous Antwerp paintings, including Jan Sanders van Hemessens’s (c. 1500-1556/57) Prodigal Son among the Harlots of 1536, which features both a jester and a Turkish musician.¹⁵ More striking is the connection he observed with the work of the so-called Brunswick Monogrammist (active c. 1525-45), a contemporary of Van Hemessen also active in Antwerp.¹⁶ The Monogrammist’s brothel scenes, together with those of Van Hemessen, are the earliest examples in this genre, copied and imitated by many of their contemporaries in drawings, paintings, stained-glass windows and other media.¹⁷ The work of this master therefore served as a model and could also very well have inspired sculptors, whether in an original or derivative form. The Amsterdam carving displays a remarkable agreement to the Brothel Scene with a Brawl between Two Wenches with Bellows attributed to the circle of the Brunswick Monogrammist (fig. b).¹⁸ The scene includes a woman with a chalkboard who bears a strong resemblance to the woman innkeeper in the Amsterdam group, whereas the head of the prodigal son in the wooden group appears to be a mirror-image variant of the youth front centre in the painting who looks to the left, including the pensive expression. Numerous parallels can also be observed in the group’s composition, the clothing, the headdresses and, for example, the form of the arms. In the painting, a print hangs above the mantelpiece that likely depicts King Saul in the role of Melancholia or Acedia (sloth, complacency). This detail contributes to the representation’s negative association, an atmosphere also palpable in the Amsterdam retable group.¹⁹ Oriental figures and dogs are also common elements in the work of the Brunswick Monogrammist and his circle. The musicians recall figures appearing in one of the many copies of his Ecce Homo, in which Turkish onlookers are substituted for the Flemish public.²⁰

Leeuwenberg also linked the Amsterdam retable group to two late examples of Antwerp altarpiece production, specifically, the Retable of the True Cross in the Sint-Lambertuskerk in Bouvignes-sur-Meuse (fig. c) and the Passion altar in Roskilde Cathedral (Denmark).²¹ In both cases, one observes the same rapid working approach, with the sculptor concentrating on the overall effect, while simplifying details like the drapery folds and hair. Other stylistic characteristics common to both the Amsterdam group and these retables include the strong, sometimes jutting lower jaw, the bent noses (male figures) and noses that extend above the brow (men and women), deep-sunken eyes, often open mouths with shallow recesses beneath the chin that enhance the protruding lower lip, heavy cheekbones, hands with discernible metacarpals, the ring and middle fingers touching together, arms arched like sabres, bent knees, heads tilted left or right and the screw-like twisting of some of the bodies.²² Leeuwenberg also observed a stylistic agreement with two contemporaneous sculptures: an alabaster relief depiction of Lot and his Daughters,²³ and a boxwood statuette of a mercenary soldier in the Wallace Collection, London.²⁴ He asserted that the group in Amsterdam, the altar in Bouvignes, to a lesser degree the altar in Roskilde, the relief in Berlin and the mercenary soldier in London all belong to a coherent stylistic group produced in the same workshop, in all probability just after the mid-sixteenth century and possibly even under the direction of the very same master. Leeuwenberg’s Notname for this master – the Master of the Prodigal Son²⁵ – derives from the present retable group.²⁶ Hendricks discusses retable sculptures in Oudenaarde and Saint-Trond, which can also be added to this same group on the basis of stylistic similarities.²⁷ Less evident is the agreement with three other retable groups that J. de Borchgrave d’Altena linked to the present one.²⁸

According to Leeuwenberg, the present group likely belonged to a retable comprising multiple scenes. Given the horizontal, rectangular format, the most suitable location would have been the predella.²⁹ As far as can be ascertained, not one wooden, multi-caisse retable with episodes from the parable of the prodigal son survives to the present day.³⁰ Nevertheless, the probability that such wooden retables once existed is confirmed by a catalogue of late-gothic Netherlandish sculpture sold in London in 1835: one lot features four carved scenes from the parable, presumably retable groups.³¹ Considering the customary grouping in series of four, a scene of The Prodigal Son among the Harlots was likely among them. With painted altarpieces, depictions of scenes from the parable are equally rare. One example is a triptych from 1526 in the style of Quinten Massijs (1465/66-1530) with the Prodigal Son Leaves Home, the Prodigal Son amid the Swine, and the Return of the Prodigal Son.³² One painted panel of the Mömpelgarder Altar in Vienna shows four episodes from the parable.³³ Also known are six freestanding alabaster reliefs featuring scenes taken from the parable, one of which has been mounted as a house altar. Given the observable thematic and stylistic similarities, all six are very likely the product of the one and the same Mechelen workshop specializing in this subject.³⁴ One includes The Prodigal Son among the Harlots, albeit as a secondary scene, likewise containing Turkish musicians.³⁵ At this time, this is the only known sculptural example of the brothel scene possibly linked to retable art. One other distinct feature of the Amsterdam piece is the complete absence of gilding. This is noteworthy, as Antwerp retables produced in this later period were virtually all gilded, in part because gilt details enhanced the carving’s legibility when viewed from a distance. Likewise taking into account the exceptionality of the theme itself, this suggests the group was never intended for a large retable on public display, but meant for a house altar comprising one or more scenes from the parable and made for a private patron.

Titia de Haseth Möller, 2024