Let's see the Miser get out of this one 😅 Death and the Miser by Hieronymus Bosch

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Matthew, something odd is going on here, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

[00:00:04]Hm. Well, there's me. A bag of gold, a sickly man, and an angel, a demon overhead, and one below, and three weird creatures surrounding a chest of goods.

[00:00:15]There is an elderly man and death at a door, and a crucifix in a window. But what does it all mean? Well, it's not so obvious at first glance because there's so many things happening at once. But knowing that this is a painting by Hyonomous Bosch is to know that there is more happening than meets the eye. And what's abundantly clear is that this old man is sickly. Actually, he's dead, or about to be dead, and Bosch depicts death barging into this bedroom, and it appears that his fate is sealed. But you see that is only just the start because this painting has less to do with his final moments and has everything to do with a tugof warar between faith and moreover a single decision that will determine whether he will choose to be damned or be saved. But what will he do?

[00:01:00]He sits up in this bed in his final minutes of life with a hand extended towards a bag of gold and the other extended towards death itself. And the only one who tries to lead him to the light is this angel here at his shoulder. A dim light, I might add, and possibly an indication that this attempt to save his soul is futile because by the looks of his face, he doesn't know what to do. And that's only half the story. Pan down to the foot of the bed, and we see a reoccurring motif. An elder man, though clearly with days ahead, is passing off gold to this ratlooking critter who's made a home in this money chest. In one hand, he holds his coins, and in the other, he holds a rosary, and the rosary is the tell. This is token piety performed along real devotion which is in this case a devotion to material wealth. Ah this is starting to make sense. This guy in the foreground is an early iteration of this guy in the bed. They are one in the same. The living and the nearly dead. And this bed is the bill coming due. A debt for a life where faith was bound to false idols in the form of materiality. And at the bottom of the picture, we see a helmet, a gauntlet, a shield, and a sword. The trappings of worldly status and power, but against death rank is inert. They lay on the ground and not on his body. And while the miser has armor, Bosch tells us that he has no virtue.

[00:02:24]The shell of honor without its substance, and it's no good on the floor. It can't save him from his fate or from death, or from any one of these demon creatures sprawled across the room. creatures bred from a life organized around accumulation. And for all the wealth he's ever had, his only saving grace now is the right choice.

[00:02:42]But will he make it? It's hard to know.

[00:02:45]Bosch teaches us that the right call isn't a matter of taking the hand that guides you, but knowing when to let go.

[00:02:52]Holy [ __ ]