Taverns in Nuremberg Prints at the Time of the German Reformation*

Abstract

During the sixteenth century, representations of taverns and inns increased in both prominence and number within the visual art of northern Europe. From Hieronymus Bosch to Pieter Bruegel, painters and designers of prints made images employing taverns and inns as the setting for religious and secular subjects. 1 Bosch's panel painting of a traveling merchant, variously titled the Wayfarer, Peddler, and the Prodigal Son, from ca. 1510 (Figure 1), includes one of the earliest renderings of the tavern or inn in European art. 2 Traditional interpretations of the work's subject as the Prodigal Son underscore the religious and moralizing meanings both painting and inn have held within the discipline of art history. 3 The Prodigal Son "wasting his substance in riotous living" (Luke 15:13) undoubtedly offered fuel for visual thought in such imagery. 4 In Bosch's painting. the man with tattered clothing, bandaged leg, and basket on back walks to the right while looking back over his shoulder toward the inn, with what may be longing, even regret. Bosch's inn stands in a partial state of disrepair. The roof Research for this essay was supported by the Department of Art & Art History and the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.