Jacob van Almaengien (~1440-1506)
in Bosch's Paintings

Fraenger discovered Jacob van Almaengien in Cuperinus' “Kroniek of s'Hertogenbosch” and then attempted to make him into the “Hochmeister” of an obscure sect in Brabant. This cost him the attention of the art-historical profession. Today, Almaengien is a non-person in art history.

However, any close reading of Bosch's paintings cries for a mentor, who read Hebrew and was educated in the philosophy of the 15^th century. Bosch at 18 did not have the knowledge of Neo-Platonism, which he painted in the “Garden Triptych”, nor that of the Hebrew version of the “Song of Mose”, which underlies the “Table of the Seven Deadly Sins” and the “Temptation of St. Anthony Triptych” near the end of his active life. The time was 50 years before Luther's Bible translation from the Hebrew original!

Jacob van Almaengien is required for any meaningful, critical interpretation of Bosch's work, and his life-long influence on Bosch is the simplest suggestion compared to alchemy, psychology, astrology, or anthroposophy.

Paul Klein's scientific dating of Bosch's paintings allows one to follow the co-operation of Bosch and Almaengien with only a few imaginative interpolations. The following table reproduces Jacob's appearances in Bosch's paintings in chronological order.

Painting, location of painting
and date

Additional comments

Garden Triptych
Center Panel
in the cave
Jeroen, Jacob and Sibylle

Prado, Madrid

1468

Jacob at age 28

Jeroen 18 years old

Garden Triptych
Left Wing

Prado, Madrid

1468

Betrothal of Jacob and Sibylle by
Christ, the founding of the New Covenant

Jacob 28

Wedding at Cana

Jacob and Sibylle

Copy
Rotterdam
1570

Original painting 1473 or later

Idealised portrait of
Jacob at his wedding 1470
30 years old

Wings of a Last Judgment Trptych

Palazzo Ducale, Venice

1491

Idealized portrait
of Jacob at 51

The Pridgal Son

Rotterdam

1495

Jacob's return to Den Bosch at 55

St. John Evangelist

dedicated to the admission of Jacob (now Sint Jan) into the Brotherhood of Our Lady in s'Hertogenbosch

Berlin

only dated painting by Bosch

1496/97

Jacob 55

Highly idealized portrait after
Jacob's baptism and admission to the Brotherhood 1496

Christ Bearing the Cross

Vienna

1499

Jacob at 59

Christ Bearing the Cross

Escorial

1499

Jacob at 59

The Temptation of St.Anthony
Left Wing

Rescue of St. Anthony

Lisbon

1502

Jacob in red coat at 62

The Haywain 1
Outside of the closed panels

Escorial

1505

An idealised Jacob at 63

Sicut Erat in Diebus Noë
The Flood

4 side-wing panels
Rotterdam

1515

Jacob rescues Sibylle (1471)

Remembering the
events of 1468-73
when Jacob was 31

Sicut Erat in Diebus Noë
The Flood

4 side-wing panels
Rotterdam

1515

Jacob's vision (1472)

Remembering the
events of 1468-73
when Jacob was 32

Sicut Erat in Diebus Noë
The Flood

4 side-wing panels
Rotterdam

1515

Jacob discovers the drowned Sibylle and her Child (1477)

Remembering the
events of 1477
when Jacob was 37

The Adoration of the Child

Copy

Cologne 1568

Original 1497

Painted 1497
on the 20th anniversary
of Sibylle's death in 1477

at the time of the painting
Jacob was 57 years old