'Tis the Season for the Magi...And Baboons?

The Magi, or the three wise men who came from ancient Persia bearing gold, frankincense, and myrrh to bring to the baby Jesus born in Nazareth is more often than not associated with Christmas, but exactly how does a baboon fit into the picture?

It happened when I was reading a portion of Richard Smoley's book entitled "Forbidden Faith", a 2007 release on the history of Gnosticism in Europe. In the chapter on the Cathars (Albigensians), he makes mention of the popular 15^th century Dutch painter, Hieronymus Bosch. One of Bosch's masterpieces was a triptych called "Adoration of the Magi" which contained unusual imagery, one in particular which happens to be a baboon riding a donkey on the way to Jerusalem. Most other Christian paintings during the 15^th century showed the Virgin Mary riding the donkey, being led by Joseph, but never a baboon, and Charles Darwin was not yet born. This sort of imagery may be considered shocking to most Christians, but not if the artist is of another faith passing himself off as a Christian. In fact, the center of the triptych shows a rather pleasant scene of Mary, the Magi, and the infant Jesus in his mother's lap, despite that baboon on a donkey in the distant background. The two scant figures on the roof watching the event unfold is a bit creepy, almost voyeuristic.

Bosch's imagery was frequently considered to be influenced by Cathar doctrine, which descended from Manichaeism. Manichaeism was a dualistic faith and declared a heresy by the Roman Catholic Church in the 12^th century. This religious doctrine held that the physical world was the creation of Satan, the deity of the Old Testament, while Jesus, the deity of the New Testament, was the good God. This extreme split of material/spiritual with evil/good matched to it respectively posed a threat to the existing Christian church at the time since it appealed to the common folk. Smoley suggests evidence of Bosch being a practicing Cathar at a time long after the Albigensian Crusade. Author Linda Harris delves further into the mystery of Bosch's paintings in her book, "Secret Heresy of Hieronymus Bosch."

During Bosch's time, the European Inquisition was alive and well, which would explain why there is nothing left behind regarding his personal life. His art, though, speaks volumes and does expose quite a bit about his personal religious beliefs, much the same way poetry is used to communicate one's innermost thoughts and beliefs. Some of Bosch's art may come across as being morbid, particularly "Death and the Miser" and not something one might want gracing the wall of one's bedroom. Even though he was commissioned to paint religious scenes and Catholic saints, Bosch always managed to insert his real feelings about the ruling system at the time in Europe.

So if you happen to look closely at Bosch's "Adoration of the Magi" and see a baboon riding on the back of a donkey, you'll know its real significance.

http://www.hieronymus-bosch.org/biography.html

Secret Heresy of Hieronymus Bosch, Linda Harris. (Edinburg: Floris Books). 1996.

Forbidden Faith, Richard Smoley. (New York: HarperOne). 2007.