Gyselen 1974
“Een Sint-Kristoffel met het ei-mannetje” (G. Gyselen) 1974
[in: Biekorf, vol. 75 (1974), nr. 7-10, pp. 329-334]
[Not mentioned in Gibson 1983]
Gyselen briefly discusses a Saint Christopher (Prague, National Gallery), attributed to the Master of Frankfurt. The panel shows some influence by Bosch: in the foreground we see a little devil whose trunk is hidden in an eggshell. According to Gyselen the iconographical meaning of this motif remains ambiguous, especially within the linguistic area of the ancient Netherlands. Quoting Dirk Bax, he refers to the pun “door” = dooier (egg yolk) / dwaas (fool) and he also signals that fools and devil’s servants are fond of moving into an empty egg.
[explicit]
