Imagine creating a work of art that is so out of the ordinary so bizarre by the Norms of culture that people call you mad verifiably unwell and not just the people of your time and Country but even more so the people of neighboring countries and even future times
Saying things like well she was clearly Disturbed just look at this thing and things like there’s no way someone can create that without either being high or insane these are the things that people have been saying about the artist heronimus BOS for centuries every new generation levels a new accusation at
Him and perhaps rightfully so Bosch is the creator of one of the strangest and most puzzled in paintings in art history The Garden of Earthly Delights which he completed sometime between 1495 and 1505 it’s a painting with a reputation for equally confusing and titilating viewers art critics 100 years after
Bosch’s death felt confident in saying that he was a disturbed Man painting the outlines of his Madness and people four centuries later in the 1960s were saying he clearly must have taken psychedelic mushrooms to create such imagery I suppose that’s an improvement from Simply calling him insane but still
Have we considered the most likely alternative Bosch was an outlier genius one of these rare individuals who comes along and sees the world so differently than the rest of us that it forces us to reconsider wait maybe we’re The Crazy Ones and that’s what this episode is about
Heronimus BOS and the secrets of The Garden of Earthly Delights this is creative codex I am your host MJ Dorian without further Ado strap yourselves in it’s time to get Weird Chapter 1 an owl in the wilderness in the year 1503 heronimus BOS is in the Netherlands working on his Masterpiece The Garden of Earthly Delights at this exact moment in Italy a th kilm away is Leonardo Da Vinci working on a painting called virgin of the Rocks while Leonardo is painting the
Virgin Mary Bosch is painting a nude man being seduced by a pig dressed as a nun yes similarly at this exact moment elsewhere in Florence Michelangelo is sculpting his statue of David while back in the Netherlands Bosch is painting a man shoving a bouquet of flowers into another man’s butt also an enormous
Bird feeding berries to a crowd of people and a man being skewered on the strings of a harp what in the hell is going on here how can Bosch’s artwork exist during the same timeline as Leonardo’s and Michelangelo’s it looks so Thoroughly Modern as if it was created in the 20th
Century not the 16th how do we reconcile that in looking at his most famous artwork The Garden of Earthly Delights we are faced with this challenging question why did BOS paint these images and what did the people of his time have to say about them but most importantly what is BOS trying to Say The Garden of Earthly Delights is a visual metaphor something which to our eyes today is a very modern invention artists during his time period of the 15th and 16th centuries just weren’t thinking of Art in this way these aren’t the doodlings of a Madman far from it
This is the first time that we see an artist take something psychological and represent it through a visual metaphor on the grandest scale but to truly understand this masterpiece we need to rewind a little bit and first understand who heronimus Bosch really was this will give give us the keys to unlock the
Secrets to the Garden it will surprise many people to know that Vos wasn’t some tortured artist shunned by the public for his strange Works off painting his Inspirations on the edge of town no it’s the complete opposite he lived a very comfortable life and he was well
Respected in his time the man we know as heronimus bash was born heronimus van Ain in the city of Z bash in the Netherlands zeren bash in Dutch translates as the duk’s wood or Wilderness it’s known to locals simply as Den BOS and that’s what we’ll call it
In this episode heronimus was born around 1450 an exact date of birth isn’t clear because we only have a handful of existing records from Bosch’s life but Scholars agree that was likely around 1450 he was born to the aen family name hence heronimus Von aen would mean
Heronimus of the aen clan his father was Antonius Von aen and his mother was lead vanderin he had four siblings an elder sister a younger sister and two Elder Brothers now all that seems pretty normal for a Dutch family of the mid 1400s but this surprised me heronimus
Wasn’t the first painter of his family far from it his father Antonius was also a painter and On’s father Yan Thomasson was also a painter and his father before him Thomas Von aen was also a painter and Thomas Von ains father before him was a car mechanic just kidding we don’t
Know but I wouldn’t be surprised if art was the family business well into the medieval period that’s four generations of the aen family that we know of who practiced fine art painting as their profession that’s incredible and rare according to Scholars there are no other examples of such a fixed Arts profession family
Tradition in the Netherlands at that time it means that heronimus was raised around art he knew the ins and outs of its business he knew who to speak to in town to acquire paints he knew what brushes to use knew how to hold a pallet all through being around art from his
Earliest childhood coronus held a brush before he could walk and he had four generations of knowledge imparted to him through his father’s grandfathers and great-grandfathers trial and error specifically in painting art was the family business and in the 1400s the business was going well the von aen Workshop would receive
Commissions largely from Cathedrals and church officials for religious work but occasionally from wealthy patrons as well if you lived in Den bash and you needed a fancy centerpiece painting of your family’s coat of arms well you would head over to the Von aen workshop and write up a commission Bosch’s family
Would have been considered middle to upper middle class during this time unlike many of the creative Geniuses which we cover on Creative codex we have no surviving letters journals or notebooks from bos or any members of his family which is a real shame it would be
Priceless to be able to read some of Bosch’s thoughts on his paintings or his choices with symbolism like why did he paint a hooded duck creature on the bottom of the Garden of Eden panel in his painting The Garden of Earthly Delights what was he thinking there but
Historians have located roughly 50 legal documents such as the sale of certain Properties or commissions for certain Works which mention him or his relatives in various capacities and that helps us piece together a story about his life for example we don’t have a marriage document related to him but we know he
Married a woman named Al vanin sometime before July 1481 because after this date we see the two of them appearing on legal documents together in their city of den BOS and likewise we can assume that BOS never attended a university like the one in Cologne because no documents record his attendance there
And he would have earned a title when graduating that later legal documents would refer to him with we do know that his marriage to Elite was a fortuitous one she was from an upper middle class family was likely a little older than Bosch and had inherited several properties through her family the book
Heronimus Bosch visions and Nightmares by the author Neil Butner gives us more details by 1483 Bosch and his wife had moved into the house on the marketplace that had been rented out earlier situated only a Stones Throw from Bosch’s family home the house called IND Del salvator at the sign of our savior
Had a frontage of 19 ft wide with a stepped Gable its four stories had a total surface area of 465 M an additional rear building also provided living and working areas giving the family 650 s m of space in total a painting from around 1530 which is a
View of locken Market the cloth Market shows Bosch’s impressive property the 7eventh house from the right in 1553 by which time it had been occupied by other people for a good while it had five fireplaces a baking oven a brewery and even a bath that could be heated although these conveniences might have
Been installed at a later date the house nevertheless provided enough room for a workshop and a household befitting their social standing they would also have had a number of Staff such as the employees in Bosch’s Workshop his assistants who according to a document from 1503 received six sters for producing
Three small Coats of Arms five sters was a quarter of a Gilder and was about the daily rate for a master Craftsman the family’s domestic work would also have been assisted the records speak of the servants in the kitchen and the maids who are paid extra for festive
Banquets now why does any of this matter well it means that Bosch lived comfortably it stated that at one point in his life he made enough money from his workshop and the rent of his wife’s properties that he didn’t need to rely on commissions for his livelihood this
Afforded him the luxury of doing paintings in his own style he could bend the rules and expectations he could experiment a little bit it afforded him the luxury of being weird at the end of the day if someone didn’t like it it wasn’t life or death his residual income
Could still put food on the table which brings us to his artist’s name why did he change it to herous BOS rather than than keep the family name of heronimus vakin certainly coming from a noteworthy artist family had its benefits so why change it the word itself BOS b o c
Means forest or Wilderness in Dutch it is contained in the name of Bosch’s City zerkin BOS or Den BOS as the locals call it it might be that BOS was thinking bigger we know that in the latter half of his life once he was in his 50s his
Artwork begins to get the attention of royalty and even Kings in neighboring countries I suspect this is the kind of work he wanted and afforded him the greatest Prestige combined with the greatest artistic Freedom creating a painting for a king who is well-versed in the Arts was much different than
Creating a painting for a cathedral in which the rules of iconography and a rigid Catholic aesthetic come into play although we do have every reason to believe that BOS was a devout Catholic and according to the consistent subject matter in his Works he was highly critical of the secular World in a sense
Works like The Garden of Earthly Delights and other tryptic like hay Wayne depict to us Bosch’s personal view of material reality that it is an illusion filled with pleasurable distractions which lead one to a hellish damnation we will explore this more in the next chapter concerning Bosch’s name change there is
One document from a prestigious Catholic fraternity which BOS belonged to called the illustrious Brotherhood of our blessed lady BOS has mentioned in their documents several times and he was frequently commissioned by them as the resident artist even creating several alar pieces for their cathedral in this one document dating 1509 when Bosch
Would have been 69 years old it is written heronimus Von Ain painter who signs himself heronimus BOS unquote this tells us that by 1500 his Alias was commonly known in the city but legally he retained his Von aen name and so I suspect for art Bosch preferred the
Association to his city name rather than his family name BOS the Wilderness the forest it also had a more mysterious ring to it but one other important point to make when you see something like The Garden of Earthly Delights or one of Bosch’s other trip tis like the hay
Wayne you can see he is pushing the envelope especially for his time period and we can assume this is the type of work that excites him that he finds most meaning in during the early 1500s heronimus BOS was modern art with all the sensationalism and controversy that
Goes along with that label the Bosch scholar Stephan fiser reads this about him in the book heronimus BOS the complete works in an era described as late Gothic by some and as early Renaissance by others in which Arts strove increasingly towards Harmony and Brilliance illusionism and monumentality the netherlandish artist heronimus Bosch
Followed a very different path with his Innovative pictures often populated by grotesque figures of a religious nature the artist from cinbos properly Falls neither into the Flemish panel painting of the 15th century nor into the Renaissance style that spread north of the Alps in the course
Of the 16th century albr Durer held the emphatically Renaissance view that an artist should take care that he does not make something impossible does not distort nature unless it be his task to make a picture of a dream in such a picture he may mix all things together
In durer’s book in otherwise BOS who was not concerned with the idealized portrait of nature fell into the category of a painter of dreams and this was exactly how Bosch would be seen for centuries right up to the present as a Fantastical Visionary a visual chronicler of Dreams and Nightmares and
The painter par excellance of hell and its demons subjects frequently connoted in negative ways as Unnatural so there’s a very real functional reason why Bosch would have chosen to be Bosch he knew where his artistic interests were leading and changing his name protected his family name and their family business from being possibly tarnished through association with his artwork legally he was still herous Von
Ain but artistically he was his own creation heronimus Bosch Chapter 2 secrets of the Garden the oldest description of The Garden of Earthly Delights comes from an unlikely Source not from the missing journals of Bosch or from his correspondences but rather from the travel Journal of of a man named Antonio de btis btis was an assistant to a wealthy Italian Cardinal named Luigi
Dagona Cardinal dagona was a bastard son of a marquee from Southern Italy who himself was a bastard son of Ferdinand I king of Naples being wealthy and coming from such a distinguished family the Cardinal thought it appropriate to take a pleasure trip through Europe to introduce himself to all the kings of
The lands from Italy through Germany and to the Netherlands the Cardinal and his assistant Antonio detis covered a distance of 39 km a day in decorated carriages drawn by up to 35 horses the Journal of btis traces their Voyage over the course of a year from 1517 to 1518
It includes famous entries such as the one in which pitis describes meeting Leonardo da Vinci in ambes France and as we mentioned in in the Leonardo’s notebooks series it is btis who writes down one of the only descriptions of Leonardo’s notebooks which we have from that time period in which he mentions
The countless pages of anatomical studies and other wonders btis also notes that he and monor Cardinal met with King Francis writing King Francis was cheerful and most engaging though he has a large nose and in the opinion of many including monsor Cardinal his legs are too thin for so big a
Body unquote in their travels btis documenting things for the Cardinal makes note of many details that give Renaissance historians precious information about the time period such as that the women in Germany are good-looking and pleasant the women in Leon’s are some of the most beautiful in France the women in Normandy and piery
Are ugly and that the women in the Riviera are plain as can be you know all the vital details that a cardinal would like to recall about his trip editors of the modern translations of the journal mentioned that there was nothing professionally celibate about the Cardinal’s visits and likewise his
Personal life for example in November 1517 they attend a public banquet in Aenon btis writes many beautiful ladies were present and after dinner there was dancing until midnight with unconstrained marry making and diversions unquote ah to be a rich Cardinal during the Renaissance huh that would be the
Life and so it is thanks to btis and monsenor Cardinal that we also have the first written account of Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights on July 30th 1517 the Cardinals tour of indulgence brought them to the Palace of Henry III count of Nassau in Brussels Henry II was known
For his enthusiastic support of the Renaissance both as an intellectual and artistic Revival he was a frequent patron of the Arts and a collector of many wondrous artworks which he would fill the guest rooms of his palace with when btis and Cardinal dagona meet with Henry III they given a tour of the
Estate and its galleries they would have seen Exquisite and rare jewels in Henry’s collection the meteorite on the Lush Garden grounds countless paintings of nude figures from Modern Renaissance artists including a notable depiction of Heracles and de yanira they would also have been shown the guestroom where
Dinner guests too drunk to leave the grounds could spend the night on an enormous bed big enough for 50 people no doubt a moment for some passing wit from the Cardinal and this is where you sleep Your Excellence only on Saturdays Your Grace Henry would have then shown them
His prized painting a tryptic alterpiece by the Infamous Netherlands painter heronimus Bosch this was the piece de resistance a work so massive it towered over the Cardinal and his assistant the work itself being 7 ft tall and 12 ft wide it stood on a raised platform meant
To emulate an altar making it appear even more enormous to the viewers present the tryptic is painted on three oak wood panels attached with hinges so the work can be open or closed tradition additionally tryptic alter pieces would remain closed except for holidays and Saint days meaning that the opening of
Such a massive work is a spectacle in itself at this moment the panels were closed on the exterior shutters BOS painted a depiction of God creating the Earth the scene is depicted in a limited color range of black white Grays and Browns during the Renaissance this style
Of painting is known as gr and it is meant to evoke this ancient look something that looks like sculpture the painting on the exterior of the tryptic is known as the creation of the world it shows a large glass-like orb in which clouds and a landscape of vegetation can
Be seen in the foreground of the landscape on the left panel you can see strange structures which look like claws or spines and there are some other objects behind it on the left which have stems these are these odd Fantastical elements common in Bosch’s Landscapes they are abstractions of Nature’s
Forms aside from the vegetation the landscape looks lifeless in effect further enhanced by the foggy greyness of it all it is assumed that we are seeing the creation of Earth on the third day the moment God introduces water it looks as though the bottom half
Of the orb under the land is filled with water if you look closely on the upper left in the corner you’ll see a figure of God the Father with a beard a Golden Crown on his head and an open book in his lap according to the art historian
Hans beling God Appears hesitant and morose not Majestic and all powerful as though the world he created was already slipping Beyond his control unquote above God BOS has inscribed a verse from Psalm 33 in Latin it says for he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood
Fast this representation of the world as a glass orb can be seen in medieval and Renaissance paintings often it is held in Jesus’s left hand it is a symbol of the earth Bosch’s painting of the third day of creation is beautiful alone and would have left a unique impression on
The Cardinal and his assistant but at this moment Henry III would have said just wait until you see the inside and signaled to his servants to open the panels as they did so the effect would be like watching a massive flower blooming the anticipation of what could
Be inside paired with the explosion of Rich colors gradually revealing the interior and stretching outward for 12 ft a moment of strange awe and wonder btis writes about it in his notes saying then there are various panels with diverse fancies where there are represented Seas Skies woods and Fields
With many other things some Who come out of a seashell others who defecate cranes men and women both white and black in various actions and positions birds and animals of every kind and executed with much truth to Nature things so pleasing and fantastic that it is quite
Impossible to describe them to those who have not seen them unquote the panels forming an open doorway invite you in a visual Feast of greens blues and pinks washes over you the oil paint itself has an otherworldly Radiance due to its bright colors and its application on Oak Wood
The experience of The Garden of Earthly Delights is divided into three sections a left panel a central panel and a right panel when standing before this work people of the late medieval period would expect a tryptic like this to depict Christ’s crucifixion in the central panel and representations of donors or
Saints in the side panels but here is Bosch’s first Innovation rather than meeting you with a dramatic crucifixion you are met with a scene of decadent Splendor countless naked men and women embracing feeding each other and even bathing not only that there are also animals many of which appear in strange
Proportions to their human counterparts and oversized owl a gigantic duck a clamshell the size of a man then your eyes Dart across the piece to the right panel or your attention is drawn to an immense Blackness severed ears with a knife emerged emerging from between them
A nude man being stabbed by a demonic animal a knight being eaten alive by strange rats what in the hell is going on Here in your confusion if you zoom your attention out again you will see that the three panels are meant to be seen from left to right they tell a story of sorts or convey a lesson in the leftmost panel we see the Garden of Eden Paradise with the commanding image of God
Standing between Adam and Eve in the central panel we see The Garden of Earthly Delights and in the rightmost panel we see hell this is arguably the most inspired and Creative Vision of Hell which has ever been [Laughter] painted as a priest gave a sermon he could point to a specific painting or alterpiece and its imagery would help the congregation visualize the story being conveyed and to internalize it art served a very real function it wasn’t just Aesthetics and this is the tradition which heronimus Bosch was born
Into this is how his father his grandfather and his great-grandfather viewed art and there were no art galleries the local cathedral was a Town’s Art Gallery we need to view the garden of Earthly Delights from this perspective to truly appreciate its genius all the seemingly bizarre symbolism begins to make sense when we
Understand the time place and purpose of its creation a churchgoer of the 1500s would understand that this type of tryptic is meant to be viewed from left to right instead of showing Christ’s crucifixion it presents the viewer with a narrative that communicates a moral lesson we’ll begin our deeper dive into
The garden by exploring each panel in order panel one the Garden of Eden in the first panel BOS shows us a scene from The Garden of Eden the moments after Eve has been created from Adam’s Rib and God is presenting her to Adam Adam is on the left he is nude and reclining on the grass with his right arm propping him himself up looking in
God’s Direction God is in the center between them with his right hand in a symbol of benediction this is a traditional catholic gesture denoting a blessing being made God is shown here in a light red flowing robe and his youthfulness seems to imply not God the Father who we see represented on the
Exterior panels but God the son in his Jesus role this is a deliberate Choice made by Bosch but why we see the god the sun figure holding Eve’s right wrist with his left hand she is nude like Adam but she appears to be floating in midair
As if she has just been created there is this elegance and Grace to her pose her eyes are downcast denoting a submissiveness or introspection notice her long and flowing hair which has a beautiful golden Shimmer and which extends all the way down past her hips there’s no doubt that BOS has painted
Eve to fit within the beauty ideals of Netherlands during the late 1400s BOS has made sure she is beautiful because what happens next in the story needs to be believable the viewers of this painting in Bosch’s time need to see Eve as desirable why because Adam sees Eve as
Desirable look closely at Adam’s face specifically his gaze despite God’s presence before him Adam’s line of sight is focused on Eve he looks directly at her downcast eyes with a certain excitement notice the subtle red flush on his cheeks which is absent from EES Adam has found the object of his
Desire we are seeing depicted the origin of lust Adam is turning his attention away from God and fixing it on Eve this is the original sin which will cast Adam and Eve out of paradise BOS has given us several details to drive this message home notice to the right of Eve
Near her feet are two bunnies near their Rabbit Hole now we all know what bunnies do in rabbit holes next notice the incredible tree to the left of Adam with these beautifully rendered grape Vines climbing up it’s a distinct L exotic looking tree not like any tree one would find in Den BOS
During Bosch’s lifetime after doing some digging I found out that this is called a dragon blood tree and it’s local to Yemen near the Arabian Sea it was around this time in the late 1400s that Travelers began to document and even bring back plant life from other regions
Of the world and this is likely how Bosch came to know this tree but why does he feel inclined to paint it here depicted with such great care near this pivotal scene it turns out that the Dragon Blood tree gets its name from what happens when you cut its bark it
Bleeds and the liquid it bleeds is blood red BOS has placed the Dragon Blood Tree in this scene as a symbol a foreshadowing of what’s to come as the Christian myth tells us the Son of God has to be crucified for the sins of man it’s Jesus’s blood which will have to be
Spilled which is also here represented by the grape vine climbing its way up the Dragon Blood tree notice how the leaves of this Vine are carefully painted by BOS to resemble discs the play of light on these discs is really Exquisite Scholars theorize that they represent communion
Wafers this Vine stretches up the Dragon Blood tree to its branches whose leaves at their Peak resemble crowns and this is likely the reason why BOS chose to represent God in his Jesus form as a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that will be made one final detail to notice in
Bash’s portrayal of this scene is the way Adam’s legs extend to touch God’s right foot and how God’s left hand clasps Eve’s right wrist all creating a kind of metaphysical circuit that connects all three although the rest of this panel depicts the Garden of Eden there are
Already signs that all is not well in paradise at the base of this panel right near Eve and God’s feet is a dark pool of water a pond which is filled by a black shadow and the shadow seems to come from beneath the water an odd effect and from which dark animals are
Emerging large birds a rooster a seal frogs and and odd Chima like creatures in the medieval period chimaras were often seen as symbols of evil unnatural creatures fused from multiple parts so what are they doing here in Paradise you see swimming in this black pool a fish
With the Platypus head another with a black unicorn’s head a fish with wings another with a rooster’s head all in these startling dark colorless forms they create such a contrast to the Lively greens and Blues in the rest of the panel this confused the hell out of me I
Stared and stared and then I realized this black in the first panel it appears elsewhere it’s echoing the last panel the dominant color of hell is black the heaviest and densest black possible of course it makes sense Adam and Eve are symbolically standing on the precipice
Of hell right at their feet it felt like this Insight was getting me closer to the answer but something about all these animals still made no sense then I was staring at one in particular this elegant three-headed bird with brownish gold feathers resembling something like a peacock Phoenix three heads is Bosch
Referencing the Trinity it looks like this peacock Phoenix is fighting or arguing with the other animals his beak are open as if ready to snap and two of the heads are directed down into the shadow pool one snapping at the black unicorn fish and the other at the black platypus fish
What the hell is going on here are any other animals fighting on the bottom left corner of the panel a Fantastical bird with its tail feathers up is snapping at a black shadow creature which resembles a similar bird with a reptile tail then I notice just above
Them you see a TI Cub carrying off some kind of black reptile in its jaw then it hit me of course the animals which are predominantly black are not from the garden they don’t belong in Paradise they have emerged from the black pool whose Shadow is Hell’s doorway I haven’t
Seen or heard anyone discuss this aspect of the animal symbolism but it seems so obvious now all the animals which are in color and not black belong in Paradise the rest are are Shadow creatures upsetting the balance following this thread of insight the bunnies near Eve’s
Feet begin to make more sense as well they are not white or brown or gold they are black bunnies whose home is a shadowy hole in the ground it’s a deeply symbolic scene we are witnessing the crack in the pearl the moment a corruption enters the Garden of Eden the
Question is does Adam’s lust invite the corruption or does the corruption cause Adam’s Lust looking further up in the panel directly above and behind God we see a pool of blue water with an ornate pink Fountain according to historical documents Bosch likely modeled this Fountain after a baptismal font that was installed in his local St John’s Cathedral in 1490 shortly before he
Began working on this painting this was a cathedral in which he attended Mass often and in which the fraternity he was a member in called the illustrious Brotherhood of our blessed lady had their own Chapel in Genesis 2:10 it reads a river flowed out of Eden to
Water the garden and from there it parted and became four riverheads unquote but even here at this pink Fountain something is off the blue at its base seems to grow a dark Azure Hue and its Rocky base is littered with black stones and glass tubes to the
Right of the rocky base is a black toad sitting at top a rock looking toward other animals on the right emerging from the water onto the dry land are more of these shadow creatures black reptiles enormous tadpoles shelled chimaras and an iguana with three snake heads they
Seem to be headed in the direction of a small dark dark cave which enters into the barren rocks growing a top these Sandy colored rocks is a fruit bearing tree with a black serpent wrapped around it is this the serpent that will soon tempt Eve after it has just slithered
Out of Hell’s shadowy Abyss one can make the argument that this paradoxical corner is the beginning of surrealism let me explain notice how the sharp protruding angle of the rock face forms a nose the coiling serpent underneath forms the lips the black and blue shelled Beetle forms the eye with
Its seven legs being the eyelashes Bosch has made a literal rock face he has painted something Fit For A Salvador DOI painting 500 years ahead of his time out of this rock face a symbolic tree of knowledge grows from its forehead does that mean the dark
Cavern is the ear of man into which hell’s Shadow creatures enter as Whispers heavy stuff the animals behind and above the fountain seem to be oblivious to the corruption it has not reached them yet some drink from the water’s edge on the left including white Heron cattle deer and a white unicorn
But on the far right slightly above the serpent and twined tree a black boy with her young marches onto the scene bearing her teeth and threatening a mongus likee creature that escapes from the bore hissing back at it with an open jaw in the background in the topmost section of
The panel we see a blue landscape decorated with the features that we saw on the exterior panels these aren’t natural Hills or rock formations that someone like Leonardo da Vinci would paint these are abstractions of nature a signature bosan Landscape One final indication that all is not well in paradise occurs at the exact center of the first panel it is positioned so precisely that one must assume BOS measured the height and with and planned his composition around it if we look again at the pink life-giving
Fountain there is a shadowy hole in the center of the circular base of the fountain perched right inside of that hole is an owl with piercing yellow and black eyes he seems to be gazing intensely at something outside of our view either he gazes into the dark
Depths of the water or tracing his line of sight he seems to be gazing at Adam or the Dragon Blood tree or is he gazing at us this ominous owl is a recurring symbol in Bosch’s paintings it is nearly always hiding somewhere in the shadows ominously watching the events
Unfold is it the eye of God always watching or is it the presence of evil Satan himself whatever the case BOS has taken great care to place this owl encircled in Black in the exact center of the paradise panel inside of the baptismal font as if to say here is the
Cause of the corruption and in a stroke of sheer Genius or an accident approximating a miraculous coincidence the owl appears perched on a crescent moon this effect is achieved by the perspective we are viewing the opening of The Fountain from on which the owl is perched as the
Circle hole slightly reveals its inner wall the effect of a crescent moon is created if this was intentional it’s a stroke of symbolic genius the Crescent Moon is a symbol bash includes in other other paintings especially on flags such as in his painting eomo in which context
It is synonymous with man’s evil doings is it a coincidence that the ominous owl is perched on the Crescent here as a kind of Easter egg considering Bosch’s clear Mastery of symbolism I think he knew exactly what he was Doing panel two The Garden of Earthly Delights the central panel of Bosch’s triptic is is known as The Garden of Earthly Delights and although we don’t know what Bosch named it in the centuries following his death art historians settled on this title for it and due to the central panel’s reputation and the countless debates
That followed the name ended up referring to the entire triptic itself any casual attempt to make sense of this masterpiece fails miserably and it’s not just you this thing has baffled Scholars and historians for centuries Every new generation casts its own interpretation on it part of the reason for this is the sheer quantity of forms and scenes and symbols that Bosch is using in even letting your eyes wander through it for 5 minutes you begin to feel overwhelmed there’s just so much
Going on on examining it my first time I remember my eye darting from scene to scene from one group of humans to another from animal to animal and fruit to fruit in this NeverEnding cycle of Fascination I felt like a hummingbird just checking every flower it’s as if
Your mind is looking for a key of some kind something that will give it the context you are looking for the missing piece that will bring it all together part of what gives this Central panel its overwhelming busyness is the sheer number of bodies they seem to never end
That is until you count them all which I did of course it sounds improbable but after Googling how many people are in The Garden of Earthly Delights nothing came up so I had to count them myself so how many people do you think are in the central panel of The Garden of Earthly
Delights in the central panel alone there are over 500 people yeah I know and that’s why it’s so overwhelming our vision is so tuned to seeing people and quickly forming an insight about them based on their facial expression their body position and their relationship to people around them that
In letting your eyes wander this painting your mind goes into overdrive trying to understand what 500 people in their countless groups and subgroups are up to but as much as it’s B everyone else for centuries we are going to make sense of it to get a better
Grasp on it let’s first think of this painting as divided into four planes of action the foreground the mid foreground the middle ground and the background the foreground includes the tallest figures at the base of the painting the mid foreground includes the figures just above them who seem 2/3 their size this
Area roughly starts with a couple couple in the orb on the left hand side and goes across the middle with its upper limit defined by the first bushes that run across the middle the middle ground is largely made up of the procession of animals and people around the pool and
The background includes the monolith structures and everything behind them so what’s happening here well in the most General sense each plane of action shows people engaging in different behaviors all being performed Med by naked humans in the foreground and mid foreground we see nude humans playfully interacting with one another
In small groups the groups range from two people to six people to 15 people and everything in between most of them are smiling laughing and generally having a good time this is the party of the century and everyone’s invited there’s even two who are seemingly dancing forming the shape of some Pagan
Godhead with four legs four for arms a flower Bud body and an owl for head in their hands they hold big ripe red cherries and this forms a primary theme of these naughty revelers they are all interacting with fruit from red cherries and red strawberries to blue grapes and
Fruit-like shells which the people are playing in and around some are climbing into them some are breaking out of them and some are uh I don’t know what this one’s doing drowning himself upside down in the water while balancing a red fruit shell on his perenium uh
Yeah a majority of these revelers are eating the fruit or feeding the fruit to someone and there is a certain Intimacy in the way they are often touching each other for some their desire isn’t the food but the other person it gives the impression that the theme of these two
First planes of action in the painting is appetite the desire to eat to partake to fulfill to satiate and be satisfied among these revelers are animals but aside from two big fish and a butterfly all the animals in the foreground and mid foreground are birds there are
Roughly 16 many of them are enormous and out of proportion from their natural size three of these are feeding humans who are seemingly entr trans or in a state of submission one interpretation put forward by some writers is that the central panel represents an idealic world one free from sin free from
Judgment where man is one with nature in the 1960s this Central panel was interpreted as capturing the free love Spirit of the 60s this is the first Woodstock and the surrealist quality was explained by the possibility of Bosch partaking in hallucinogenic drugs after all the people in the painting certainly
Look to be having a good time other art historians argue that Bosch is representing what happened after Adam and Eve were kicked out of paradise as in the first panel but just before the great flood occurred during Bosch’s time this time period was considered a very real historical period of human history
Is BOS showing us his visualization of humanity before the biblical Great Flood referencing the Bible we find this passage in Genesis 61 now it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the Earth and daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men
That they were beautiful and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose and the Lord said my spirit shall not strive with man forever for he is indeed flesh yet his days shall be 120 years there were Giants on the earth in those days and also afterward when the
Sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them those were the Mighty Men Who were old men of renown then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually
Unquote then in Matthew 2437 we further read but as the days of Noah were so also will the coming of the son of man be for as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the Ark and
Did not know until the flood came and took them all away so also will the coming of the son of man be unquote there is no doubt that BOS studied the Bible and knew these verses well when we explore his other paintings we notice he often creates visualizations of passing phrases from
The Bible is that what he is doing here the impression that this Central panel has on me now that I’ve stared at it for hours is that these revelers have given into to their animal impulses the impulses have grown larger than the human virtues and in a sense they are
Without sin because they have entered into a kind of Primal State the passing Pleasures have driven them to a point where they have lost their higher thought and self-control is there any evidence of this in the painting or perhaps any indication that things are not what they
Seem some of the symbolism seems to indicate that the order of the world is out of balance for example the man upside down in the water on the left balancing a fruit shell between his legs is he drowning in lust perhaps a visual metaphor of the phrase the world on its
Head then animal animal feeding humans as if they were their pets of course the argument can be made that this is symbolic of man’s harmony with nature and I can see that interpretation working as well but in the most disturbing display which is located in
The leftmost pool of water we see a man restraining a woman’s wrist with his right arm while embracing her and drawing her closer with his left arm which is around her back she doesn’t seem in distress but the man is turning his attention away from her as if momentarily
Distracted as if he is peering back at us with a look of concern have we walked in on something which we were not supposed to see a hint perhaps that all is not well here behind him we see an enormous bird feeding grapes to three humans who are
Contorting themselves to to reach them the bird is a European Goldfinch Bosch has painted these three men in strange sickly gray tones as if they are half dead they give the impression of addicts in withdrawal some Scholars say these grapes and these sickly figures represent the Corruptions of the church
As grapes are associated with Jesus and the blood of Christ but I’m not so sure about that interpretation one thing is for sure though this contrast between the man restraining the woman who seems to stare blankly at the enormous bird behind them and the discolored panicked men lends an unsettling feeling the
World has run a muck immediately to the left of this there is a king fisher bird which BOS has rendered to beautiful effect from all the humongous Birds it’s purged closest to us and sits on the back of a male malard duck it’s interesting to note that the king fisher is a bird
Known for one incredible Talent it hunts fish right out of the water it waits in the trees and when it sees its moment swoops down with intense speed and pierces a fish with its beak then flies back out and eats it it’s interesting to note that Jesus’s symbol is the fish so
Not only are these Larger than Life Birds symbolizing the sway of our animal impulses and the subservience of of lustful man to nature but also in this case the symbolic death of Christ a theme which Bosch takes great care in foreshadowing in panel one which we discussed earlier directly below this
King fisher we again see Bosch’s favorite recurring symbol the owl here it stares back at us with pitch black eyes as a man Embraces it extending his hands looking at us as if to say here he is our favorite pal a second album appears on a perfect horizontal
Axis across this panel on the right side the two owls acting like columns enclosing the painting recall that in panel one it’s the ominous owl perched in the shadowy hole of the baptismal Fountain which may be the cause of the corruption nearby there is one of the most beautiful scenes from the entire
Triptic a man and a woman in close intimacy with their hands on each other’s thighs the man is leaning in to kiss the woman whose hair is as long as Eaves from the first panel I haven’t seen any books discuss this next point they’re seemingly floating in an orb
Formed from some transparent membrane and its color and shape seems to be a visual echo of the orb on the exterior panels of God’s creation of the world on the third day as if to say each Act of sex contains contains within it some remnant of that first creation of the
World we have to give Bosch the benefit of the doubt here that this was his intention he has proven time and again to us already that he is a master of symbolism but even here notice something is ever so slightly off this gorgeous orb is connected by a curved stem to a
Hollow fruit shell in which a man is peeking out looking through a glass tube at the entrance of the glass tube there is a black rat perhaps planning to make his way into the fruit to eat it it’s important to note that BOS was born around 1450 roughly 100 years after the
Black plague a bubanic plague which decimated Europe and Africa in the mid 1300s killing millions of people in less than a decade it was a catastrophic event of human history the plague leveled societies without regard to wealth or nobility age or Royal St status it even killed those who were
Most aligned with God the priests with particular cruelty as many priests and monks would attempt to care for the sick they would quickly catch the black plague and die equally torturous deaths humans of the time didn’t know anything about bacteria but the association between rats and the black plague did
Form an impression about rats being filthy or disease-ridden animals and this impression continues to echo in our Collective unconscious centuries later although animal lovers will tell you the contrary is true and that Rats clean themselves even more frequently and thoroughly than cats but ideas and superstitions have a life of their own
Just as wolves are thought to be the most dangerous Beasts of the Wilderness according to folktales we tell yet in truth they just want to be left alone rats have a specific Association in symbolism but BOS would have definitely learned about the horrors of the black plague and to include even this singular
Black rat attempting to enter the fruit of lust is Meaningful he is here to spoil the party bringing with him the symbolic Association of uncleanliness and the plague which undoubtedly many Christians saw as God’s Wrath for Humanity’s sinful ways let’s return to the riddle of the garden is this an
Innocent Paradise or a sinful false Paradise with that question in mind I’d like to call your attention to something surprising I noticed in the painting something which in any other context in the highly religious atmosphere of the late 1400s would have been completely controversial homoerotic love there are
At least three examples of it in this Central panel remember that this is during a time when many cities such as Florence had sodomy laws which punished men who engaged in sexual activi activities with other men first on the lower left near the Black skinned woman there is a pink fruit shell that
Resembles a pumpkin out of the bottom of it there’s this glass tube pointing outward toward the ground a man looks at us through it from inside the fruit with his hand on his chin and a smirk on his face the other half of his body hangs
Out of the broken bottom of the large fruit shell now I haven’t seen any historians thoroughly analyze this next part which I noticed still at this large pink shell directly above the man who’s lying down two men are about to kiss one is emerging from an opening in the top
Of the Shell with his fingers gently reaching out for the other man’s chin and this other man is bending down at his waist to meet him and right next to them standing behind the pink shell three men are gathered intimately close to one another making eye contact with
Each other the man who was lowest holds a blue flower to his heart The Man Behind him rests his left hand on this man’s shoulder and the one in front of them with his back to us is grabbing the thorny stem of a plant with his left
Hand which is emerging from the opening of the pink shell and he carries this massive strawberry on his back the spiny stem of which curves downward and appears to be entering his butt cheeks with a blue flower on its end it’s hard to say that this arrangement of
Symbolism is purely coincidental as this stem gripping man with a strawberry extending into his backside is positioned as part of the group that includes a man about to kiss another man the second example of homoeroticism is less overt but equally suggestive and again no one talks about
It it occurs at the bottom of the painting just right of Center in the foreground a man is on his knees bending over in front of another man who is reclining against a massive strawberry the man in front who is bending over is leaning with his forearm against a large
Fruit which has burst open and from which little blue and red fruits spill out he seems to watch them with Fascination the man who is reclining is looking out at us about to take a bite of a ripe red cherry in his left hand interestingly the first man who’s in
Front of him is positioned in such a way that it overlaps with this reclining man’s crotch and it is like his attention is implied to be directing in that direction but BOS has overlaid this large fruit to not be too overt and to add to it the large red strawberry which
The Cherry eating man is reclining against is being greedily hugged by another man behind him the third example making homoerotic commentary is directly above these three men this third example has only two men both on their knees one is standing on his knees holding red
Flowers up in his right hand by the stem his attention is directed downward to the right where another man is on his knees and elbows presenting his butt into the air into which the first man seems to have placed two flowers a blue and a red one if we follow the thread of
Symbolism here concerning the flowers the two men and the Willing insertion of the flowers into this man’s rear end when viewed in the context of the rest of the garden’s activities this must allude to sodomy right there was a Latin phrase known in the medieval period which says patum
Contra meaning a sin against nature during that time homosexuality was argued as a sin against natural law and this phrase was referenced in such arguments this may be the explanation for Bosch’s choice of flowers as symbols of nature to create a visualization of that Latin phrase one final thing to
Mention about these three scenes of homoeroticism I hesitate to say that the first two are negative depictions because aside from the thorny stem in the first one they have no negative symbolism and the third one I would say is more satirical than it is negative it’s unclear whether Bosch intended
These scenes as a criticism but they remain significant either way because outside of depictions of St Sebastian these three miniature scenes in The Garden of Earthly Delights may be the only representations of deliberate homoeroticism in medieval and Renaissance art which were not at some point destroyed let’s now shift our attention
To the middle ground and background and see if we might find an answer to our problem there is this a depiction of true Paradise or a false Paradise in looking at the middle ground and background we should point out something which ties panels one and two together
If we zoom out and look at the three panels the way we would see them in person we notice that panel one and two are nearly identical in Bosch’s color choices the dominant colors are this muted green of the grass the Cillian blue of the sky water and distant
Landscape and the unique fleshy pink of The Fountains and monuments but even more than that BOS has created a relationship between panel one and two through the background of the landscape the distant Blue Horizon and the Green Hill in front of it fuse perfectly across the panels as if they are one in
The same landscape the intention seems clear this is the same place but at a later date we can even associate the four rivers of the background with the four rivers of the Garden of Eden Genesis 2:10 States a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and there it
Divided and became Four Rivers unquote the middle plane of the painting is centered around a circular pool of water in which naked women are bathing some with birds or fruits on their head circling around this blue pool is a procession of animals of every kind being ridden by humans we see horses
Deer donkeys goats Griffins unicorns camels boes bears and cattle the sheer variety of these four-legged animals is just incredible on many of these groups of riders we also see various birds perched on people’s heads or on animal backs or horns I believe this is another instance of Bosch depicting man’s
Animalistic impulses of wild Untamed desire as it parades round and round with no aim or purpose except its own pleasure some of the Riders seem to be flailing backward overwhelmed in their feverish state in another example of Bosch’s incredible sense of humor one of the Riders even stands on one leg on the
Back of a moving horse and he’s flipping upside down while his other leg is extended with his head looking back Upward at his own penis or is he looking up at the blue bird seemingly poking his beak into the man’s butt cheeks you can decide for
Yourself now one of the groups on the right side shows three men riding together holding up a large Blue Fish with a red fish tail hanging out of its mouth a possible symbol of gluttony or overindulgence on top of this engorged Blue Fish sits a black bunny recall that
The other time we saw black bunnies was in panel one at the feet of Eve the moment Adam had turned his eyes away from God when lust had filled him and the expulsion from Paradise was inevitable Bosch keeps calling us back to that moment as if to say all of this
Ripples outward from that original sin three final details in this procession Hammer this point home notice that all of the Riders on the animals are men there’s not a single woman all the women are instead in the pool as the animals Circle in a counterclockwise Direction perhaps another tell that
Things are off there was a white unicorn in panel one drinking peacefully from the lifegiving waters in the Garden of Eden notice that here in the procession of panel 2 this white unicorn reappears but its horn has grown three times in length and Jagged Spikes have grown out of it
It’s worth noting that this white unicorn and the one in pan one exist on the same horizontal axis if you draw a straight line from left to right the unicorns line up perfectly as an almost before and after depiction there’s one final detail about the procession which I haven’t seen
Scholars mention or explore and it’s one I found only when I was seriously debating the riddle of the garden is this an idealic innocent p Paradise or is this a sinful false Paradise my attention was circling the procession of horses donkeys camels and bears when my eyes stumbled on an animal
That seems out of place it doesn’t have a human on it and it’s slightly out of the procession line it’s a spotted boar located at the lower right of the procession and at that moment it hit me like a bolt of lightning and this spotted boar is the answer to the riddle
Of the garden look at its fleshy pink skin this is the exact color of the fleshy pink monoliths in the background a color which resembles the color of Flushed skin then I noticed the engorged sex organ under the B’s tail it might be its testicles or it might be a Volva but in
Either case Bosch has painted this aroused organ Cerulean blue the exact blue of the spherical monuments in the background this is no coincidence the blue monuments may be considered testicles or generative organs the fleshy pink monoliths represent either vaginas or the act of arousal itself these structures into and around which
People climb are the exteriorization of desire as the spotted boore shows us these are the embodiment of arousal its living space its habitation a closer look at the spotted boore only confirms this see how the boore is turning its head as if looking at its own arousal directing its attention back on
Itself I notice that rather than a human riding it we see two cranes standing on its back likely a male and female pair with their beaks open calling out calling attention to the boar but the detail which brings it all together and answers the riddle for us is the one
Perched right above the boar looking on an owl the presence of evil no longer in the shadows of the baptismal font but out in the open air looking down at the boore as in the first panel there is also a baptismal font in this Central panel it is in the background the same
Cerulean blue as the spotted B’s sex organ in the shadowy opening where we first saw the owl we instead find a man reaching his hand between a woman’s legs and near them a bare ass displayed Bosch is done with the metaphors and drives his point home more
Firmly here we see people having sex in the baptismal Waters one man greedily gulps down the trickling water for himself and we can see that the sacred structure appears to be cracking it can’t hold out much longer pretty soon it will burst first and then what will it flood the land with Raging
Waters desire has run a mck in the phenomenal world and all the humans have become seduced by its illusion on the next creative codex pack your bags we’re going to hell it’s time to explore one of the most imaginative entertaining and disturbing visions of Hell in all of Western Art
The the third panel of heronimus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights during our journey through hell we’ll explore the deeply symbolic punishments Bosch devises for us we’ll uncover the strange patterns that link all three panels together we’ll also talk about the infamous but music from Hell delve more
Into the mysterious life of Bosch and we’ll see how Bosch depicts hell and human Folly in his other paintings all this and more on part two of the herous B Series [Applause]
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