Have you ever wondered why two large owls are on either side of the central panel in “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hiëronymus Bosch? Or maybe you have noticed the strange fleshy, sculptural fountains that come up from the water bodies – or are they stone? Why is the right side so dark, and who are all these people anyway?
Told by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, Smart historyThe newest video tours The creepy landscapes of the famous triptych of Bosch, which still continues to confuse our expectations of the Christian art of the Renaissance. “
SmartHistory is a small non -profit that cooperates with hundreds of art historians, curators, archaeologists and more, who are committed to making art history as accessible as possible. Through essays, conversations and videos, the organization presents scientific information in fascinating, digestible but analytical rigorous lessons.
For the video of SmartHistory that some of the motives investigates in ‘The Garden of Earthly Delightts’, Harris and Zucker dive into some of the most seductive details of the historical painting of Bosch, parsending mysteries that exist since its founding in the 16th century.
The umbrella story of Bosch’s masterpiece remains largely a mystery. “Although it is wonderfully playful and wonderfully inventive and just an incredible thing to watch, it would have been deeply disturbing for the Bosch generation,” says Zucker. “His society would have regarded this as sinful, although the people represented here did not understand sin.” (More about that in a minute.)
An anomaly of his genre, the painting was commissioned by Engelbert II, a rich member of the court of the Duke of Burgundy, probably for his palace. The work consists of three panels in the style of an altarpiece, with two half -size panels on either side of a central composition, which fold in as two doors to reveal another painting on the outside.
In the case of Bosch, he portrayed a crystalline ball in grisaille, or all-gray, which pours out an overview of the earth with God in the left corner, ready to make something of the matte ball. Two biblical sentences, “for he spoke and it was done”, from Psalm 33, and “For he ordered and they were created”, from Psalm 148, reference creation.
Turning the panels, as if we are opening the cover of a book, we enter an alien empire where people and animals mix with extra large animals, fruit and surreal structures. On the left, Adam and Eva are introduced by a young god, before Eva was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit that hung in the garden of Eden. In the middle, nude figures frolic, eat, go sexual activities, feeding, swimming and flying. On the right is hell.
“One of the most fascinating theories is that the central panel is an alternative story,” says Zucker. “What if the temptation had not taken place? What if Adam and Eva had remained innocent and populated the world? And so is it possible that what we see is that reality was played in the imagination of Bosch?”
Two oversized owls, symbolically for the presence of evil, flank the central panel. While people are ashamed of themselves or actions, a feeling of discomfort penetrates the scene, balancing the dichotomies of paradise and hell; holiness and sin.
“The biggest figure is a figure that art historians call the” Boomman, “says Dr. Harris. “His legs look like the branches of trees with more branches grow from them. But where we can see his feet, we see two unstable boats in the water with figures in it, which suggests that there is an inherent instability for this figure that can hardly be in balance in this way.”
The video of SmartHistory illustrates compositive tools that offer indications to the underlying story and metaphor, such as the way in which the “Boomman” seems to look back on the space to Adam and Eva – in particular the lusty look of Adam as a display of the origin of humanity. “We don’t need the apple in this representation. We don’t need the snake. All we need is Adam’s lusty look as it is introduced in the EVE,” says Dr. Zucker. And the rest, so to speak, is history.
Discover more of the art world about SmartHistory’s website. You can also enjoy this fantastic parade in the Netherlands that is fully devoted to Bosch and Roberto Benavidez’s Bosch-inspired piñatas.
