Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights": the story of a masterpiece

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) can be considered the forerunner of surrealism, so strange creatures were born in his mind. His painting is a reflection of medieval secret esoteric doctrines: alchemy, astrology, black magic. How did he not fall on the fire of the Inquisition, which in his time gained full strength, especially in Spain? Religious fanaticism was especially strong among the people of this country. And yet most of his work is in Spain. Most of the works have no dates, and the painter himself did not give them names. No one knows the name of Bosch's painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights", a photograph of which is presented here, by the artist himself.

Customers

In addition to customers at home, the deeply religious artist had high-ranking admirers of his works. Abroad, at least three paintings were in the collection of the Venetian Cardinal Domenico Grimani. In 1504, the king of Castile, Philip the Handsome, commissioned him to work "The Judgment of God, seated in Paradise, and Hell." In 1516 his sister MargaritaAustrian - "The Temptation of St. Anthony." Contemporaries believed that the painter gave a prudent interpretation of Hell or a satire on everything sinful. The seven main triptychs, thanks to which he received posthumous fame, are preserved in many museums around the world. The Prado houses Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights. This work has an incredible number of interpretations by art historians. How many people - so many opinions.

History

Someone believes that Bosch's painting "Garden of Earthly Delights" – is an early work, someone is a late one. When examining the oak panels on which it is written, it can be dated to around 1480-1490. In the Prado, under the triptych is the date 1500-1505.

The first owners of the work were members of the House of Nassau (Germany). Through William I, she returned to the Netherlands. In their palace in Brussels, she was seen by the first biographer of Bosch, who traveled in the retinue of Cardinal Louis of Aragon in 1517. He left a detailed description of the triptych, which leaves no room for doubt that he actually had Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights in front of him.

It was inherited by Wilhelm's son Rene de Chalon, then it passed into the hands of the Duke of Alba during the war in Flanders. Further, the duke left her to his illegitimate son, Don Fernando, rector of the Order of St. John. The Spanish King Philip II, nicknamed the Wise, purchased it and sent it to the Escorial Monastery on July 8, 1593. That is, almost to the royal palace.

The work is described as painting on wood with two wings. Bosch wrote a huge picture - "The Garden of Earthly Delights". Painting size:the central panel is 220 x 194 cm, the side panels are 220 x 97.5 cm. The Spanish theologian José de Siguenza gave a detailed description and interpretation of it. Even then, it was rated as the most ingenious and skillful work imaginable. In the inventory of 1700, it is called "The Creation of the World." In 1857, its current name appears - "The Garden of Earthly Delights". In 1939, the canvas was transferred to the Prado for restoration. There the picture is to this day.

Closed triptych

The closed doors depict the globe in a transparent sphere, symbolizing the fragility of the universe. There are no people or animals on it.

Painted in greyish, white and black tones, it signifies that there is no sun or moon yet, and creates a stark contrast to the bright world when the triptych is opened. This is the third day of creation. The number 3 was considered complete and perfect, because it contains both the beginning and the end. When the sashes are closed, then this is a unit, that is, absolute perfection. In the upper left corner there is an image of God with a tiara and a Bible on his knees. At the top, you can read a phrase in Latin from Psalm 33, which in translation means: “He said, and it was done. He commanded, and everything was created. Other interpretations show us the Earth after the Flood.

Opening triptych

The painter gives us three gifts. The left panel is an image of Paradise on the last day of creation with Adam and Eve. The central part is the madness of all carnal pleasures, which prove that a person has lost grace. On the right, the viewer sees Hell, apocalyptic andcruel, in which a person is forever doomed to abide for sins.

Left panel: Garden of Eden

Before us is Heaven on earth. But it is not typical and unambiguous. In the center, for some reason, God is revealed in the form of Jesus Christ. He holds the hand of Eve, kneeling before the recumbent Adam.

Theologians of that time argued heatedly about whether a woman has a soul. When creating man, God breathed a soul into Adam, but this was not said after the creation of Eve. Therefore, such silence allowed many to believe that a woman has no soul at all. If a man can still resist the sin that fills the central part, then nothing keeps a woman from sin: she has no soul, and she is full of devilish temptation. This will be one of the transitions from Paradise to sin. Women's sins: insects and reptiles that crawl on the ground, as well as amphibians and fish that swim in the water. A man is also not sinless - his sinful thoughts fly like black birds, insects and bats.

Paradise and death

In the center is a fountain similar to a pink phallus, and an owl sits in it, which serves evil and symbolizes here not wisdom, but stupidity and spiritual blindness and the ruthlessness of everything earthly. In addition, Bosch's bestiary is filled with predators devouring their prey. Is this possible in Paradise, where everyone lives peacefully and does not know death?

Trees in Paradise

The tree of good, located next to Adam, is twined with grapes, which symbolizescarnal pleasures. The tree of the forbidden fruit is entwined with snakes. Everything is available in Eden to move on to a sinful life on Earth.

Central door

Here humanity, succumbed to lust, goes straight to destruction. The space is filled with madness that has engulfed the whole world. These are pagan orgies. Here is a sex show in all forms. Erotic episodes coexist with hetero- and homosexual scenes. There are also onanists. Sexual connections between people, animals and plants.

Fruits and berries

All berries and fruits (cherries, raspberries, grapes and "strawberries" - a clear modern connotation), understandable to a medieval person, are signs of sexual pleasures. At the same time, these fruits symbolize transience, because after a few days they rot. Even the robin bird on the left symbolizes immorality and depravity.

Strange transparent and opaque vessels

They are obviously taken from alchemy and look like both bubbles and hemispheres. These are traps for a person from which he will never get out.

Reservoirs and rivers

The round pond in the center is filled with predominantly female figures. Around him, in the cycle of passions, there is a cavalcade of male riders on animals taken from the bestiary (leopards, panthers, lions, bears, unicorns, deer, donkeys, griffins), which are interpreted as symbols of lust. Next is a pond with a blue ball, in which there is a place for lewd acts of lustful characters.

And this is not all that is shown inHieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights is a picture that does not show the developed genitals of men and women. Perhaps with this the painter was trying to emphasize that all mankind is one and involved in sin.

This is not a complete description of the central panel. Because you can describe both the 4 rivers of Paradise and 2 Mesopotamia, and the absence of disease, death, old people, children and Eve in the lower left corner, who succumbed to temptation, and now people walk naked and feel no shame.

Colour

Green color prevails. It has become a symbol of kindness, blue represents the earth and its pleasures (eating blue berries and fruits, playing in blue waters). Red, as always, is passion. Divine pink becomes the source of life.

Right Door: Music Hell

The upper part of the right triptych is made in dark, contrasting tones of the two previous wings. The top is gloomy, disturbing. The darkness of the night is pierced by flashes of light from the flame. Streams of fire fly out of burning houses. From its reflections, the water turns scarlet, like blood. The fire is about to destroy everything. Chaos and confusion everywhere.

The central part is an open eggshell with a human head. She looks directly at the viewer. On the head is a disk with dancing sinful souls to the bagpipes. Inside the tree-man are souls in the society of witches and demons.

Before you is a fragment of Bosch's painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights". The reasons why there are many musical instruments in hell are clear. Music- frivolous sinful entertainment that pushes people to carnal pleasures. Therefore, musical instruments have become instruments of torture: one sinner is crucified on a harp, notes are burnt on the buttocks of another with a red-hot iron, the third is tied to a lute.

Not overlooked by gluttons. A bird-headed monster devours gluttons.

A pig dressed as a nun does not leave a helpless man with its obsession.

The inexhaustible fantasy of I. Bosch gives a huge number of punishments for earthly sins. It is no accident that Bosch attaches great importance to Hell. In the Middle Ages, in order to control the flock, the figure of the devil was strengthened, or rather grew to an incredible size. Hell and the devil ruled the world undividedly, and only an appeal to the ministers of the church, of course, for money, could save them from them. The worse the sins are depicted, the more money the church will receive.

Jesus himself could not have imagined that some angel would turn into a monster, and the church, instead of singing love and kindness to one's neighbor, would speak extremely eloquently only about sins. And the better the preacher, the more his sermons speak of inevitable punishments awaiting the sinner.

With great disgust for sin, Hieronymus Bosch wrote The Garden of Earthly Delights. Description of the picture is given above. It is very modest, because not a single study can fully reveal all the images. This work just asks for thoughtful reflection on it. Only Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" painting of high quality will allow you to see absolutely all the details. JeromeBosch left us not too many of his works. This is a total of 25 paintings and 8 drawings. Undoubtedly, the greatest works that Bosch wrote, masterpieces are:

• "Hay Cart", Madrid, El Escorial.
• Crucified Martyr, Doge's Palace, Venice.
• Garden of Earthly Delights, Madrid, Prado.
• The Last Judgment, Vienna.
• Holy Hermits, Doge's Palace, Venice.
• The Temptation of Saint Anthony, Lisbon.
• Adoration of the Magi, Madrid, Prado.

These are all large altar triptychs. Their symbolism is far from always clear in our time, but Bosch's contemporaries read them like an open book.