Jerome Bosch (1450-1516) can be considered the forerunner of surrealism, so strange creatures were born in his mind. His painting is a reflection of the medieval secret esoteric doctrines: alchemy, astrology, black magic. How did he not get on the bonfire of the Inquisition, which in his time gained full strength, especially in Spain? The people of this country were especially strong religious fanaticism. Nevertheless, most of his work is in Spain. Most of the works have no dates, and the painter himself did not give them names. Nobody knows what the name of Bosch's “Garden of Earthly Delights” is called, photograph which is represented here, by the artist himself.
Customers
In addition to customers at home, the deeply religious artist had high-ranking fans of his works. At least three paintings abroad were in the collection of the Venetian cardinal Domenico Grimani. In 1504, the king of Castile, Philip the Beautiful, ordered him the work “The Judgment of God, who sits in Paradise, and Hell”. In 1516, his sister Margarita of Austria - “The Temptation of St. Anthony. " Contemporaries believed that the painter gave a prudent interpretation of Hell or satire on everything sinful. Seven main triptychs, thanks to which he received posthumous fame, are preserved in many museums around the world. In Prado, Bosch’s painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights” is kept. This work has an incredible number of interpretations by art critics. How many people - so many opinions.
History
Someone thinks that Bosch's painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights” is an early work, someone else is a late one. In the study of the oak panels on which it is written, it can be dated to about 1480-1490 years. In 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 Luis of Aragon in 1517. He left a detailed description of the triptych, which does not allow to doubt that before him was really a picture of Bosch "Garden of earthly pleasures."
It was inherited by the son of William Rene de Chalon, then it passed into the hands of the Duke of Alba during the war in Flanders. The duke then left her to his illegitimate son, Don Fernando, rector of the Order of St. John. The Spanish king Philip II, nicknamed Reasonable, acquired 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. A huge picture was painted by Bosch - "Garden of earthly pleasures." Size of the painting: central panel - 220 x 194 cm, side - 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 that you can imagine. In the inventory of 1700, it is called "Creation of the World." In 1857, its current name appears - "Garden of Earthly Delights." In 1939, for restoration, the canvas was transferred to Prado. There the picture is to this day.
Closed Triptych
On closed flaps, the globe is depicted in a transparent sphere, symbolizing the fragility of the universe. There are no people or animals on it.
Painted in grayish, white and black tones, it means that there is no sun and moon, and creates a sharp contrast with the bright world when the triptych is opened. This is the third day of creation. Number 3 was considered complete and perfect, because it contains both the beginning and the end. When the wings are closed, then this is the unit, that is, absolute perfection. In the upper left corner there is an image of God with a tiara and a Bible on his lap. Above you can read the phrase in Latin from Psalm 33, which in translation means: “He said, and it was done. He commanded, and everything is created. ” Other interpretations represent the Earth after the flood.
Open the triptych
The painter gives us three gifts. The left panel is the image of Paradise of the last day of creation with Adam and Eve. The central part is the madness of all carnal pleasures, which prove that man has lost grace. On the right, the viewer sees Hell, apocalyptic and cruel, in which a person is forever doomed to stay for sins.
Left panel: Garden of Eden
Before us is the Paradise of the earth. But it is not typical and ambiguous. For some reason God appears in the center in the form of Jesus Christ. He holds the hand of Eve, kneeling before Adam lying.
The theologians of that time heatedly debated whether a woman had a soul. When creating man, God breathed soul into Adam, but after the creation of Eve this was not said. Therefore, such silence allowed many to believe that a woman has no soul at all. If a man can still resist the sin that filled the central part, then the woman does not restrain anything from sin: she has no soul, and she is full of a devilish temptation. This will be one of the transitions from Paradise to sin. Female sins: insects and reptiles that crawl on the ground, as well as amphibians and fish floating in the water. The man is also not sinless - his sinful thoughts fly with black birds, insects and bats.
Paradise and death
In the center is a fountain similar to a pink phallus, and in it sits an owl, which serves evil and does not symbolize wisdom here, but stupidity and spiritual blindness and ruthlessness of everything earthly. In addition, Bosch's bestiary is filled with predators devouring its victims. Is it really 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 symbolizes carnal pleasures. A forbidden fruit tree entwined with a snake. In Eden, there is everything to go on to the sinful life on Earth.
Central sash
Here humanity, succumbing to lust, goes straight to perdition. The space is filled with madness, which swept the whole world. These are pagan orgies. Here are all kinds of sex shows. Erotic episodes coexist with heterosexual and homosexual scenes. There are 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 medieval man, are signs of sexual pleasure. At the same time, these fruits symbolize transience, because after a few days they rot. Even the bird on the left robin symbolizes immorality and depravity.
Strange transparent and opaque vessels
They are clearly taken from alchemy and look like bubbles and hemispheres. These are traps for a man from which he will never get out.
Bodies of Water and Rivers
The round pond in the center is filled mostly with female figures. Around him in a cycle of passions passes a cavalcade of male horse riders on animals taken from bestiary (leopards, panthers, lions, bears, unicorns, deers, donkeys, griffins), which are interpreted as symbols of lust. Next is a pond with a blue ball, in which there is a place for the obscene actions of lascivious characters.
And this is not all that is depicted by Jerome Bosch. "Garden of earthly pleasures" - a picture that does not show the developed genital organs of men and women. Perhaps this painter tried to emphasize that all of humanity is united and implicated in sin.
This is not a complete description of the central panel. Because it is possible to describe 4 rivers of Paradise and 2 Mesopotamia, and the absence of diseases, deaths, elderly people, children and Eve in the lower left corner, which succumbed to temptation, and now people walk naked and do not feel shame.
Color
Green color prevails. He became 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 a source of life.
Right Sash: Musical Hell
The upper part of the right triptych is made in dark colors contrasting with the two previous wings. The top is gloomy, anxious. Flashes of light from a flame pierce the night haze. From burning houses jets of fire fly out. From its reflections, the water becomes scarlet, like blood. Fire is about to destroy everything. Everywhere chaos and confusion.
The central part is an open egg shell with a human head. She is looking directly at the viewer. On the head is a disk with dancing sinful souls under a bagpipe. Inside the tree-man there are souls in the society of witches and demons.
Here is a fragment of Bosch's “Garden of Earthly Delights”. The reasons why there are many musical instruments in hell are clear. Music is a frivolous sinful entertainment that pushes people to carnal pleasures. Therefore, musical instruments became
instruments of torture: one sinner was crucified on a harp, notes on the buttocks of another were burned with red-hot iron, the third was tied to a lute.
Gluttons are not ignored. A monster with a bird's head devours gluttones.
A pig dressed as a nun does not leave a helpless man with his obsession.
The inexhaustible imagination of I. Bosch gives a huge amount of punishment for earthly sins. It is no accident that Bosch attaches great importance to Hell. In the Middle Ages, to control the flock, the figure of the devil was strengthened, or rather grown to incredible proportions. Hell and the devil reigned supreme in the world, and only an appeal to the ministers of the church, of course, for money could save from them. The worse the sins are portrayed, the more money the church will receive.
Jesus himself could not have imagined that a certain angel would turn into a monster, and instead of singing love and kindness to his neighbor, the church would speak extremely eloquently only about sins. And the better the preacher, the more in his sermons he speaks about the inevitable punishments awaiting the sinner.
With a huge aversion to sin, Jerome Bosch wrote The Garden of Earthly Delights. Description of the picture is given above. It is very modest, because no research will be able to fully reveal all the images. This work asks for thoughtful reflection on it. Only a Bosch painting “Garden of Earthly Delights” of high quality will allow us to consider absolutely all the details. Jerome Bosch 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:
- "The Hay," Madrid, Escorial.
- The Crucified Martyr, Doge's Palace, Venice.
- “Garden of Earthly Delights”, Madrid, Prado.
- The Last Judgment, Vienna.
- "The Holy Hermits", Doge's Palace, Venice.
- The Temptation of St. Anthony, Lisbon.
- Adoration of the Magi, Madrid, Prado.
These are all great altar triptychs. Their symbolism is far from always understood in our time, but Bosch's contemporaries read them as an open book.