Home    Essays                                                                                Art History - June 2008

This immense triptych (Prado, Madrid) is arguably the most famous work of Hieronymous Bosch, painted between 1490 and 1510. Though in the form of an altarpiece it is clear that the painting was intended for a secular patron, possibly the art collecting Hendrick III of Nassau who on the basis of a period account, almost certainly owned the piece by 1517.

Chronologically, the sequence of scenes commences with the grisaille imagery of the closed outer panels depicting the creation of the world. When open, the sequence proceeds from the left with the creation of man and the beginnings of evil in the garden of Eden. The central panel may represent a possibly false earthly paradise leading to the right hand panel; the scenes of Hell to which the activities of those within the central panel may be judged by Bosch and some of his contemporaries as leading to.

Beginning with the closed outer panels; these depict the creation, the world encapsulated within a sphere: a strange land surrounded by the sea with unusual shell, horn and plant like forms at the coast and rolling clouds above. God is depicted as a remote creator sitting amongst clouds at the top left. A Latin inscription from the psalms (33:9) runs across both panels: ‘For he spake and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.’

When opened, the sequence continues from the left panel which depicts the garden of Eden; with God appearing as Jesus, marrying Adam to the newly created Eve. The unusual landscape is filled with plants and animals; some existing within nature and some not; the former such as the elephant and giraffe, being far more exotic during this period and assumedly copied from a woodcut illustration. The tree in the garden is encircled by fruits, and these though on a far larger scale can be seen in the central panel, being enthusiastically devoured by the people. A three headed bird can be seen at the feet of God, assumedly representative of the trinity but alternately, though unlikely perhaps, even as a parody of such.

Some of the creatures are shown devouring one another and the serpent of the Eden story is shown wrapped around a distant tree, strangely insignificant at this point. An owl, once symbolic of wisdom and now perceived at this time to be representative of evil and an emissary of the devil; is shown perched within the elaborate pink fountain that dominates the upper scene, said to be the Fountain of Life, and the owl is positioned at the absolute centre of the panel. At the top left of the panel, a serpentine flight of birds bursts forth from an orange rock formation, in front of which a procession of birds enter a fallen object resembling a bishops mitre, a larger bird perched atop appears to be guiding them in. This may be a veiled criticism of the church hierarchy as birds are often related to evil in the context of Bosch’s works. Alternately this may relate to a mitre like hat worn by fools or by condemned heretics and the birds as a metaphor for being led astray.

The central panel is riot of colourful imagery, a strange paradise of indulgence with cavorting, sexually active people and an unprecedented menagerie of animals, oddly positive in appearance, though appearances perhaps are deceptive. The seeming innocence of the scenes which has led some to view this purely as an earthly paradise needs to be balanced against the common view of sexuality in the medieval period; ‘at best a necessary evil, at worst a deadly sin,’¹ and is therefore most likely a visual commentary on the sin of Lust. The painting is indeed sometimes named the Garten der Luste (Garden of Lust) and lust was often thought of as the original sin from which all subsequent sins originated which may explain why punishments for all seven sins are being depicted in the right hand panel. The landscape does appear like a garden or park with fruit trees, pools and lakes, often the setting for love within medieval literature such as the 13th century poem, the Romance of the Rose.

Some of the unusual features include the orb like structure at the top centre; coloured blue and incorporating a crescent moon, both often symbolic of Mary and originally derived from the Egyptian goddess Isis. This crescent appears in various other parts of the painting. However it may well be a negative reference to Islam with which Christian Europe had been fighting for centuries. At this period there had been ongoing conflicts with Ottoman incursions into eastern Europe violently fought off by such as the infamous Vlad Tepes, prince of Wallachia, and before this; the fall of the Christian city of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. These crescents appear many times in all three panels and tellingly perhaps, one of the souls in hell wears a crescent as part of her horned headdress. This item itself was often especially singled out for attack by the moralists who vehemently criticised women’s fashions. A 14th century poem ‘Des Cornetes’, complains ‘that women now have horns in order to kill men, who must therefore defend themselves.’²

There are owls amongst other birds depicted in the central panel and scenes of men and women being fed large and small fruits by various of these birds; perhaps representing an ingestion of evil ideas. Walter Gibson in his study of Bosch refers to the work of Dirk Bax, who analysed early Dutch literature and identified many of the fruits, animals and background structures as erotic symbols; some of the fruits as metaphorical of the sexual organs and the fish ‘as phallic symbols in old Netherlandish proverbs.’³ The fruit is also alluding to the fall, the expulsion from Eden.

The circular pool at the centre is filled with bathing females and Bax relates this and the other water scenes to a Netherlandish expression, to ‘swim in the Bath of Venus as indicative of being in love.⁴ Around this central pool rides a frenzied circular procession of men upon a great variety of animals, perhaps engaging in a fertility rite, with the women as usual taking the blame; so positioned as to tempt them in. On close inspection however, the men oddly seem to be paying little or no attention to the women, and the riding of some of these animals was often considered emblematic of foolishness.⁵

Bax also suggested that the couple in the cave in the very lower right-hand corner are Adam and Eve following their expulsion from Eden; who according to apocryphal accounts wore animals skins and dwelled in a cave. However they do not look especially similar to the Adam and Eve as depicted in the left panel and seem not to be clad in any skins though Walter Gibson describes them as hairy.⁶ Furthermore there is a third figure behind which Gibson believes to be Noah though the basis for this is not clear. In the assumed context of the remainder it is more likely that the cave is a sexual metaphor of some kind.

Moving to the right panel depicting Hell; this is at first glance a chaos of demons, tormented souls and oversized objects against a distant apocalypse of armies and burning buildings. From the lower right there is scene featuring a sow garbed as a nun, penning church or legal documents perhaps, and therefore surely a criticism of the abuses of the church, increasingly common from long before Martin Luther. There were often hostilities between the townspeople of s’Hertogenbosch and the numerous religious houses in around the town; a common source of conflict in the medieval period.⁷

To the left there are a group of gamblers being tortured by demons, at the edge of which is a hare with a stick over his shoulder from which a man dangles, this is symbolic of the vice of cowardice and derived from a scene within the medieval epic Roman de Renart. The hare is also blowing into a hunting horn, symbolising the reversal of the ‘usual’ order, the hare becoming the hunter instead of hunted.⁸

Back towards the right are scenes associated with greed and pride; a women for example being forced to look into a mirror attached to a demonic bottom, vanity being an aspect of pride. In a similar woodcut from Der Ritter vom Thurn (1493) there is a scene of a women admiring herself in a mirror whilst brushing her hair, but what she sees instead is ‘the image of the devil’s arse, mocking her pride in her appearance.’ Furthermore, these images may have originated with an incident in 1462: the Viennese rebelled against the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor and a craftsmen expressed his opposition by bearing his buttocks at the Empress Eleanor saying, ‘you should look in this mirror.’⁹ There are figures vomiting food and defecating coinage into a pit, symbolic of gluttony and greed; similar imagery can be seen on a misericord carving of the 1480’s in the Oude Kirk in Amsterdam and a stone carving on the clothiers guild hall (the Kaiserworth) of a similar date. Further up to the left there is a scene with oversized musical instruments being used as literal ‘instruments of torture,’ they represent lust, being symbolic of the genitalia and the sexual act.

Above this a serpentine river winds down from the distance, becoming frozen as it reaches the foreground. The most prominent element here is the strange bent tree-man standing in a pair of boats on the frozen surface. He turns to peer out towards his disintegrating hindquarters; his face is often believed to be a self portrait of Bosch. Upon his head is a set of bagpipes, most commonly associated with the male genitalia and is one of many such images from this period.¹⁰ The bizarre oversized knife and pair of ears above may represent the souls punishment for gossiping.¹¹

Beyond this, a more conventional view of a flaming, fire and smoke choked Hell landscape recedes into the distance. The burning buildings emit seemingly inexhaustible quantities of smoke and flame and are not unlike the future paintings of scenes of the Industrial Revolution. In Bosch’s day however this sort of imagery was most likely inspired by the political and social upheavals then occurring across Europe, reflecting the destruction and bloodshed of war and also the belief that the end of the world was imminent; proposed to be in 1500.

Regarding the overall composition; the busy clutter of the scenes and the small scale of these figures and monsters has more in common with manuscript painting and the far earlier medieval art of the international style and before, with slender figures, clear colours, and a slight ethereal quality to the work. The illuminated books of the period, the borders especially; were cluttered with scenes of daily life and conversely with a bizarre array of fantastical demons and creatures, all reminiscent of Bosch’s imagery. The Luttrell and Macclesfield Psalters and the Dutch Hours of Yolande de Lalaing are good examples of this. Other artistic influences most likely include the gargoyles and other carved monsters that adorn the exterior of the church (now cathedral) of St John in his home town of s’Hertogenbosch. There are additionally, probable literary and other influences upon his work as well as the folklore of the time; the Dominican visionary, Alain de la Roche, who travelled the Netherlands and the Flemish theologian, Dionysius van Rijckel for example; both of whom preached very graphically regarding the supposed torments of hell.

The panels, both the left and the centre in particular are painted with strong bright colours with little use of shadowing (except in the Hell panel), and with the paint employed thickly giving a rough surface; this contrasts with the traditional Flemish style of painting. Like Jan Van Eyck, he sometimes used a series of washes to create a sense of depth, and to give an intensity to the colours. For the landscape Bosch employs a three tiered colour scheme with a deeper green in the foreground, a lighter yellowed green across the mid ground and finally the blue landscape of the far distance. This would later be used by Joachim Patinier, though with a reversal of order to the fore and mid ground. He was also clearly influenced by the overall appearance and detail of Bosch’s landscapes and some of the more unusual structures within. A good example would be Patinier’s Landscape with Charon Crossing the Styx.

Bosch’s imagery was very popular at the time, and interest has been greatly revived in recent years though from a wholly different perspective, now appreciated more for it‘s bizarre and exotic appearance than for any cautionary messages relating to morality and sin. His imagery came to influence the surrealists including Salvador Dali, however it would not be correct, and indeed anachronistic, to treat him as an early forerunner of Surrealism. The ideas upon which the surrealist movement is based are fairly recent and will have little if anything to do with the late medieval mindset of Bosch.

Many have been far less enthused by his paintings; the work was pointedly rejected by those selecting paintings for removal to the Louvre during the occupation of Spain by Napoleon and many to this day reject his works as unpleasant and disturbing.

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