“The Garden of Earthly Delights”
Today, one of the most famous paintings by the medieval artist, Hieronymus Bosch…
“The Garden of Earthly Delights” is an oil on panel triptych piece by the Flemish artist, Hieronymus Bosch, from circa 1490 to 1500. Bosch is associated with the Early Netherlandish Painting school that was prevalent during the Northern Renaissance.
A triptych is a piece of art with three panels that are related in theme and hinged together. Most often, they are read left to right. Triptychs are most often found in churches. In this piece, Bosch details the fate of humanity, from creation, to sin, to eternal hell. Read from left to right, the narrative begins on the left panel. Bosch depicts the third day of creation in the Garden of Eden, when God gives Eve to Adam as a companion.
In the central panel of the triptych, Bosch details sin in all its forms. Such pleasure seeker acts such as sexual desire, promiscuity, playing with animals, and the indulgence of what looks like delicious fruit, are amongst some of the ‘sinful’ acts depicted. The background of Eden in the left panel transforms into the background of the false paradise in the center panel.
Bosch warns that these acts help push humanity into its descent into hell with the right panel depicting hell itself. Humans are being tied up and molested by devils, animals, and other unworldly creatures. The city of man is on fire and burning in the background.
Bosch was known as the “creator of devils”, playing on the obsession with morality that was the cultural norm of his time. He depicted a fantastical and detailed world, highlighting humans, their earthly temptations, and sins, amongst monsters and chaos.
Bosch creates a sense of overall depth that is reinforced by painting larger characters in the front, and increasingly smaller characters in the background. There is so much amazing detail in this piece. I highly recommend that you find a large resolution image of it so you can zoom in to see all the fantastical things that Bosch painted.
“The Garden of Earthly Delights” is currently on display at the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, Spain.
For more on Hieronymus Bosch, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
