Hieronymus Bosch’s Masterpiece: The Garden of Earthly Delights
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Chronology
Painted between 1510 and 1515.
Style
Artist: Hieronymus Bosch.
Style: Flemish Gothic.
Technique: Oil on wood.
Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Key Characteristics
- Perfection of the oil technique.
- Exceptional degree of detail and unprecedented brightness.
- Absence of movement.
- Use of strong symbolism.
- Themes: Religious, profane, and a great interest in portraiture.
- Extraordinary thoroughness.
Color and Composition
Color is used to create different effects according to the subject.
- On the left, Paradise is represented by a predominance of green and yellow colors, conveying an air of purity and renewal.
- On the right, Hell is dominated by red and black, appropriate for the creepy scenes.
The figures are small, highly profiled, and highly detailed, a feature that enables the author to recreate many scenes with gestures and a clean exposition. The triptych form clearly determines the composition, distributing the various scenes. Each panel repeats the image of a lake, serving as an axis of symmetry.
Panels Description
- Left Panel: The creation of Eve.
- Central Panel: The Garden of Earthly Delights.
- Right Panel: Hell.
When closed, the two side panels form the image of the third day of the creation of the world, inside a glass sphere, symbolizing its frailty.
Influences and Symbolism
The influence of the Flemish school is evident, characterized by precise and delicate strokes and thoroughness. Bosch’s use of a fine pen allowed for a large number of figures in a small space, with a focus on reproducing objects in detail.
Due to the evident symbolism, Bosch is regarded as a direct forerunner of 20th-century Surrealism. The painting’s theme presents a contradiction: is it dominated by the unreality of dreams, or does it reflect social realism and satire? While there is limited data from the archives of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, his birthplace, we can deduce that his views correspond to the reality of that time. For example, the recurring theme of fire may originate from a large fire in his city when he was thirteen. Public torture and the apocalyptic sermons of Alain de la Roche likely influenced his imagery. It’s possible that his art has a stronger social dimension than initially apparent, reflecting the fears, follies, and superstitions of the late Middle Ages, as well as timeless human dimensions.
Iconography
Although the iconography is difficult to interpret today, the work as a whole is a very personal representation of the world through a triple sequence: Paradise, the Garden of Delights, and Hell.
Meaning
The interpretation has been subject to considerable debate among specialists. Generally, the painting represents passages from the Bible: the first part shows the Creation, the central part the Garden of Delights, and the right panel Hell. The panel can be understood as a warning against the pleasures of the flesh, which lead to terrible punishments, even the total destruction of the world.
Some authors have suggested the work is a manifesto of the Adamites sect, to which Bosch supposedly belonged, advocating a return to original purity, with nudity and sexual freedom playing an important role. However, Philip II’s admiration for the work seems to refute this heretical interpretation, at least for the 16th century. The analysis remains open to interpretation, as no one has yet provided a comprehensive explanation of all the symbols.
Function
It has a moralizing role, aiming to remind viewers how fleeting earthly joys are and how terrible the consequences can be. It resembles a graphic sermon.