http://cargocollective.com Hieronymus Bosch Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:36:41 +0000 http://cargocollective.com en http://cargocollective.com/bosch/The-Triumph-of-the-Saint http://cargocollective.com/bosch/following/bosch/The-Triumph-of-the-Saint Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:36:41 +0000 Hieronymus Bosch 586 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/94.jpg" width="670" height="727" width_o="800" height_o="868" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/94_o.jpg" data-mid="746" border="0" align="left"/> St Anthony was born in Egypt about AD 250. When he reached maturity he sold all his possessions and retreated into the Egyptian desert, where for the next 20 years he followed a life of dedicated Christian contemplation in total seclusion in an old ruin on the top of a hill. In 305 he was persuaded to leave the wilderness and with some companions he formed the first monastery, and thus is regarded as the founder of the monastic idea. Living in isolation in the desert had not meant that he avoided the temptations of all the deadly sins, but his sturdy resistance made him a great example for Bosch and his contemporaries. In this splendid, richly painted panel St Anthony is shown centrally placed and surrounded by images of the great sins depicted with Bosch's mature, uniquely inventive vision. When St Anthony was over 100 years old he visited Alexandria for a disputation with the Arians, but, anticipating his death, soon returned to his desert home, where he died in 365.<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/95.jpg" width="549" height="550" width_o="549" height_o="550" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/95_o.jpg" data-mid="747" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/96.jpg" width="570" height="500" width_o="570" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/96_o.jpg" data-mid="748" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/98.jpg" width="650" height="500" width_o="650" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/98_o.jpg" data-mid="749" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/99.jpg" width="498" height="700" width_o="498" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/99_o.jpg" data-mid="750" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/100.jpg" width="574" height="700" width_o="574" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/100_o.jpg" data-mid="751" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/101.jpg" width="633" height="500" width_o="633" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/101_o.jpg" data-mid="752" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/102.jpg" width="670" height="448" width_o="800" height_o="535" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/586/102_o.jpg" data-mid="753" border="0" align="left"/> St Anthony was born in Egypt about AD 250. When he reached maturity he sold all his possessions and retreated into the Egyptian desert, where for the next 20... http://cargocollective.com/bosch/Christ-Carrying-the-Cross http://cargocollective.com/bosch/following/bosch/Christ-Carrying-the-Cross Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:32:51 +0000 Hieronymus Bosch 585 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/585/66.jpg" width="670" height="604" width_o="800" height_o="721" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/585/66_o.jpg" data-mid="745" border="0" align="left"/> In what is close in character to a cinematic close-up, Bosch has produced here a remarkably dramatic evocation of turmoil on the road to Calvary as well as introducing the powerful effect of caricature. The only two heads treated with simple dignity, noticeably at variance with all the others, are those of Christ and St Veronica. The variety of expression on the faces of the mob invests the painting with its power to evoke a great sympathy with the quiet submissivencss in the central head of Christ. The two thieves to be crucified with Christ arc included, the bad thief in the bottom right corner snarling viciously back at his tormentors; and. in the upper right corner, the anguished, repentant thief taunted by a hideous priest. The strength of the drawing and the sense of light in the painting indicate that this is a work from Bosch's last period. In what is close in character to a cinematic close-up, Bosch has produced here a remarkably dramatic evocation of turmoil on the road to Calvary as well as... http://cargocollective.com/bosch/Heaven-And-Hell-2 http://cargocollective.com/bosch/following/bosch/Heaven-And-Hell-2 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:26:01 +0000 Hieronymus Bosch 584 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/584/42.jpg" width="646" height="700" width_o="646" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/584/42_o.jpg" data-mid="741" border="0" align="left"/> Bosch's presentation of hell is nowhere more powerfully or inventively depicted. The colour is sombre and the elements, in the main, are not found elsewhere in Bosch's treatment of the subject. The central feature, an egg-like body on two legs that float in two boats and with a wistful backward glancing head wearing a flat tabletop hat, has never been satisfactorily explained, although the egg is a key symbol for sexual creation. Others are less obscure. For example, the two ears with a knife between them is an unmistakable phallic construction; the ears themselves are symbols for gossiping, and the knife a punishment for evil acts — altogether a neat message. There arc examples, too, of anal eroticism, self-abuse, defecation and dismemberment. The sins that cause this suffering may also be discovered: for example, sloth (a man visited in bed by demons), gluttony (a man being made sick of the food he has engorged) and pride (a woman admiring herself in the mirror backside of a revolting demon). <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/584/35.jpg" width="559" height="700" width_o="559" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/584/35_o.jpg" data-mid="742" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/584/41.jpg" width="610" height="700" width_o="610" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/584/41_o.jpg" data-mid="743" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/584/40.jpg" width="670" height="595" width_o="743" height_o="660" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/584/40_o.jpg" data-mid="744" border="0" align="left"/> Bosch's triptych, known alternatively as the Earthly Paradise, is the central and most familiar of all his works. It is from this triptych, and especially from the central panel, that most of the images generally known are taken and it is where his unique fertile imagination is at its most creative. Unique is a much overused word, but with Bosch there is a variety and power in his pictorial imagery that no other painter before or since has achieved. While it is perhaps true that the appreciation that his work is accorded in our time is different from that which his contemporaries felt, there is a fascination in the study of the minutiae over the whole surface of his paintings that never diminishes. As with the The Last Judgment, the grisaille panels of the closed exterior wings do not prepare one for the explosion of colour and imagery they conceal. Depicting the world on the third day of Creation, it is a sombre evocation of the conversion of the Great Void into the Earth World. The open triptych consists of the Garden of Earthly Delights in the centre, the Earthly Paradise on the left, and on the right, in case viewers believe that they could get away with the excesses depicted in the central panel, is Hell, the most powerful and distressing of all Bosch's treatments of the subject. In both The Hay wain and The Last Judgment Bosch is reminding the faithful of the pain that will ultimately and permanently engulf the sinner. In this central panel, however, the sins of the flesh seem to be celebrated and the participants uninhibited, unselfconscious and joyful, betraying no sense of guilt. The scene is in high tone and bright, fresh colour. Erotic symbols and sexual activity of considerable gaiety abound. Bosch, unusually, seems not to condemn but to participate, and we are obliged to consider for whom the painting was intended. Although it may seem unlikely to have been for a church, the three panels taken together are not inconsistent with the other Bosch triptychs, and it may have been intended for a minor religious sect that believed in 'free love.' Bosch's presentation of hell is nowhere more powerfully or inventively depicted. The colour is sombre and the elements, in the main, are not found elsewhere in... http://cargocollective.com/bosch/Details http://cargocollective.com/bosch/following/bosch/Details Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:21:56 +0000 Hieronymus Bosch 583 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/583/36.jpg" width="670" height="613" width_o="800" height_o="732" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/583/36_o.jpg" data-mid="737" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/583/34.jpg" width="386" height="1000" width_o="386" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/583/34_o.jpg" data-mid="738" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/583/37.jpg" width="670" height="537" width_o="800" height_o="641" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/583/37_o.jpg" data-mid="739" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/583/38.jpg" width="606" height="700" width_o="606" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/583/38_o.jpg" data-mid="740" border="0" align="left"/> http://cargocollective.com/bosch/Between-Heaven-And-Hell http://cargocollective.com/bosch/following/bosch/Between-Heaven-And-Hell Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:15:27 +0000 Hieronymus Bosch 582 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/582/30.jpg" width="610" height="800" width_o="610" height_o="800" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/582/30_o.jpg" data-mid="732" border="0" align="left"/> The left inner panel completes the story begun on the exterior panels by illustrating the last three days of Creation, during which the Earth teems with animals, some recognizable, like the giraffe, elephant and deer; some fabulous inventions, like the unicorn. In the centre a dramatic Fountain of Life in a delicate pink rises from a rocky islet in the centre of a lake. To the right some weird water creatures climb a bank, which transforms itself into a Dali-like head, while to the left ducks and herons create a sense of nature at peace. Below this scene a fierce and fabulous Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil stands close to the figures of Adam and Eve. God appears here youthful and in the image of Christ, suggesting two parts of the Trinity in One. It is the moment when God says "Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the Earth and subdue it.' It might be noted that in the central panel there are no children and the inhabitants are engaged in other pursuits than subduing the Earth - indeed, the giant fruits suggest the reverse. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/582/31.jpg" width="618" height="800" width_o="618" height_o="800" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/582/31_o.jpg" data-mid="733" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/582/32.jpg" width="572" height="500" width_o="572" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/582/32_o.jpg" data-mid="734" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/582/33.jpg" width="569" height="700" width_o="569" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/582/33_o.jpg" data-mid="735" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/582/29.jpg" width="392" height="1000" width_o="392" height_o="1000" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/582/29_o.jpg" data-mid="736" border="0" align="left"/> The left inner panel completes the story begun on the exterior panels by illustrating the last three days of Creation, during which the Earth teems with animals,... http://cargocollective.com/bosch/The-Triumph-of-Sin http://cargocollective.com/bosch/following/bosch/The-Triumph-of-Sin Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:11:46 +0000 Hieronymus Bosch 581 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/23.jpg" width="637" height="600" width_o="637" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/23_o.jpg" data-mid="726" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/24.jpg" width="649" height="500" width_o="649" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/24_o.jpg" data-mid="727" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/25.jpg" width="554" height="650" width_o="554" height_o="650" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/25_o.jpg" data-mid="728" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/26.jpg" width="530" height="600" width_o="530" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/26_o.jpg" data-mid="729" border="0" align="left"/> Of all Bosch's large triptychs, the centre panel of this painting is most packed with incident and with symbolism, both mainly sexual. Much of the symbolism is still not understood despite the intensive work of many scholars over the last nearly 500 years. What has been discovered is often of such arcane reference that to explain it requires many words. Nevertheless, every detail provides exciting and interesting speculation. Some of the symbols that have been noted elsewhere can be seen here: the owl of knowledge and evil, rotting or exotic fruit, phallic fish, filthy rats. Of all the sins the most deadly is lust, and here we find it everywhere: in the foreplay in the bubble; in the man holding his genitals, a symbolic rotting raspberry between his legs; and in the birds, the reminders of flight, both to the heavens and in emotion. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/27.jpg" width="670" height="493" width_o="747" height_o="550" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/27_o.jpg" data-mid="730" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/28.jpg" width="510" height="600" width_o="510" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/581/28_o.jpg" data-mid="731" border="0" align="left"/> Of all Bosch's large triptychs, the centre panel of this painting is most packed with incident and with symbolism, both mainly sexual. Much of the symbolism is... http://cargocollective.com/bosch/Garden-of-Earthly-Delights-1 http://cargocollective.com/bosch/following/bosch/Garden-of-Earthly-Delights-1 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:02:53 +0000 Hieronymus Bosch 580 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/580/20.jpg" width="670" height="777" width_o="800" height_o="928" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/580/20_o.jpg" data-mid="724" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/580/21.jpg" width="670" height="831" width_o="800" height_o="992" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/580/21_o.jpg" data-mid="725" border="0" align="left"/> At first sight, the central panel confronts us with an idyll unique in Bosch's work: an extensive park-like landscape teeming with nude men and women who nibble at giant fruits, consort with birds and animals, frolic in the water and, above all, indulge in a variety of amorous sports overtly and without shame. A circle of male riders revolves like a great carousel around a pool of maidens in the centre and several figures soar about in the sky on delicate wings. This triptych is better preserved than most of Bosch's large altarpieces, and the carefree mood of the central panel is heightened by the clear and even lighting, the absence of shadows, and the bright, high-keyed colours. The pale bodies of the inhabitants, accented by an occasional black-skinned figure, gleam like rare flowers against the grass and foliage. Behind the gaily coloured fountains and pavilions of the background lake, a soft line of hills melts into the distance. The diminutive figures and the large, fanciful vegetable forms seem as harmless as the medieval ornament which undoubtedly inspired them, and when we stand before this picture, it is difficult not to agree with Fraenger's insistence that the nude lovers "are peacefully frolicking about the tranquil garden in vegetative innocence, at one with animals and plants, and the sexuality that inspires them appears to be pure joy, pure bliss." Indeed, we might be in the presence of the childhood of the world, the Golden Age described by Hesiod, when men and beasts dwelt in peace together and the earth yielded her fruit abundantly and without effort. Or to put it in more contemporary terms, Bosch's garden appears to be a sort of universal love-in. At first sight, the central panel confronts us with an idyll unique in Bosch's work: an extensive park-like landscape teeming with nude men and women who nibble... http://cargocollective.com/bosch/Garden-of-Earthly-Delights-2 http://cargocollective.com/bosch/following/bosch/Garden-of-Earthly-Delights-2 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:59:54 +0000 Hieronymus Bosch 579 In a park-like landscape under a clear sky, surrounded by or inhabiting curious plant forms, the pale, naked human forms engage in the joyous battle of the sexes in a dreamlike contemplation of love, sexually enticing gestures or postures and in explicitly sexual embrace. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/579/18.jpg" width="670" height="749" width_o="800" height_o="894" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/579/18_o.jpg" data-mid="722" border="0" align="left"/> Accompanying them are strange fruits, spherical or ovoid shapes and, in the distance, five structures, strange accumulations of forms, on or in which further sexual acrobatic exercises can be seen. In the centre a circular pool in which a group of naked females disport themselves is being circled by male riders on a variety of beasts. A number of giant birds, including the warning owl, and other curious animals are also part of the scene. A fish, a symbol of lewdness, is in the foreground. The curious overall effect of this pastoral orgy is of peaceful innocence and a real delight. The warning scene on the right wing makes it all the more potent. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/579/19.jpg" width="670" height="990" width_o="750" height_o="1108" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/579/19_o.jpg" data-mid="723" border="0" align="left"/> In a park-like landscape under a clear sky, surrounded by or inhabiting curious plant forms, the pale, naked human forms engage in the joyous battle of the sexes in... http://cargocollective.com/bosch/The-Wayfarer http://cargocollective.com/bosch/following/bosch/The-Wayfarer Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:55:11 +0000 Hieronymus Bosch 578 The symbol of the pilgrim on the precarious, threatening road of life was common in medieval painting. The two outer wings of The Haywain depict a poor, fearful and emaciated middle-aged peasant, with his possessions strapped to his back, glancing behind him at a scene of robbery while fending off a vicious dog. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/578/44.jpg" width="630" height="800" width_o="630" height_o="800" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/578/44_o.jpg" data-mid="721" border="0" align="left"/> He is about to step on a bridge that is too thin to carry even his weight - a reminder that the next step in life may bring disaster or death. On the right of the painting carefree peasants dance to a bagpiper seated under a tree. In the background a crowd is gathered for a hanging while nearby stands a tall pole surmounted by a wheel on which the bodies of executed criminals were displayed. Altogether it is a scene of threat and fear. Although the work is badly painted and probably all by assistants, the design is certainly by Bosch, who used it in a later circular panel. The symbol of the pilgrim on the precarious, threatening road of life was common in medieval painting. The two outer wings of The Haywain depict a poor, fearful and... http://cargocollective.com/bosch/Death-of-the-Reprobate http://cargocollective.com/bosch/following/bosch/Death-of-the-Reprobate Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:49:45 +0000 Hieronymus Bosch 577 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/577/70.jpg" width="670" height="376" width_o="800" height_o="449" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/577/70_o.jpg" data-mid="718" border="0" align="left"/> Legs sprout from grotesquely grinning heads, obscene bladder-like forms develop snouts and legs; some creatures are all head or rump. This taste for monsters Bosch shared with his age, which This same attitude is no less apparent in the sadly damaged »Last Judgment« fragment in Munich. It is occasionally identified as part of the altarpiece commissioned by Philip the Handsome in 1504, but was probably done somewhat later, towards the end of Bosch's life. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/577/85.jpg" width="410" height="700" width_o="410" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/577/85_o.jpg" data-mid="717" border="0" align="left"/> A piece of drapery visible in the lower left-hand corner is all that remains of a figure which must have been much larger in scale than the other figures in the fragment. Perhaps it represented an oversized St Michael in the act of weighing souls, such as appears in Roger van der Weyden's triptych at Beaune. Behind and to the right of the drapery, the resurrected slowly climb out of their graves, among others, a king and several ecclesiastics, all distinguished by their headdresses. Around them dart monsters whose gossamer wings and long waving filaments and antennae glow against thedarkground.lt is difficult to remember that these jewel-like, delicately luminous creatures are engaged in tormenting the damned. Hell, for once, has become an aesthetic delight. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/577/86-copy-3.jpg" width="477" height="551" width_o="477" height_o="551" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/577/86-copy-3_o.jpg" data-mid="719" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/577/84.jpg" width="404" height="700" width_o="404" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/11/577/84_o.jpg" data-mid="720" border="0" align="left"/> Legs sprout from grotesquely grinning heads, obscene bladder-like forms develop snouts and legs; some creatures are all head or rump. This taste for monsters...