Painting Bosch "Garden of Earthly Delights": the history of the masterpiece

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) can be considered the forerunner of surrealism, so strange creatures were born in his mind. His painting - a reflection of medieval secret esoteric doctrines: alchemy, astrology, black magic. How did he not get on the fire of the Inquisition, which in his time gained full force, especially in Spain? The people of this country was particularly strong religious fanaticism. And yet most of his work is in Spain. Dates most of the works do not, and the artist himself did not give names to them. No one knows how Bosch's painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights" is named, photo 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. Abroad, at least three paintings were in the collection of the Venetian Cardinal Domenico Grimani. In 1504, the King of Castile, Philip the Beautiful, commissioned him the work "The Court of God Sitting in Paradise, and Hell". In 1516 his sister Margarita of Austria - "The Temptation of St. Antonia ". Contemporaries believed that the painter gave a reasonable interpretation of Hell or satire for all the sinful. The seven main triptychs, thanks to which he received posthumous fame, are preserved in many museums around the world. In the Prado is stored the picture of Bosch "Garden of earthly pleasures". This work has an incredible number of interpretations by art critics. How many people - so many opinions.

History

Someone believes that the picture of Bosch "The Garden of Earthly Delights" - work early, someone - late. When studying oak panels on which it is written, it can be dated approximately 1480-1490 years. In the Prado, the date is 1500-1505 under the triptych.

The first owners of the work were members of the house Nassau (Germany). Through Wilhelm I she returned to the Netherlands. In their palace in Brussels she was visited by the first biographer of Bosch, who traveled to the retinue of Cardinal Luis Aragon in 1517. He left a detailed description of the triptych, which does not allow to doubt that before him was indeed the picture of Bosch "The Garden of Earthly Delights".

It was inherited by the son of Wilhelm Rene de Chalon, then it passed into the hands of the Duke of Alba during the war in Flanders. Next, the Duke left her to his illegitimate son Don Fernando, Rector of the Order of St. John. Spanish King Philip II, nicknamed Reasonable, acquired it and sent it to the Escorial monastery on July 8, 1593. That is almost in the royal palace.

The work is described as painting on a tree with two leaves. A great picture was written by Bosch - "Garden of earthly pleasures". The size of the picture: the central panel - 220 x 194 cm, the side panels - 220 x 97.5 cm. The Spanish theologian Jose de Siguenza gave her a detailed description and interpretation. Even then, it was appreciated as the most ingenious and skilful work you can imagine. In the inventory of 1700, it is called the "Creation of the World." In 1857 its present name appears - "Garden of Earthly Delights". In 1939, for the restoration of the canvas was transferred to the Prado. There the picture is up to the present day.

Closed triptych

The closed doors show a globe in a transparent sphere, symbolizing the fragility of the universe. There are no people or animals on it. Painted in gray, white and black colors, it means that there is still no sun or moon, and creates a sharp contrast with the bright world when the triptych is opened. This is the third day of creation. The number 3 was considered complete and perfect, because it contains in itself both the beginning and the end. When the shutters are closed, then this is a unit, that is, absolute perfection. In the upper left corner there is an image of God with a tiara and a Bible on his knees. At the top you can read the phrase in Latin from Psalm 33, which in translation means: "He said, and it was done. He commanded, and everything was 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 Eden of the last day of creation with Adam and Eve. The central part is the frenzy of all carnal pleasures that prove that a person has lost grace. On the right, the viewer sees Hell, an apocalyptic and cruel one, in which man is eternally doomed to abide for sins.

Left panel: The Garden of Eden

Before us is the earthly Paradise. But it is not typical and not unique. In the center God is revealed for some reason in the form of Jesus Christ. He holds Eve by the hand, kneeling before the lying Adam.

The theologians of that time were heatedly debating whether the woman had a soul. When man was created, God breathed a soul into Adam, but after the creation of Eve this was not said. Therefore, this silence allowed many to believe that a woman has no soul at all. If a man can still resist the sin that fills the central part, then the woman does not restrain herself from sin: she has no soul, and she is full of devilish temptation. This will be one of the transitions from Paradise to sin. Female sins: insects and reptiles that creep along the ground, as well as amphibians and fish floating in the water. The man is also not sinless - his sinful thoughts fly by black birds, insects and bats.

Paradise and death

In the center there is a fountain like a pink phallus, and in it there is an owl that serves evil and symbolizes here not wisdom but stupidity and spiritual blindness and ruthlessness of everything earthly. In addition, Bestiary Bosch is filled with predators, devouring their victims. But is it possible such a thing in Paradise, where all live peacefully and do not know death?

Trees in Paradise

The tree of good, located next to Adam, is covered with grapes, which symbolizes carnal pleasures. The tree of the forbidden fruit was encircled by snakes. Eden has everything to go to sinful life on Earth.

Central gate

Here humanity, succumbed to lust, goes directly to perdition. The space is filled with insanity, which swept the whole world. This is pagan orgies. There is a sex show in all forms. Erotic episodes coexist with heterosexual and homosexual scenes. There are also onanists. Sexual connections between people, animals and plants.

Fruits and berries

All berries and fruits (cherries, raspberries, grapes and "strawberry" - a clear modern connotation), understandable to a medieval man, are signs of sexual pleasures. Simultaneously, these fruits symbolize transience, because in a few days they rot. Even the bird on the left symbolizes immorality and depravity.

Strange transparent and opaque vessels

They are obviously taken from alchemy and are similar to bubbles and to hemispheres. These are traps for a person, from which he will never get out.

Reservoirs and rivers

The round pond in the center is filled mostly with female figures. A cavalcade of male riders on animals taken from bestiary (leopards, panthers, lions, bears, unicorns, deer, donkeys, griffins), which are interpreted as symbols of lust, passes around it in a cycle of passions. Next is a pond with a blue ball, in which there is a place for indecent acts of lustful characters.

And this is not all that is depicted in Hieronymus Bosch. "Garden of earthly pleasures" is a picture that does not show the developed sexual organs of men and women. Perhaps this painter tried to emphasize that all of humanity is one and is involved in sin.

This is not a complete description of the central panel. Because you can describe the four rivers of Paradise and 2 Mesopotamia, and the absence of diseases, deaths, the elderly, children and Eve in the lower left corner, which succumbed to temptation, and now people walk naked and do not feel ashamed.

Coloring

The green color predominates. 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. The divine pink becomes the source of life.

Right wing: musical Hell

The upper part of the right triptych is made in dark, contrasting tones with the two previous leaves. The top is gloomy, anxious. The night gloom is pierced by flashes of light from the flame. From the burning houses fly out streams of fire. From its reflections, the water becomes scarlet, like blood. The fire is about to destroy everything. Everywhere chaos and confusion.

The central part is an open egg shell with a human head. She looks directly at the viewer. On the head is a disk with dancing sinful souls under bagpipes. Inside the human tree is the soul in the society of witches and demons. Before you - a fragment of the picture of Bosch "The Garden of Earthly Delights." The reasons why there are a lot of 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 is crucified on the harp, on the buttocks of another with red-hot iron scorched notes, the third is tied to the lute.

Not overlooked by gluttons. The monster with the bird's head devours the gluttons.

A pig in a nun's clothes does not leave its helpless man obsessive.

The inexhaustible fantasy of I. Bosch gives a huge amount of punishments for earthly sins. It is no accident that Adu attaches great importance to Bosch. In the Middle Ages, to control the flock, was strengthened, or rather grew to an incredible size, the figure of the devil. Hell and devil reigned supreme in the world, and only the appeal to the servants of the church, of course, for money, could save them from them. The more sinful the sins are depicted, the more money the church will receive.

Jesus himself could not assume that an angel would turn into a monster, and instead of chanting love and kindness towards his neighbor, the church would speak eloquently only about sins. And the better the preacher, the more in his sermons is the speech about the expecting sinner of inevitable punishments.

With a great aversion to sin, Jerome Bosch wrote, "The Garden of Earthly Delights." The description of the picture is given above. It is very modest, because no one will be able to fully reveal all the images. This work asks for thoughtful reflection on it. Only Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" of high quality will allow to consider absolutely all the details. Hieronymus Bosch left us not too many of his works. This is only 25 paintings and 8 drawings. Undoubtedly, the greatest works that Bosch wrote, masterpieces are:

• "Voz sena", Madrid, the Escorial.
• "The Crucified Martyr", the Ducal Palace, Venice.
• "Garden of earthly pleasures", Madrid, Prado.
• "Last Judgment", Vienna.
• "Holy hermits", the Doges' Palace, Venice.
• "The Temptation of Saint Anthony", Lisbon.
• "Adoration of the Magi", Madrid, Prado.

These are all great altar triptychs. Their symbolism is not always understandable in our time, but contemporaries of Bosch read them as an open book.