Hieronymus Bosch Garden Of Earthly Delights

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As discussed by Kloss (2005), the Garden of Earthly Delights (1505-10), is a large triptych painted in the early sixteenth century by Hieronymus Bosch. Despite its size and triptych format, it is assumed it was not meant for a church, although triptychs were usually commissioned for altarpieces. The subject matter of this piece is a fantasy like portrayal of man’s creation, existence and inevitable decent into hell; in a sense, a depiction from creation to Armageddon; beginning to end. The triptych is imaginatively illustrated; the two side panels close over the center panel, displaying another image of a primitive earth landscape which according to Bosch’s imagination may have existed before God created the Garden of Eden. The context of Bosch’s work is circumstantiated by “the apocalyptic atmosphere in which Bosch lived and it seems to have been a rather circumscribed life” (L25, 10:49). Bosch’s religious influences were of the “immediate Pre-Reformation period”. Bosch was a member of “the Brotherhood of…show more content…
Kloss (2005) describes Bosch’s depiction of damnation with his illustrated vices of man such as gambling, violence and treachery. Additionally Bosch illustrates the current criticism of the church’s abuse of its position at the time; as stated by Kloss (2005): tucked into the corner, there is a sow, but the sow wears the veil, the veil of a mother superior and the sow is trying to convince a man to sign a legal document. The ink well is being supplied by a demon in front of him. The document undoubtedly is to convey his property to the monastery” (L25, 17:32). Above all of these goings on Bosch depicts the devil himself amongst a myriad of musical instruments symbolic of lust and therefore used as instruments of torture, “note particularly, the harp on which a man is impaled most painfully” (Kloss, 2005, L25,
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