In 2016, it is difficult to name an artist whose name would be heard more often than Hieronymus Bosch. He died 500 years ago, leaving behind three dozen paintings, where every image is a mystery. Together with Snezhana Petrova we will take a walk through the “Garden earthly pleasures"Bosch and let's try to understand this bestiary.
“The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Bosch (picture enlarges by clicking)
Plot
Let's start with the fact that none of the currently available interpretations of Bosch's work is recognized as the only correct one. Everything we know about this masterpiece - from the time of creation to the name - is the hypothesis of the researchers.
The names of all Bosch's paintings were invented by researchers of his work
The triptych is considered programmatic for Bosch not only because of its semantic load, but also due to the diversity and sophistication of the characters. The name was given to it by art historians, suggesting that the central part depicts a garden of earthly pleasures.
On the left wing there is a story about the creation of the first people and their communication with God. The Creator introduces Eve to the stunned Adam, who until now has been bored alone. We see heavenly landscapes, exotic animals, unusual images, but without excesses - only as confirmation of the richness of God's imagination and the diversity of living beings created by him.
Apparently, it is no coincidence that the episode of the acquaintance of Adam and Eve was chosen. Symbolically, this is the beginning of the end, because it was the woman who broke the taboo, seduced the man, for which together they went to earth, where, as it turned out, not only trials, but also a garden of pleasures awaited them.
However, sooner or later you have to pay for everything, as evidenced by the right wing, which is also called musical hell: to the sound of numerous instruments, monsters launch torture machines, where those who just recently carefreely wandered through the garden of pleasures suffer.
On the reverse side of the doors is the creation of the world. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.” (Gen. 1:1-2).
With his work, Bosch apparently promoted piety
Image on the back of the doors
The headline sin in the triptych is voluptuousness. In principle, it would be more logical to name the triptych “The Garden of Earthly Temptations” as a direct reference to sin. What seems an idyll to a modern viewer, from the point of view of a person at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. Ekov was an obvious example of how not to behave (otherwise - on the right wing, if you please).
Most likely, Bosch wanted to show the pernicious consequences of sensual pleasures and their ephemeral nature: aloe digs into naked flesh, coral firmly grips the body, the shell slams shut, turning the loving couple into its prisoners. In the Tower of Adultery, whose orange-yellow walls sparkle like crystal, deceived husbands sleep among the horns. The glass sphere in which lovers indulge in caresses, and the glass bell sheltering three sinners, illustrate the Dutch proverb: “Happiness and glass - how short-lived they are.”
Hell is depicted as bloodthirstyly and unambiguously as possible. The victim becomes the executioner, the prey the hunter. The most common and harmless objects everyday life, growing to monstrous sizes, turn into instruments of torture. All this perfectly conveys the chaos reigning in Hell, where the normal relationships that once existed in the world are inverted.
Bosch helped copyists steal his stories
By the way, not long ago, a student at Oklahoma Christian University, Amelia Hamrick, deciphered and transcribed for piano the musical notation that she saw on the body of a sinner lying under a giant mandolin on the right side of the picture. In turn, William Esenzo, an independent artist and composer, made a choral arrangement for the “hellish” song and composed the words.
Context
The main idea that connects not only the parts of this triptych, but, apparently, all of Bosch’s works is the theme of sin. This was generally a trend at that time. It’s virtually impossible for the common man not to sin: you’ll say the Lord’s name in vain, you’ll drink or eat too much, you’ll commit adultery, you’ll envy your neighbor, you’ll fall into despondency—how can you stay clean?! Therefore, people sinned and were afraid, they were afraid, but they sinned anyway, and they lived in fear of God’s judgment and waited for the end of the world from day to day. The Church fueled (figuratively through sermons and literally at bonfires) people’s faith in the inevitability of punishment for violating God’s law.
A few decades after Bosch's death, a widespread movement began to revive bizarre fantasy creatures. Dutch painter. This surge of interest in Boschian motifs, which explains the popularity of the works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was reinforced by the widespread use of engraving. The hobby lasted for several decades. Special success had engravings illustrating proverbs and scenes from folk life.
The surrealists called themselves the heirs of Bosch
"The Seven Deadly Sins" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
With the advent of surrealism, Bosch was taken out of storage, dusted off and rethought. Dali declared himself his heir. The perception of images from Bosch’s paintings has seriously changed, including under the influence of the theory of psychoanalysis (where would we be without Freud when it comes to releasing the subconscious). Breton even believed that Bosch “wrote” on canvas any image that came to his mind—in fact, he kept a diary.
Here's another interesting fact. Bosch painted his paintings using the a la prima technique, that is, he laid oil not in several layers, waiting for each of them to dry (as, in fact, everyone did), but in one. As a result, the picture could be painted in one session. This technique became very popular much later - among the Impressionists.
Modern psychology can explain why Bosch's works are so attractive, but cannot determine the meaning they had for the artist and his contemporaries. We see that his paintings are full of symbolism from opposing camps: Christian, heretical, alchemical. But what Bosch actually encrypted in this combination, we will, apparently, never know.
The fate of the artist
Talk about the so-called creative career Bosch is quite difficult: we do not know the original titles of the painting, none of the paintings indicate the date of creation, and the author’s signature is the exception rather than the rule.
Bosch's legacy is not to say numerous: three dozen paintings and a dozen drawings (copies of the entire collection are kept in the center named after the artist in his hometown's-Hertogenbosch). His fame over the centuries was ensured mainly by triptychs, of which seven have survived to this day, including the “Garden of Earthly Delights”.
Bosch was born into a family of hereditary artists. It is difficult to say whether he chose this path himself or did not have to choose, but, apparently, he learned to work with materials from his father, grandfather and brothers. He performed his first public works for the Brotherhood of Our Lady, of which he was a member. As an artist, he was entrusted with tasks where he had to use paints and brushes: painting anything and everything, designing festive processions and ritual sacraments, etc.
At some point, it became fashionable to order paintings from Bosch. The artist’s list of clients is full of such names as the ruler of the Netherlands and King of Castile, Philip I the Fair, his sister Margaret of Austria, and the Venetian cardinal Domenico Grimani. They laid out large sums of money, hung canvases in their homes and frightened the guests with all the mortal sins, hinting, of course, at the same time at the piety of the owner of the house.
Bosch's contemporaries quickly noticed who was now on the hype, caught up with the wave and began copying Hieronymus. Bosch came out of this situation in a specific way. Not only did he not throw tantrums about plagiarism, he even supervised the copyists! He went into the workshops, watched how the copyist worked, and gave instructions. Yet these were people of a different psychology. Bosch probably wanted to ensure that there were as many paintings depicting devilish images that frightened mere mortals as possible, so that people would keep their passions in check and not sin. And moral education was more important for Bosch than copyright.
His entire inheritance was distributed among his relatives by his wife after the artist’s death. Actually, there was nothing more to distribute after him: apparently, all the earthly goods that he had were bought with the money of his wife, who came from a wealthy merchant family.
with the Gothic towering above everything St. John's Cathedral, having an almost hypnotic effect on the people of that time, who lived in terrible religious fear of hellish torment for earthly sins...
in the dark world of the Inquisition and endless wars...
darkness has descended on this world, covering everything around, leaving only animal horror...
Only one thing could save their souls - frantic prayers, raising their eyes to the sky...
Bosch, being a deeply religious man, created his creations following the Bible word for word. He, like everyone living in the 15th century, revered and knew it by heart, believing in God and the devil, sins and temptations, and in addition, he was a member of a religious brotherhood that preached strict adherence to religious dogmas. In his works, the artist gives morals to his own and future generations, encrypted in symbols and, at first glance, seemingly incomprehensible, fantastic plots. But everything becomes clear, you just have to learn more about the time when the artist lived, what he breathed, what worried him, immerse yourself in his paintings, the atmosphere of that era in order to understand his feelings and aspirations, and, of course, you need to know perfectly The Bible.
We will do it, or rather we will try, all together, just carefully study and consider every centimeter of his greatest creation - "Garden of Earthly Delights"(by the way, the title of the picture was not given by the author).
To understand, you have to feel. Let's get started!
Psalm 32
"6. By the word of the Lord the heavens were created, and by the spirit of the mouth
His is all their army:
7. He collected like heaps, sea waters, put
abysses in the vaults."
Psalter
The picture is filled with symbols, woven from them, where one smoothly flows into the other... It is known that Bosch uses symbolism generally accepted in the Middle Ages bestiary- “unclean” animals: in his paintings there are camel, hare, pig, horse, stork and many others. Toad, in alchemy meaning sulfur, is a symbol of the devil and death, like everything dry - trees, animal skeletons.
Other frequently encountered symbols:
. ladder- a symbol of the path to knowledge in alchemy or sexual intercourse;
. inverted funnel- an attribute of fraud or false wisdom;
. key (often shaped not intended for opening) - cognition or sexual organ;
. severed leg, traditionally associated with mutilation or torture, and for Bosch it is also associated with heresy and magic;
. arrow- thus symbolizes “Evil”. Sometimes it sticks out across a hat, sometimes it pierces bodies, sometimes it’s even stuck into the anus of a half-naked person (which also means a hint of “Depravity”);
. owl- in Christian paintings can be interpreted not in the ancient mythological sense (as a symbol of wisdom). Bosch depicted an owl in many of his paintings; he sometimes introduced it in contexts to persons who behaved treacherously or indulged in mortal sin. Therefore, it is generally accepted that the owl serves evil as a night bird and predator and symbolizes stupidity, spiritual blindness and the ruthlessness of everything earthly.
. black birds- sin
A significant number of Bosch's symbols are alchemical. Alchemy in the late Middle Ages was a unique cultural phenomenon, clearly bordering on heresy, a fantastic version of chemistry. Its adherents sought to transform base metals into gold and silver with the help of an imaginary substance - the “philosopher’s stone”. Bosch gives alchemy negative, demonic features. The alchemical stages of transformation are encrypted in color transitions; jagged towers, trees hollow inside, fires, being symbols of Hell, at the same time hint at fire in the experiments of alchemists; a sealed vessel or a melting forge is also an emblem of black magic and the devil.
We see references to Bible.
God creates our world, observing from the side (see. top part left. On the reverse side of the triptych).
“... but steam rose from the ground and watered the entire face of the earth.”
Bible, Old Testament
Bosch only knew the Latin version, where steam was listed as a fountain, so in the center of the picture we see fountain.
In many paintings we can see his face, he seems to be observing the viewer’s reaction, trying to catch the mood, wanting to understand whether his subjects help in understanding the common truths, in human weaknesses and his desire to fight them to the end.
Hieronymus Bosch « Prodigal son", OK. 1510. Boijmans-van Beuningen Museum. Rotterdam
The general picture of naked bodies now seems something lustful, perverted, but it is not so...
Bosch exposes human vices through naked people, because on the day Last Judgment We will all appear as we came into this world, without anything, nothing will be hidden from God.
The artist condemns the world for its vices and sins.
Selfishness
Greed
Gluttony
Birds- a symbol of vice. Bosch uses them to attack the church, which condones the development of all these vices.
At that time they were developed sects, we see them in the form of several groups that move counterclockwise. (see people walking in a circle)
He contrasts two teachings with each other: theology with his myopia and useless arguments, led by a cardinal in red, associated with eternal admiration for Rome. AND pure faith of brotherhood, on the other hand, symbolizing his true tenets.
At the top right we see three people under a transparent dome, monk and his disciples who look at this sinful world with horror.
Fear of unbridled music, not religious and not respecting Christ and God. This is what will happen to them.
Each of the details is significant, and there is no end to them.
His paintings are written with a purpose edification. The artist wanted to arouse curiosity, the audience had to ask questions and receive answers - they learned.
Interestingly, thirty years after Bosch's death, Pieter Bruegel the Elder We ordered paintings in the style of Bosch. In 1557 he writes cycle of seven engravings with Deadly Sins And. I will give some of them.
Envy, 1558
Gluttony, 1558
Avarice, 1558
Subsequently, this style was nicknamed "A cruel joke", and the artist himself received the nickname "Peter the Clown". Everyone who subsequently collected Bosch's paintings was considered strange, for example the king Philip II, who was sure that this was a satire on everything sinful, not considering Bosch’s work to be heretical, as it was perceived at that time.
A Siguenza This is how he assessed Bosch’s work:
“The difference between this man’s work and the work of other artists is that while others try to depict people as they look on the outside, he has the courage to depict them as they are on the inside.”
And in the 20th century, his paintings received a second life through the prism of the theories of Freud and Jung. His sexy and depraved naked bodies attract the attention of our contemporaries, but this is NOT what he wanted to say as a devout Catholic.
Another meaning was invested, completely different...
P.S. During the study of the artist’s work and his paintings "Garden of Earthly Delights" I accidentally came across one entertaining story Based on one of the fragments, it’s up to you to believe or not.
One of the visitors, a student named Amelia Hamrick from Oklahoma Christian University, became interested in the notes depicted on the butt of a reclining man, and asked a “childish” question: “What are these notes?”
But I didn’t receive an answer to it. Nowhere. The student was surprised by such sluggish interest in the painting, filled with allegories and symbols. Then she decided to restore the melody herself.
Based on the fact that the most popular key in medieval chorales was C major, Amelia rewrote the notes according to modern system. The durations are not indicated in the picture, so the student did not make any guesses on this matter. And this is what she did, performed by the Christian University student choir.
“The Garden of Earthly Delights” is one of famous works artist Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516). Triptych Dutch artist dedicated to sin, religious ideas regarding the structure of the universe. The approximate time of writing is 1500-1510. Wood, oil, 389×220 cm. Where is Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” located? Location - Prado Museum (Madrid). Researchers and connoisseurs of Bosch's art argue about the meaning of the painting, symbolic stories, and mysterious images. The work represents a triptych only in form. It cannot be used to decorate a church altar.
Description of Bosch’s painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights”
Left wing
1. Fountain of Life
The source that gives life to existence is compromised by an owl - an indicator of darkness, spiritual blindness. In this way, the artist visualizes the then popular idea: all life is sinful.
2. Adam, Eve
The Creator, taking Eve by the hand, tells the children to be fruitful and multiply - this is evidenced by rabbits, a symbol of fertility. The children's reactions vary: Adam looks with admiration, Eve looks down in shame.
3. Predators, victims
Someone is eating someone. The lion does not lie next to the lamb, contrary to the rules of the Garden of Eden. The animal is having lunch. This is a deliberate discrepancy with the canon of the Bible.
4. Ducks and swans
To the left of the source of life swim ducks, which were considered “low creatures” during Bosch’s existence. On the right is a royal swan, a symbol of the Brotherhood of Our Lady (Bosch was a member there all his life). The swan moves in the same way as the despised amphibians. Ducks and a swan embody the idea of heavenly tolerance: the fountain gives life to everything - the sublime, the earthly.
Black birds symbolize sin. The meaning is reinforced by the line of birds lined up towards an empty egg - a symbol of false faith, an empty soul. Evil must have existed even in Eden. Otherwise, having committed original sin, Eve and Adam would have had nothing to know.
6. Crescent
A design of two rounded planes connected by a transverse axis is an image often represented by Bosch. The crescent moon leading the branch is an unambiguous symbol. Previously, the crescent moon was associated with opponents of the Christian faith.
Central part
1. Naked and funny
The naked heroes of the triptych are the maximum exposure of human vices.
Giant berries symbolize promiscuity. Some researchers believe: the central part of the “Garden of Earthly Delights” demonstrates the Golden Age, when, without a plow, the earth bore fruit abundantly, people were well-fed and idle.
3. Fountain of Eternal Youth
Esoteric source of eternal youth. Bizarre buildings around - 4 cardinal directions.
4. Circle of animals
A cavalcade of riders on capricorns, lions, calves, and other animals - satirical image astrology. The circle of animals (zodiac) goes counterclockwise - in an unnatural way.
5. Feathered Evil
Sins are represented by avian species diversity. The owl is a phallic symbol.
6. Transparent sphere
Often the transparent vessels painted by Bosch are an alchemical allegory. Lovers “react” with each other like chemical elements. People who have fenced themselves off from the rest of the world with a transparent barrier can symbolize selfishness.
7. Criticism of the clergy
A dried out tree represented by an inverted funnel is an image that carries double accusatory power. An empty tree is a symbol of death, hell, unbelief. An inverted funnel is an attribute of false wisdom and fraud. The devil's deck is red - a hint of the cardinal's dress.
The symbol is universal, the meaning is ambiguous. The image of a fish in the Middle Ages meant Christ, the zodiac sign, water, the Moon, phlegmatic temperament, lust, fasting. Fish could just mean fish.
Right wing
1. Melancholic monster
A dead tree, an empty egg are symbols of death, sin, exposing drunkenness. There are boats on the feet of the arboreal creature for a reason. Although the constitution is solid, the guy is stormy and swaying.
2. Bird-headed monster
The devil devours the souls of sinners. Sitting on the “shameful chair,” he defecates souls into a hellish cesspool. The head is crowned with a pot, symbolizing unbelief. The jugs on the legs emphasize the lameness that the Devil acquired after being cast out of heaven.
3. Musical Hell
At that time, music was considered frivolous entertainment preceding love pleasures. Polyphonic music was regarded as a sinful manifestation, and performance on church grounds was considered a sophisticated form of heresy.
4. Three, seven, ace
Sinners who indulged gambling, on the Day of Judgment you will have to literally roll the dice. Among the scattered cards you can see a three, an ace.
Bottom - central theme creativity of Bosch. The priest was a frequent heroine of medieval Dutch folklore. A transcultural symbol still relevant 500 years later. Troubles always fall on people's heads.
6. Stairs
Stairs are the path to knowledge; it is fraught with the fall from grace.
Martyrdom, retribution for sins, torture. The mark “M”, which is on the blades of the “Garden of Earthly Delights”, is the initial letter of the word “world” - “mundus” or the name of the Antichrist (according to medieval prophecies, it begins with such a letter).
A sinner hugging a pig in a monk's headdress is a satirical allusion to the actions of the Catholic Church. The document is sealed; a character (with a toad on his shoulder signifying heresy) covers his head with a seal. These are indulgences; Bosch considered their trade to be fraud.
The lower circle of hell is a frozen lake. Skates could be associated with idleness.
3 doors - the internal component of Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. When the doors are closed, another image appears: the world on the third day after creation by God. The earth, covered with greenery, water, is in the sphere. No animals, no people. The left door is equipped with the inscription “He spoke, and it was done,” the right one - “He commanded, and it was done.” There is no unambiguous analysis of Bosch’s painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights”.
CategoryThe most mysterious artist of the Northern Renaissance may have kept a fig in his pocket all his life: the beliefs of a secret heretic are encrypted in the paintings of a faithful Catholic. Had his contemporaries guessed this, Bosch would probably have been sent to the stake
Painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights”
Wood, oil. 220 x 389 cm
Years of creation: 1490–1500 or 1500–1510
Kept in the Prado Museum in Madrid
Jeroen van Aken, who signed his paintings “Hieronymus Bosch,” was considered a completely respectable person in 's-Hertogenbosch. He was the only artist who was a member of the pious city society, the Brotherhood of Our Lady, with cathedral St. John's. However, the artist may have misled his fellow citizens and customers until his death. Suspicions that a heretic was hiding under the guise of a good Catholic were expressed at the turn of the 16th–17th centuries. Historian and art critic Wilhelm Frenger suggested in the mid-20th century that the painter belonged to the Adamite sect. A modern researcher of Bosch's work, Linda Harris, has hypothesized that he was an adherent of the Cathar heresy.
The Cathars taught that the Old Testament Jehovah, the creator of the material universe, is in fact the Prince of Darkness, and matter is evil. The souls of the angels he deceived fell from spiritual world to the ground. Some became demons, others, who still had a chance of salvation, found themselves drawn into a series of rebirths in human bodies. The Cathars rejected the teachings and rituals of the Catholics, considering all this to be the creation of the devil. For several centuries the church eradicated the heresy that had spread throughout Europe, and by the end of the 15th century the Cathars were almost never heard of. Bosch, according to Harris, by deliberately distorting canonical subjects in his paintings, encrypted in numerous symbols a secret message to future generations about his true faith.
Thus, on the left wing of the triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights” Bosch depicted Eden in the days of the creation of the first people, when the souls of angels were trapped in mortal flesh. The central part, Harris believes, is the same Eden, but of the present time: souls go there between reincarnations, and demons seduce them with earthly temptations so that the former angels forget about the spiritual world and want to reincarnate in the material. The right wing is hell, where after the Last Judgment everyone who failed to break the chain of rebirth will go.
1 Christ.
Jesus was considered by the Cathars to be the antagonist of the Prince of Darkness, the Savior who reminds fallen souls of the spiritual world and helps them get out of the shackles of the material. It is usually believed that on the left wing of the triptych Bosch depicted how God presents Eve, created from a rib, to Adam, but Linda Harris believes that the artist painted Christ warning Adam against earthly temptations, the embodiment of which is the first woman.
2 Cat and mouse.
An animal caught in the teeth of a predator is a hint of souls trapped in the material world.
3 Owl. The night bird of prey present in most of Bosch's paintings is the Prince of Darkness, watching as people fall into his snare again and again.
4 Fountain of Spiritual Death.
A parody of the fountain of living water, an image from the Christian iconography of Eden. The water of the source symbolized the salvation of humanity by faith, the rites of baptism and communion. The Cathars rejected the rituals, in their opinion, of a false religion, which tied souls even more tightly to matter. In Bosch's painting, a sphere is built into the fountain - a symbol of peace. The insidious creator of the Universe looks out from it in the form of an owl.
5 People.
The amorous amusements of careless sinners in the lap of nature, according to Bosch specialist Walter Bosing, are a reference to the courtly plot “garden of love”, popular at that time. But Cathar will see here souls indulging in base carnal pleasures in an illusory “paradise” in anticipation of new incarnations.
6 Pearl.
In the teachings of the Cathars and their ideological predecessors, the Manichaeans, Harris argues, it symbolized the soul, the luminous core from the spiritual world, preserved by the fallen angel on earth. With the increase in the number of people, these souls divided, plunging more and more into matter, which is why Bosch depicted pearls scattered in the mud.
7 Musical instruments.
Italian art historian Federico Zeri believed that the artist placed them in hell, since the expression “bodily music” was well known to people of that time and meant voluptuousness. The Cathars considered lust the worst of sins also because because of it new people are born - captives of the material world.
8 Strawberry.
Art critic Elena Igumnova notes that in the time of Bosch, this berry was considered an alluring fruit without real taste and symbolized illusory pleasures. There are many other berries and fruits in the picture - they all mean earthly temptations.
9 Round dance of horsemen. Linda Harris believes that it symbolizes the circle of reincarnation into which souls are drawn due to earthly passions.
10 Tree of Death. It consists of objects symbolizing the mortal shell of the earth - dried wood and an empty shell. According to Harris, in Bosch this monster plant personifies the true essence of the material world, revealed by the Last Judgment.
Artist
Hieronymous Bosch
Between 1450 and 1460 - born in the Duchy of Brabant in the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, or Den Bosch, in whose honor he took the pseudonym Bosch.
Around 1494 or 1495* - painted the triptych “Adoration of the Magi”.
Before 1482, he married a wealthy aristocrat, Aleid van de Merwenne.
1486–1487 - entered the brotherhood of Our Lady at the Cathedral of St. John in 's-Hertogenbosch.
1501–1510 - created the painting “The Seven Deadly Sins”, according to one version, which served as a tabletop.
1516 - died (presumably from the plague), buried in St. John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch.
* There are discrepancies in the dating of Bosch's paintings. “Around the World” hereinafter provides information from the website of the Prado Museum, where the artist’s works mentioned in the article are located.
“The Garden of Earthly Delights” is one of the most famous works of the great artist (1450-1516). The Dutch artist dedicated his triptych to sin and religious ideas about the structure of the universe. The approximate time of writing is 1500-1510. Oil on wood, 389x220 cm. The triptych is currently on display in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
What Hieronymus Bosch actually called his creation is unknown. Researchers who studied the painting in the 20th century called it “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” That’s what the work is still called today. Researchers and connoisseurs of Bosch's art are still arguing about the meaning of this painting, its symbolic themes and mysterious images. This triptych is considered one of the most mysterious works of the mysterious artist Renaissance.
The painting was named the Garden of Earthly Delights after the central part, where a certain garden with people enjoying themselves is presented. On the sides there are other scenes. The left side depicts the creation of Adam and Eve. Hell is depicted on the right wing. Triptych has huge amount details, figures, mysterious creatures and plots that have not been fully deciphered. The painting appears to be a real book, in which a certain message is encrypted, the artist’s creative vision of being in the world. Through many details that can be looked at for hours, the artist expresses main idea- the essence of sin, the trap of sin and the retribution for sin.
Fantastic buildings, strange creatures and monsters, caricatured images of characters - all this may seem like a giant hallucination. This picture fully justifies the opinion that Bosch is considered the first surrealist in history.
The picture has caused many interpretations and disputes among researchers. Some argued that central part may represent or even glorify bodily pleasures. Thus, Bosch depicted the sequence: the creation of man - the triumph of voluptuousness on earth - the subsequent punishment of hell. Other researchers reject this point of view and point to the fact that the church in Bosch’s time welcomed this painting, which may mean that the central part depicts not earthly pleasures, but paradise.
Few people adhere to the latter version, since if you look closely at the figures in the central part of the picture, you can see that Bosch in an allegorical form depicted the disastrous consequences of earthly pleasures. Naked people having fun and making love have some symbolic elements of death. Such symbolic allegories of punishment may include: a shell that slams lovers (the shell is the feminine principle), aloe that digs into human flesh, and so on. Riders who ride various animals and fantastic creatures - a cycle of passions. Women picking apples and eating fruits are a symbol of sin and passion. Also in the picture, various proverbs are demonstrated in illustrative form. Many of the proverbs that Hieronymus Bosch used in his triptych have not survived to our time and therefore the images cannot be deciphered. For example, one of the proverbial images is an image with several lovers who are closed with a glass bell. If this proverb had not survived to our time, the image would never have been decipherable: “Happiness and glass - how short-lived they are.”
To summarize, we can say that Bosch depicted in his painting the destructiveness of lust and adultery. On the right side of the painting, which depicts the surreal horrors of hell, the artist showed the result of earthly pleasures. The right wing is called " Musical hell"due to the presence of several musical instruments- harp, lute, sheet music, as well as a choir of souls led by a monster with a fish head.
All three images are internal part"The Garden of Earthly Delights" If the doors are closed, another image appears. Here the world is depicted on the third day after God created it from the void. The earth here is in a certain sphere, it is surrounded by water. Greenery is already growing in full force on the earth, the Sun is shining, but there are no animals or people yet. On the left wing the inscription reads: “He spoke, and it was done,” on the right, “He commanded, and it was done.”