'Hieronymus Bosch. Garden of Earthly Delights' by Hans Belting. Finally.
Bought this book in Moscow more than a month ago, and had to save it for Christmas holidays, so I could read it without being interrupted.. Was worth waiting, although I still have a feeling that I went to a date with Hieronymus Bosch, but instead of intimate atmosphere, I appeared in a crowd of his friends - starting with Durer and ending with More. Not a bad crowd to spend an evening though.
Bosch has been a big inspiration for me recently as my interest for monsters, fiction world, manipulation of nature and Middle-Age epoch grows and I'm guessing will grow in 2011. First of all because of fascinating Bosch's choice of colors - bright, contrasting, and, very inspiring for me as someone who works in the field of commercial illustration where bright colors is often a must and I'm sometimes really struggling with making it bright but not distasteful, brave but not kitschy. So while looking for ways to struggle with my personal problem, once more I came across with Bosch and this time I decided to stay with him for a while.
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Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights,
1480-90, triptych oil on panel 220x195/390 cm,
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.
Press on the image for more detailed view. |
I still can't believe this was made in 1480-90 because it looks as contemporary as work by Gary Baseman. Sometimes while looking into details of
Garden of Earthly Delights I just could not stop thinking 'you're sick, Hieronymus, you really are', but in a good way, I guess.... Some of the scenes are so beyond nature, that religious interpretation was and still is probably the only way to define this triptych and every character in it. Although (European) religious iconography was always a big passion of mine since days in Vilnius Academy of Arts, I couldn't find enough time for a proper research on symbols hidden in European, and especially German-Dutch religious art, and now I will come back to it by investigating every berry, every creature, every object surrounding these characters. Having said that, it should be pointed out, that Bosch's iconography is very different from the typical iconography of that time: 'It (the painting) is unsettling not only because the subject matter is so enigmatic, but also because of the remarkably modern freedom with which its visual narrative avoids all traditional iconography' (H.Belting: 7). And, there is a very erotic side of symbolism in this painting, which is described in a book by Peter S.Beagle that i still have to find and read before writing more on the subject; although by looking into the painting and some particular fragments containing berries, a thought of erotic concepts behind those symbols crossed my mind without a bigger investigation.
in comparison to someone as contemporary as Gary Baseman, who also uses erotic concepts, fictional characters in a fiction world:
In conclusion, I'm really glad that someone as Hieronymus Bosch starts to find its deserved place not only in best art museums, but on publishers table and in a book-stores around the world, because his art really speaks to the context of contemporary art and even commercial illustrators by showing no boundaries of fantasy and all those bigger and smaller concepts behind almost every element of the composition and still staying a pure poetry of the highest level. I should also point out that middle-age art somehow is still in a land of specific researches, instead of being something that every educated person has an opinion about - there still is a big misconception of middle ages being dark and very restricted and I think H.Bosch is the best example of that huge un-researched, un-presented piece of the western art-history, lying somewhere in the archives, always as a reason or a result of some other epoch, but very rarely as a leading act itself.
"The Garden of Earthly Delights" is a perfect example of the contradictions in Bosch's art which defies conventional iconography. The triptych takes the form of an altarpiece without ever having been an altarpiece, and employs biblical themes without reiterating the text of the Bible. The central panel, whose meaning has so long been a mystery, is the touchstone. It appears to show the biblical Paradise and yet it remains a fiction since the Paradise seen here never existed. In other words, it is a question of discovering the fiction within the chosen theme, for all its biblical basis, and of grasping fiction as the timely expression of an art in search of poetic licence and freedom
(Hans Belting: 121-122)
