Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (Part Three): Great Art Explained
Summary
TLDRThis video analyzes the final, controversial panel of Hieronymus Bosch's 'The Garden of Earthly Delights,' focusing on the depiction of Hell. The painting contrasts earlier scenes set in nature with a man-made, chaotic world of punishment. Bosch's detailed and imaginative portrayal critiques human sins such as lust, greed, and envy, while incorporating religious symbols and moral allegories. The interpretation highlights how Bosch uses musical instruments, bizarre creatures, and tortured souls to depict Hell as a place of suffering, moral blindness, and eternal consequence. The video encourages viewers to contemplate the painting's symbolism and deeper meaning.
Takeaways
- 🎨 The final panel of Hieronymus Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights' is set in a man-made world representing Hell, where the consequences of human actions are depicted.
- 👹 The creatures in Hell are painted with the same realism as the humans, suggesting they could have been believed to exist.
- 📜 A pig dressed as a nun persuading a soul to sign a document is interpreted by some as a critique of the Church's sale of indulgences.
- 🔮 The concept of selling one's soul for diabolical favors was a major preoccupation in the Middle Ages.
- 🍄 The foot hanging off a demon's helmet might reference ergotism, a condition mistaken for demonic possession during Bosch's time.
- 🎶 Musical instruments, which were considered sinful, are used to torture souls in Hell, reflecting the seven deadly sins.
- 🐸 The owl, a symbol of wisdom, reappears as the prince of Hell, indicating the inversion of values in Hell.
- 💸 The panel shows various deadly sins being punished, such as greed, gluttony, and lust, with each sin receiving a fitting punishment.
- 🌳 The 'Tree Man' is a complex figure combining realism, metaphor, and fantasy, possibly representing Bosch himself as a warning against vanity.
- ❄️ Hell is depicted with a frozen landscape, suggesting the coldness and lifelessness of eternal damnation.
- 🔥 The painting culminates with a city on fire, symbolizing the chaos and destruction that can result from sin.
Q & A
What is the setting of the final panel in Hieronymus Bosch's triptych discussed in the transcript?
-The final panel, depicting hell, is set in a man-made world, contrasting with the natural settings of the previous scenes.
How are the demons portrayed in the hell panel, and what does this suggest about their existence?
-The demons are painted with the same conviction and realism as the humans, suggesting that they are as real as the people in the painting.
What is the significance of the pig dressed as a nun in the bottom right of the panel?
-The pig dressed as a nun represents a deceitful figure trying to trick a soul into signing a document, symbolizing the selling of one's soul for diabolical favors.
What is the critique that some historians believe Bosch is making with the indulgence sale scene?
-Some historians see the indulgence sale scene as a critique of the church, particularly the sale of indulgences which led to widespread corruption.
Why is the man in the indulgence sale scene likely not being criticized by Bosch?
-Bosch, as a member of the illustrious brotherhood of our blessed lady, which played a key role in the indulgence industry, was unlikely to be critical of it.
What does the toad on the notary's lapel signify?
-The toad on the notary's lapel is a sign of the devil's henchman, a recurring symbol throughout the hell panel.
What is the possible connection between the foot hanging off the helmet of the demon offering a pen and ergotism?
-The foot hanging off the helmet could refer to ergotism, a condition caused by fungus in bread that led to hallucinations and was thought to be caused by demonic possession.
How are the seven deadly sins represented in the hell panel?
-The seven deadly sins are represented through various scenes such as a greedy miser forced to excrete gold coins, a glutton vomiting food, and a vain woman staring at her reflection in a demon's backside.
What is the meaning behind the overturned table with a gambler nailed by his hand?
-The overturned table with a gambler nailed by his hand is a reference to Christ and the moneylenders, symbolizing moral or spiritual blindness.
What is the significance of the tree man in the painting?
-The tree man is a mix of realism, metaphor, and fantasy, possibly representing the antichrist, with his torso as a broken egg and his head topped with bagpipes, symbolizing lust.
How does the city on fire at the climax of the painting reflect the medieval perception of hell?
-The city on fire reflects the medieval perception of hell as a place of chaos and destruction, with people trying to escape the flames and being judged and punished.
Outlines
🔥 Interpretation of Hell in Bosch's Art
This paragraph discusses the interpretation of the final panel in Hieronymus Bosch's 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', which depicts hell as a man-made world. It contrasts with the natural settings of previous scenes and emphasizes human responsibility for their fate. The nudity of the souls reflects their shame, and the creatures are painted with the same realism as the humans, suggesting they might have existed. A key scene involves a pig disguised as a nun persuading a soul to sign a document, which some interpret as a critique of the Church's sale of indulgences. However, the speaker disagrees, suggesting it represents a man being tricked into a pact with the devil. The paragraph also explores the prevalence of the seven deadly sins throughout the panel, with each sin receiving a fitting punishment. The speaker also touches on the historical context of Bosch's time, including the construction of a cathedral funded by the sale of indulgences.
🎭 Symbolism and Repetitive Imagery in Bosch's Work
The second paragraph delves into the symbolism and repeated imagery found in Bosch's artwork. It discusses the city of Den Bosch as an open sewer, reflecting the unsanitary conditions of the time. The speaker provides insight into Bosch's working methods through an infrared scan, revealing original sketches and modifications. The paragraph highlights various symbols, such as the severed hand with dice, the overturned table, and the blindfolded figure, each representing corruption, the betrayal of God's word, and moral or spiritual blindness. It also touches on the theme of gambling leading to lust and other sins, the role of music as sinful, and the various forms of punishment in hell, including a crucifixion on a harp and the Tree Man, which combines realism with fantasy. The Tree Man is a complex figure, possibly a self-portrait of Bosch, and includes elements like a broken egg and bagpipes, symbolizing lust and sin.
🌍 Last Judgment and the Chaos of Hell
The third paragraph continues the exploration of Bosch's hell, suggesting it aligns with the concept of the Last Judgment. It describes the Tree Man as a ferryman of souls, with a leper's saw on his leg, possibly representing the Antichrist. The paragraph discusses the freezing over of hell, with figures skating on ice and a demon with a horse skull, serving as a memento mori. It also mentions a demon ringing a bell with a naked man as a clapper and a devil reeling in a key, which could symbolize the opening of the gates of hell. The section also includes a reference to soldiers being punished, possibly for their role in Christ's arrest, and a war machine crushing people, symbolizing deafness to God's word. The climax of the painting is a city on fire, possibly based on Bosch's memories, with people trying to escape and a hostile army seizing the city.
👥 The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil
The final paragraph summarizes the painting as a representation of the eternal struggle between good and evil, with a focus on the medieval understanding of death and judgment. It describes the chaotic scene of people trying to escape a fiery hell, being pushed towards judgment and punishment. The paragraph ends with a tiny detail at the top of the painting, showing a fight between a demon and a human, symbolizing the lifelong battle between good and evil. The speaker invites viewers to share their theories and ideas about the painting, treating it as an intellectual puzzle with a moralistic message.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Inner Panels
💡Hell
💡Demons
💡Seven Deadly Sins
💡Indulgences
💡Ergotism
💡Memento Mori
💡Antichrist
💡Tree Man
💡Musical Instruments
Highlights
Hell is depicted as a man-made world in contrast to the natural settings of previous scenes.
The demons are clothed, while the human souls are naked, reflecting a loss of innocence.
The creatures in the panel are painted with the same realism as the humans, suggesting they could have existed.
A pig dressed as a nun tries to persuade a soul to sign a document, symbolizing a pact with the devil.
The red seals on the document indicate its seriousness, possibly critiquing the church's sale of indulgences.
The man signing the document may represent the wealthy buying indulgences for a place in heaven.
The toad on the notary's lapel could symbolize the devil's henchman or ergot poisoning, causing hallucinations.
The seven deadly sins are represented throughout the panel, with lust and envy being particularly prominent.
A greedy miser is forced to excrete gold coins, symbolizing the punishment for greed.
The vanity of a woman is mocked by forcing her to stare at her reflection in a demon's backside.
The owl, symbolizing wisdom, appears as the prince of hell, indicating a corruption of knowledge.
The scene of human bodies being consumed and excreted reflects the cycle of sin and punishment.
The overturned table with a gambler nailed to it represents the consequences of moral and spiritual blindness.
The dice on the woman's head symbolizes cheating and the corruption of divine word.
The Tree Man is a mix of realism, metaphor, and fantasy, possibly a self-portrait of Bosch.
The Turkish flag in the Tree Man's backside could symbolize the circuit of lust or the sin of alcohol consumption.
The city on fire may be based on Bosch's childhood memories and represents the chaos and destruction of sin.
The fight between a demon and a human at the top of the painting symbolizes the eternal struggle between good and evil.
Transcripts
[Music]
in part two
i discussed the first two inner panels
in part three
i discuss possible meanings of the final
and most controversial panel
hell
the previous scenes are set in nature
but hell is a man-made world
there is nothing here that they have not
brought on themselves
and even the musical instruments they
created have turned on them
the demons are clothed but the humans or
souls
are still naked but they have lost any
element of eroticism
and many of them are covering their
bodies ashamed of their nakedness
what is so extraordinary is that the
strange creatures in this panel
are painted with the same conviction and
realism as the humans
as though they actually existed
in the bottom right we find this curious
scene which for me
is the beginning of the panel a pig
dressed as a nun is trying to persuade a
soul to sign a document
a helmeted demon offers a quill and he
has the ink at the ready for him to sign
the red seals show us this is a serious
legal document
for many historians this is seen as a
critique of the church by bosch
specifically the sale of indulgences i
don't think it is
the wealthy combined indulgence from the
church to have their sins forgiven and
secure a place in heaven it led to
widespread corruption
and only one year after hieronymus
bosch's death martin luther published
his attack on
amongst other things the sale of
indulgences
leading to the reformation
in the late 13th century work started on
a gothic cathedral in den bosch
and there is strong evidence that the
church raised most of the funds required
by selling these indulgences
the illustrious brotherhood of our
blessed lady played a key role in the
indulgence industry
so bosh as a member of the inner elite
was hardly likely to be critical of it
i think this man is being tricked into
signing a pact with the devil
by the demon disguised as a nun
a major preoccupation in the middle ages
was the selling of one's soul
in exchange for diabolical favors
it looks like the man is on to them as
he is casting anxious looks
at us the viewer as if pleading for help
the toad on the notre is lapel a sign of
the devil's henchman we saw in the left
panel will appear again
and again in hell the helmeted demon
offering the pen to sign has a foot
hanging off his helmet
which could refer to an affliction
caused by fungus in bread
called ergot victims suffered from
burning sensations and hallucinations of
being attacked by monsters
limbs would rot and fall off
in bosch's time they thought this
condition was caused by possession
by demons in the 1950s
a component from ergot was synthesized
to produce the psychedelic drug we know
today
as lsd this would inevitably lead to
supposition
that bosch painted the garden of earthly
delights while he was tripping
as we've seen the sin of lust was
thought to give rise to other deadly
vices
and once again bosh looks to the seven
deadly sins
the deadly sins again are not scripture
but were described by pope gregory in
the 6th century
by the time of bosch they were a popular
theme in morality plays
and hugely influential in art
lust and envy are everywhere throughout
the panel
elsewhere we find a greedy miser is
forced to excrete gold coins into a
cesspool
the glutton is forced to vomit up his
food
the slothful man is visited in his bed
by a demonic toad
and the vain woman is doomed to stare
for eternity
at her own reflection which we can make
out in a demon's backside
she is being grabbed from behind by
another demon while a toad sits on her
chest
she closes her eyes to avoid her
reflection and
the horror around her i think her
resemblance to eve
is undeniable in the previous panel
birds fed humans here they eat them
the owl again makes his appearance this
time as the prince of hell
with a cauldron for a crown and jugs for
shoes it is sitting on a giant potty
chair
human bodies are being consumed and
excreted
simultaneously to go straight into the
sewer
where others are already drowning in
filth
in bosch's day the river running through
the heart of den bosch was an
open sewer its stench was everywhere in
the city
we can get an insight into bosch's
working practice
if we look at the infrared scan of this
area
we can see that originally bosch
sketched an enormous toad here
hanging over the prince of hell another
perhaps better world is suggested in the
reflection in the prince of hell's crown
behind the prince of hell the crescent
moon on the head of a religious woman
makes a reappearance
the severed hand holding a dice is
another repeated image
it references the word of god we saw in
the first panel
only now it has been corrupted and is
balancing a dice
as man plays with god's word the
overturned table
is a likely reference to christ and the
moneylenders
one gambler is nailed to the table by
the right hand he rolled the dice he
lost his fortune on
on the corner of the table a tally of
souls is being kept
this man is blindfolded and represents
moral or spiritual blindness
there is a difference between being
blindfolded and being blind
as it suggests that the figure had the
capability of seeing the light but
refused
the medieval figure synagogue was a
common symbolic representation of
spiritually blind jews
gambling leads to lust and more sin and
the naked woman with her eyes lowered is
holding a candlestick and beer picture
identifying her as a prostitute in the
netherlands
prostitutes use candles to entice
passers-by
a medieval precursor to the red light
district
the dice on her head is the dice of a
cheat as the opposite sides
cannot add up to seven the man covering
his eyes is bent over
a pose that connects the scene in this
case their hunchbacks
reference homo in curvatures in say a
theological phrase
describing a life lived inward for
oneself
rather than outward for god and others
besides them a hare carries his bleeding
victim on a pole
as he sounds his horn he has a pair of
hounds who have caught another victim
maybe they were poachers hair coursing
was illegal for the lower classes
the hunted becomes hunter expresses the
chaos of hell
where the normal relationships of the
world are turned upside down
non-religious music was considered
sinful associating it with other sins of
the flesh and spirit
musical instruments often carried erotic
connotations
in works of art of the period a
cacophonous choir
is forced to sing by a demonic choir
master
whose tongue is like a scale of notes
the music is written on a victim's
buttocks who is crushed by a giant
[Music]
loot
[Music]
some characters cover their ears as best
they can to try to avoid the horrendous
noise
others are crushed locked or impaled by
the instruments
a man has been tied to the neck of a
giant loot and is about to be set on by
a snake-like monster
a crucifixion is an unusual scene for
hell but here we have a figure
crucified on the strings of an enormous
harp
to emphasize the crucifixion a roasted
toad is offered up to him
in a parody of the sponge of wine
offering to christ
when he was crucified a demon beats a
drum
while inside a man is trapped crying out
in fear
another man has a recorder jammed up his
bottom while he is bearing the weight of
a giant flute
echoing christ carrying the cross
it is as if hell is mocking christianity
on top of the herdy gerdy is a blind
beggar one more turn of the handle
and the lady playing the triangle will
lose her head
the herdy gerdy was associated with
beggars who were often blind
here a stand-in for spiritual blindness
he is holding a begging bowl in his
other hand
bosch gives us the minute detail we
associate with the northern renaissance
artists
and we see a metal badge on a ribbon
hanging off the bowl
which is a license to beg granted by
nobles like henry iii
beside him another man balancing an egg
is hunched up
holding a walking cane another homo
incavartus in sei
the trumpeter wears the ottoman flag and
herald satan
who fell from heaven as a star
the most famous creation in hell is the
tree man
a perfect boshyan mix of realism
metaphor
and fantasy we have seen this figure
before
in an earlier drawing by bosch except in
the original we have a turkish flag
flying out of his backside
the face is almost certainly a
self-portrait of bosch
his look is strangely self-conscious and
stylistically out of keeping with the
other depictions of human faces
he could be there as a warning against
vanity
his torso is a broken egg which doubles
as a tavern in his backside
his head is topped with bagpipes another
instrument for the infernal orchestra
bagpipes were a symbol of lust as they
resemble a scrotum and penis
strange couples of mixed species circle
the bagpipe
a reference to the circuit of lust on
the previous panel
taverns are places where men and women
are lured into sin
one man is sitting on an evil toad
above them the turkish flag from the
drawing is now a bagpipe flag
reminding us that the partaking of
alcohol leads to sin
the tree man is balanced on two small
boats with legs of decaying branches
the boats or skiffs suggest he is
ferrying souls across the river
it is made clearer in his original
drawing
this puts the painting more along the
lines of a last judgment
bosch's own painting of that subject
follows a similar structure to the
garden of earthly delights
the world burns in the background as
souls are being sent across the river to
be judged in the foreground
and both paintings use similar
iconography
on one of his legs a slipped bandage
reveals a leper saw
i don't think anything in this painting
is without meaning and that we are
seeing
anti-jewish sentiment here a possible
interpretation of this
is that he represents the antichrist as
bosch has previously painted this saw
on the leg of a figure in this painting
identified as the jewish antichrist
it was a common belief but not in the
scriptures
that the antichrist would be covered in
leper sores
and that he will be of jewish origin
below him hell is literally frozen over
a man balancing on a giant ice skate
will soon collide with another in the
icy water
a demon bow and arrows at the ready but
strangely with no
arms to fire them is giving chase to the
human figures
the horse skull is like all skulls in
paintings
it is a memento mori to remind us that
one day we will die
the message is clear life is short but
eternity would last forever
below the skull a demon gleefully rings
the bell whose clappers have been
replaced by a naked man
[Music]
out of the skull's eye a devil is
reeling in a key the key has always
puzzled me
as we are so used to seeing keys as
representing the keys to heaven
a medieval interpretation was that god
gave satan the keys to the bottomless
pit
and this is where that comes from
theologically it is ambiguous
but aesthetically it makes sense as
immediately above it
new souls are ushered into hell the key
is there to remind us
that the gates of hell have been opened
the lamp here is extremely prominent i
think this section is reserved for the
soldiers that arrested christ
holding lanterns and carrying weapons
they are being burned alive in the
lantern as punishment
the leader whose flag bears the devil's
toad holds a chalice
while next to it we see a wafer a clear
reference to the body and blood of
christ
he is being eaten alive on a large disc
which in turn
resembles the one in the first panel the
soldiers are being skewered by demons
the character in white with a
stereotypical big nose
is behind them climbing a ladder and
could be judas about to hang himself
the ominous looking ears are a war
machine crushing people in its wake
like the blind metaphors throughout hell
the knife cutting through the ears would
reference
deafness to the word of god but the
similarity to the male sexual organ is
also unmistakable
the knife holds a symbol that looks like
a letter m
or b which has confused historians for
centuries
the truth is pretty mundane den bosch
was known throughout europe for its
manufacture of knives and in the 1990s
archaeologists found a knife dated to
the 15th century
which has the same shape and mark used
here by bosch
even ordinary household implements are
turning on us
cities in europe were tinderboxes and
fires were common
this is the climax of the painting a
realistic portrayal of a city on fire
that may well have been based on bosch's
childhood memories
a hostile army is seizing the city led
by a horned demon
we see people trying to escape the fire
using ladders or jumping into the dirty
waters of the canal
to certain death crowds of people are
being pushed down to the riverbank to be
transported across the icy river
to be judged and punished this is a hell
that the medieval mind would have
understood on so many levels
death was all around them
finally a tiny detail at the apex of the
volcano
we can just make out two figures
fighting one
a demon in black and one a human in
white
this is the fight the bosh's
contemporaries would have seen as a
lifelong battle
the fight between good and evil
this film is only one approach to the
painting it is difficult to ascribe
meaning to all the specific
elements however i decided to take the
approach that viewers in henry iii's
court might have
to treat it as an intellectual puzzle
with a moralistic streak
a painting that is there to create a
conversation
if you have theories or ideas i'd love
to hear about them
in the comments
you
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