BOSCH, Hieronymus
Netherlandish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1450-1516
Bosch produced several triptychs. Among his most famous is The Garden of Earthly Delights. This painting depicts paradise with Adam and Eve and many wondrous animals on the left panel, the earthly delights with numerous nude figures and tremendous fruit and birds on the middle panel, and hell with depictions of fantastic punishments of the various types of sinners on the right panel. When the exterior panels are closed the viewer can see, painted in grisaille, God creating the Earth. These paintings have a rough surface from the application of paint; this contrasts with the traditional Flemish style of paintings, where the smooth surface attempts to hide the fact that the painting is man-made.
Bosch never dated his paintings and may have signed only some of them (other signatures are certainly not his). Fewer than 25 paintings remain today that can be attributed to him. Philip II of Spain acquired many of Bosch's paintings after the painter's death; as a result, the Prado Museum in Madrid now owns several of his works, including The Garden of Earthly Delights.
ID: 63555 Garden of Earthly Delights 1500 Oil on panel, central panel: 220 x 195 cm, wings: 220 x 97 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid The message of this panel can be understood from the moralizing content of the entire triptych. When the triptych is closed, it depicts the third day of Creation. The globe is contained in an opaque crystal sphere, symbolizing the fragility and transitoriness of the human world. When opened, the left side-panels reveal scenes from the Garden of Eden, the first human couple, the creation of Eve; in the centre is the fantastic vision of sensual pleasures, while the right panel shows the atonement of the damned in hell. *** Keywords: ************* Author: BOSCH, Hieronymus Title: Garden of Earthly Delights, outer wings of the triptych Painted in 1451-1500 , Flemish - - painting : religious
