BOSCHBOSCH
1450-1516

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 spanisharts.com
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The Garden of Earthly Delights
(El Jardin de las Delicias)
Painted: 1500.
ORIGINAL SIZE: 81.1" X 151.9"

An exceptional trilogy, a prodigy in myths and mundane traditions with imagination, plagued with a climate of fantasies that seem inexhaustible. It is a painting that has successive situations that beg the onlookers´ contemplations.

 Bosch
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Bosch
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The Garden of Earthly Delights - Paradise
(El Jardin de las Delicias - El Paraiso)

The first section of the triptych piece known as the Garden of Earthly Delights, seems to depict the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, before the eating from the tree of knowledge, since neither Adam nor Eve are hiding from what seems to represent God.

Curiousity: at the centre right of this section, is a mound of dirt that when looked at closely seems to be a face of a moustached man, what's curious is that this type of image was accredited to a great painter centuries later, Dali.

The Garden of Earthly Delights - Central Panel
(El Jardin de las Delicias - El Madroño)

The centre piece of this Bosch triptych depicts many activities among women and men. In the middle ages it was popular belief that debauchery was the mother of all sins and that it was from it that all other sins would then follow . It was also believed that the source of this temptation and sin came from women. Following the example of Eve who influenced Adam, it was believed that women could not help themselves, that was the way they were.

Without a doubt a painting which generates thought.

Bosch
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Bosch
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The Garden of Earthly Delights - Hell
(El Jardin de las Delicias - El Infierno)

The final part of the triptych, is the representation of that feared place that we all know as hell.
It is a scene that represents the results of a life of immorality or sin where the artist depicts different punishments for the different sins.

Curiousity: The face that looks out from the center of the painting, under the dish that holds the bagpipes, is a portrait of Bosch himself.

Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things
(La Mesa de los Pecados Capitales)
ORIGINAL SIZE: 47.2" X 59"

The table belonged to Philip II and it was in El Escorial until 1938. Then it was moved to El Prado Museum, where it's been up to the present time. Five circles are forming this table: four little ones (Death, Judgement, Hell and Glory), and a central one that seems to be a big eye which shows resurected Christ in the middle. All around this pupil (little circle) there are scenes of everyday life depicting the deadly sins: Pride, Lust, Greed, Sloth, Gluttony, Envy and Wrath.

A curiosity: Latin inscription "Cave, cave, dominus videt" means "careful, careful, God's watching you".

Bosch
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Bosch
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The Cure of Folly or The Stone Operation
(La extracción de la piedra de la locura)
Painted: 1475-80.
ORIGINAL SIZE: 0,48/0,35 m

This is a circular composition which suggests to the viewer the possibility of looking at it through a mirror. It deals with a painting loaded with burlesque and symbolic allegory. Bosch has soaked himself in folkloric fountains and customs of the time to tell of the extraction of the stone of necessity from Lubbert Das (a comical character who originates from Dutch literature).
This canvas, in which the painter attacks the practice of folk medicine, is carried out from a high perspective to allow him a greater space to depict the story. Some critics doubt the authenticity of the painting of the characters, which could have been put in by a lesser painter, but this is not so. The composition is finished off with the inscription "Master, take away the stone, my name is Lubbert Das".

Now, you are the ones who should speculate over the significance of the scene.

Roberto Bueno
Bachelor of Art History
The Temptations of St. Anthony
(Las tentaciones de San Antonio)
Painted : last years.
ORIGINAL SIZE: 0,70/0,51 m

In this picture, which is possibly his last work, appears the iconography used by this Flemish painter during the length of his painting career. It evokes a corrupt world through which he tries to transmit a series of moral and spiritual truths which have precise meanings. The result is the accumulation of a series of strange compositions in which he mixes the human with the fantastic and which captivate the onlooker because it portrays an unusual scene.
The Saint, who appears thoughtful in the foreground, increases his faith before the tempting attacks of the devil. The picture is a precise chromatic scene, due in part to the painter´s perfectionism of oil techniques.

Roberto Bueno
Bachelor of Art History

 Bosch
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Bosch
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The Haywain
(El carro de heno)
Painted: 1500-02.
ORIGINAL SIZE: Central panel, 1.35/1.00 m

The panel is divided into three parts. The left side depicts earthly paradise. The right side represents hell. The central one , which is at ElPrado Museum, contains the hay cart. In it, a bluish devil (symbol of deception) stands out, who directs the human race towards destruction. Allegory serves Bosch to depict the road of life. In the picture, he criticises all levels of medieval society, including the clergy. This picture is the culmination of the satirical and moralistic intention which characterises this brilliant Flemish painter. The contrast between the dynamism of the central scene with the tranquility of the background landscape stands out, giving this great luminosity.

Roberto Bueno
Bachelor of Art History
The pilgrim.
(El peregrino. Postigos del tríptico “El carro de heno”)
ORIGINAL SIZE: Posterns of the triptych "The Haywain" 1.35/1.00 m

Once "The Haywain" triptych is closed, one contemplates a highly moralistic scene. In it, a walker appears, upset. The man, a pilgrim, moves away from temptation because he seems repentant. El Escorial monastery houses a replica of this panel, but of lower quality.

Consuelo López
Bachelor of Hispanic Philology

 Bosch
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Bosch
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The Adoration of the Magi
(La adoración de los Reyes Magos)
Painted: 1510.
ORIGINAL SIZE: Central panel, 1.38/0.72 m. Side panels, 1.38/0.4 m

Bosch broke away from the Flemish tradition in this triptych, in which nevertheless, he preserved the style by finishing the panel in a curved head, such as they did in Holland after 1500. The figures are solemnly silhouetted against a balanced landscape from which the usual fantasies have disappeared. In the background lies the city of Jerusalem with a singular architecture. The human figures are made to stand out: the Virgin richly dressed and with the child in her arms, the three Magi portraying haughtiness, the donors, one beside St. Peter, on the left, and the other beside St. Agnes, on the right.
By looking closely, the onlooker will come across some humorous details - for example, St. Joseph, who is drying Jesus´s diapers and the peasants´ dance, animated by such a profane and sexually symbolic instrument as the bagpipe.
 

Consuelo López
Bachelor of Hispanic Philology
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