The Gothic and Medieval Age 1300-1500
The garden of Earthly Delights (Central panel of triptych), c. 1500
Prado, Madrid, Spain
Born Jerome van Aken but known by the Latin version of his first name and a surname from the shortened from of his birthplace’s Hertogenbosch in North Brabant, where he spent his entire life. Bosch painted great allegorical, mystical and fantastic works that combined the grotesque with the macabre. His oils are crammed with devils and demons, weird monsters, dwarves and hideous creatures, barely recognizable in human form. His quasi-religious and allegorical compositions must have struck terror in the heart of those who first beheld them, but centuries later he would have a profound influence on the Surrealists. In more recent times there have been attempts to analyse his paintings in Jungian or Freudian terms, the theory being that he tried to put his more lured nightmares onto his wood panels. This is his best-known work, executed on four folding panel, in which he develops the story of the Creation and the expulsion of Adam and Eve. At the core of the work is vast sexual orgy, symbolizing the sins of the flesh that caused man’s downfall.
Hieronymus Bosch: Born c. 1450, Hertogenbosch, Holland (now Belgium). Died 1516.
