Hieronymus Bosch: The Devil with Angel’s Wings

we're in the netherlands

in the 15th century in the workshop of a

revolutionary painter

hieronymus bosch there are few remaining

traces of his life

by turns he has been considered a genius

an avant-gardist and also a heretic

influenced by a secret society

he had access to the rarest documents he

rubbed shoulders with the greatest

figures

princes and scholars alike he was

forgotten for two centuries

then resurrected and he is surely the

world's foremost surrealist

only 26 paintings have been left to us

all painted on wooden panels

most are triptychs which were displayed

in churches

they were kept shut six days out of

seven

and on the seventh day sunday they were

open to be presented to the faithful

the best known among them is the garden

of earthly delights

the most enigmatic work by hieronymus

bosch

in the center little naked figures

indulge in the pleasures of life

but on the right punishment and death

lie in weight

this descent into the underworld into

the chaos of hell

contributed to his being dubbed the

devil maker

but was that really all he was

in all his work hieronymus bosch used

medieval symbols

but he broke from the medieval world

with his most sacrilegious call for a

new man

nonetheless the church never bothered

him

the bosch mystery remains intact

we know he was born around 1450 with the

last name

van akan in the netherlands in the city

of sertogenbosch

at the time the city was an important

commercial and cultural crossroads in

the region

after brussels and antwerp the city was

protected by heavy doors

to the many canals which funnel traffic

towards the center

hieronymus bosch was born into a humble

family of painters

originally from arkhan in the 15th

century

the van akan dynasty was at its peak and

moved on to the main market square

bosch lived there first with his family

and then later with his wife

after working in his father's atelier he

had his own

somewhere in the center of the city

hieronymus bosch

only left sertogenbosch once in his life

he didn't travel although it was

customary for artists to do so at the

time

the world came to him

from the evidence of what bosch's

life in sartorian boss can was like

and from the evidence of his relatives

it does seem that he lived at least on

the surface a very pious life

a life which involved his membership

in the most elite of religious

confraternities of his city and probably

one of the most

elite confraternities or brotherhoods of

his whole

northern culture so we know that bosch

therefore

was at the heart of what one might call

orthodox

late medieval poetry based in group

activities but also intensely

uh invested in private looking

at who you are and what your inner state

is and how sinful you are

in a sort of public way also confession

and

penance and so forth

the illustrious brotherhood of our

blessed lady brought together the city's

intellectual

commercial and political elites and had

influence

all over europe in 1478

the marriage of hieronymus bosch to aled

van de merven

one of the city's great aristocrats

guaranteed him

financial ease and higher social status

and helped him reach the highest level

of the brotherhood

he became a sworn member afraid

foreign

the noblest

hieronymus bosch became the official

painter of the brotherhood

he held banquets in his home and made

strong

friendships with its members who came

from all over europe

religion was indisputably one of the

cornerstones of his life and his work

most of his paintings depict biblical

scenes

the passion of jesus christ hell

saints facing temptation and genesis

to be sure to remember the original sin

in his paintings bosch used religious

symbols

common during the middle ages and

understandable by all at the time

fish for example very present in his

work in all its forms

symbolized christ as our savior

the goldfinch symbolizes the passion of

jesus christ

legend has it that the bird seeing

christ suffering under his crown of

thorns

tried to remove it spattered by the

blood of christ

it was given red plumage in return from

that day on

its head was scarlet to commemorate the

passion

it is associated with thistle flowers

which symbolize christ's crown

in the middle ages there were symbols

everywhere in this painting

saint john is alone on the island of

patmos lost in his vision

at his feet the eagle watches over the

pen and ink he uses to record miracles

on the right the devil wants to seize

them

the fire on his head symbolizes his

infernal origins

bosch gave him short arms to prevent him

from snatching the inkpot

his body is composed of hybrid animals

bundled together in heavy armor

in the background a blue tinge landscape

peppered with marshes gives depth to the

painting

by clearly separating the background

from the foreground

here he transposes his village to

represent greece

in many paintings versions of certogen

bosch

and its surroundings also serve as the

setting for scenes of daily life

village games peasants and fishermen

but also spitefulness vanity

and the transience of earthly things

bosch was an attentive observer of daily

life

and depicted human behavior with

precision

if i were to send a person

to one painting to understand all of

basha's work

i would certainly send them to the

so-called seven deadly sins and four

last things in the prado what you have

is representation of the world

beautiful in its uh in its funniness in

its careful detailing of

what people are like and what people do

in the form of seven

scenes of sin these aren't allegorical

scenes they're

sin enacted in everyday life a person

overeating with his son with a sort of

scrofulous

hair trying to get some of the food and

somebody bringing in more food enablers

we would call them

for somebody's overeating all that goes

on

so what do we learn from that we learn

that bosh

is the greatest and first genre painter