Ira – on this miniature we can see the scrimmage of two drunk
peasants. Ira is the result of the alcoholism. A woman try to stop them,
but without any result. Bosch depicted the sin with the help of such
symbols as kicked off wooden shoes, a chair on the head of one man and
others, but most of all with the help of grotesque. The figures of peasants
are awful and ugly, they are very fat with crooked legs. The beautiful
nature is also served to show their unpleasantness.
Superbia – we can see a woman in her room, staying in front of the
mirror (the symbol of temptation), which is kept by the devil. The woman
trying on a new hat. The room is painted in the style of Bosch’s time and
it is look like many others rooms in the Holland houses. This picture is
pointed against the interest off many women in the fashion.
Luscuria – on this part of painting there are man and woman in the
tabernacle. We can see musical instruments on the ground – they symbolize
passion.
Accidia – the lazy priest is sleeping, instead of prey. A cat on the
floor is sleeping too.
Guia – the picture show us the scene of diner. I think it is the most
terrible picture because the food is given by nun. All characters are awful
and ugly. They look like animals, not people. One man is very fat while the
other is thin. They are very dirty.
Avaritia – in this picture we can see how the bribed judge is going
to accuse of the innocent man. The book on the wooden box is like a dig
under the justice.
Invidia – on this picture Bosch show us quarrel between the neighbors.
And their dogs like their masters bark at each other.
Other four pictures show to us what will happened to us. First it is a
fragment of death. It is the death of a reach man. The priest gives him
absolution. There is a skeleton behind the dying man. And above his head
the angel and the demon are fighting for his soul.
The next picture represent Doomsday. It is painted in the traditional
way. The Christ is seating on the throne with many angels around him. And
reveal people are below him, on the Earth. The Heaven is painted in a
traditional manner too. St Peter and other angels meet saintly people near
the gates of Heaven.
On this painting Bosch depicted Hell for the first time. This picture
is the key to other Bosch’s paintings of Hell because Bosch wrote an
explanation under every torture. For the sin of ire people are crucified.
Avid people siting in the fleshpot with a molten golden coins. Voluptuous
people are enchained to the bed and a terrible monster bite them. Drank
people are drinking dishwater. Bosch took some of the elements of tortures
from the book “Visions of Tundhall” about his vision of Hell. It was very
popular book in Bosch’s times.
Bosch use very bright, full colors in this painting. They became dark
and gloomy only in 2 parts of painting, devoted to Death and Hell. There is
a normal perspective in this picture. Most lines are geometrical and
straight. The painter doesn’t use lot’s of shades. The point of attention
is at the center of the picture on the Christ’s figure. We can see balance
and also harmony in this painting.
The main idea of the paintings “Seven deadly sins” is that all people
are the same in God’s eyes. And He knew all our deeds and our sins. Every
person, reach or poor will die and then come to the Last Judgement. No one
will help you besides God. The painting is circular to show us that the
sins are the same in every next generation. It is a symbol of the circle of
sins, symbol of our Earth, of our University.
I think it is a very meditative painting, that make us thinking. May
be because of that Philip the Second hung it in his tabernacle.
The second period of Bosch’s work: Garden of Delights
Bosch painted “the Garden of Delights” in 1500 – 1510. It is also oil
painting. The size of the central part the painting is 220 x 195, the size
of each fold is 200 x 97. Now it is situated in Madrid, in Prado.
The painting is full of little figures and it is very colorful. Its
look like a wonderful carpet. The figures of people are dancing in a
colorful roundelay. All colors are light, spring and soft. The bright light
is overflow the scene.
The painting is very harmonic. It has a normal perspective. Most
lines are curved and natural. It’s very hard to find the point of attention
because of the lots of objects on the painting but I think it is at the one
of fantastic building at the center of the painting.
At the outer part of the folds there is the third day of the
Creation. There are 2 sentences at the top of the painting – “Jpse dixit et
facta su[n]t” (He said and it’s appeared) and “Jpse mandavit et create
su[n]t” (He said and create). In the center in the crystal sphere appears
the first mineral and vegetal life.
The Heaven as usual is painted on the left fold. The first man and
all animals have been already created. The heaven is full of different and
sometimes fantastic animals: elephants and giraffes are pasture with
unicorns, birds with three heads and fishes with wings. The cactus behind
Adam is the symbol of Life Tree, the palm is the tree of the Evil and Good.
God begins to create Eve. With her creation the evil and sin came. Animals
begin to eat each others and in a fountain settled an owl – the symbol of
evil. This fountain that look like bright globe with a half-crystals half-
plants on it and a half-moon on the top is the symbol of heresy. The center
of it is the center off the all fold. It correspond with a figure of human-
tree-egg in the Hell. At the same manner the figure of God the Maker
correspond with the figure of Devil who eat the sinners. So the folds are
symbolized Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the End of the world.
The Hell on the right fold is painted in a dark colors. Some
researchers think that black, red and white colours are the symbols of
different stadies of boiling mercury. It is the world of iсe and fire.
Bosch took some episodes from the book “The visions of Tundhall“. Another
sources where Bosch could took his images are the book “Ars morendi” (1488)
and “The big calendar of cattlemen” (1493). The painting “Seven deadly
sins” can also help to understand this part of painting. The group near the
Satan’s throne are the vanity. The man who are crucified on the table is
the bowler. We also can see a man who conclude a treaty with devil.
The gigantic ear with an arrow in it is a symbol of the disaster. S. De
Tolnay said that Hell is Bosch’s nightmare. It is very interesting fact
that we can see a self-portrait of Bosch here, as a face of human-tree-egg.
V. Fenger thinks that Hell is the place where rebirth of our world begen.
It happened with the help of two musical instruments – harp, lute and
pipes. But other researchers think that this instruments are the symbols of
evil. V. Frenger interpret them as a memory of Heaven. He also said that
the village, fire, mill and flood are the symbols of four elements.
The central part of the painting is our world that is full of sins and
evil. At the center of the painting there is a chain of people around the
spring of youth. G. Kombe interpret it as a alchemic motive of eternal
youth. In the spring there are women with a ravens on their heads and it
symbolized the heresy. The peacocks symbolized vanity, ibises – the past
joy, different animals in the cavalcade are the symbols of salacity and
other carnal sins. There are lots of symbols of male and female origins
such as half-moons, horns, cones, cylinders, spheres, etc. which are the
alchemic symbols at the same time. The fruits and berries are the symbols
of salacity and carnal love. The man who are carrying the shell with two
lovers are the deceived husband. Lots of spheres at different parts of the
painting is the symbols of the sins and vises and also the symbols of our
world, full of sins. Behind the bright colour and lots of light there are
sins and evil. And the colour also have it’s meaning. In alchemy red means
creation and blue was the colour of illusions.
It is the most mysterious and enigmatic Bosch’s work. The meaning of
the painting all in all and it’s symbols are the reason for numerous
debates. The first explanation of this painting was made in 1605 by a
priest, Jose de Siguensa. He wrote in a book of order of St. Hieronymus
that on the painting we can see the appearance of the sin in the Heaven,
the evolution of the sin in our world and the punishment in the Hell.
However V. Fenger think that the painting is more optimistic and it
symbolized the depuration by the fire and ice in the Hell, than in the
purgatory (the central part of triptych) and than came to felicity in
Heaven. Most of researchers refuse the theory of Fender.
People of all epochs invented lots of theories, sometimes fantastic
and impossible about the meaning of Bosch’s paintings and I think that
lot’s of theories will be created later but no one can prove it and nobody
can find out which theory is right and which is not. Bosch's pictures will
stay for us as a mystery forever.
Bibliography
1. “Мастера живописи. Босх” Доната Баттилотти, издательство “Белый город“,
Москва, 1998 г.
2. Н. Н. Никулин “Золотой век нидерландской живописи. 15 век “ издательство
“Изобразительное искусство“, Москва, 1981 г.
3. Internet: http://www.kultur-online.com/greatest
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