THE

GARDEN

OF

EARTHLY

DELIGHT

SUBMITTED BY:

jOHN RHEY e. oBEÑA

12 - DIGNITY
description

Heironymus Bosch is the creator of The Garden

of Earthly Delight, this painting theme is more on
religious ideas. It was most probably created
between 1503 and 1504 or even later, according to
the historian of the 20th century. It can be found
at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain since
1939.

The Garden of Earthly Delight is classified as

painting, the art movement of this painting is
Northern Renaissance since the medium of this
painting is oil paint and oak panels. This painting
is a triptych in order to clearly display three
scenes, that consisting of three oak panels that
are hinged together so that wings can be closed.
The center panel size is 2.20 by 1.95 meters and
the left panel and right panel or the side panel
size is 2.20 by 0.97 meters. When the side panels
are closed it gives a different painting. There is
no linear or atmospheric perspective, but each
panel has a central axis to which your eyes are
drawn. The colors he employs are unusual. He
employs a lot of pink and light green. The subject
matter of the garden of earthly delight are history
and the fate of humanity. At my first glance at this
painting it was so chaotic because it had a lot of
people and other things in the painting.

ANALYSIS
The scenes in The Garden of Earthly Delights are
thought to be in chronological order, from left to
right. The interior left oak panel depicts a scene
from paradise, the Garden of Eden, God having
made Eve out of one of Adam's ribs, taken as he
slept.God presents his creation to Adam, who has
just woken up.Instead of fruit trees, Bosch's
Garden of Eden is full of real and imaginary
creatures, lush meadows, anthropomorphic rocks,
bizarre pastel-colored rocky outcrops, pink
fountains, and unusual animals. The interior
center oak panel here the title of the painting was
taken because we can see in this panel the earthly
delight of the people. This panel portrays life on
Earth, containing only young men and women;
there are no children and no senior citizens to be
seen. It depicts a lot of chaos of men and women
engaging in sexuality, some can be found inside
shells, there are many giant birds, oversized fruit,
several strange objects, contraptions and ungodly
activities. In the background is the Fountain of
Flesh, where naked women seduce male riders who
circle around them. Also, the scene contains no
focal point and no linear narrative, which
enhances the overall mood of abandonment. In the
interior right oak panel scene portrays the
Judgement in Hell. It is divided into three levels
or tiers: in the top tier, a ravaged landscape is lit
by the macabre glow of an eerie fire. Huge crowds
can be seen marching endlessly. In the middle
tier, a mocking self-portrait, in the guise of a
man/tree whose arms/roots are set in two boats
that are surrounded by a sea of inky darkness. On
his head is a rotating platform with a bagpipe, two
enormous ears on the left are pierced by an arrow
and cut by the blade of a knife. In the bottom tier,
the guilty are confronted by their sins. The vain
woman is doomed to stare for eternity at her
reflection in a demon's rump; a glutton is forced
to vomit into a pit; a miser is forced to excrete
gold coins into a cesspool. Various musicians are
tortured on gigantic versions of their instruments.
Similarly, a hunter is impaled by a hare, while
another is devoured by his own hounds. A gambler
is nailed to his gambling table, a monster
embraces a girl while toads bite her, and these
scenes are surrounded by a sea of inky darkness.
This is what indicates that this scene is a various
punishment for individual sin.
 The exterior oak panels are visible when the
triptych wings are closed. The exterior panels are
colorless that reveal painted in monochrome
painting of a perfect sphere vision of a planet
shaped clear glass vessel half filled with water. It
is possible that this triptych depicts a time before
the creation of the sun and moon, which,
according to Christian theology, were responsible
for providing light to the earth. Bosh painted each
panel, particularly the one depicting hell, in a
rather sketchy manner. The Garden of Earthly
Delights is in poor condition, with paint flaking off
around wood joints in the middle section in
particular. The mood of this painting is a fantasy
world with chaotic scenes.

INTERPRETATION
The Garden of Earthly Delights is interpreted in
terms of creation and the futility of humans. In
creating this, Hieronymus Bosch's intention was to
communicate his/her audience about the sin,
especially in lust. He is saying that if you go
through this sin, then you will lead to the tortures
of hell. The pleasure that we get in our wickedness
is only temporary. This painting states to me that
sin has been part of human life. I believe that sin
is one of the most powerful and influential in our
world, because we commit a sin everyday in our
life. It doesn’t matter what problem we go through
here on earth, but always remember to choose
right over evil , and always put God in our hearts
to keep us away from the temptations of
wickedness. I think the symbol to support Bosch's
intention to us audience is the all the people that
you can see in the center oak pane and the right
oak panel. That shows various sins, that when we
commit those sins here in our world, probably our
destiny is to the tortures of hell.
 eVALUATION
The painting of The Garden of Earthly Delight
made me feel to be a kind person to anyone and if
possible reduce sins. Sins are not good in our
lives, sins could disconnect yourself from God and
could connect yourself from demons. In our life
there is always a choice, whether we choose to be
a good person or whether we choose to be a bad
person here in the world. I’m sure that all people
here in the world have committed various sins.
Remember the absence of God in our life and we
have a complete freedom, we commit many sins.
The main strength of The Garden of Earthly Delight
is it portrays the three scenario very well. When
we see this painting it started how the world and
human beings were created, how we lived and then
went to hell because of the failed behavior of the
human. Indeed, this painting was not hard to
understand the meaning of, unlike other paintings.

exterior panel
INTERIOR LEFT panel
INTERIOR CENTER panel

interior right
panel