It sure is Hell around here...!
Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) was a
Dutch medieval painter, best known for his colorful and grotesque depictions of
Hell. He made several paintings about the subject and nobody has ever come close to his vivid and creepy visions of the place: Ugly
demons torturing people in complete agony and scenes which predate
Surrealism by five centuries. Most of these strange
Nightmare Fuel scenes are the product of symbolism that might be clear and understandable to a (noble or monied, and certainly educated) viewer in Bosch's age, but now, centuries later, can be difficult to decipher. Bosch's paintings show mankind in all of his corruptness and meanspiritness, doomed to end up in Hell, while only a few chosen ones will be allowed in
Heaven. Even the Church is not spared in his fatal vision. He was able to depict north-west European society during
the Late Middle Ages in a scathingly satirical and memorable light, one that continues to inspire artists to this day.
The art of Hieronymus Bosch provides examples of:
- After the End: Bosch painted a very grim and fatalistic view.
- Always Night
- Anachronism Stew: Like many painters of that time Bosch also depicted events from The Bible in his own lifetime.
- And I Must Scream
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Bosch's paintings have one fundamental message: repent or you will definitely go to Hell.
- A Party Also Known as an Orgy: The middle panel of "The Garden of Earthly Delights" shows numerous nude men and women enjoying a paradise full of erotic intercourse and symbolism.
- Apocalypse Wow
- Author Avatar / Creator Cameo - The Tree Man, seen in the page image.
- The Bible: He painted Adam and Eva in Paradise ("The Garden Of Earthly Delights"), the Three Kings visiting Jesus ("Adoration Of The Magi"), Christ carrying the cross and being crowned with thorns, hermits, saints and martyrs ("Hermits Saints Triptych", "The Temptation of St. Anthony"), The Last Judgment and, of course, the most infamous depictions of Hell.
- Body Horror
- Bizarrchitecture
- Christianity is Catholic
- Although when he was painting, Catholicism was the only form of Christianity in Europe.
- Cold-Blooded Torture
- Cool and Unusual Punishment
- Corrupt Church: A common subject in his paintings:
- "The Haywain Triptych"
shows numerous people fighting to grab some hay from a large wagon. On the lower right side of the painting several nuns are collecting hay for a fat monk. - In the painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights" a pig is seen with a nun's habit on its head.
- Crapsack World: Humanity seems to be doomed to go to hell.
- Dark World
- The Dung Ages
- Femme Fatale - They are often painted as well dressed women, with reptile tails.
- Gorn
- Grotesque Gallery: Consider his painting of Christ Carrying The Cross.
- Grim Reaper: Featured in his painting "Death And The Miser".
- Hellgate
- Homage
- A lot of songs by Dutch singer Boudewijn De Groot reference Bosch's art, including "Het Land van Maas en Waal", "Eva", "De Tuin Der Lusten" en "Megaton".
- Characters in Thea Beckman's novel "Hasse Simonsdochter" visit him for one chapter.
- Scenes from Bosch's "Ecce Homo" and "Garden Of Earthly Delights" can be seen in Metallica's music video for "Until It Sleeps".
- Scenes from Bosch's paintings can be seen in the music video "Spokes For The Wheel Of Torment" by Buckethead
- Robert Crumb once drew a parody of Bosch's "Christ Carrying The Cross".
- In The Simpsons episode "Bart Gets Hit By A Car" Bart travels to Hell and sees the Hell panel of Bosch's "Garden Of Earthly Delights".
- The painting in the Nero album "De Totentrekkers" is actually a small detail of Bosch's "Christ Carrying The Cross".
- The protagonist detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch in Michael Connelly's crime stories is a direct reference. In his novel "A Darkness More Than Night" Bosch's work even plays an important role in the story.
- In the film Goyas Ghosts (2004) one of Napoleon's deputy's decides to leave Bosch's work behind in Madrid, because he feels it's "ugly".
- John Wojcik's surreal RPG Mortasheen features an entire class of monster known as the Devilbirds inspired by Bosch's many depictions of demons with birdlike features.
- Synonamess Botch, the villain in Twice Upon A Time, is named after him.
- Humans Are Bastards: In Bosch's art the entire world seems to be evil or at least morally fallible, destined to suffer from eternal damnation in Hell.
- Ironic Hell: Especially present in the third panel of The Garden of Earthly Delights. A notable example is the "musicians' Hell", which features musicians being impaled on the strings of their instruments.
- Medieval Morons: His painting "The Magician" shows spectators easily tricked by a magician, while his companion robs their money when they aren't paying attention.
- My God, You Are Serious: Many interpretations about Bosch's art suffer from insufficient knowledge about medieval society. For instance, his depictions of Hell weren't supposed to be entertaining fantasies: they are warning visions of what people actually feared Hell would be like!
- Nightmare Face
- Our Demons Are Different
- Our Monsters Are Different
- Phallic Weapon: On the Hell panel of "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" a huge knife can been seen with two ears on the side. It looks suspiciously like...Freud Was Right.
- Religious Horror
- Riddle for the Ages: Some scenes are still a mystery for art historians. Part of the problem is that in a few cases, we know that his images are literal depictions of contemporary metaphors (or cultural in-jokes), which means that some of the things we haven't figured out are just sayings that are otherwise unattributed.
- Rule of Symbolism
- Satan: The devil with the oven in his belly on "The Last Judgment" [1]
- Scenery Gorn and Scenery Porn: You never get tired of watching all those gruesome details on Bosch's paintings.
- Self-Inflicted Hell: Suggested by The Garden of Earthly Delights and its Ironic Hells.
- Seven Deadly Sins
- Shrouded in Myth: Historians know almost nothing about Bosch, except that he lived in 's-Hertogenbosch (nowadays in The Netherlands). The real meanings and messages of his paintings are still a matter of dispute. Some claim he was mad or a hallucinogenic substance user. Others call him a moralist, a satirist, a non-believer, a religious fanatic, a member of some secret cult, etc. Bosch is probably one of the most overanalyzed artists in history.
- Spiritual Successor: Several: Pieter Bruegel The Elder, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Terry Gilliam, Robert Crumb,...
- Spooky Painting
- Story Within a Story: His paintings are so full of detail that you can view dozens of little anecdotical scenes taking place.
- Surreal Horror
- World of Symbolism: A lot of scenes that we might call surreal are, in fact, symbolic allegories.
- Unintentional Period Piece: Bosch caught the Middle Ages in Europe while they were happening. Today his work pretty much defines our opinion about the Dark Middle Ages.
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