Renaissance Analysis - Humanism and God

 

The Piece

Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, ca. 1450-1516, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Museo del Prado, Madrid)

Close-Ups

 

Today's piece concerns a legendary Renaissance piece by Hieronymus Bosch, titled The Garden of Earthly Delights. It's a wonderful triptych, containing three paneled pieces all done in oil paint. The painting itself focuses on several themes: man, religion, our relationship with God, and our relationship with nature, all-encompassing an almost fantastical essence as chaotic figures and abstract amalgamations of people and creatures are all throughout the piece. Today we hope to analyze the work of art itself, and maybe delve a bit into the meaning.

As a bit of history, Hieronymous Bosch was a Dutch painter and one of the biggest leading figures during the Northern Renaissance. He's best known for his fantastical pieces, containing religious themes and imagery, as well as a heavy emphasis on surrealism. While the Garden of Earthly Delights is one of his most famous pieces, other pieces he's known for include: The Creation, Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi, and Table of the Seven Deadly Sins. All encompass these themes of religion, surrealism, and fantasy.

The Story

As for the story of the painting, sources say it was described in around 1517 and was seen in the palace of the Counts of Nassau in Brussels. It was most likely a commissioned work due to its place in the palace, and how much political power the Nassau had. 

While many argue about the meaning of the piece and its possible controversy, especially being made in a period where Christian fundamentals were highly encouraged (and admittedly radical), and many pieces were destroyed for containing what was thought to be heresy, many see this piece as not only a conversationalist piece but as a warning about the human dangers of lust and sin.

While there are many elements to be discussed in this piece, we'll be breaking it up into three panels, and dissecting them from there.

The Analysis
Left Panel

Starting from left to right, we start with the first panel. Out of all the panels, this contains the least amount of detail and has a more focused scene. The piece depicts a scene inspired by the biblical book of Genesis, particularly God introducing Eve to Adam. The piece has a sense of calm and almost structure, being full of various animals, mythical or otherwise. Something I love about the piece is its sense of hierarchy displayed through color.

While your eyes are drawn to the centerpiece almost naturally by the intricate structure being placed in the middle, its color coding with the "God" figure draws your attention down to him, and thus to the exchange. When you travel upwards there's a sense of change from dark to light values to help ground its center of spacing. It starts with lighting to show a sense of depth, and the lower you get it gradually shifts to darker hues. It's a subtle change but helps guide the eye through the piece and get a sense of what is meant to stand out.

I find that the mix of light and dark values helps center the piece, and balance all the particular elements throughout, while still giving your eyes places to travel.

Center Panel

This is where a majority of the chaos comes from the piece, and the initial message is presented. This center image is where the title stems from as well-- The Garden of Earthly Delights. While the first panel focuses on the introduction of man into God's world, "The Garden", this center panel focuses on the spectacle of man, the "Earthly Delights". Throughout the piece there are naked bodies and figures, all engaging in some kind of salacious behavior or odd, almost uncanny way. While the nudity was originally a sense of rawness and purity, the way it's depicted in this first panel: the bodily touching, the odd and almost humourous poses, within the chaos shows a more honest depiction of man separated from the divine purity that God introduced Adam and Eve as. I feel that this direct contrast is intentional in the storytelling of the piece.

This piece directly contrasts the piece and simplicity of the left panel, overflowing with details and information. No matter where you look in the panel there's something to look at, and the more you look at it the more you notice details. One thing I enjoy is that while Bosch showed a sense of depth through spacing and color, he continues to do this but with an emphasis on size and sectioning. As you look through the piece, from top to bottom, you get a sense of this panel being separated into "three" main sections.

The top portion is separated by the waterline, showing an emphasis on structures, round shapes contrasted by sharp spikes, and utilizing the sky. It has the least amount of visual activity, however, it's still full of all sorts of figures and people, just on a much smaller scale. When we go down we see this similar divide of the image, this time by rows of hedges and trees. While the panel is comprehensive, we can see multiple different scenes happening in different sections, it's amazing how he divides our attention visually while still blending it in with all the chaos. It still keeps a sense of hierarchy and organization, and somehow avoids visual overstimulation.

Right Panel

Finally, we come to the final panel: the right panel. Already, this piece separates itself apart immediately. The left and center panels kept a story of the harmonious element: the naked bodies, the garden environment, and similar use of colors and visual hierarchy, the right panel contrasts both those panels directly. The dark, harsh use of colors, and the reversing of the color hierarchy: instead aiming for the top to be the darkest, and gradually saturating itself with lighter colors. 

Many see this panel as a depiction of the "consequences of man" and frivolous delight. While the center panel had a whimsical, almost organized sense of chaos: the figures were strewn about and having whimsical fun, engaging and indulging in their behaviors and seemingly out of harm's way-- the right panel immediately puts them into harm. Fires in the background, figures grouped together in terror. The top of the panel, instead of being a beautiful blue sky is replaced with dark, almost fortress-like structures in the background.

From there, the piece falls further and further into a sense of violence and anarchy.

Many see this as a sort of "punishment" for men chasing lust, and perhaps as a depiction of hell and its torture. While the center panel felt like man's world, this right panel felt like something entirely different, the original safety of God's garden taken away. Everything is strewn into chaos as men try to find their bearings and animals rip apart and gnaw at each other. It's all so vivid, and incredibly loud.

Something I like about the piece is how it tells a story in three parts, using the three-panel system to its fullest and, instead of making what looked like a piece broken into three parts, an ongoing narrative. This right panel may not fit into the piece aesthetically, but it fits in narratively. It makes you wonder what the other two panels were meant to me, developing a conversation around the piece.

Humanism and God

Something I'd like to touch on with this piece in context. The piece is gorgeous, of course. The technical use of oil paints and the layering make it seamless, and the blending is gorgeous. I love the style, and seeing it all framed together pulls the piece together.

The piece itself was made at a time when there was a focus on Humanism and Christian ideology: or God. Humanism is a focus on and celebration of the human form and individualism. It led many artists to depict natural scenes that almost glorify or romance the mere fact of being a human and living life. Something I consider so interesting about this piece is how it incorporates humanism in a way that can be seen in a cautionary tale-- but also an honest tale.

Bosch took inspiration from his Christian upbringing and belief in the divine, it's a theme that popped up in many of his pieces, but with this revolution of focusing on the human form he takes a more commentative position. The piece is about humans, and their individualism- the center panel shows so much of that. Each figure is given its own sort of personality, all are posed and positioned differently, it's wild, chaotic, a naked form of simple antics. Anybody could look at it and find humor in it, at face value it's incredibly silly, but then you see the divine aspect of it: God's creation, his greatest creation, and how they've seemingly lost themselves to their own hubris.

Bosch marries the values of humanism, but also the divine values of their time, in a way that shows an honest yet beautiful look of people. Beautiful, pure, God's loved creation. Wild, free, lustful, and ridiculous, and finally fearful, frenzied creatures, caught in the chaos and horror that's a far cry from their fantastical garden experience. It's a story of the biblical creation and seeming downfall of man, but it's an honest depiction of the various sides of man, and how painfully human they are.

In Conclusion

The piece, overall, is a gorgeous work of art. As an artist, it's gorgeous, another example of how oil painting took the Northern Renaissance by storm, and as a thought piece it's a gorgeous and chaotic ode to man, as a warning for some but honesty to others.

While Bosch's pieces are nonsensical, overflooded with details that tickle the senses his use of technique, color, and positioning within a composition to ground the viewer is amazing, and the marriage between humanism and the divine is such an important element that shines best through this piece. While it might be a strange piece to place in the home, I find it's worth the thought.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Art: Garden of Earthly Delights.” Annenberg Learner, www.learner.org/series/art-through-time-a-global-view/dreams-and-visions/garden-of-earthly-delights/

“Bosch, Hieronymus - the Collection - Museo Nacional Del Prado.” https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/artist/bosch-hieronymus/c9716e4a-4c24-44dd-ac65-44bc4661c8b5

Hickson, Sally. “Hieronymus Bosch, the Garden of Earthly Delights – Smarthistory.” Smarthistory.org, 9 Aug. 2015, smarthistory.org/bosch-the-garden-of-earthly-delights/

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