The Garden of Earthly Delights () is the modern title given to a five-panel triptych (three oil-painted panels when open, two oak panels when closed) by the Early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch, between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between 40 and 60 years old.Bosch's exact date of birth is unknown but is estimated to be 1450. Gibson, 15–16 Because of Bosch's religious beliefs, interpretations of the work typically assume it is a warning against the perils of temptation. The outer panels place the work on the Third Day of Creation. The intricacy of its symbolism, particularly that of the central panel, has led to a wide range of scholarly interpretations over the centuries.
Twentieth-century art historians are divided as to whether the triptych's central panel is a moral warning or a panorama of the paradise lost. He painted three large triptychs (the others are The Last Judgment of 1482 and The Haywain Triptych of 1516) that can be read from left to right and in which each panel was essential to the meaning of the whole. Each of these three works presents distinct yet linked themes addressing history and faith. Triptychs from this period were generally intended to be read sequentially, the left and right panels often portraying Eden and the Last Judgment respectively, while the main subject was contained in the centerpiece.Belting, 85–86
It is not known whether The Garden was intended as an altarpiece, but the general view is that the extreme subject matter of the inner center and right panels make it unlikely that it was planned for a church or monastery.Gibson, 99 It has been housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain since 1939.
Description
Exterior
When the triptych's wings are closed, the design of the outer panels becomes visible. Rendered in a green–gray grisaille,Snyder 1977, 102 these panels lack colour, probably because most Netherlandish triptychs were thus painted, but possibly indicating that the painting reflects a time before the creation of the sun and moon, which were formed, according to Christian theology, to "give light to the earth". The typical grisaille blandness of Netherlandish altarpieces served to highlight the splendid color inside.Veen & Ridderbos, 6
The outer panels are generally thought to depict the creation of the world,The drenched state of the Earth has led some to interpret the panels as depicting The Flood. In Mann, 2005 showing greenery beginning to clothe the still-pristine Earth.Belting, 22 God, wearing a crown similar to a papal tiara (a common convention in Netherlandish painting), is visible as a tiny figure at the upper left. Bosch shows God as the father sitting with a Bible on his lap, creating the Earth in a passive manner by divine fiat.Gibson, 88 Above him is inscribed a quote from Psalm 33:9 reading "Ipse dīxit, et facta sunt: ipse mandāvit, et creāta sunt"—For he spoke and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.Dempsey, Charles. "Sicut in utrem aquas maris: Jerome Bosch's Prolegomenon to the Garden of Earthly Delights". MLN. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 119:1, January 2004. S247–S270. Retrieved November 14, 2007 There is a firmament around the Earth, in reference to Genesis 1:7. It hangs suspended in the cosmos, which is shown as an impermeable darkness, whose only other inhabitant is God himself.Belting, 21
Despite the presence of vegetation, the earth does not yet contain human or animal life, indicating that the scene represents the events of the biblical Third Day. Bosch renders the plant life in an unusual fashion, using uniformly gray tints, which make it difficult to determine whether the subjects are purely vegetal or perhaps include some mineral formations. Surrounding the interior of the globe is the sea, partially illuminated by beams of light shining through clouds. The exterior wings have a clear position within the sequential narrative of the work as a whole. They show an unpopulated earth composed solely of rock and plants, contrasting sharply with the inner central panel, which contains an Earth teeming with lustful humanity.
Interior
Bosch may have intended the outer panels to establish a Biblical setting for the inner elements of the work, and the exterior image is generally interpreted as set in an earlier time than those in the interior. As with Bosch's Haywain Triptych, the inner centerpiece is flanked by heavenly and hellish imagery. The scenes depicted in the triptych are thought to follow a chronological order: flowing from left to right, they represent Eden, the garden of earthly delights, and Hell.Calas, Elena. "D for Deus and Diabolus. The Iconography of Hieronymus Bosch". The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Volume 27, No. 4, Summer, 1969. 445–454 God appears as the creator of humanity in the left-hand wing, while the consequences of humanity's failure to follow his will are shown in the right.
In contrast to Bosch's two other extant triptychs, The Last Judgment (around 1482) and The Haywain (after 1510), God is absent from the central panel. Instead, this panel shows humanity acting with apparent free will as naked men and women engage in various pleasure-seeking activities. According to some interpretations, the right-hand panel is believed to show God's penalties in a hellscape.Glum, 45
Art historian Charles de Tolnay believed that, through the seductive gaze of Adam, the left panel already shows God's waning influence upon the newly created earth. This view is reinforced by the rendering of God in the outer panels as a tiny figure in comparison to the immensity of the earth. According to Hans Belting, the three inner panels seek to broadly convey the Old Testament notion that, before the Fall, there was no defined boundary between good and evil; humanity in its innocence was unaware of consequence.Belting, 57
Left panel
The left panel (sometimes known as the Joining of Adam and Eve)Dixon, Laurinda S. "Bosch's Garden of Delights: Remnants of a 'Fossil' Science". Art Bulletin, LXIII, 1981. 96–113 depicts a scene from the paradise of the Garden of Eden commonly interpreted as the moment when God presents Eve to Adam. The painting shows Adam waking from a deep sleep to find God holding Eve by her wrist and giving the sign of his blessing to their union. God is younger-looking than on the outer panels, blue-eyed and with golden curls. His youthful appearance may be a device by the artist to illustrate the concept of Christ as the incarnation of the Word of God.Gibson, 92 God's right hand is raised in blessing while he holds Eve's wrist with his left.
According to the work's most controversial interpreter, the 20th-century folklorist and art historian Wilhelm Fraenger:
As though enjoying the pulsation of the living blood and as though too he were setting a seal on the eternal and immutable communion between this human blood and his own. This physical contact between the Creator and Eve is repeated even more noticeably in the way Adam's toes touch the Lord's foot. Here is the stressing of a rapport: Adam seems indeed to be stretching to his full length to make contact with the Creator. And the billowing out of the cloak around the Creator's heart, from where the garment falls in marked folds and contours to Adam's feet, also seems to indicate that here a current of divine power flows down, so that this group of three actually forms a closed circuit, a complex of magical energy ...Fraenger, 44 Eve avoids Adam's gaze, although, according to Walter S. Gibson, she is shown "seductively presenting her body to Adam". Adam's expression is one of amazement; Fraenger suggests three elements to his seeming astonishment. Firstly, there is surprise at the presence of the God; secondly he is reacting to an awareness that Eve is of the same nature as himself, and has been created from his own body. Finally, from the intensity of Adam's gaze, it might be that he is experiencing sexual arousal for the first time.Fraenger, 46
The outer landscape contains hut-shaped forms, some made from stone, others are at least partially organic. Behind Eve, rabbits – symbolizing fecundity – play in the grass, and a dragon tree opposite is thought to represent eternal life.Gibson, 25 The background reveals several animals that would have been exotic to contemporaneous Europeans, including a giraffe, a monkey riding an elephant, and a lion that has killed and is about to devour his prey. In the foreground, from a large hole in the ground, emerge birds and winged animals, some of which are realistic, some fantastic. Behind a fish, a person clothed in a short-sleeved hooded jacket and with a duck's beak holds an open book as if reading.
To the left of the area, a cat holds a small lizard-like creature in its jaws. Belting observes that, although the creatures in the foreground are fantastical imaginings, many of the animals in the mid and background are drawn from contemporary travel literature, and here Bosch is appealing to "the knowledge of a humanistic and aristocratic readership".Belting, 26 Erhard Reuwich's pictures for Bernhard von Breydenbach's 1486 Pilgrimages to the Holy Land were long thought to be the source for both the elephant and the giraffe, though more recent research indicates the mid-15th-century humanist scholar Cyriac of Ancona's travelogues served as Bosch's exposure to these exotic animals.
According to art historian Virginia Tuttle, the scene is "highly unconventional [and] cannot be identified as any of the events from the Book of Genesis traditionally depicted in Western art."Tuttle, Virginia. "Lilith in Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights'." Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Volume 15, No. 2, 1985. 119 Some of the images contradict the innocence expected in the Garden of Eden. Tuttle and other critics have interpreted the gaze of Adam upon his wife as lustful and indicative of the Christian belief that humanity was doomed from the beginning. Gibson believes that Adam's facial expression betrays not just surprise but also expectation. According to a belief common in the Middle Ages, before the Fall, Adam and Eve would have copulated without lust solely to reproduce. Many believed that the first sin committed after Eve tasted the forbidden fruit was carnal lust.Gibson, 92–93 On a tree to the right, a snake curls around a tree trunk, while to its right, a mouse creeps; according to Fraenger, both animals are universal phallic symbols.Fraenger, 122
Center panel
The skyline of the center panel (220 × 195 cm, 87 × 77 in) matches exactly with that of the left wing, while the positioning of its central pool and the lake behind it echoes the lake in the earlier scene. The center image depicts the expansive "garden" landscape, which gives the triptych its name. The panel shares a common horizon with the left wing, suggesting a spatial connection between the two scenes.Linfert, 106–108 The garden is teeming with male and female nudes, together with various animals, plants, and fruits.Mann, Richard G. "Melanie Klier's: Hieronymus Bosch: Garden of Earthly Delights." Utopian Studies, 16.1, 2005
The setting is not the paradise shown in the left panel, nor is it based in the terrestrial realm.Belting, 47 Fantastic creatures mingle with the real; otherwise ordinary fruits appear engorged to a gigantic size. The figures are engaged in diverse amorous sports and activities, both in couples and in groups. Gibson describes them as behaving "overtly and without shame," Gibson, 80 while art historian Laurinda Dixon writes that the human figures exhibit "a certain adolescent sexual curiosity".