Dear Cheryl,

It has been more than a week since I read your post, and I am glad it has been so because it has given me the opportunity to read it again and, only now, realize there is something that I have maybe dealt with in a cursory way along this thread: namely, the influence of Bosch’s environment on his painting and how he reacted to it.

In effect, so far I have only focused on a simple approach of “either … or” to whatever it was that Bosch intended as he painted, and at the same time missed all the nuances between the two of them that you talk about in your post. And not so much in the matter of the paintings themselves as in Bosch’s motivation to paint such wonderful masterworks. Also, if I have somewhat modified my perception of his works over the process of reading and responding to some of the visitor’s posts, and put the accent on a certain aspect of them and not on others that I had previously considered, it is precisely for that reason and not for any other, like, for example, having changed my mind about them. But, who knows when this process actually started? I mean, I think it may have been from the moment my eyes were first caught by Bosch’s works, a very long time ago.

I so resonate with your words in the second paragraph: Since I believe art always reflects the societal struggles & also indulgences of the particular time which they are produced, I think Bosch's art shows this. There was a struggle between freedom and oppression, between good and evil & wanting to be unbound and unencumbered in expression, yet constrained to be within societal mores of the day. There is nothing that I can add to this, and I thank you for giving expression to something that I would have liked to write myself.

Just a final reflection: Was Bosch just a critic of his time and ways or a great visionary and prophet in the style of the Old Testament prophets? I now think he was both or rather none of them in particular, as you have made me understand there are also a thousand shades between the two of them. And I now wonder how his painting would have been like if he had been unbound and unencumbered in expression from the start, free from any constrains by the societal mores of the day as you so aptly put.

Thank you again,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Dear Geketa,

You don't have to apologize for being late to this threat. To me, it is your intention that matters and besides, your kind and insightful comment about Bosch has really made the difference. :)

On my part, I would like to comment that your post got in just in between my starting to reply a dear friend's also very insightful but difficult post, so challenging in fact that it was taking the very best of my knowledge and ability to complete, and my ending it (which was actually not done until a good hour had elapsed). Would that your post had come in a little sooner and that I had been able to read it just a few moments before! All I would have had to do then is just copy and paste a good portion of it and put it in my reply.

I feel he was trying to convey both the good and evil we all face as humans. He apparently was a very religious man that is easily understood through viewing his work. To me he also displayed both a reverence for his Creator along with a similarly great fear of the here after.

It is so incredible how these few phrases in your post say it all about Bosch and his painting! As much as do the next ones too which, in my opinion, could be used as a colophon to any study of both the man and his work, or even as an epitaph of him: His work is very intriguing and somehow almost disturbing. I believe no one, and least of all me, could add a word to it.

Thank you Geketa for your wonderful contribution.

Sincerely,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Dear Jill and Friends,

Without a doubt, The Garden of Earthly Delights is one of the strangest paintings in the history of art.

As promised, here is something that is for me one of Hieronymus Bosch's greatest mysteries. It belongs to the right-wing panel of that painting, sometimes referred to as The Musical Hell. Please see below. For those familiar with Bosch's works, at first glance it may appear there is nothing out of place in it.

However, many years ago I seemed to note - on its very top - what appears to be the image of a plane or planes flying over a city heavily on fire - much in the way a bomber would, in the middle of the night, to drop its lethal cargo on the buildings below. Remember the bombing of Dresden?

Though the plane was a lot clearer in the plate of the book on which I first saw it (as the resolution of the photo was a lot higher) it still can be seen on the one above as it apparently draws closer and closer in a most impressive fashion. It almost looks like an air raid on a movie, with the drone of the plane's engines becoming more and more deafening by the moment.

Along this thread I have tried to establish what exactly was Bosch. Was he an early explorer of the unconscious mind? A forerunner of the Surrealists? Or was he simply a madman? He has been variously acclaimed as the first, praised as the second, or condemned as the third. But he may have been one or two of those things at one or at other time, and even it is not impossible that he was all three at the same time.

Well, apart from a great artist and in the opinion of many (among whom I count myself) a genius, I have wanted to see in him a prophet in the manner of the Biblical prophets, terrible in his admonishing his contemporaries to change their ways, and endowed with the power of seeing well into the future. Maybe I was unconsciously remembering this "plane" thing, or perhaps some other weird and disturbing feature in his paintings. The debate remains open.

What do you think?

Luis,

The image is certainly thought provoking.

There are many things that reinforce my view that coincidence is non-existant.

Things have happened in my life which I cannot explain. I have a tendancy to be gifted with foresight in certain areas of life. It is exciting and frustrating. Oh to have a talent to display those thoughts.

Roger