Hi Luis,

How long can you look at this and not come up with something else.  I do think is trying to tell a lot here, he may have had a disturbed mind, but I think it is in code, to get the message he is trying to forecast to the world, it would need to be coded.
I got this idea looking at some of the sections. Like the one........  Half way down and to the right is a man lying face down with 6 dogs, of different color,pulling at him.and it looks like the dogs different breedsWhy 2 different types of dogs, and look at him hanging on to a ???  Looking at a few other spots, it looks like slaves.

Just a few of my thoughts, it can really take up a lot of time, righrt.

Blessings,
Myrna

Dear Roger,

Judging from the number of impossible "coincidences" that you can see every day everywhere, you would conclude the universe is not real or, at least, it cannot possibly exist. That is, provided that you don't believe in a Higher Power for whom nothing is impossible and who, at any rate, is ever attentive to the circumstances and vicissitudes of every one in the world and sending them "coincidences" every now and then as they go about in their lives.

Like you, I have been frequently visited by such incredible coincidences that make me think I am somehow looked at, watched or helped and, in general, lovingly cared for at every step by Him. By the way, as the gifted poet that you are, I do believe you have all the talent in the world to display your thoughts just as they come into your mind, such as I myself am doing right now - in fact much better that I will ever be able to, as you have the precious gift of the English language by birth right.

Anyway, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts so far about this fascinating theme.

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Luis,

How right you are.

To be born with English as my birthright is a gift which I thank God for every day.

A language so rich in it's varied roots, a language so constantly changing and evolving, a language that has helped to produce much of the world's greatest literature and a language that has been embraced by so many cultures and creeds.

I frequently ask myself, if so many share this advantage why do not more with this gift attain excellence or success? Maybe some need a greater challenge to bring out their best.

I intend to use this gift both for my fulfillment and also, hopefully, to benefit others.

How I would love to know that I left behind a gift to the world like Hieronymus Bosch did. I don't care if what I left was unattributable to me as long as I knew that what I did or achieved had a lasting effect for the good of others. It may sound like I'm trying to be saintly but I'm not.

I firmly believe that we all share a unique place in the scheme of things and that we owe it to our maker and to those who have gone before to strive for excellence. We all have to do this with the abilities we have. I include everything about life from art, to motherhood to healing and to the sciences.

I think that, despite the horrible things that mankind continues to do that, that part of us that mirrors our maker is capable of infinitely great things than we have achieved to date.

Luis, your knowledge and obvious love of of art is wonderful thing to have and lifts Adland to higher levels. I thank you for your presence here.

Roger

Dear Cheryl,

I am so glad that you agree with me on Bosch being an absolute genius at expressing himself through his artwork. Even if you cannot always tell what exactly he wanted to express with some of his paintings, and whether or not you like them, that is something that should be obvious to all.

I am also very glad that you have enjojed this thread. That is most rewarding to me.

As to the seeming planes dropping their cargo upon the buildings below, there is something else that I forgot to mention that most impressed me from the start: the light rays in the area of the sky heavily illuminated do not quite look as if they are caused by the flames below. They rather look as if they are produced by big search lights such as a city would use under heavy nocturnal attack from the air. I guess it was this cinema-like illumination of the scene that caused so strong an effect on me at first.

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Dear Myrna,

I have tried to make some research on the possibility that Bosch used secret codes in his artwork in order to convey some concealed message to its viewers, but if there is something in that direction, it has long ago become lost; at least, I have not been able to find anything of that sort in the little spare time that I have at my disposal, save for a few suggestions from certain scholarly quarters that he was secretly trying to undermine the Christian faith through his art, which of course strengthens such view.

That he used codes now seems to me perfectly possible and of course a fascinating subject, since the esoteric character of Bosch work is to me, if I can use the term, almost visible. What is certainly true is he, like some of his contemporaries and followers, did make a prodigal use of proverbs that were common at his time to express the way he perceived the people's general behavior and many of their peculiar (and very frequently not very saintly) ways. A lot has been said about this particularity both in this thread and elsewhere, even though those proverbs and puns are no longer known at present. And if he at all at any time resorted to secret codes to achieve some hidden purpose, I am afraid the keys to understand their meaning would at any rate be no longer known.

Of course, some of the proverbs have been identified. Some of them are very common and simple, like that of the big fish eating the small fish in the central panel, and others. The dogs on the right-wing panel are a fascinating enigma to me too; they could represent major vices or sins, like the seven cardinal sins making prey of man. I believe the word "slaves" in your post is an important clue to the possible meaning of the characters in this section. For instance, an hourglass could mean man has become a slave of time, and other devices might represent slavery of any stupid hobby or activity. This perfectly becomes to the men of our time. The hellgates are always open and welcoming hundreds of sinners to their dreadful destination. However, there are so many possibilities that we would need a lot of that precious time to just begin to disclose them.

As I have said so many times in this thread, I believe the message that Bosch was trying to forecast to the world, and perhaps to viewers in the Earth's "last days," was the same old admonition by all the old great biblical prophets: "Make your ways right, forsake your false gods and idols, lest you and the land shall perish."

Thank you very much for this fascinating contribution of yours, it has made me think a lot.

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

PS. Here is a video I found while I was researching for this post. I hope you and all will like it (the music is so great too)