Dear Jill,

Thank you so much for your wonderful message.

Actually I have not been feeling too well for a few days. Not exactly tied to bed, I don't like taking my shoes out however ill I may be, but the flu got me this time.

Anyway, I have been following all the fabulous celebration for Thanksgiving Day at Adland and most especially in the Mountain.

Thanks again,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Hieronymus Bosch - The Entombment

Luis,

I hope that you feel better soon.

We don't like folk feeling unwell.

Roger

Hello Roger,

Thank you so much for the good wishes. The last couple of days I have been feeling much better, but anyway, I appreciate your concern.

I take this opportunity to tell you how much I love your poem, "What it means to me to be English" (actually something I wanted to tell you long ago).

Best Wishes,

Miguel

Hieronymus Bosch - The Pedlar

PS. Click on the image to enlarge it.

I'm glad that you feel better Luis

I had fun writing that poem

The painting has so many interesting features.

It stands lots of scrutiny.

Roger

Hello Friends,

This image has visited me frequently along my life, almost to the point of obsession, irrespective of its being one of Bosch's works or not. Actually it is not universally accepted as one of his paintings, and there has been a lot of controversy among the critics about its real attribution. But however it is, I really love it.

I love the austere color, I love the composition, most original for the time it supposedly was painted (1500-03), and I love the idea of using successive spheres or "circles" in the design of it. Such creativity!

I really did not have a definite idea what it might represent, short of a vague feeling that it expressed the author's notion of what awaits the blessed souls on their demise fom this world (with, of course, no welcoming Saint Peter at the Gates of Heaven). Only recently did I begin to think that the Ascent could be construed as occurring as the world's end was drawing near according to the Apocaliptic visions current at Bosch's times (remember Umberto Eco's novel The name of the Rose?) with the 144,000 souls ascending, or abducted, to heaven.

Hieronymus Bosch - Ascent of the Blessed
(from the Paradise and Hell panels normally attributed to him)

But I think I have talked about this before, so I will better stop here - lest my obsession recurs, this time in a new form... (LOL)

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

PS. Roger, you are right about The Pedlar standing lots of scrutiny. Come to think of it, all of Bosch's works are like that - like a distinctive feature.