Bosch The Garden of Earthly Delights Part 3

left panel is continuous with and leads to the central one we will come to see that the central panel shows a temptation of mankind not as a single act between Adam and Eve but played out in various ways by a whole crew of humanity we will look first at the background or upper section of this panel we immediately note that it centers around a square lake which has at each corner a hybrid Tower of vegetable and mineral forms similar to those depicted the top of the left panel in the centre of the lake is a fountain not the similar to that shown in the Garden of Eden these towers however differ in some ways from those on the Left panel for example the blue color seen on these towers is not there to indicate distance but is an integral part of each tower these are predominantly coral pink and blue we see how the tower close to us on the Left is entirely pink with only the slightest hint of blue in some veining well that in a distance on the right as a pink base from which some bloom plant shoots emerge the tower form closest to us on the right has a blue base with some pink leaves set upon it while that in a distance on the left also has a blue base with some large pink shoots rising from its top there is an obvious four-fold structure seen here each tower stands at the corner of the square lake from which a stream or river emerges and flows through each tower at the center is the metamorphosed fountain from the left panel here primarily blue in color and more mineral in construction the planes around the lake teem with life animals and human beings engaged in various activities some sitting some standing still others moving around some human figures clamber over the towers or a scene in cave-like entrances at their bases in the lake itself we see many human figures summon little bones others swimming and some paddling in the shallows in many places we find people searching for or carrying blue or red fruits here a crowd of Zeon's man Knights riding on or fused with a fish body or carrying in and red fruits the towers also entice people to climb to their highest points to find these fruits on the plane beside the lake a large group sit around an enormous strawberry while on the other side of the lake a similar group struggle to reach a red berry held aloft by a bird from one of the towers a flock of birds emerges as we saw earlier in the tower in the left panel in the air above however it is not just birds that are seen on the left side a young man holding a branch from a tree rides on a Griffon which holds are told they moved towards a tower which has a tree branch at his table and may be intent on constructing or decorating the tower to their right as it iran rides upon a flying fish similar to the one in the pond in the left panel he holds a red cherry light fruit on a string and as we see a similar fruit hanging from part of the tower the sitter on may well be intending to add this to the decoration similar events appear to be taking place around the rightmost some most interesting events are taking place on opposite banks of the square lake on the left we see a large eggshell one end of which is open into this a crowd of 12 or more people are squeezing themselves this reminds us of the open egg shell in the left panel into which birds were entering on the other Bank a young man beckons to a group swimming in the lake and encourages them to come to a flat stone which he has placed like a little landing place or jetty in the lake itself various couples are connecting with each other in different ways some reach out to one another some embrace others kiss a man walks with his arm affectionately over his partner's shoulder let us now look at the fountain set in the center this relates closely in form to the fountain on the Left panel both have the lower part as a spherical form with a circular opening on top of this is an inverted lunar shape on which rises a tower with three vertical components the side of which two forms rise up terminating in Globes in the left panel these seem primarily composed of living plant tissue well the fountain and the central panel is more mineralized seemingly or agate or other marble patterns stone or glass in both fountains the top section rises from a flat circular plate again having a central vertical shaft plant stem in the left panel and polished a peak blue stone in the central one it seems as if the fountain formerly in the Garden of Eden has metamorphosed from a hybrid of plant minerals to one composed entirely of polished translucent stones in the fountain in the Garden of Eden we saw an old easing out from the hall and it's lost fear here in the central panel the hall is at water level forming a kind of key within this cave we see a number of people the two at the front are a couple like those we saw in the water of the lake but he there is a more explicit sexual touching people who don't look closely at Bosh's painting often say that the central panel is a depiction of a wild orgy astok seaton but this is perhaps the only explicit sexual contact depicted in the painting the background level of the central panel sent us around the fountain in the square lake at the corners of which for reddish pink and blue towers rise up constructed of plant and mineral forms the human figures are often seeking red or blue fruits but there's little indication of them actually eating these fruits other humans interact with animals writing them or carrying them on twigs groups of humans gather together in the plains and work cooperatively on some tasks in the lake itself some humans bond as couples the middle ground of the central panel is essentially very simple in structure it is centered in a circular pond around which process a cavalcade of riders on various animal the pond would appear only to contain women these are gathered into three main groups one towards the back with four women in other words twelve and one towards the front right with seven there are four who keep their own company and three couples some seemed absorbed in conversation with one another while others gaze out at the wild circling riders at the left end of the pond two black women one with a peacock on her head and the other swimming in the water presenting red fruits possibly cherries to other women some are placed these on their heads the group of women in the center of the pond have white birds spoonbills and herons on their heads while further to the right the group of seven women have black birds and possibly Jack doors on their heads with one black bird flying and seeming about to perish almost all the women look like the eve figure from the left panel you around this pond a group of about 96 young men right various animals in a counterclockwise direction they form themselves into about twelve groups and while this may be suggestive of an astrological Association there is nothing to indicate this in the various items they carry or the animals on which they ride none of them bear any fruit on their heads though many carry red or blue fruits many have birds perching on their heads three groups of riders at the bottom center have some interesting connections in the leftmost a bird seems to be carrying a large fruit above the head of one of the main in the central group we see one man with a white egg on his head we've already noticed that this is the exact center point of the center panel in the group to the right of this a man holds up a fruit so that birds can feed on it these three groups are framed by two animals without human riders a white goat on the Left which carries two spoonbills and a pink pig with two cranes on the right most of the riders are mounted on horses there being about thirty five of these then there are Panthers bears a Griffin - unicorn like creatures a camel a dromedary two stags goats pigs and other species of animal some of the riders carry items but there are no weapons to be seen here for the most part they ignore the women and seem to be conversing amongst their fellows there is however a party of seven young men on the leftmost group who stared at the women in the pond and are apparently amazed at what they are seeing because of the way the picture is structured being unable to stretch the circular pond and cavalcade of riders to fill the space available borscht is left with two areas on the right and left on the left he shows us a bird sitting in the husk of a large blue fruit this is being carried by a number of men some standing in their hands and using their feet to move the bird one young man steers this group by pulling on the long beak of the bird and leads us to join the circling cavalcade on the right a similar scene is being enacted here the youths have acquired the hollow cutter piece of a scorpion-like creature three clamber inside while a further ten or so lift and propel it forward to join the cavalcade one on top pulls down upon the tail form keeping it in a spring-like shape back in the side area on the Left we see other activities the group of ten saw young men sit on the ground and blue cone in front of them is a section of the husk of a large melon or other fruit one youth crawls inside and seems to be propelling it towards the procession from its top a branch rises from one side are eight red fruits well from the other a young man hangs upside down we will see this echoed by a figure on the right in the space on the right a group of 10 or so young men kneel down in a circle with their heads towards the center we support another who stands upside down with his legs held up holding aloft what at first sight would appear to be a mermaid we look at this figure closely it seems to be male also in this space a group of young men appear one holding a stick with a red fruit on his hand which a lizard is climbing towards behind is a giant flower in which a host of young men sit and watch what is going on in the hill below them another group carry a strawberry like fruit in a cave under the blue base tower we find a troop of monkeys these are of course entirely detached from the surrounding action Bosh creates a polarized opposite here at the base of the tower on the other side from under the pink tower on the Left instead of a troop of monkeys a party of young men mounted on horses are about to join the circling cavalcade it is clear that in this middle ground of the central panel the women and men are separated women in the central pond and the main a little distance of suckling around it they do not seem to interact indeed only a few women look out on to the male cavalcade and most of the riders in the cavalcade are too involved interacting with their fellow riders to pay any attention to the women some red and blue fruits are being gathered or displayed but no humans are seen eating them but only a few birds peg at fruits you we now come to consider the law part of this panel with its many enigmatic scenes the foreground of the central panel is divided off from the middle part by a dense hedge of trees and shrubs for the most part the inhabitants of this lower area seem unaware of what is going on above them except for two figures one on the Left riding on the head of a bird on the other huddled with two others under a transparent flower canopy we can immediately see that the foreground has two main areas a triangular lake on the left and the grassy ground which rises to the right in each of these parts many complex scenes are depicted by Bosch these are difficult to grasp individually but we will see the ways in which they are linked together let us first look at this triangular lake we see it has two main areas a further most part in which giant birds and humans interact and the front most area in which four scenes are set in a linear role the procession of nine birds is led by a goldfinch which holds a stalk with a reddish purple berry to feed three men these crane their necks back like chicks in the nest gaping for food behind this is a Robin like bird then a woodpecker a Hoopoe a goose and a crested lark in the rear these are being ridden by young men in much the same way as they rode the horses and other mammals in the cavalcade in the middle ground making extravagant gestures and having leaves or transparent gourd-like forms on their heads other men are seen walking amongst the giant birds in front of this group am allowed skims across the water when its back a Kingfisher perches and a couple a white male and a black female reach out to one another affectionately and are about to kiss in front of the mallard an owl sits in Congress Lee in the water and is being embraced by a young man he seems to be looking directly at us as viewers attempting to engage our attention at the front of the Goldfinch that is feeding manners chicks a couple holds each other somewhat awkwardly the male also appears to look directly at us appealing for our attention immediately to the right of them a man and a barrel like husk floats for long Lee seemingly cut off from the action around him at the front of the link for little scenes are set in a role in the topmost we see a coral coloured calabash or girl like fruit which has been hollowed out floating on the water this is similar to that which formed the base of the fountain on the Left panel inside this are an Adam and Eve similar to the rather awkward couple to the left they look out from a large tyrannous side the head of historic peers are behind them and the leaves of various plants also grow out from here a fruit emerges from lower down the hollowed fruit from its angle it obviously does not belong to the couple so there is another human within this floating fruit this figure at the bottom of the structure may relate to the man in the barrel like husk the male or Adam like figure is holding the stem of a large buried blue fruit somewhat like a bramble eleven young men swimming in the water gather round it and eat its berries further down a young man floats inverted in the water his body and legs forming a Y shape hell between his thighs is a large red fruit it has a gash in its side like the large round fruit above out of this emerge the leaves of a plant and an Ibis like bird a thorn penetrates the fruit the inverted young man holds his hands to protect his genitals against the thorns many people only glancing at this image see it indicates masturbation but this is not what is depicted this is clearly a protective gesture not the way he even crosses his thumbs in the front of this room is a double structure the lower part is a holdout calabash or melon like form there is similar to that forming the base of the fountain on the Left panel and indeed closely related to the form at the other end of this room inside it we see a man peering out from a circular aperture which has a glass tube inserted in it Bosch amusingly places around here looking back at the human figure inside from the back of the spherical hole of fruit a stem of pink and white leaves emerges and terminates in a large spherical flower this has blue sepals and the bluish globe of the flower is transparent allowing us to see a courting couple inside the embrace in a tentative way the female is almost adopting the atom posture we noted earlier but here our right hand is placed on his thigh not her own his hand gently rests on her belly we can see these two forms to be compositionally related the first image can be seen as metamorphosing into the second through it growing a bluish flower within which the couple then resigned leaving the lower pink coral section to the man peering out this figure must relate to the person whose fruit emerges from the lower part of the first image and may also connect with the man floating in the bottle like husk many interpretations have been made of this globe lying flower some even seeing it as a woman but these are reading something external into the depiction all we can say is that they seem related through the similarity of their forms it may be that there is a narrative worked out pictorially and the events on the lake at the back number of large birds interact with the humans and ultimately feed them with fruits in the foreground the birds do not dominate but the ones that appear are on a more naturalistic scale here the humans particularly the Adam and Eve figures enter into the body of the fruits themselves and make a home there Adam and Eve feed some young man with a large berry one figure inverts himself and seems to be rejecting the red fruit there appears to be a linear narrative about the relationship of birds humans and fruits leading from the top left along the arc of the lake down to the lower left we will find other narratives Waterpik totally in this lower section of the central panel we can see that the foreground is essentially a triangular expanse of grassy meadow that rises forming a small hill and the right of center which then falls away into a background area at the three vertices of this triangle important scenes are depicted at the top right a group of six figures seemingly three couples are in a grove of trees one man presents a large strawberry to a seated woman while beside her another woman is in the act of eating a red apple or cherry like fruit another young man on the ground beside her reaches up to pick another fruit from the tree above him to the right a man stands and picks another fruit while behind a woman sits on the ground somewhat removed from these actions on the lower left point of this triangular area another group of six figures stand again these would appear to be three couples in the front a man stands looking into the garden on the Left panel pointing out the scenario to his companion this black woman also gazes at the scene she has a cherry or red apple fruit on her head and holds another behind her back in her left hand almost surreptitiously a plant possibly a five Lord pansy grows out from between her thighs behind them are two male and female figures they are giving their attention to the front most couple almost as if waiting for a cue what to do the man on the Left holds a large orange colored fruit with blue leaf-like markings and the bottom right point of the triangular space there is little cave at the base of the ridge of the small hill in this cave we see three people a man looks out from inside the cave directly at us almost as if he's attempting to attract our attention and to further emphasize this also points to the woman in front of him she is placed behind a semi cylindrical glass shield the glass appears to be made up from circular pieces each of the central pontal mark this was a style of crown glass invented in the 14th century this woman holds a red fruit in her right hand and on the ground beside her lies another yellow orange fruit what is very significant is that she is unable to eat the fruit as her mouth is sealed closed these scenes show the three ways in which humankind can react to the temptation of eating the fruit the group in the top left corner seem to have entirely given themselves up to indulgence and the fruit the man at the bottom left is in the process of making a decision he sees into the Garden of Eden before the fall and seems animated and attracted to that state but his companions on either side tried to tempt him when looking at the pond and a middle ground above we saw a similar black woman offering red fruit here she holds one behind her back ready to tempt the man the group in the cave have made their decision not to partake of the fruit and the woman is shielded behind glass and has her mouth sealed apparel has been drawn to the birds on the left of the key here we see a marble column with a glass globe on top one bird is sealed off within this globe while the others free outside the glass globe also has pontal marks to emphasize the parallel with the woman in the cave the background area lying behind the little hill and just under the group eating fruits from the trees lies closest to the right or helm panel on this little meadowland we see too many makers dancing back to back their heads and upper bodies within a large pink fruit they hold red fruits in their hands and ha the red fruits and three long blue flowers for student about their bodies on top of the fruit sits a large Oh below them another young man plays with a red fruit lying on his back and teasing and enticing a blue bird to eat of the fruit this group on the little meadow closest to the right panel seemed to have per taken of the fruit and are entirely at ease with it happily playing on the hill to the left of the scene there is a high point overlooking the meadow on the top of this a woman lies beside a young man whose head is inside or has become transformed into a large blue fruit they lie together apparently discussing the scene on the meadow she gestures to this with her right hand and he places a comforting arm around her shoulders he may be trying to convince her that she should also eat of the fruit so that then she can join in the happy play of those on the meadow also on top of this mound father back three figures stand under a hemispherical transparent flower similar to that in which the two figures were courting one another in the structure on the triangular lake we have already noted how the leftmost figure gazes up in astonishment and the cavalcade around the pond in the middle ground above him the other two under the canopy are not engaged by this but instead attend to one another one is a young man while the other maybe an older woman she wears a cloak or cowl over her head which goes down to her knees this little drama should perhaps be seen in connection with the previous image there the young man seems to be having some success in winning over the younger woman but by contrast here the young man seems to be having more of a problem convincing this older woman and takes her arm in a more robust cajoling and persuasive gesture a third group are also seen on top of this mound these are the three young women kneeling on the grass and pushing her heads into an ornate hollowed-out fruit or perhaps flower that is set on top of a cylindrical pillar these three women gaze out at the happenings around and below them seen as a totality the events or little dramas presented on this flat plateau appear connected they seemed to reflect three ways of relating to the temptation to eat the fruit in one the young woman appears almost convinced by a fruit headed partner in another the older woman appears more intractable while the three young women are intensely curious but as yet untested at the base of the ridge of the hill we see three stony towers the top left is a red triangular coralline form hollow inside next is a tall cylindrical orange brown form with a door at its front while in the lower right is a solid bluish white pillar with a reddish egg stone set on top around these three structures various social dramas are being enacted let us begin by looking at the top structure at first glance this appears to be a holdout tree but it's red mineral like surface instead suggests coral and its brittleness is suggested by the fact that a small piece of this has broken off and lies at its base within it three figures stand though we can only see their feet on top of one of its branches and gee perches it holds a red fruit a cherry or red apple in its beak and isn't the act of feeding it to a large group of twenty or more men and women who act like its chicks craning their necks and keeping their mouths we saw a similar scene be enacted in the nearby lake where a goldfinch acted as the feeder of a trio of young men the next structure is a kind of gateway leading from an underground cave in this cave we see seven figures possibly Oh young men set in front is this gate seemingly of a polished stone such as yellow Jasper or brownish sardonyx through the doorway two men are exiting from the underground space and meet with another outside who carries a fish these three engage in a conversation and the rear most mystical eats as if to emphasize a point in front of this two little dramas are depicted on the right are the Eve and Adam figure this is a key scene in the central panel Eve adopts the pause that Adam took when in the Garden of Eden he was presented with Eve there Adam was alert and bright-eyed but here Eve has her eyes closed she has a transparent conical flower at blue sepals over her head and appears cut off from all that is taking place around her adam stands behind her gently touching her arm as if consoling her he has a berry on his head indicating that he has been tempted and has eaten the fruit he appears to be looking towards the black man in the lower group who gesticulates to him Eva appears to have been tempt to eat but not yet been transformed by the fruit so only a flower is set over her head on the left a man bends over kneeling with his bottom in the air he gazes directly at us the viewers Bosch only shows a small number of figures gazing directly at us so these are key images protruding from his anus a red and a blue flower beside him crouch is another young man holding two red flowers this is often interpreted as some kind of homosexual scene or a depiction of the sin of sodomy however this is not certain from the symbolic context Heelys me rather be indicating that the red and blue flower plants I'm by implication the red and blue fruits are not spiritual and godly but earthly these flowers do not appear in the left or even panel nor in the upper and middle sections of the central panel the source of the flowers is not the divine world but the world of corruption and key interestingly this is being shown directly to the Eve figure in this graphic way but she like Adam beside her has per taken of the fruits and her head is now covered with the flower Loredana slope is a solid agate pillar capped from the blue mussel shell on top of this stands a polished reddish egg-shaped agate or Jasper with another small egg set atop this pillar is solid and cannot be entered in front of it stands a group of five figures three men and two women these appear rather knowing the black man and left has a red cherry light fruit on his head from which trails are staying with blue and red fruits on it he looks towards the Adam figure and gestures with his finger in front of him are two women with a blue and a red flower in their hair one is a vine trailing around her like that on the tree in the Garden of Eden the other stands proud and self-aware gazing out over the various scenes taking place on the plain below the little hill the posture of her body is measured as we shall see in that of another Eve figure in the foreground this row of three towers and the little dramatized scenes around them obviously were conceived together at the top the humans are unthinkingly given up to eating the fruit almost instinctively like the chicks of birds they crowd together and struggle with one another for the proffered fruit those around the middle tower gate are more considered they discussed the matter in their little cave and those emerge through the gate seemed to carry on the discussion with the man carrying a fish in front of the gate again we have Adam and Eve who having considered the situation decided in favor of eating the fruits those are on the lower pillar seems so annoying and confident about the use of the fruit that they seem inclined to encourage others to eat it on the plane below this Ridge a number of father dramas are being enacted at lower right three people are seen with two large fruits behind a man whose head is becoming covered by a reddish purple flower bites into a giant strawberry which he seems intent on keeping to himself in front two men have found a large fruit whose husk is opened to spill out of piles small red and blue fruit one lifts up a red fruit in his left hand and is about to eat it he almost adopts the Adam posture we have noted in other figures through the painting this is happening about one-third the way in from the right side of the panel one third the way in from the left side of the panel a similar scene is taking place here an Adam and Eve couples sit on the ground the Eve candles are large good in her lap it contains many small red fruits she raises one up with her right hand examining and closely before eating it beside her the Adam figure points to another spherical fruit which they may eat as in the corresponding scene on the right there is another figure behind them here he drinks from a large blue gourd like fruit which another man presents and holds for him in the center of the lowest margin of the central panel is a complex scene around a blue bottle like calabash or Gordon we should note some similarities to the smaller borrow like husk floating in the pond within which a man sinks down inside this large blue bar alike form as a young man holding two red fruits in his right hand he cranes his head and opens his mouth to receive a red fruit from a dock above this blue bar alike form are two groups of humans the skin of the gourd are circular cells in which are some blue lobe flowers possibly pansies these are seen throughout the slower part of the panel that on the left has at his front a young Eve light figure bearing two cherries or other red fruits on our aid she seems rather remote detached and self-absorbed behind her are a group of six women and one man who seemed curious about what is taking place in the bottle they neither hold fruit nor have them on their heads we can clearly see a similarity in posture between horror and the older woman on the right of the center panel to the right another mixed group of seven stand behind the blue bar alike good the front an Adam figure feeds an eve of the small red fruit while others behind him look on curiously to the right behind them a young woman holds up a large blueberry on the left of this group an animated black man to stick you lates to the other group and maybe encouraging them like the other black man on the right side of the panel to eat the fruit at the front of the blue barrel shaped good two figures stand on their hands upside down their heads and upper bodies are inside flowers or fruit forms the one on the left has additionally his or her feet pressed into a small pink gourd like fruit from which blueberries emerge the figure on the right bends their legs over to support the dock that is feeding the man another figure is in the bottle like form as we see their hand coming out near his base this hand reaches out to touch a fish that lies seemingly abandoned on the ground this fish is very similar to the one held by the man engaged in conversation outside the Gateway to the right above to the left on the bank of the little triangular lake we find a number of scenes related in form to those taking place in the lake itself these are the group of three men in the Thistle light plant the man bearing the mussel shell the man carrying off a blue fruit and a group with in a pink calabash form let us first consider the group at the center of this foreground part of the central panel the leaves of a thistle light plant curl up to create a whole space within which are two figures another man lies prostate on his back with his arms outstretched seemingly unconscious one of the figures either a man or a woman it is difficult to see reaches out from within the plant and grasps the young man's right wrist in exactly the same way as a Christ figure grasped Eve's right risk rising from the base of the plant is a large blue flower with a buff white helix this has the same structure as that lying behind the transparent globe with the lovers on the lake further down the slope a man carries off a large muscle the shell is partly open so that we see within this a couple lying face to face the hand of one of the figures appears to be holding the edge of the muscle in order to keep it closed two perils are seen within the shell lower down a lake we see a man carrying a large berry or perhaps bunch of grapes in front there is a large hollowed-out pink calabash with a round hole at the top inside this a young Eve tenderly reaches up to accept a kiss from an Adam standing outside and bending down to reach her Lord down in the calabash we see a man with half his body outside but who peers out through a circular hole he clipped with a glass cylinder this is like the form in the double structure in the lake except that there the glass cylinder was open at the end and held a rat we're here the end of the cylinder is closed with some kind of seal immediately behind the calabash are a group of three young men one holds a blooming loved flower possibly a pansy one of his companions places his hand on his shoulder in a conciliatory gesture this man is a large strawberry with a blue flow on his back thus we may assume he is already eaten of the fruit and is here encouraging the other to go beyond gathering the flowers & pratik with a fruit itself we can see that these four little scenes set on the lakeside have some elements in common with those depicted in the figures in the lake itself the hollowed-out calabash with the lovers and the man feeding down a glass tube the man with a large berry links to the eleven men in the water eating the blue buried fruit lovers and the mussel perhaps linked to those in the transparent flower and the man lying in his back in front of the curled up the SU leaves perhaps relates to the inverted man in the pond the blue tit on the leaf above the prostate man is also inverted perhaps to emphasize this point in the four scenes at the front of the lake we saw two examples of people relating together as couples here on the margin of the lake we also have two such couples let us attempt to summarize something of what is being depicted in this foreground part of the central panel it seems obvious that Bosch was trying to show us the relationship of humanity to the temptation of eating the fruit for only in this part of the panel our fruits being eaten in a series of cameo scenes he explores the different ways in which humanity responds to the temptation in some the people have obviously already taken the fruits this being indicated by their having fruits or flowers on their heads some of these try to encourage the others also to partake other scenes appear to show individuals and groups considering this and trying to decide whether to eat the various fruits let us examine the scenes where fruits are actually being eaten there are nine in all we can see that different relationships of the humans to the eating of the fruits are being depicted by borscht some are fed fruits by birds and almost instinctively without thinking eat these others are encouraged to partake by other humans while some do entirely of their own volition in places we see some couples relating together there are seven scenes with couples closely relating to one another some occur openly what others are within a large fruit flower or even the mussel shell in one the couple are merely together in the large fruit in another there is only an affectionate touch others embrace and seem to lead to a kiss while in the mussel shell they lie close together we have already noted her a few of the characters gaze out at us and engage us as viewer with their glance there are five instances where figures in the painting make eye contact with us Bosch seems to use this device to indicate key moments in the narrative Adam embracing his Eve in the lake the man eating the fruit the man relating to the owl the man with flowers in his anus perhaps demonstrating the earthly rather than heavenly source of his flowers and the man in the Keith with the woman behind the glass shield whose mouth is sealed although many of the humans relate to one another in a general way some make an emphatic gesture or point to something Bosch wishes our attention to be drawn towards in six of the seven cases the man points with his finger slightly bent in four cases this gesture is made to someone close to him as if to draw their attention in two other cases the individual points to an object the large fruit or to another person a female with a sealed mouth in the other case the woman seems to gesture with her open hand towards things that are happening close by let us now return to the two rather enigmatic scenes where a fish appears the fish is an early symbol of Christ dating back to the Roman period but it continued to be used even in Bosh's time the first shows a man carrying a fish outside the Gateway he appears to be arguing or discussing matters with two other men we can perhaps come to see this man as a Christ bearer just as some people in the painting bear fruits indicating that they have been tempted this fish bear appears to have some connection to Christ therefore he is free from temptation in the second image the fish lies neglected on the ground and one of the figures inside the blue Barrow like GERD reaches out and places his hand on it as if to try and keep a connection to the Christ now having looked at each of the components of the central panel in detail we see that Bosch is presenting a view of an ongoing process of temptation he replaces the conventional idea of a single temptation of Adam and Eve by showing all of humanity in the process of becoming tempted in the top part of this panel various people are gathering red and blue fruits these correspond to the four towers which appear to interweave or metamorphose these red and blue colors in a central area the sexes are separated and perhaps becoming polarized and aware of each other as opposites there is however no connection being made here between the sexes in a lower foreground we see the various ways in which Humanity relate to the temptation to eat the fruit and then become attracted to one another and begin to form couples

Channel: Adam McLean

Views: 3,847

Rating: 4.9473686 out of 5

Keywords: hieronymus, bosch, garden, earthly, delights

Id: YNEr27Gn6jU

Length: 56min 28sec (3388 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 15 2018