week 13: Jen Rohrs: Garden of Earthly Delight

When looking at this piece, one of the things that struck me was the use of animals and the contradiction that they pose to the typical aspect of Renaissance art that is "true to nature," as professor Howe put it in her lecture.  I suppose that they are depicted as naturally as could be with the subject of the painting because you can mostly tell what species they are, however, as the panels progress they appear more distorted and gain more human qualities.  In the first panel they seem to be in a somewhat realistic proportion to the humans and scene, Bosch uses the idea of depth making the animals who are farther back on a smaller scale, and they are removed from human interaction like they would be in the wild. As we move on to the middle panel there is a strong interaction with the people.  Many types of animals are ridden by humans, the birds in the lake are on a huge scale compared to the other people and scenery, and a large owl is being hugged on the left side.  In this panel despite the change in scale for some animals, they all retain their beast-like quality while interacting with the humans. It is not until the final right side panel that they are personified and defy their natural instincts.  There is no real devil to punish the people, only the animals torturing them.  The pig is kissing a man, an insect is eating someone, and on a plate in the middle it seems like a penguin is marching a man in circles.  This scene is unnatural and seems related to revenge for the animals after they were abused in the middle panel.  While I do not think that this was the original intention of the artist, with todays eye, I believe that this piece can be viewed as a warning against animal cruelty.  Eventually they will come back to punish us in the same way.