Week 13: Kunal: Paper 2 Assignment: Museum Trip

Hey guys,

I was just wondering which museum you guys visited and whether you liked it? I'm heading for the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena today

Week 13; Kunal.; The Garden of Earthly Delights

In my opinion, Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights is a chronological representation of what the Netherlandish master believed the fate of the world could be based on the times he was living in.

The entire piece definitely has biblical connotations, demonstrated almost immediately by the closed triptych. The outer panels depict a transparent globe being formed from darkness, with the outlines of natural features materializing out of the gloom. Aside from setting the tone of the entire piece (a religious one), the closed panels reinforces the idea that the painting is a biblical narrative. The creation of the world is chronologically the first major event in Christian mythology, and Bosch made it clear that the theme of his work will be a biblical one.

Once opened, the panels show, from left to right, Adam and Eve with God in the Garden of Eden, humanity engaging in acts of hedonism, and the suffering of the damned in Hell.

Without describing every feature in detail, the general theme of the triptych seems to depict the fate of humanity right from Adam and Eve's original sin. They are shown here being joined in union by God as animals frolic in the Garden of Eden. This frolicking gives way to a chaotic scene of excess and lust, with animals in a state of frenzy and a large number of people engaging in what seems to be a mass orgy. The sinners are given their final punishment when they are damned to suffer in hell for the rest of eternity.

Perhaps Bosch intented his painting to be a depiction of what could befall humanity if they continued to engage in the hedonism he observed during his time.

Week 13; Monica S.; The Garden of Earthly Delights

At this point in this class I find myself listening more to what others are discussing than speaking myself and I have a reason for this. I'm not Christian or of any other religious belief and that fact makes interpreting art from the Italian Renaissance almost alien and nondescript. Over my lifetime I think I've read about ten pages from the Bible and I have never been to a mass. My whole perception of Christianity almost does not exist except for what I've learned in this class. I have almost no knowledge of Christian beliefs or what the Bible says or the history of Earth in religious context. Therefore, my analysis of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights is going to be short and probably far-fetched.

However, I think that the composition is like this: The left panel is of the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve mess everything up according to the Bible (I'm not sure how it all goes though), the center panel is still of the garden of Eden after Adam and Eve start having all the children and they are having a good time taking advantage of everything the garden provides, and I think the right panel is a social commentary on the contemporary world and all of the destruction humanity has created. I wish I had more knowledge of religion so that I could take a closer look at this piece and actually know what was going on. However, I think this is a really intense painting and I will definitely look into what other analyses say to gain some more knowledge.

Week13: Nobu Fujioka, The Garden of Earthly Delights

According to Janson's History of Art, this triptych represents humans in the natural world. Especially in the central piece, Hieronymous Bosch depicts many animals as well as naked human beings. Some of them seem to be out of scale, for example, many species of birds in the lake with some men sitting on them at the left middle edge. The birds are almost twice as large humans who are holding on to them as if they are afraid of something. The birds also face one direction, perhaps looking at the procession of animals above. In contrast to their more affectionate attitude towards the birds, humans riding on horses, goats, and other quadruped animals appear to be controlling and dominating them. Humans are on a similar scale as the animals controlling the direction of the procession. Since quadruped animals live on ground, whereas birds normally live above ground, humans have power over quadruped animals because they are more reachable. Maybe Bosch is conveying that we have unequal attitudes towards animals depending on their accessibility,whether exploitative or loving.

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. 

Week 13: Mariel Camiling: Garden of Earthly Delights

Bosch's triptych is an amazing piece of art. When folded closed, the exterior shows the world during its creation with a small figure of God on the upper left corner. When opened, there are 3 different scenes that can be read chronologically through time. The left hand panel shows God presenting Eve to Adam in a very peaceful garden with animals throughout. The second panel contains a chaotic scene with groups of men and women engaging in sexual activities among animals and exceptionally large fruits in the Garden. These fruits , such as the strawberry, are associated with sexuality and emphasize the focus on lust in the middle panel. The panel on the right has a large contrast in comparison to the other 2 panels because it shows a completely different scene with several figures being tormented in a burning Hell. Since Bosch was a radical Christian, he depicted the consequences of sin in a very extreme way. The figures in the middle panel appear to be having a great time as if they are in a huge playground. However, since they gave into temptation, there are consequences to engaging in sinful activities and they ended up in Hell. This work of art teaches the lesson that Christians are not supposed to commit sins, especially lust, which is one of the 7 major sins.

Week 13: Malia Paresa: The Garden of Earthly Delights

I think that the Garden of Earthly Delights was a triptych describing the vast difference between heaven and hell. It also serves as a chronological set up of how hell came to be illustrating on the outside of the triptych the creation of the earth, which would've been the first thing the viewer saw. Upon opening the panel, we see that God is introducing Adam and Eve and that there exists a restful, happy place where the atmosphere is calm. As we progressively move towards the left, the tone of the painting gets darker and darker and we know that we are venturing into Hell. Although the images that depict hell are not as violent as I would expect, we see images that seem disoriented and unnatural. For example, we see a tree person housing animals in what looks like an egg and two ears that are pinned together and hanging in the middle of space. However we know that this is Hell because the atmosphere and setting are not as calm as they were in Heaven. While in Heaven, the weather is sunny and free, Hell is darker and much more crowded. I think the intention was to make hell seem horrifying because of all of the disgusting images, but I find them interesting instead. Hell is almost more appealing because of the diverse subject matter.