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Writer's pictureAndy McIlvain

Cinema & the Arts as Sermons: Hieronymus Bosch- The Garden of Earthly Delights

Updated: Jul 25, 2023



Hieronymus Bosch- The Garden of Earthly Delights

"There are no records to tell us what Bosch or his contemporaries were thinking. There are so many theories out there, some more outlandish than others. I have sifted through most of them, and from a process of elimination, come up with what I think is a pretty good idea. I have also come up with several ideas I haven’t seen before. I have based my research around the Bible, Medieval history, infrared scans, art history papers and books and historical documents. But in the end it is still my opinion. If you have an opinion, then why not put it in the comments, and keep the dialogue going? I started "Great Art Explained" during lockdown. My aim is to make videos which focus on one great artwork. I want to present art in a jargon free, entertaining, clear way with no gimmicks. Subscribe and click the bell icon to get more arts content. Each video takes me about three weeks to a month, so I download at least once a month: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePD... CREDITS All the videos, songs, images, and graphics used in the video belong to their respective owners and I or this channel does not claim any right over them. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing." from video introduction


"Hieronymus Bosch, born Jeroen Anthonissen van Aken (c. 1450 - August 9, 1516) was an Early Netherlandish painter of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many of his works depict sin and human moral failings.

Bosch used images of demons, half-human animals and machines to evoke fear and confusion to portray the evil of man.

His works contain complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic figures and iconography, some of which was obscure even in his own time. (From Wikipedia) & website: Heironymous Bosch Complete Works (link)


Bosch's Religion

"...Was Bosch part of the devil’s party? His biographical details, sparse as they are, suggest otherwise. His hometown, colloquially known as “Den Bosch,” from where the painter took his name, was a prosperous market town. He grew up within the Catholic Church, in a local sect called the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Lady, at a time when early rumblings of religious reformation were happening across Northern Europe.

Bosch died the year before Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg door, protesting the excesses of the papacy and inaugurating one of the great splits in Christianity. These reforming movements, both inside and outside the Catholic Church, were propelled by the democratizing power of the printing press as much as theology. Both pushed away from hierarchy and toward individual, personal devotion...." from the article: The Horrors and Hells of Hieronymus Bosch MADRID (RNS) The 500th anniversary of the death of Hieronymus Bosch provides viewers a glimpse into the work of the man who created our modern vision of hell. It's not for the squeamish.

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