S.B.T. 383

the garden of earthly delights

this painting by hieronymous bosch dated between 1490 and 1510 holds special position in the sequence of art experience, considering that the image is still fantastically fascinating and then from an historical perspective especially.

freshman high school art class early in the 1st semester was the first time i saw it. i was both frightened and blown away by it. eerily it kept my gaze floating over the surface, an eye journey full of startllng lulls and peaks and graphically explicit horror (to me anyway at the time "gaping spiked fruits" were aesthetically and emotionally challenging) and the "delights" seemed hellish to me. was bosch saying that earthly delights are actually hellish? is that why it "got" me so strongly, because a part of me as yet unknown believed that to be true. and here it is, the proof elaborately illustrated. art has a way of rooting out inner belief systems. i just knew nothing about it before i saw it that first time. i felt before knowing what investigators had said about it. pretty much it rocked my inner core. but just look at it.

there are certain parts whose color and design i favor, such as the steel blue globule and tower in the soft aqua water at the top center, the one in the middle, not the one on the right with the punk spikes.

i don't much like the pink organic structure on the right though i can't help but look at it, it is almost nauseating for some reason (ie in fact it gets a reaction and would be applauded for the same nowadays). it's pink. what else do i need to say? pink — so delicate it's got a "breakable" quality. it's unsteady. i don't like the diluted vibe of it. as a focus in painting that is. it's fine for a sweater or slippers. it's rude too haha, pink can be a flesh baby's bottom or a phallus et al, as this one seems to suggest something even more horrifically sacred, like how we love the body but it's so hedonistic haha. so the garden of earthly delights: "Art historians and critics frequently interpret the painting as a didactic warning on the perils of life's temptations." (wiki)