Bosch on Shrooms: 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'

“The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch provides a visual representation which expresses the fears of belief and religion that dominated life in the Middle Ages. It is created with oil paint on canvas on the year, 1503. While the painting might look odd and the characters cartoonish at a glimpse, its small details gives this painting its horror and fearful essence. As scholars claim it, “One of Bosch’s most puzzling work.”

Bosch is known for creating restlessly imaginative works rich in religious symbolism, allegory, and fantastical elements. Additionally, he was also renowned for his consumption of 'magical mushrooms' whilst creating his artworks. Bosch's depictions of the Bible’s revelations were ahead of his time; there is no other artist quite like him. This Dutch painter conjures up nightmarish-hellscapes, full of grotesque and nonsensical creatures that align with the revelations of the Holy Bible. Born during the mid 14 hundreds, Bosch spent most of his life in the Dutch town of Hertogenbosch. He grew up in a time of deep religious anxiety. In late medieval Christianity, death, sin, and the devil were becoming more sophisticated and descriptions of hell like in ‘Dante’s inferno’, were becoming more vivid. There was a genuine fear that demonic forces lived amongst the population, a fear that led to the first year of witch hunts. Something that would only increase during the coming centuries. This was the spiritual environment that Hieronymus Bosch merged from.

One, where devotion and fear were intertwined, this could be seen in his most renowned artwork, ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’. Given the religious fear and background that dominates the childhood background of Bosch, the fear of sin, death, and punishment are the subject of this painting. It was clear that he had a dark and vivid imagination and the matters of religion and morality clearly inhabited his mind. During the medieval period, drawings of monsters were rather odd and silly, given the lack of exploration and discovery being made. Hence, this movement can be seen clearly influenced on Bosch’s artwork as his depictions of hell monsters have resemblance to other drawings of monsters done during the medieval times. The next generation of Dutch artists became heavily inspired by Bosch’s work. In the centuries to follow artists began to see him as an early pioneer of surrealism.