The Garden of Earthly Delights

The old age of the earth, indicated by the barren, burning terrain on the right wing of The Garden of Earthly Delights, is lodged in the historical present by a host of modern artifacts: a table, a bed, a mirror, jugs, a lantern, a key, ladders, knives, a cooking pot, a night stool, a hurdy-gurdy, and so forth...

These words, inscribed in gothic letters hovering above a somber cosmic panorama on the exterior panels of The Garden of Earthly Delights, announce their theme as the creation of the world...

The so-called Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch is certainly one of the most mysterious works of the late Middle Ages ...

The last quarter of the fifteenth century witnessed a fresh outbreak of representations of Africans. From then on the black is really “seen” and “translated” in various ways. This variety reflects the contradictions in which Europe was living. Except for the highly localized example of St. Maurice, the most traditional theme and the one most closely connected with the...