The Earliest Description of Bosch’s Garden of Delight (Coursework Sample)

Bosch’s The Garden of Delight
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Bosch’s The Garden of Delight
“The Earliest Description of Bosch’s Garden of Delight” by Ernst Gombrich fascinated me based on how Hieronymus Bosch describes Antonio de Beatis’ travel diary. I was amazed by how well Bosch captured almost everything that Beatis came across as he accompanied Cardinal Luigi d’Aragona in his travels to the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and France in his triptych painting The Garden of Delight. Bosch painted The Garden of Delight between 1490 and 1510. The triptych oil painting appears on the oak panel and measures 220 by 390 centimeters (Gombrich, 1967). The author’s primary themes in The Garden of Delight are impermanence and instability as portrayed by the tower-like structures with rounded floating on water.
When my eyes landed on the first panel of The Garden of Delight, one thing that crossed my mind was the Garden of Eden. In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the Garden of Eden is described as a place that had all types of animals and plants. Similarly, this panel portrays different types of creatures and three humans. The person in the middle appears more superior to others based on his or her attire. However, the second and third panels contradicted my initial view when I saw the entire triptych. In the second plane of the triptych, many things appear to be happening. There exist many types of creatures, some moving around, and naked people in different positions and actions. In my view, the right theme for the second plane would have been lust or sexual desires. The third plane shows individuals in different postures and musical instruments. Consequently, The Garden of Delight triptych is fantastic