Hieronymus Bosch

Bosch was one of the first surrealist painters. He lived in the 15th century from 1450-1510. His nationality was Dutch. He was hired by the Catholic Church to depict the afterlife of going to hell or heaven. Many, in not most

common folk could not read during the middle ages. They relied on priests to interpret the Bible for them. Bosch painted depictions of hell that would surely scare an individual to following the Catholic tradition. This was a practice by the church that changed as the middle ages came to a close.

The most famous work of Bosch was called The Garden of Earthly Delights. It is painted on a triptych. A triptych is a painting made up of 3 panels and they were hung down at the front of a church or the alter. The panel on the left represents Adam and Eve as revealed in the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible. The second panel leads us to the sins of delight of life and the third takes us to the consequences of leading a sinful life by depicting hell.

Left Panel of    The Garden of Earthly Delights — Left Panel of
*The Garden of Earthly Delights*

Bosch produced many paintings depicting grotesque and fearful images depicting nightmarish fantasies of hell. Making his art very dark and hard to look at. There are many narratives occurring in each scene that take a long time to study as with all the dark images in the third panel.

Center Panel of                  The Garden of Earthly Delights — Center Panel of
*The Garden of Earthly Delights*

Right Panel of                 The Garden of Earthly Delights — Right Panel of
*The Garden of Earthly Delights*

Now that you have learned about Bosch and his most famous work complete the assignment below.