The Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (c1450-1516) is one of the most notable painters of the early Renaissance, famed for his surreal and often grotesque depictions of a Christian hell. Given the multitude of strange images he produced – man-eating bird creatures; a massive set of ears with a knife between them, resembling a phallus – and the fact that modern art provocateurs including Salvador Dalí count him among their greatest influences, it would be easy to think that his work was somehow transgressive at its time. But, as the UK curator, gallerist and video essayist James Payne explores in this episode of his YouTube series Great Art Explained, it’s a mistake to think of Bosch’s paintings as anything other than Christian propaganda. Taking viewers on a deep dive into the historical context, symbolism and making of his triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights (1515), Payne explains how, for all its entertaining peculiarities when viewed today, the painting was intended as a moralising work with a deeply conservative message about sin, punishment and the dangers of ephemeral pleasures at its centre.
Video by Great Art Explained
video
The environment
Photographs of rainforests dissolving in acid strike a beautiful note of warning
10 minutes
video
Technology and the self
Adaptive technologies have helped Stephen Hawking, and many more, find their voice
5 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Experience the dazzling displays that fireflies create when humans are far away
5 minutes
video
Stories and literature
Solaris and beyond – Stanisław Lem’s antidotes to the bores of American sci-fi
7 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
To renew Yosemite, California should embrace a once-outlawed Indigenous practice
6 minutes
video
Music
Before the Beatles dropped acid, a BBC workshop was creating far-out sounds
6 minutes
video
Philosophy of language
For Ludwig Wittgenstein, language is a game, but not a frivolous one
43 minutes
video
Art
Is paying with hand-drawn banknotes artistry or forgery? The knotty case of J S G Boggs
10 minutes
video
Human rights and justice
Portugal stole Goa’s lands and narratives. Can they ever truly be returned?
19 minutes