Catharina Barker The Painting by Hieronymus Bosch "The Garden of Heavenly Joys" Vol. I

The painter who became known under the name Hieronymus Bosch exercises a fascination through the amazingly full and living quality of his pictures. And yet the motifs and figures represented in them are puzzling and elude a simple interpretation. How can one gain access to the work of Hieronymus Bosch? – Historical or biographical connections may provide indications of Bosch’s standpoint, but wherever the key to Bosch may lie, a beholder will only be able to find it if the inner place is sought from which the motifs were inspired. The solution given, in this and subsequent volumes, to the riddle of the “Garden of Heavenly Joys” (also known under the name “Garden of Delights”) arises from immediate contact with the reality out of which Bosch created his works. The method used consists in posing a question to this reality with reference to the details depicted by Bosch, and drawing together the results. It becomes clear that the background of the motifs is not to be seen as creations of a purely subjective origin, but is generally understandable and accessible to all, insofar as the attempt is made to discover the right inner standpoint. Catharina Barker bases her account on the published research of Wertheim Aymès and the investigations of Willi Seiß. There emerges a wealth of details of a hermetic knowledge of immeasurable depth, which Hieronymus Bosch has translated into a picture language of ‘real-imaginations’. Thus, Bosch is not simply depicting his visions; he translates them into a living symbolism which he himself has developed for his works with his artistic-imaginative creative powers. The attentive beholder will not fail to appreciate the living quality of these motifs. The figures and scenes maintain the connection with their source and live on, in a real sense, in the beholder. An encounter with the work of Bosch transforms the human being.

English

119 pages

Paperback

1st Edition