"Garden of Earthly Delights"

[See the full painting at the bottom of this page.]
My friend Jim wrote to me:

"During my senior year in college, I wrote a thesis about the works of Hieronymus Bosch, the 'father of modern surrealism', which I think we have discussed. Part of that thesis was actually looking at the paintings in a detached way in order to take in the didactic message. Just look at the paintings for awhile before thinking about them and forming opinions, and the artist will speak to you! That was my theme. The 'Garden of Earthly Delights' center panel is obviously anthropromorphic in compostion, with the five surreal structures representing four of the five senses in a map of the human head...eyes, ears, nose, mouth. My paper became the basis for modern interpretations of the painting because my professor, who didn't like my radical ideas much, nonetheless passed the interpretation along into academic circles.

"Bosch depicted youthful, sexy, beautiful nude women in his paintings, along with their innocent sexual play and courtship with young men. I regret that I have never visited the Prado to see this masterpiece.

"We can only guess what the message was, and why this painting was an altarpiece in a church.

"When I photograph, the Renniassance art muse is always perched on one shoulder, and the dirty old man on the other. I try to satisfy both, but the grail is always truth and beauty."