vilelyn wrote:Why in Hieronymus Bosch's triptich, The Garden of Earthly Delights is music in hell?Bosch's "Garden" reflects the orthodox religious belief systems of his age. Bosch's art was created to teach specific moral and spiritual truths. What we know to be the libido was denounced by the medieval church as original sin; what we see as the expression of the subconscious mind was for the Middle Ages the promptings of God or the Devil.</br>
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Lust is symbolized by the gigantic musical instruments and by the choral singers in the left foreground of the panel. Musical instruments often carried erotic connotations in works of art of the period, and lust was referred to in moralizing sources as the "music of the flesh". It may also be that Bosch's representation here is a rebuke against traveling minstrels, widely thought of as purveyors of bawdy song and verse.
Bosch was a member of the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady (Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap) which was founded in 1318 to promote the veneration of the Mother of God. The brotherhood was organized around a carved wooden image of the Virgin Mary in St John's Cathedral. The Brotherhood had two types of members: ordinary members and sworn members, also called 'swan-brethren' because they used to donate a swan for the yearly banquet. Sworn members were clerics in principle; in fact they were often chosen among the nobility, the magistrates, etc.
