Art-Bosch-Garden of Eartly Delights TB

This travel bug has the modest goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers.  As of 9-Oct-19 it had survived for 3.5 years and had been moved by 7 cachers.

Please drop it in rural OR Pre0ium Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching small event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Travel bug photos are appreciated and will be re-posted here.

I have already released series of art-themed travel bugs based on works I have seen, and admired, in person.  I will continue the series mostly including work I simply admire.  There will also be famous works or works by famous artists that I otherwise do not particularly care for, but they are….well, famous.  This includes most Modern Art and a good amount from the Pop Art movement. 

The Garden of Earthly Delights is the modern title given to a triptych painted by the Early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch.  It has been housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939.  Dating from between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between about 40 and 60 years old, it is his best-known and most ambitious complete work.

The triptych is painted in oil on oak and is formed from a square middle panel flanked by two other oak rectangular wings that close over the center as shutters (see the uploaded image).  The three scenes of the inner triptych are probably intended to be read chronologically from left to right.  The left panel depicts God presenting Eve to Adam in the Garden of Eden.  The central panel is a broad panorama of socially engaged nude figures, fantastical animals, oversized fruit and hybrid stone formations.  Some believe this panel is an expression of paradise whereas others believe it represents the excesses of paradise.  The right panel is a hellscape and portrays the torments of damnation, presumably demonstrating the consequences of the central panel.  The image on the travel bug is but a small detail from the the damnation panel.

Little is known of Bosch's life, though there are some records.  He spent most of it in the town of 's-Hertogenbosch, where he was born in the house of his grandfather, also a painter.  The roots of his forefathers are from Aachen, in present Germany.  His pessimistic and fantastical style cast a wide influence on northern art of the 16th century, with Pieter Bruegel the Elder his best known follower.  Nothing is known of his personality or his thoughts on the meaning of his art.  Bosch’s date of birth has not been determined with certainty.  It is estimated at about 1450 on the basis of a hand drawn portrait (which may be a self-portrait) made shortly before his death in 1516.  The drawing shows the artist at an advanced age, probably in his late sixties.

The inclusion of this work in the series was suggested by another cacher who had retrieved one of my earlier bugs.  The subject matter is not particularly uplifting, but since the church was the chief patron of the arts in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, there are still many other examples of the theme as paintings and frescoes in museums and churches of Europe.  The intent was apparently to frighten the laity to the straight and narrow.