The concept of Hell is a powerful one to all who give pause to question an act of morality or sin. We are warned that choosing a path of debauchery may cause us to fall out of the holy grace of our omniscient God, leaving our afterlife to be one of pain, misery and suffering. These teachings are, though terrifying to some, generally vague- the specifics incomprehensible and distant. Hell is well known as simply unpleasant and hot, but could there be more to the legend than that? Both Dante Alighieri and Hieronymus Bosch felt that a belief of such relevance and widespread power warranted a clearer, more detailed and concise understanding. As a result, both of these artists defining works are dedicated to intricate and vivid depictions of Hell, one a poem, the other, a painting respectively. Their similar views on the evil within mankind, and their depictions through two very different art forms are essential in the understanding of the pervasive beliefs of their eras and in gaining a more literal image of the biblical realm known as Hell
The right wing of Bosch’s triptych, “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, clearly represents the first piece (“Inferno”) of the three poems known as Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”. Within this section of the threesome, elements from virtually all of Dante’s ten circles of Hell are portrayed through graphic and chilling artistry. The majority of the place shown here is illuminated with an eerie reddish glow, obviously illustrating fire and heat, which has been used to symbolize the death, pain and suffering that runs rampant inside Lucifer’s domain. Fire can also be created by man, so it could be reasoned that it represents our own mortality and self-destructive tendencies. Virgil, the stalwart guide to our protagonist, Dante, warns of these devastating flames in Canto III: line 87, “I come to lead you to the other shore, into eternal darkness, ice, and fire.” The crimson tones that overlay much of the painting were foreshadowed in Dante’s work when Virgil states, “Eternal fire burns within, giving off the reddish glow you see diffused throughout this lower Hell.” (VII: 73-75).
The Essay on Dante’s Inferno: Contrapasso
... beneath the slimy surface. Moving along through Hell, Dante and Virgil come across the heretics. This ... she-wolf. Once inside the gates of Hell, Dante encounters the Carnal (or lustful). The souls ... that we actually see fire. Circle eight of Hell begins the worst ... fire rain constantly falls down on them. This is ironic because it is the first time while Dante is in Hell ...
Another striking image that appears in Bosch’s painting is situated towards the bottom center of this masterpiece. A huge golden instrument stands, surrounded by lamenting figures, some of whom appear to be Nuns and a single man dressed as a Pope. Religion is obviously a very common theme throughout both artworks, and these patrons of Hades are representative of Pope Nicholas III, Pope Boniface VIII and Pope Clement V. They appear in “Inferno” when our valiant travelers stumble upon these religious idols deep in the depths of Hell. They have been banished in this cruel manner for corrupting ecclesiastical offices in the Church and profiting from their actions. Continuing the religious allegory, directly beside the instrument is an equally large harp, strung across it is something of a pseudo-Jesus figure as he hangs as though he were being crucified. Upon meeting these tormented souls, Virgil cries, “You have built yourselves a God of gold and silver! How do you differ from the idolator, except that he worships one, you worship hundreds?” (XIX: 112-114)
A more poignant section in this vignette depicts a lonely soul of a man who hangs, limply on a key. He symbolizes a wealthy man who attempts to hoard his numerous belongings greedily, as though under lock and key. This man represents all those who succumbed to the deadly sin of greed who, in the Inferno, as Dante states, are unrecognizable because they spent all of their time worshiping their material goods and were otherwise undistinguishable in life. Virgil adds, “It was squandering and hoarding that have robbed them of the lovely world and got them in this brawl.” (VII: 58-59)
The Essay on Dante’s Inferno Research: The Fifth Circle
In Dante’s Inferno, there are nine levels of Hell which are distinguished based upon the specific sin of a mortal being. In the Inferno, the fifth circle is the realm where the wrathful and the sullen sinners reside. “Wrath and sullenness are basically two forms of a single sin: anger that is expressed (wrath) and anger that is repressed (sullenness)” (danteworlds.com). These sinners are the ...
Selfishness is an offense that both Bosch and Dante feature heavily with express distaste. In the center of this section of “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, a man climbs a ladder into the open cavity of the torso of a disemboweled man who illustrates the point Dante makes, “Wrong is it for a man to have what he once cast off.” (XII: 104-105).
The climbing soul signifies punishments that people bring upon themselves. Beside the eviscerated man are rat-like creatures gnawing at an armour-clad soul who symbolizes those who were selfish enough as to commit crimes against their countries. As one of these aforementioned men exclaimed, “And that you man report on me up there, know that I am Bertran de Born, the one who evilly encouraged the young king.” (XXVIII: 133-135) Another act considered by Dante, and the Church, to by unforgivably selfish is that of suicide. In the Inferno, those who committed this villainy are ripped apart by dogs in the Wood of Suicides. “…They sank their fangs in that poor wretch who hid, they ripped him open piece by piece, and then ran off with mouthfuls of his wretched limbs.” (XIII: 127-129)
Also featured in the illustration, near the bottom right is a woman being held tightly by a dark, animal like figure. This creature represents the imperceptible force that Dante believed lies within a sinner and causes him/her to preform these unholy acts, whether it be do to mental of physical suffering. To support this theory, Bosch exemplifies this inborn evil with a man to her right, vomiting into a dark pit, forever purging himself of this corruption.
In the lowest level of Hell dwell those who are guilty of the most grievous of wrong of which mankind is capable in the mind of Dante. The three worst sinners of all are Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius, all damned for betraying their benefactors. Bosch took Dante’s vision to heart and illustrated this most intolerable of sins with the man in the bottom left side of the canvas, an overturned table pinning him down, the traitorous dagger still clutched in his hand. This symbolizes that the tables have turned on he who has committed such an act. In Dante’s vision, these sinners are eternally mauled by Lucifer himself, who, rightfully, instates the ultimate punishment, “In each of his three mouths be crunched a sinner, with teeth like those that rake hemp and flax, keeping three sinners constantly in pain; the one in front-the biting he endured was nothing like the clawing that he took: sometimes his back was raked clean of it’s skin.: (XXXIV: 55-60) Judas, the most traitorous soul of all, being severely and perpetually punished for his ruthless betrayal of Christ. It has been theorized that the three heads of Lucifer may be the portrayal of the antitheses of the holy Trinity, as there may be no good without evil; no right without wrong.
The Term Paper on Women Vs. Men In The Work Force
In Mrs. Burrows’ seventh grade English class, I wrote a paper entitled Women vs. Men in the Work Force. I researched for weeks and weeks to get all of the information I could on pay differences, percentages of working women and what jobs they were doing. In 1988, my paper focused on sexual discrimination and the wage difference. For example, in 1998, “women received 63% of the pay men received for ...
The frightfulness of the images, both visual and written, in remarkable, proving without a doubt that these artists succeeded in putting forth two of the most plausible and consequently terrifying montages of the possible horrors of Hell. The resemblance, however between the works is undeniable, as, though either is open to interpretation, there are obvious similarities both in specifics as well as an overall atmosphere. Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights”, however, is not the only artwork to have been inspired by Dante’s immensely influential series of poems. Other well known and generally respected artists who rendered their own interpretations of Dante’s Inferno include Gustave Dore, Salvador Dali, William Blake and many other skilled painters over the 700 odd years since the creation of his masterpiece. Some may see “Inferno” as a Christian reference manual to what one must do to avoid the perils of Hades, others will simply view it as a work of marvelous fiction, although all must agree that it is both unique and influential. In fact, through the ages, it has emerged as one of the most significant literary works in the history of mankind- and none depicted it with more accuracy, skill and chilling realism than Hieronymus Bosch with his stunning archetype of biblical painting, “The Garden of Earthly Delights”.
