Detail from The Joining of Adam and Eve — Hieronymous Bosch

Posted on by Biblioklept

Published by Biblioklept

11 thoughts on “Detail from The Joining of Adam and Eve — Hieronymous Bosch”

  2. I’m sorry but, these are disturbing images for me. They’re exclusively depicting deprevation which aren’t “earthly delights” as the artist titled it. These are Worldly counterfeiters for earths countless miraculous gifts that have been corrupted by the immoral man deceived by his 5 senses to believe there’s no tomorrow or dominating & immovable consequences.

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    1. I cannot see any men in this panel. Much less sinning and corrupting. It is difficult for me to try to imagine delight without its being part of a sense-ation. What I see in this depiction is a garden of imaginary creatures being a part of their nature. In a kind of static poses. What a delight it must have been to have a mind like this painting’s creator. Perhaps Herr Bosch practiced self-denial to achieve these states of ecstasy. Perhaps he was hedonistic. Bosch’s paintings create a disturbance for me, also, as they seem to evoke subconscious ‘memories’ to bubble up into the conscious mind.

      One of the Biblioklept’s other offerings, more hellish in its scene, the one that depicted a clothed rat arrived the day after I had hung a new dream catcher from a lamp above the head of my bed. The night before I got the RSS from Biblioklept, a part of my feverish nightmarish dreams that included a clothed rat that I was holding by the tail that kept trying to bite my throat after I refused to comfort it. I whacked it against a garden wall, but it wouldn’t die, stomped on it and it kept barking at me. Finally, I was able to do it in with a brick.

      My conclusion about this in terms of your concerns is that there are consequences, but that they can expiated, the mental ones, anyway. I do not think we can do much about the consequences of the destruction of the garden of the earth or what a delight life can be on this planet. Going into the ocean is a religious experience for me. Seeing the sun rise and hearing all the animals delighting in the return of the light causes my emotional being to exult.

      I only hope that the rat wasn’t my long dead dog Skipper trying to return to me so that I could hug and comfort him. Perhaps he just wanted to lick my throat as dogs are wont to do. I had been thinking about how I liked to hug him when I was a youth, and how he would try to merge his body with mine when the lightning flashed and the thunder roared and I would hold him tight to try to stop his shivering.

      The senses are a marvelous manifestation of creation. Without them it would not be possible to realize higher dimensions or to be human to your fellow beings. All visions and visitations are expressed in terms of the sensate. When I see the foam on the beach I am reminded of Krishna’s telling Arjuna that there are galaxies more numerous than all the bubbles in all the foam at all of the waters’ edges. That the life of the universe is just as ephemeral. All things that are create are subject to destruction. And the wheel turns. It is spring and soon it will be too hot to breathe. And, once again we will pray for rain.

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  3. Delightful, provoking summary! Thank you for enlightening me to your valid viewpoints and, being a kind teacher.
    I wholeheartedly agree the senses are pure gifts and can be used for good or bad, it’s the exaggerations in some depictions that furrow my brow but, I understand it better now cc, a gracious and grateful heartfelt thank you.
    D

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    1. Bless you, friend. I was unsure of what to write, but as the song goes, ‘…angels follow me where ever I go…’ even if I sometimes tumble and fall on the path back to the garden.

      Painting would not be thought of as art if it weren’t separated, usually by a frame, and exaggerated in some way. The snake is never ashamed of being a snake, but we should be ashamed for not exalting what God hath wrought.

      Meanwhile, I am missing Garrison’s Prairie Home Companion. He is having a St. Patrick’s day special program – true art, silly and profound , smiling and teary.

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  4. CC didn’t you know the serpent is a symbol for good and evil? I thoroughly loved Garrison! A soothing salve. What is the name of that song you quoted with such alacrity?
    Blessings friend
    Deborah

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    1. I sent you an Mp3 of that song in the email I Send’ed after your first response. It is called, ‘Live This Life’ and is from an album by Big & Rich called ‘A Horse of a Different Color’ ‘…I will live this life until this life won’t let me live here anymore…(and when I die) I will walk (with certainty) through that open door…I have no fear for angels follow me where ever I may go…’

      A snake is just a snake no matter what symbolical significance may have been invented by people over time. I have never seen a three headed reptilian, either. Surely that doesn’t mean that the Trinity is a three-headed monster? Maybe Bosch was part of an Evolutionist Sect secretly plotting to steal the keys to heaven from the Roman pope? They’ll have us digging canals and building dykes if we aren’t careful.

      Have you seen the Robert Crumb comic book of the fall of Adam? The snake with legs in that one is scarily rendered. It is best not to take these things too literally lest they lose meaning. With literalism you lose all context, because you weren’t there at the happening, and with literality there is no further meaning of the phenomenon. Jesus used parables that were not necessarily true… but that does not subtract from the truth of what he was saying. He was much more a humanist than he was a moralist. The moral quality is always emphasized whenever a church needs to have control over its congregation for its plans of empire. The Buddha used an observation that is not scientifically accurate, but that does not obscure the meaning of his message.

      A Prairie Home Companion is a great Saturday on the village square for small town minded Americans from all the neighborhoods. It is too bad that most of the US has lost its sense of commonality and community. Here in the South bars are places for drunks instead of an extended living room for families. I have been in hipster coffee houses where no one spoke to me for hours. Garrison managed to delight the Irish with his story of Irish cowboys in the west. It is a true literary talent that creates humor with his words. Silliness leavens the soul.

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    2. I left out Robert Crumb. He is a Jewish cartoonist, who wanted to relate the story of the creation to people who do not ordinarily read books. There was no blasphemy intended.

      Mr. Crumb, being Jewish, consulted ancient texts that were in existence before today’s bible and contain references that were edited from the ‘official’ version by the ‘official’ church primarily for political reasons, if not for reasons of anti-Semitism.

      The talking snake had legs according to the oldest known sources. That it could talk seems to predict Disney and Hollywood movies. It tempted Eve for reasons not usually taught in your generic Sunday school.

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  5. CC I understand your points and the injury some literalism of certain things can project but so it can be with our imagination [my poor opinion]. I’ve never been exposed to Crumb’s work, and I’m unsure I’d find it as a sense of mocking the greatest creation of God which is man. However this subject is another blog & philosophical path although, ART is deeply congruency with truth.

    I did receive your mp3 recording but, will need to have my friend reconnect my speakers properly since for some reason, it’s not functioning at this moment. I’m certain I’ll enjoy it. You’re extremely kind and thoughtful Cc and, hopefully you’ll keep helping me see and understand art with all its implications and beauty.

    I’ll be completely honest, I am a full believer and witness of Jesus Christ being not only a Master Teacher, moralist, humanitarian but, above all, the Only Begotten Son of God the Father and died for our sins.

    I wholeheartedly agree society has lost the beauty and strength of community and from there, all its wonderful tangents i.e. commonalities that create a sincere oneness, leaving behind the absurd chains of pride, competitiveness, judgments and selflessness. I well remember growing up in a small community of beautiful & loyal neighbors that wrappped everyone in a quilt of commonality in spite of powerful diversities. Garrison definitely brought the power of coming together and getting beyond differences as if they were wedges instead of strong bonds of caring. Storytellers have that gift.

    Thanks Cc and do stay in touch, you’ve fascinated me!
    Your majority of One,
    Debbie

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    1. Very well written, gwp. I doubt if I could give you any more insight than you have already. What I wrote was just my point of view anyway.
      I keep my spirituality as a secret between my creator and myself, so you won’t be receiving any testaments from me, nor will any one else. Suffice it to say that I am not a believer in any one’s religion, but try to see all iconography as a reflection of a greater glory. If revelation is to be revelatory, then it must be in the language of the beholder and within his intellectual grasp., lest he be struck dumb and people think there is something wrong with him.

      If you believe God to be an old white man with a beard, then that’s what God is, for you. If you believe that only people of your belief go to heaven, then that’s the only people you will find there. If you get the Gainesville, FL Sun, there is a good column by a rabbi (The God Squad by Rabbi Marc Gellman) where he wrote a column with one paragraph definitions of the world’s greatest religions which was in Saturday’s paper. He seemed spot on to me.

      About the art. Part of my definition of good art is that it has some thing for every viewer. Which is what is missing in much of today’s famous art – it needs an explanation and is usually an inside joke, especially on people that think they are part of the real
      cognoscenti. It is symptomatic of a culture of self-indulgence.

      Well, it is nearing sunset, the deli will be closing and I want to go for an ice cream. The price of my sin is too much fat on my bones.

      Take care, and keep in touch.

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  6. Thank you for added info on Mr. Crumbs, it’s very captivating and sad to my heart because I know a few Russian Jews that share in this history of anti-semitism and it’s crushing to imagine and still see in these souls vestiges of sorrows that cannot be wiped away despite the years. Thanks for your kindness again Cc.

    Sincerely
    D

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