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The Garden of Earthly Delights is Bosch’s most complex and enigmatic creation. For Falkenburg the overall theme of The Garden of Earthly Delights is the fate of humanity, as in The Haywain (P02052), although Bosch visualizes this concept very differently and in a much more explicit manner in the centre panel of that triptych than in The Garden of Earthly Delights. In order to analyse the work’s me
On what appears to be a wooden table or ledge we see boiled crabs and shrimp, several freshwater fish (two carp, a roach, possibly several ide, and a northern pike), a dark glass goblet, a brass candlestick with a partially burnt but flameless candle, a copper strainer with a brass skimmer and two artichokes, and a Rhenish stoneware jug. Reflected on its lid is a self-portrait of the artist with a
The workshop of Jan Massys (c. 1509-1575) in Amberes produced a number of copies of this image based on a protoype by Quinten Massys, Jan’s father. Notable is the saint’s powerful look, which bestows dignity upon him. In line with new humanist ideas, the Church Father’s appearance of an aged scholar is abandoned, while the reference to the transience of life made through the skull and the depictio
The Graces were minor deities but in this splendid work Peter Paul Rubens devotes his best effort to them. The three goddesses embrace each other forming a circle. The positioning of their feet suggests movement; they seem to dance gently. The setting is as luscious as the nude bodies of the goddesses. A field illuminated by sunlight filtered through dense trees stretches to a distant blue. The sh
An inscription in gothic letters identifies the sitter and dates the work: "In the year 1438, I painted this effigy of Master Heinrich von Werl, Doctor of Cologne". A Provincial of the Franciscan Order in that German city beginning in 1432, Werl was full Professor of Theology and quite a famous preacher. On a trip to Tournai, he was able to contact the painter and have himself portrayed inside a r
In the centre of a rectangular surface Bosch incised a circle in which he depicted this scene of Extracting the stone of madness. The resulting image is a mirror that offers a reflection of folly and human madness, located in a rural world remote from that of the nobility and urban life, hence the setting in the countryside in an open landscape. As found in miniature painting of the time, the arti
Leaning on a classical ruin, Saint Joseph looks at the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child in her lap. Jesus, in turn, is receiving a roll with the words Ecce Agnus Dei from Saint John. This Latin inscription meaning Lamb of God refers to the Passion of Christ, who sacrifices himself, just as lambs were sacrified by the Jews, in order to save humanity from sin. The oak tree standing behind the main
The Triptych in the Museo del Prado labeled as Scenes from the Life of Christ is a pivotal work in the story of Valencian painting in the fifteenth century and in the transmission of the style and technique of Jan van Eyck to the Iberian Peninsula. The panel entered the Prado collection in 1931 from the convent of the Encarnación in Valencia, a Carmelite foundation established in 1502. It w
It is not known when or how these two paintings -Saint John the Baptist and Saint Juan de Ribera (P947)- came to be the property of Luisa Enríquez, but their common provenance has never been seen as an indication of a link with the same group of art works. However, the technical study that was recently carried out on the two panels shows that they are directly and unequivocally related in t
This more-than-half-length portrait presents a boy dressed in black with a white shirt. He rests his left hand on his waist while holding his gloves in his right. A gold chain around his neck is matched by another at his waist that bears a sword with a gilded hilt. It has been suggested that this panel may represent François, Duke of Alençon (b. 1554, d. 1584), son of Henri II of Fra
The position of the figures, looking at each other, is common for diptych paintings. However, we do not know if these were originally painted as pendants to each other. In 1597, this panel and Virgin Mary (P1562) were described in the Escorial as two “doors” of the same object. They may have been acquired as separate paintings and then hinged together as a diptych in the Royal Collection. Some sch
In a single sequence, the painting shows the Archangel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, his announce ment to her that she has been designated as the mother of the son of God, and her acceptance of the divine will (Luke, 1, 26-38). St Gabriel appears on the viewer’s left, kneeling before the Virgin. He is covered in a white tunic constructed with a rich array of solidly drawn folds interspersed with a s
Calvary and The Descent from the Cross were two of the most frequent subjects in Pedro de Campaña’s oeuvre. Their content, as well as the painter’s Flemish training, explain his manner of emphasizing the markedly dramatic character of their compositions, stressing the figures’ expressive qualities in very contrived nocturnal settings. It is no surprise that these subjects continued to occup
The event is set in a gothic temple, alluding to the New Law that replaces the old one, represented by the Romanesque tower in the background. The sculptures on the outside of the church and on the tower and Bible passages in the stained-glass windows reinforce this idea, and that of the Redemption. That is the case of Moses and David, or the sacrifice of Isaac´s, which foreshadows that of Christ.
Recognizable by the crescent-moon-shaped diadem on her head, Diana hunts deer with spears and dogs, accompanied by various nymphs. The extremely horizontal composition is one of the peculiarities of this work, which belongs to an important sect of sketches made by Rubens for the pictorial decoration of the Torre de la Parada. On these small panels, the painter defined the design, colors, forms and
The theme of this triptych is the advent of salvation -a message about the universality of Redemption. The Eucharistic meaning inherent in the theme of Saint Gregory’s Mass is also found in The Adoration of the Magi in the wheat stored in the upper part of the hut, above the figure of the Antichrist. Unusually, Bosch includes in his depiction of the Mass of Saint Gregory in semi-grisaille seven Pa
This is the right wing of the Genealogy of the Virgin altarpiece which the Count of Barajas donated to Philip II, according to the inventory of the Alcazar of Madrid of 1600. On the reverse, Saint Bernard of Siena appears in grisaille. The painter represents Zechariah, John the Baptist´s father, in an enclosed garden, employing the squat proportions which are characteristic of this word.
El santo arrebatado en los aires por demonios y, en tierra, rodeado de monstruos grotescos. Es copia reducida con algunas variantes, como P2051, de una portezuela del tríptico de Lisboa.
