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The overthrow of the rebellious angels. Diptych Hell and the Flood. Right wing
Hieronymus Bosch • Painting, 1515, 69×36 cm
Description of the artwork «The overthrow of the rebellious angels. Diptych Hell and the Flood. Right wing»
Two sided panel "Hell" and "Flood", presented at the Museum of Boymans van Beuningen (Rotterdam), in all probability, are the lateral wings of a lost triptych. They are very poorly preserved. It suggests that the Central theme of the sash could also be the last judgment or the deluge (see all the remaining images in the triptych with the outer and inner wings - 1).
Left wing with the old Testament scene of the flood described in the Book of Genesis, survived somewhat better than others. On the ark, represented in the form of a large wooden barge, clearly distinguishable four pairs of biblical characters: Noah and his wife and his three sons Shem, ham and Japheth with their second halves. The ark anchored on mount Ararat, the flood was over, and from the hole in the wall of the ark with a long stretch on land that becomes visible once the water became shallow, pairs of animals and birds. This curving cavalcade of elephants, deer, pelicans, giraffes and other denizens of Noah's ark on the performance is very similar dance animals from "the Garden of earthly delights".
However, the picture in the fold "Flood" was devoid of any hint of idyll: for example, there is no rainbow is the sign by which Noah understood that God's wrath was exhausted and it was dried up and the waters of the flood. Lower part of the panel is a terrible picture of dead human bodies and rotting animal carcasses.
The idea of a new flood as a divine retribution for the moral fall of mankind when life Bosch was in the air. In 1499, the year of German astrologers even named a specific date when, in their opinion, there may be a second flood and the whole world will perish – February 25, 1524. Who died in 1516, the year Hieronymus Bosch to the predicted day has not lived but half the last two decades of his life were marked by the impending disasters and inescapable celestial car, which explains in part the keen interest of Bosch to the themes of doomsday and judgement.
Right wing the diptych depicts a burning city with swarming in the sky and scattered on the ground of diabolical figures. Opinion on the content of the sash disagree: maybe this is a depiction of hell (the demonic amid the blazing fires in the distance are reminiscent of right-wing "hell" wings of the triptychs of Hieronymus Bosch "The last judgment"and "The hay" and polyptych "Visions of the underworld"), or, according to the second, more original version – on the wing we see the earth before the flood, the world that is spiritually degraded, and mired in evil and uncleanness, and the people become indistinguishable from demons.
On each of the outer wings (they, like the inner, is made in monochrome grisaille technique) are placed on two Tondo – round medallions containing scenes that are not entirely clear (1, 2). The researcher Irma Vitrock believes that the ideas for these sketches Bosch borrows from medieval didactic stories and sermons, and art historian Ian Mosman considered all four episodes scenes from life of St. Jerome, but both versions have become common. We can observe how the demons tormented people: beaten with sticks, thrown off the horse, break into houses, but the power of demons over human life is not unlimited: in the fourth Tondo Christ blesses the kneeling sinner, obviously, promising repentant human liberation and salvation. Second forgiven sinner in the background is given a white garment (sign of purification) from the hands of a winged angel.
"Hell" and "the Flood" in the literature about Bosch in comparison with his other works is given very little space. There are several reasons: first, the case in very poor state of preservation of the paint layer, and secondly, in the absence of a Central panel, and thirdly, the difficulty of interpreting what is depicted in preserved leaves and some sense endowed, as depicted by Bosch.
Released in 2014, year book Linda Harris "The secret heresy of Hieronymus Bosch" seeks to fill this gap, giving detailed explanations of all depicted on the panels of the plots in which the author of the study sees a direct confirmation of his theory: Bosch, maintaining visibility good Catholic, actually belonged to the sect of the Cathars. This heretical doctrine professed a dualistic concept of the two equal principles of the universe – good and evil, and everything associated with the physical and material world is seen exclusively as evil, and water baptism, we offer the official Church, the Cathars contrasted the baptism of the Spirit.
According to Harris, after the flood in the diptych corresponds not official Church version, and the alternative Qatari, according to which "those who were saved in the ark, and their children had sinned and betrayed, and many of the crimes committed by them... and they killed each other" – that is why after the flood, they are greeted by such a bleak, dismal, littered with corpses earth. "Noah and his family in a strange worn-out suits and hats Jewish is in the ark – says L. Harris, – In the iconography of Bosch's fancy clothes always mean evil. People in such costumes can be seen among the torturers of Christ or the sinful among the guests in the painting "the Marriage in Cana of Galilee". It is obvious that the souls of the eight people in Noah's ark belong to Satan and do not deserve salvation."
Image in Tondo, from the point of view of Linda Harris, reflect the views of the early heretical (Manichaean, Gnostic, bogomilov) on collective soul, being entirely in the power of Satan to deliver them from which only the coming of Jesus Christ. The meaning of some stories of outer flaps in this case is explained as follows: "...a man on his knees in a long dress, with uncut hair to their shoulders is, apparently, the Qatari priest or a chosen one, a bearer of the Holy spirit. He prays for the salvation of another soul – a woman who flees from imprisonment in the physical body in the material world. Cathar spiritual baptism of fire saves her from the Hellfire of Satan. While the Church's baptism with water, taken Noah and his family, is lucasanum that maintains the life, physical and prolongs the imprisonment of the soul in the world of Satan".
Author: Anna Yesterday
Left wing with the old Testament scene of the flood described in the Book of Genesis, survived somewhat better than others. On the ark, represented in the form of a large wooden barge, clearly distinguishable four pairs of biblical characters: Noah and his wife and his three sons Shem, ham and Japheth with their second halves. The ark anchored on mount Ararat, the flood was over, and from the hole in the wall of the ark with a long stretch on land that becomes visible once the water became shallow, pairs of animals and birds. This curving cavalcade of elephants, deer, pelicans, giraffes and other denizens of Noah's ark on the performance is very similar dance animals from "the Garden of earthly delights".
However, the picture in the fold "Flood" was devoid of any hint of idyll: for example, there is no rainbow is the sign by which Noah understood that God's wrath was exhausted and it was dried up and the waters of the flood. Lower part of the panel is a terrible picture of dead human bodies and rotting animal carcasses.
The idea of a new flood as a divine retribution for the moral fall of mankind when life Bosch was in the air. In 1499, the year of German astrologers even named a specific date when, in their opinion, there may be a second flood and the whole world will perish – February 25, 1524. Who died in 1516, the year Hieronymus Bosch to the predicted day has not lived but half the last two decades of his life were marked by the impending disasters and inescapable celestial car, which explains in part the keen interest of Bosch to the themes of doomsday and judgement.
Right wing the diptych depicts a burning city with swarming in the sky and scattered on the ground of diabolical figures. Opinion on the content of the sash disagree: maybe this is a depiction of hell (the demonic amid the blazing fires in the distance are reminiscent of right-wing "hell" wings of the triptychs of Hieronymus Bosch "The last judgment"and "The hay" and polyptych "Visions of the underworld"), or, according to the second, more original version – on the wing we see the earth before the flood, the world that is spiritually degraded, and mired in evil and uncleanness, and the people become indistinguishable from demons.
On each of the outer wings (they, like the inner, is made in monochrome grisaille technique) are placed on two Tondo – round medallions containing scenes that are not entirely clear (1, 2). The researcher Irma Vitrock believes that the ideas for these sketches Bosch borrows from medieval didactic stories and sermons, and art historian Ian Mosman considered all four episodes scenes from life of St. Jerome, but both versions have become common. We can observe how the demons tormented people: beaten with sticks, thrown off the horse, break into houses, but the power of demons over human life is not unlimited: in the fourth Tondo Christ blesses the kneeling sinner, obviously, promising repentant human liberation and salvation. Second forgiven sinner in the background is given a white garment (sign of purification) from the hands of a winged angel.
"Hell" and "the Flood" - a Manifesto of Bosch-heretic?
"Hell" and "the Flood" in the literature about Bosch in comparison with his other works is given very little space. There are several reasons: first, the case in very poor state of preservation of the paint layer, and secondly, in the absence of a Central panel, and thirdly, the difficulty of interpreting what is depicted in preserved leaves and some sense endowed, as depicted by Bosch.
Released in 2014, year book Linda Harris "The secret heresy of Hieronymus Bosch" seeks to fill this gap, giving detailed explanations of all depicted on the panels of the plots in which the author of the study sees a direct confirmation of his theory: Bosch, maintaining visibility good Catholic, actually belonged to the sect of the Cathars. This heretical doctrine professed a dualistic concept of the two equal principles of the universe – good and evil, and everything associated with the physical and material world is seen exclusively as evil, and water baptism, we offer the official Church, the Cathars contrasted the baptism of the Spirit.
According to Harris, after the flood in the diptych corresponds not official Church version, and the alternative Qatari, according to which "those who were saved in the ark, and their children had sinned and betrayed, and many of the crimes committed by them... and they killed each other" – that is why after the flood, they are greeted by such a bleak, dismal, littered with corpses earth. "Noah and his family in a strange worn-out suits and hats Jewish is in the ark – says L. Harris, – In the iconography of Bosch's fancy clothes always mean evil. People in such costumes can be seen among the torturers of Christ or the sinful among the guests in the painting "the Marriage in Cana of Galilee". It is obvious that the souls of the eight people in Noah's ark belong to Satan and do not deserve salvation."
Image in Tondo, from the point of view of Linda Harris, reflect the views of the early heretical (Manichaean, Gnostic, bogomilov) on collective soul, being entirely in the power of Satan to deliver them from which only the coming of Jesus Christ. The meaning of some stories of outer flaps in this case is explained as follows: "...a man on his knees in a long dress, with uncut hair to their shoulders is, apparently, the Qatari priest or a chosen one, a bearer of the Holy spirit. He prays for the salvation of another soul – a woman who flees from imprisonment in the physical body in the material world. Cathar spiritual baptism of fire saves her from the Hellfire of Satan. While the Church's baptism with water, taken Noah and his family, is lucasanum that maintains the life, physical and prolongs the imprisonment of the soul in the world of Satan".
Author: Anna Yesterday
