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Welcome to Great Art. For the past
few years,

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we've been filming the biggest
exhibitions in the world,

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about some of the greatest artists
and art in history.

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Not only do we record
these landmark shows,

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but we also secure privileged access
behind the scenes

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of the galleries
and museums concerned.

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We then use the exhibition
as a springboard

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to take a broader look
at these artists.

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This week, we bring you an exhibition

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that is genuinely a
once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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To celebrate the 500th anniversary

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of the death of the great
Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch,

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his home town of Den Bosch assembled

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the largest exhibition of his
paintings and drawings ever staged.

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It was unprecedented,
and so popular

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that the gallery had to
remain open until 1am every night.

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Hieronymus Bosch
was a remarkable artist.

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A singular talent who continues
to inspire artists today.

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He was painting at the same time
as Leonardo and Michelangelo,

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but in the Italian-dominated world
of Western art history,

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he's never quite had their status.

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However, his technical gifts
are self-evidently remarkable

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and his imaginative powers
seemed unrestrained,

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creating visions in oil paint
that are overwhelmingly powerful,

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sometimes bizarre, frightening,
and beautiful,

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and always deserving
of a closer look.

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This exhibition was...

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I have to say,
I think one of the best exhibitions

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I've seen in my entire life.

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One, because it got so many
of the paintings together.

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Never done before.
Two, it was a pioneering show.

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They had nothing to swap
except their expertise,

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so what they did is they persuaded

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the greatest museums
to lend their great pieces

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on the proviso that they would do
some analysis of them.

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There are no paintings or drawings

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of Jheronimus Bosch in his native
town,

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so we had to find a way to get
the other museums prepared

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to loan us their works.

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And we thought, "What would
be of interest for those museums?"

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And we said, "Knowledge."

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Knowledge is a thing that all the
other museums are interested in.

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We could do research on all the
works of Jheronimus Bosch.

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From 2008, I visited all the museums

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in the United States and in Europe

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with works of Bosch
in their collection,

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and I asked the directors
of the museums and the curators, uh,

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whether they would co-operate
for such a research project.

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And I mentioned the possibility
of the conservation,

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and that we would be very glad
to have an exhibition

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at the end of that research project
in 2016

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when it would be the year of the
fifth centennial of Bosch's death.

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So, in the end, we have,

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from the 24 paintings
that are attributed to Bosch,

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we have 17 paintings here.

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And from the 20 drawings
attributed to him,

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we have 19 here in our exhibition,

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so that's a tremendous success.

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I think in asking for the loans,
the museum were very clever

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in that they made it clear
that they wanted to bring

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so many works back into the context
in which they were created,

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which always brings new insights
into a work -

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just seeing them also
amassed together.

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As one critic actually said,
he's like,

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"Bosch probably never saw so many
artworks of his own all together."

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And that really enables an art
historian to do the sorts of things

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normally we can only do with JPEGs
or with catalogues.

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This is the only moment where we
have, let's say, two dozen works
in one room.

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We can make those sorts
of comparisons

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and get a better sense
of his chronology as well.

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What is he looking at
at different moments of his life?

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What has he learned? And where does
he go from that moment onwards?

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(GREGORIAN CHANT)

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NARRATOR: A lone traveller plods his
way through life.

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The road ahead is closed by a gate.

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An aggressive dog growls
at his heels.

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The traveller is just passing
a house of ill repute,

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and the landscape in the distance
looks barren and desolate.

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With what few possessions he has,
he trudges cautiously,

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looking back over his shoulder
and moving ever forwards.

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He is 'Everyman.'

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Will the traveller open the gate
and continue on his way,

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despite the ox who blocks his path?

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Or will he wander off
into sin and vice?

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And what do we see?

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A pig's trotter as an amulet.

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A catskin hanging just below the
spoon on the outside of his pack.

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The signs are ominous.

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An inverted jug sticks up
from the apex of the gable.

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Underwear hangs from the window.

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A man urinating in the corner,

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and a couple canoodling
in the doorway.

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We are watching...and being watched.

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(GREGORIAN CHANT CONTINUES)

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An owl, high up in the tree,
has its eye

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on a small bird perched
a few branches lower.

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The viewer sees a pilgrim on his
road and, like him,

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must choose which course to take

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without deviating from
the true path.

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He will ultimately be held to
account for the choices he has made.

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And for how he has led his life.

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Who was Bosch?
That is the great question.

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Nobody really knows.

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What we do know is that he wasn't
the mad tortured genius

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running amok that we sometimes like
to think of him as.

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He was actually a rather
respectable townsman.

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He was born in Den Bosch.
He married. Rather well, actually,

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and lived in a very prosperous house
on the poshest side of the square.

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His studio was on the other side.

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He travelled very little,

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and mainly lived his life happily
in Den Bosch,

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working for commissioned pieces
and for a brotherhood.

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's-Hertogenbosch at the time
of Hieronymus Bosch

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wasn't a very big city.

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It was a city mainly of tradesmen.

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But, of course, here were also
all kinds of craftsmen working here,

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weaving clothes, making shoes.

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Building the houses, of course.

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But there wasn't a court.
There wasn't a bishop.

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There were quite a few monasteries,
chapels, churches.

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I think city life and the world
around Bosch

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was a source of inspiration
for his imagery.

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And he looked at people
and he managed to reproduce them

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very carefully and very precise
in his paintings.

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He saw dogs. He saw horses
passing by.

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At the same time, he had this great
fantasy, and he mixed it all
together.

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And that's how he figured out
how to paint his hells

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and all those aspects
in his paintings

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that are the most fascinating
still today.

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Bosch was a religious man.

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He was a layperson.
He was married,

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but as a sworn brother in the
Brotherhood of our Illustrious Lady,

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he had committed himself to God
by shaving his head.

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I think it's very popularly assumed
that Bosch was this freakish figure,

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that he was a, sort of, subject
of psychotic visions.

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He was very much taken up in the
'60s as someone who probably took
psychedelics or something.

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In fact, he was really very much
a product of his late medieval era.

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He draws upon the imagery
and the iconography

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and the symbolism of that era
very profoundly.

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But then does take it forward
into a modern age.

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And I think that Bosch's really
important role in art history

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is the way he links
the past and the present.

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He's almost like a...
He is a link figure.

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So, Bosch was taking this
very...fairy tale world,

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as we see it, but factual world
as the medieval people saw it.

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What he was saying was not something
extraordinary to medieval people.

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This is what they believed. These
hellish visions are what they
thought about,

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and what they had been taught
to believe by their church
and by their society.

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NARRATOR: The Ecce Homo scene is
described in all four gospels -

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Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

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But it is John's version that Bosch
took as his source.

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Ecce Homo is a traditional
religious theme,

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painted as a memorial to its donors.

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Bosch draws out meaning in the scene

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by using a number
of unconventional details.

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A bystander holds a burning torch
in broad daylight,

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alluding to the haste with which
Christ has been tried and condemned,

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and to the crowd's complicity.

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The square is otherwise
ominously quiet and deserted,

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in sharp contrast with the agitated
men who jostle in the foreground.

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Pontius Pilate is showing Christ
to the Jewish people,

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and Bosch has used Latin text
to emphasise the interaction

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between those around
the tortured Christ.

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Pilate points to Jesus with the words
'Ecce Homo' - 'Behold the man.'

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The crowd of people looking up at him
call out, 'Crucifige Eum' -
'Crucify him.'

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The monk, kneeling in front of his
brothers, and behind the male donor,

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recites the prayer,
'Salva Nos Christe Redemptor' -

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'Christ Redeemer. Save us.'

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Christ is not positioned centrally.

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Yet he is unmistakably the principal
figure of the overall composition.

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Wearing the crown of thorns,
he has been flogged,

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and his body is covered with wounds.

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The agony of the scene is emphasised

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by his bloody footprint
left on the ground.

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In the early middle ages, the city
of 's-Hertogenbosch

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was full of cloisters, erm...
clergymen.

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And one out of three inhabitants

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was one way or another
linked to the church.

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We are here in the so-called

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We are here in the so-called
Swan Brotherhood House,

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which originally has been created
in 1318

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by the Prince-Bishop of Liege

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as a Marian-devotional fraternity -

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the Illustrious Lady.

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What we know about Hieronymus Bosch
as our brother

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is that his father already was
a member of the Brotherhood.

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It was a very respected
artist family in the city.

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Bosch married a wealthy lady,

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so, presumably, he was already in
the higher class of the local
society.

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Bosch had an incredibly
rich imagination,

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so whilst he was looking
at a variety of sources

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and extracting pictorial imagery
from them -

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for example,
prints or manuscript illuminations -

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he was taking individual elements
from these sources

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and putting them into colour
paintings in new ways, in new
settings.

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At the same time he must have
been a great observer of nature.

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He was looking at the world
around him,

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studying human beings,
studying animals, studying nature,

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and then transposing
that into two-dimensional painting,

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which is an incredible thing,

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to be able to condense
all of these different sources

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into one single image.

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And much of this observation
is evident in his drawings.

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Sometimes you have single sheets

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that have several figures that he
studies from different angles.

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It's incredible. It's almost like an
inventory of that same figure

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shown from different angles that he
can then go

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and revert to and use in a larger
composition.

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And so, his graphic oeuvre
is a good source

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for us to see some of this great
imagination coming to life.

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Bosch himself was in the first place
a Christian moralistic painter,

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and he painted for, of course,

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the audience of his own times,
for his contemporaries.

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By painting it the way he did,
I think it gives...

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and it still gives,
a universal meaning.

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It's about good and evil.

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It's how to behave, how to think
about life for yourself.

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(GREGORIAN CHANT)

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If Hieronymus Bosch walked into this
chapel on pretty much

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any day of the week, he would have
heard a variety of music.

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At this time, the human voice was
essential to devotional music.

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Not to say that instruments
weren't involved.

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There would have been
a beautiful organ,

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and it's known there was
an organist in this building.

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And we have lots of records of
instruments playing with the voices,

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but the voice is, of course,
essential to a kind of music

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which is expressing devotion to God,

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especially through the texts of the
Bible and other religious texts.

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So it's essential for the voice
to...

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Again, it's the idea
of taking the word,

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and when the word becomes important,
giving it an added dimension.

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That's exactly what singing does to
a word as opposed to speaking it.

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It gives it colour, and when you put
more voices together,

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it makes it even more complex
and more ornate.

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St Jerome must have had
a special significance

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for his namesake Hieronymus Bosch.

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The learned saint's
uncompromising moralism

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and his personal religious commitment
makes him a worthy model.

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00:24:22,580 --> 00:24:26,620
Jerome stretches out on the ground
in an ominous landscape,

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praying with utter devotion
to Christ.

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00:24:29,740 --> 00:24:32,740
He embraces a crucifix
with both arms,

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00:24:32,740 --> 00:24:36,500
his hands clasped together
and his eyes closed.

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00:24:38,140 --> 00:24:42,820
The rock, with which he has just
chastised himself, lies nearby.

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00:24:44,940 --> 00:24:48,900
Jerome meditates on the physical
torments suffered by Christ

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00:24:48,900 --> 00:24:52,900
while wrestling with his own
earthly desires.

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00:24:52,900 --> 00:24:57,540
A closed book lies between his
cassock and his cardinal's hat,

247
00:24:57,540 --> 00:25:00,540
alluding to his scholarship
and the years he spent

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00:25:00,540 --> 00:25:03,060
working on a Latin translation
of the Bible.

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00:25:03,940 --> 00:25:06,700
On the left of the painting,
we see the lion

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00:25:06,700 --> 00:25:10,780
which was tamed when Jerome
extracted a thorn from his paw.

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00:25:10,780 --> 00:25:14,380
Following which, the beast became
his faithful companion.

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00:25:15,380 --> 00:25:19,340
The lion, cardinal's hat, book,
rock, and crucifix

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are all standard attributes

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00:25:21,740 --> 00:25:24,980
in the depiction of St Jerome praying
in the wilderness.

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00:25:26,540 --> 00:25:31,900
Bosch was living in a time and in a
city where fear was everywhere.

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00:25:33,060 --> 00:25:36,140
There was, of course,
in that period,

257
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the possibility of plagues
and fires.

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Poor harvests.

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00:25:45,540 --> 00:25:49,500
The fact that 's-Hertogenbosch
was a fortified city

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in the northern part of the Duchy
of Brabant and of Burgundy

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00:25:53,620 --> 00:25:58,540
explains why Philip 'the Fair' -
one of Bosch's commissioners -

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and all those noblemen were here.

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00:26:02,300 --> 00:26:06,740
Because they started
their campaigns for war here.

264
00:26:06,740 --> 00:26:10,020
And that explains
why the Count of Nassau

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00:26:10,020 --> 00:26:14,380
and all those other important
advisers from the Burgundian court

266
00:26:14,380 --> 00:26:16,620
came to 's-Hertogenbosch

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00:26:16,620 --> 00:26:20,420
and had the opportunity
to visit Bosch in his studio.

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00:26:51,420 --> 00:26:57,140
This dramatic triptych has been in
Venice for over 350 years,

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00:26:57,140 --> 00:27:02,100
and represents the crucifixion
of a female saint, Wilgefortis.

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00:27:03,700 --> 00:27:06,700
The left wing shows St Anthony
in meditation

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00:27:06,700 --> 00:27:09,260
against the background
of a burning city.

272
00:27:13,580 --> 00:27:17,260
While the right wing depicts a monk
leading a soldier

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00:27:17,260 --> 00:27:20,380
past a scene of violence
and destruction...

274
00:27:21,860 --> 00:27:25,660
..including a sunken ship
and a beached whale.

275
00:27:30,620 --> 00:27:34,820
The story of Wilgefortis is more
folktale than religious.

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She is the daughter of a pagan king

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00:27:37,340 --> 00:27:40,540
who wants her to marry
another pagan king,

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00:27:40,540 --> 00:27:44,540
despite her vow of chastity
and devotion to Christ.

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00:27:44,540 --> 00:27:46,900
She prays for help
in resisting the marriage,

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00:27:46,900 --> 00:27:50,460
whereupon she miraculously
grows a beard,

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00:27:50,460 --> 00:27:52,540
and the match is withdrawn.

282
00:27:52,540 --> 00:27:56,460
Her father is so furious,
he has her crucified.

283
00:28:00,300 --> 00:28:04,700
The scene beyond the crucified martyr
shows a church in a landscape

284
00:28:04,700 --> 00:28:08,020
that would have originally
run across both wings,

285
00:28:08,020 --> 00:28:11,020
providing a background
for two male donors

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00:28:11,020 --> 00:28:13,740
thought to have commissioned
the painting.

287
00:28:13,740 --> 00:28:16,700
These were overpainted centuries ago,

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00:28:16,700 --> 00:28:21,660
but can be made out clearly in X-ray
and infrared images of the painting.

289
00:28:25,700 --> 00:28:28,500
This is the digitised image.

290
00:28:28,500 --> 00:28:32,860
Originally, I think this image is
about 40 gigabytes or something.

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00:28:32,860 --> 00:28:35,220
So that was made available for us

292
00:28:35,220 --> 00:28:39,940
by the computer engineer on our team

293
00:28:39,940 --> 00:28:44,060
so that we can easily
access this painting

294
00:28:44,060 --> 00:28:48,460
and actually see almost
into the cracks

295
00:28:48,460 --> 00:28:51,020
and see what's going on there.

296
00:28:51,020 --> 00:28:56,140
This type of magnification goes
further than a magnifying glass.

297
00:28:56,140 --> 00:29:00,740
And it's almost
on a microscopic level

298
00:29:00,740 --> 00:29:04,180
that you can now see the picture.

299
00:29:04,180 --> 00:29:06,780
And what is the advantage

300
00:29:06,780 --> 00:29:10,260
of this type of image
is that you can...

301
00:29:11,780 --> 00:29:14,180
..zoom in very fast

302
00:29:14,180 --> 00:29:19,900
and see how a specific area
of the painting is executed...

303
00:29:19,900 --> 00:29:24,300
zoom out, and move
to a different part of the picture.

304
00:29:24,300 --> 00:29:28,020
This type of imagery
is actually rather helpful

305
00:29:28,020 --> 00:29:32,060
for conservators as well,
to do their job.

306
00:29:32,060 --> 00:29:36,220
The original concept of this
triptych was abandoned,

307
00:29:36,220 --> 00:29:40,140
and the wings were painted over.

308
00:29:40,140 --> 00:29:43,780
And it was changed into...

309
00:29:43,780 --> 00:29:47,180
a scene that is very much Bosch.

310
00:29:47,180 --> 00:29:51,620
Especially the left wing,
where we see a city burning,

311
00:29:51,620 --> 00:29:55,220
where we see various types
of demons and monsters.

312
00:29:55,220 --> 00:29:57,300
And this is the type of imagery

313
00:29:57,300 --> 00:30:01,620
that one would associate
with Bosch very much.

314
00:30:40,540 --> 00:30:45,220
It strikes me that the double-sided
panels that Bosch paints

315
00:30:45,220 --> 00:30:47,660
really reveal a great deal
about his knowledge

316
00:30:47,660 --> 00:30:50,900
of the religious subjects
that he paints on one side.

317
00:30:50,900 --> 00:30:55,900
For example, in his panel painting
of Christ carrying the cross,

318
00:30:55,900 --> 00:30:59,460
on the opposite side,
on the outer wing,

319
00:30:59,460 --> 00:31:02,420
he paints a grisaille of the young
Christ child,

320
00:31:02,420 --> 00:31:05,180
who's holding a little toy,
like a little whirligig,

321
00:31:05,180 --> 00:31:09,780
and is using a little walker...
and is making his first steps

322
00:31:09,780 --> 00:31:12,300
as he's moving across the earth.

323
00:31:12,300 --> 00:31:16,700
And there's something very striking
about those first delicate steps

324
00:31:16,700 --> 00:31:19,620
of any child, but in this case,
the Christ child.

325
00:31:19,620 --> 00:31:23,820
And his future as it's reflected on
the opposite side of the panel,

326
00:31:23,820 --> 00:31:27,940
where he will be stumbling
under the weight of the cross

327
00:31:27,940 --> 00:31:30,260
on which he will be crucified.

328
00:31:30,260 --> 00:31:34,300
It's a very powerful understanding
of what that moment means.

329
00:31:41,980 --> 00:31:45,260
Bosch absolutely knew
how to seize the imagination.

330
00:31:45,260 --> 00:31:49,020
He knew that those fantastical
images were going to hold

331
00:31:49,020 --> 00:31:53,380
a cold, hungry, bored peasant

332
00:31:53,380 --> 00:31:56,580
kneeling on a cold stone church
for hours.

333
00:31:56,580 --> 00:31:59,260
He knew how to hold
their imagination.

334
00:31:59,260 --> 00:32:04,180
And it's that vividness, that
vitality, that fantastical
directness

335
00:32:04,180 --> 00:32:06,260
which goes on through the ages -

336
00:32:06,260 --> 00:32:09,100
that's why he seizes
our imaginations now.

337
00:34:00,260 --> 00:34:04,820
The picture of Bosch that I have
in my mind is complicated.

338
00:34:04,820 --> 00:34:08,100
In one way, he's a very serious man,

339
00:34:08,100 --> 00:34:11,980
really thinking about what it is
to be human

340
00:34:11,980 --> 00:34:14,700
and what it is to live in this world

341
00:34:14,700 --> 00:34:19,380
and to connect to our creator
or his creator,

342
00:34:19,380 --> 00:34:23,220
and the threats of devils and demons

343
00:34:23,220 --> 00:34:26,420
and how to lead a just life,
and all things like that.

344
00:34:28,300 --> 00:34:32,260
A very serious and philosophical
person in one way,

345
00:34:32,260 --> 00:34:37,340
but in the other way, I tend to
think of him as a person

346
00:34:37,340 --> 00:34:42,220
with a lot of humour, and he must
have enjoyed very much

347
00:34:42,220 --> 00:34:44,980
painting all these hell scenes

348
00:34:44,980 --> 00:34:50,700
and creating all these devilish
monsters and creatures.

349
00:34:58,100 --> 00:35:03,940
The power in the paintings of Bosch
is, for me, the...directness.

350
00:35:04,300 --> 00:35:08,140
There isn't a great distance
from the artist to the viewer,

351
00:35:08,140 --> 00:35:11,780
and that's important
for his visual language.

352
00:35:11,780 --> 00:35:15,140
He has this strategy
of keeping his audience

353
00:35:15,140 --> 00:35:18,980
looking at his paintings,
thinking about the subject.

354
00:35:18,980 --> 00:35:24,100
Bosch thought quite long about what
to represent, how to represent it,

355
00:35:24,100 --> 00:35:28,180
and then he painted it very fast,
very direct.

356
00:35:28,180 --> 00:35:32,100
The longer you look at the
paintings, the longer you are
thinking

357
00:35:32,100 --> 00:35:36,140
about the subject of the painting,
and that's what Bosch wants.

358
00:35:39,660 --> 00:35:41,740
Bosch offers us a powerful

359
00:35:41,740 --> 00:35:44,740
and highly-innovative image
in The Haywain.

360
00:35:46,420 --> 00:35:50,940
The Bible compares the transience of
human existence with that of grass...

361
00:35:52,020 --> 00:35:54,660
..but there is no reference
of the haywain as a metaphor

362
00:35:54,660 --> 00:35:57,140
in the traditional
literature of the time.

363
00:35:58,660 --> 00:36:01,740
Bosch shows how, contrary
to God's commandment,

364
00:36:01,740 --> 00:36:04,700
people give in to their greed.

365
00:36:04,700 --> 00:36:08,820
Left unchecked,
human beings act like beasts,

366
00:36:08,820 --> 00:36:12,860
and in doing so,
condemn themselves to hell.

367
00:36:15,620 --> 00:36:18,900
The left wing shows
the Garden of Eden.

368
00:36:18,900 --> 00:36:23,700
Bosch depicts the angels cast out
of heaven for disobeying God,

369
00:36:23,700 --> 00:36:26,780
who now change into monstrous beings.

370
00:36:31,140 --> 00:36:36,020
God creates the first human couple
who succumb to sin.

371
00:36:39,060 --> 00:36:44,260
He reprimands them, and then the
archangel expels them from paradise.

372
00:36:50,300 --> 00:36:52,940
We see very important people
of society.

373
00:36:52,940 --> 00:36:55,300
We see the Emperor, we see the Pope,

374
00:36:55,300 --> 00:36:57,940
we see kings, we see a lot
of nobility.

375
00:36:59,300 --> 00:37:03,540
We see, in front of the haywain,
commoners who are fighting,

376
00:37:03,540 --> 00:37:06,140
all trying to get a part
of that hay.

377
00:37:07,700 --> 00:37:11,380
And at the bottom of the painting,
we see a fake dentist

378
00:37:11,380 --> 00:37:13,700
who is pulling out teeth.

379
00:37:13,700 --> 00:37:18,540
We see nuns, and we see
a very lazy monk who is drinking

380
00:37:18,540 --> 00:37:21,900
and he looks towards the nuns

381
00:37:21,900 --> 00:37:26,140
who are trying to get the hay,
and giving him a part of it.

382
00:37:26,140 --> 00:37:31,500
Every person in society is trying
to get a part of that richness.

383
00:37:31,500 --> 00:37:34,780
And there is a 15th century poem
that says that

384
00:37:34,780 --> 00:37:40,340
the Lord gave us a lot of hay,
and it was meant to share.

385
00:37:40,340 --> 00:37:43,700
But instead of it,
people are fighting for it.

386
00:37:43,700 --> 00:37:47,020
Bosch was the first
and the only person in his time

387
00:37:47,020 --> 00:37:51,780
who used this sort
of, uh, moralistic metaphors.

388
00:37:51,780 --> 00:37:56,820
It's not the life of a saint.
It's not an example given by Christ.

389
00:37:56,820 --> 00:38:01,220
Common people like us who
are depicted on this painting -

390
00:38:01,220 --> 00:38:04,980
it's quite unusual to do such
a thing.

391
00:38:04,980 --> 00:38:08,780
It wasn't meant for a church
or a chapel or a monastery.

392
00:38:08,780 --> 00:38:14,700
It was meant for the house
of a nobleman or a rich citizen.

393
00:38:14,700 --> 00:38:19,020
And you won't find it done
by other artists of his time.

394
00:38:34,580 --> 00:38:37,380
Bosch was popular in Spain

395
00:38:37,380 --> 00:38:41,100
from the beginning
of the 16th century,

396
00:38:41,100 --> 00:38:45,900
and especially
in the time of Philip II.

397
00:38:45,900 --> 00:38:50,940
A lot of paintings from Bosch
went to Spain...

398
00:38:50,940 --> 00:38:53,940
and that gave them the impression

399
00:38:53,940 --> 00:38:58,500
that it was a part of their culture.

400
00:38:58,500 --> 00:39:01,900
And the fact that so many
works of Bosch

401
00:39:01,900 --> 00:39:05,620
were assembled at the Spanish court

402
00:39:05,620 --> 00:39:10,100
made him part of the cultural
heritage of Spain,

403
00:39:10,100 --> 00:39:14,420
but he is still an artist
of the Low Countries.

404
00:40:24,820 --> 00:40:28,100
The Garden of Earthly Delights
is an astounding painting.

405
00:40:28,100 --> 00:40:31,700
It's a painting unlike any other.
It would have been closed.

406
00:40:31,700 --> 00:40:35,700
The exterior of an altar generally
would have been painted in grisaille

407
00:40:35,700 --> 00:40:38,260
in shades of black and white,
and shades of grey.

408
00:40:39,820 --> 00:40:42,580
A globe in which
we see a desolate world.

409
00:40:42,580 --> 00:40:44,620
A beautiful globe.
A transparent globe.

410
00:40:44,620 --> 00:40:47,300
And the fact that he's
able to paint translucency

411
00:40:47,300 --> 00:40:51,260
to such a high, convincing finish
is incredible,

412
00:40:51,260 --> 00:40:55,260
so one sees his painterly skill
from the very beginning.

413
00:40:55,260 --> 00:40:57,940
What is actually depicted
is the third day of creation,

414
00:40:57,940 --> 00:41:00,860
and we see God the Father,
a tiny little God the Father,

415
00:41:00,860 --> 00:41:03,180
in the upper left,
doing the creating,

416
00:41:03,180 --> 00:41:05,220
but the creating is much grander,

417
00:41:05,220 --> 00:41:08,540
and so, we're looking at the
macrocosm on the exterior

418
00:41:08,540 --> 00:41:10,540
and we're seeing it
in black and white.

419
00:41:10,540 --> 00:41:13,140
And then we open the shutters.

420
00:41:14,620 --> 00:41:18,260
The owners of the triptych would
have been very proud of their
painting,

421
00:41:18,260 --> 00:41:22,900
and had a special visitor coming,
they would have opened the triptych,

422
00:41:22,900 --> 00:41:26,620
and behold, what one would have
seen, would have been this
incredible colour.

423
00:41:26,620 --> 00:41:29,820
So, the contrast between
the very dark exterior

424
00:41:29,820 --> 00:41:32,260
and the very colourful interior,

425
00:41:32,260 --> 00:41:36,100
and the absence of what one was
expected to find in an altar piece,

426
00:41:36,100 --> 00:41:38,620
which would have been saints.

427
00:41:40,140 --> 00:41:42,300
One begins with the
left-hand side panel

428
00:41:42,300 --> 00:41:45,100
and the representation of paradise.

429
00:41:45,100 --> 00:41:48,780
One only sees a single scene,
in a way,

430
00:41:48,780 --> 00:41:52,340
which is an unusual one -
the presentation of Eve to Adam.

431
00:41:58,340 --> 00:42:02,260
God the Father, who we saw in the
exterior, was an elderly,
bearded God,

432
00:42:02,260 --> 00:42:05,540
is here a much younger God,
very Christ-like.

433
00:42:05,540 --> 00:42:08,420
Whilst you don't have the expulsion
of Adam and Eve

434
00:42:08,420 --> 00:42:12,540
in the images themselves, you have
the implications of the fall of man.

435
00:42:12,540 --> 00:42:15,620
You have all kinds
of ominous, sort of, animals,

436
00:42:15,620 --> 00:42:18,900
three-headed animals. You've got
animals eating one another.

437
00:42:18,900 --> 00:42:22,820
Ominous symbols in the nature
that surrounds Adam and Eve.

438
00:42:26,500 --> 00:42:29,020
And in the very centre
of the composition,

439
00:42:29,020 --> 00:42:31,900
you have this beautiful
fountain in pink.

440
00:42:31,900 --> 00:42:35,300
In the interior of this opening
in the fountain is an owl.

441
00:42:35,300 --> 00:42:38,020
And of course the owl
is an ominous symbol

442
00:42:38,020 --> 00:42:41,220
and is telling us that something
is amiss in this paradise.

443
00:42:43,780 --> 00:42:46,580
I find the central panel
particularly fascinating

444
00:42:46,580 --> 00:42:50,220
because of the number of inversions
that one finds in the painting.

445
00:42:50,220 --> 00:42:54,100
So, when one thinks of birds,
one expects to see them in the sky,

446
00:42:54,100 --> 00:42:56,820
but in this case, um,
you have birds in water,

447
00:42:56,820 --> 00:43:00,100
you have fish flying in the sky
or fish on land.

448
00:43:00,100 --> 00:43:03,540
You have human beings
eating giant fruits,

449
00:43:03,540 --> 00:43:05,740
so things have swollen
and become larger,

450
00:43:05,740 --> 00:43:08,620
and human beings have shrunk
and become smaller.

451
00:43:08,620 --> 00:43:11,180
The birds - Some of the birds
in the middle ground...

452
00:43:11,180 --> 00:43:13,900
One of them has the most
beautiful blue feathers.

453
00:43:13,900 --> 00:43:18,300
The very painterly way
in which he treats these birds

454
00:43:18,300 --> 00:43:21,620
and the detail with which he -
The time he spends in painting them,

455
00:43:21,620 --> 00:43:26,180
and the figures themselves,
the human beings that he paints
are much less highly finished,

456
00:43:26,180 --> 00:43:28,300
much more quickly painted.

457
00:43:28,300 --> 00:43:33,020
Again, it's an inversion in the
way in which he treats man
and animals.

458
00:43:33,020 --> 00:43:36,100
You would think he would spend
more time painting the figures,

459
00:43:36,100 --> 00:43:39,180
but in fact he seems to be spending
more time painting the animals.

460
00:43:40,580 --> 00:43:43,820
Bosch is doing exactly,
in the painting,

461
00:43:43,820 --> 00:43:47,060
what man would have been struggling
with, perhaps, in real life.

462
00:43:47,060 --> 00:43:50,140
You know, struggling with
the temptations of the world,

463
00:43:50,140 --> 00:43:52,620
and in a way, he's tempting us
with this painting.

464
00:43:52,620 --> 00:43:56,300
In this case, he's dealing with one
single sin - the sin of lust.

465
00:43:58,420 --> 00:44:00,860
The right-hand panel,
the very dark contrast,

466
00:44:00,860 --> 00:44:04,660
which is the panel of hell -
the figures are basically punished

467
00:44:04,660 --> 00:44:07,540
for everything that they've done
in the central panel.

468
00:44:07,540 --> 00:44:10,340
So you have all kinds
of gory monsters...

469
00:44:10,340 --> 00:44:14,220
Again, hybrid figures.
A very, very cacophonous scene.

470
00:44:14,220 --> 00:44:17,700
There's a lot of musical instruments
that are being used for torture.

471
00:44:17,700 --> 00:44:20,860
So that is something that's quite
important about Bosch as well.

472
00:44:20,860 --> 00:44:22,980
Whilst his paintings
are very visual,

473
00:44:22,980 --> 00:44:26,500
and, of course, The Garden of
Earthly Delights is a very
visual painting

474
00:44:26,500 --> 00:44:30,220
and it entices you to look closely
and for a very prolonged period,

475
00:44:30,220 --> 00:44:35,220
it's also very loud, in a way,
and it evokes a lot of sound.

476
00:44:37,540 --> 00:44:39,740
We have a man that has
the head of a man,

477
00:44:39,740 --> 00:44:44,140
but his torso is composed of a tree
trunk and he's got boats for shoes.

478
00:44:47,780 --> 00:44:51,700
We have a very gory figure sitting
and defecating other figures.

479
00:44:52,220 --> 00:44:56,380
Very inventive with the types
of monsters that he's imagining.

480
00:45:15,300 --> 00:45:18,940
It would be unbelievable to have
a Garden of Earthly Delights

481
00:45:18,940 --> 00:45:23,900
or a Haywain
in a church or a monastery.

482
00:45:23,900 --> 00:45:27,860
But in the house or in the palace
of a nobleman,

483
00:45:27,860 --> 00:45:30,300
that would be possible.

484
00:45:30,300 --> 00:45:35,140
I think the securest way that
we regard Bosch is being very
contemporary.

485
00:45:35,140 --> 00:45:38,500
You know, all art movements create
their own predecessors,

486
00:45:38,500 --> 00:45:41,220
and the surrealists, of course,
were the first people

487
00:45:41,220 --> 00:45:46,060
to imagine that Bosch was a
surrealist 400 years before its
time.

488
00:45:46,060 --> 00:45:50,620
I think that's part of art
historical, you know, notions.

489
00:45:50,620 --> 00:45:53,300
It's a sort of
backwards-forwards movement

490
00:45:53,300 --> 00:45:57,940
that everybody in the art historical
world - the game is constantly being
played.

491
00:45:57,940 --> 00:46:01,140
So, I think in the way it strikes us
as being modern.

492
00:46:01,140 --> 00:46:03,420
Without fear. Fearless painting.

493
00:46:03,420 --> 00:46:05,820
It's a David and Goliath situation.

494
00:46:05,820 --> 00:46:09,060
Obviously with Bosch being David.

495
00:46:11,140 --> 00:46:14,980
Like all the greatest artists,
his work transcends his time.

496
00:46:14,980 --> 00:46:17,300
He is dealing with
something so primal,

497
00:46:17,300 --> 00:46:20,140
so essential to our human natures,

498
00:46:20,140 --> 00:46:22,540
that he's going to transcend
all periods

499
00:46:22,540 --> 00:46:25,140
and he is always going
to remain curious.

500
00:46:36,260 --> 00:46:40,100
What's fascinating to me, when I
think of Bosch, and when I talk to
other people

501
00:46:40,100 --> 00:46:43,260
who have looked at Bosch paintings
but are not art historians -

502
00:46:43,260 --> 00:46:47,020
what they always remember
are the small anecdotal details,

503
00:46:47,020 --> 00:46:50,620
the very curious,
often unexplainable details.

504
00:46:50,620 --> 00:46:54,020
The curiosities and the very dark
parts of his painting.

505
00:46:54,020 --> 00:46:58,780
And if I ask them, "What painting
was it? Was it a crucifixion? Was it
Christ carrying the cross?"

506
00:46:58,780 --> 00:47:01,620
They can't tell me. They can tell me
all about the details,

507
00:47:01,620 --> 00:47:05,420
about a man growing out
of a strawberry or what have you.

508
00:47:05,420 --> 00:47:07,580
So I think what's fascinating
about Bosch

509
00:47:07,580 --> 00:47:10,340
is he's remembered
in all the intimate details

510
00:47:10,340 --> 00:47:13,980
except for the main subject
of many of his paintings.

511
00:47:13,980 --> 00:47:16,340
He still obviously has
a relevance today.

512
00:47:16,340 --> 00:47:19,460
He's someone that people look to
and look at.

513
00:47:19,460 --> 00:47:22,820
And even so many contemporary
artists have been inspired
by his work,

514
00:47:22,820 --> 00:47:25,420
so I think he's someone that people
keep coming back to

515
00:47:25,420 --> 00:47:27,900
and they keep getting something
from his paintings.

516
00:48:55,660 --> 00:48:57,620
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