So begins the essay "What's So Contemporary About Hieronymous Bosch" by Dean Kissick (at Spike), which I'm reading after blogging about an illustration about Elon Musk by Cold War Steve.
I found Cold War Steve's Twitter feed and messaged this other illustration of his to Meade:
— Cold War Steve (@coldwarsteve) May 20, 2020Meade's response was a link to a page of Bosch images. There's so much going on there, so many ideas that could be translated into modern satire... and so easily now with the computer.
I love Cold War Steve, but there is endless room for illustrators to appropriate the Hieronymus Bosch approach to patching things together. And yet, how do you do it anywhere nearly as well as he did?
Is it just the implication that these things might really happen to you in the afterlife? Or is it that we recognize our own mind externalized? Or no, not your mind of course. Some other person's mind. Watch out for them. Be very very paranoid.
I love the rat contemplating entering the eye socket.
From the Kissick essay:
One thing that can be assumed about Bosch is that he was obsessed with the end of the world, and this is a reason his work resonates so much today, because we live in millenarian times.... The reason his paintings of heaven and hell appear so relevant today is because we are now living in them, and the boundaries between people, animals, and objects really are falling apart: 2016 is a world of avatars and branded mascots, a place with robotic household appliances that talk to us, and an internet of things, with human ears growing out the back of mice, and otherkin teenagers dressing up as their animal forms. Thousands of writhing naked bodies are only a couple clicks away, and most of our perverse fantasies have been visualised somewhere, even those involving octopuses and vibrators...."
Otherkin? I had to look it up. Wikipedia says:
Otherkin are a subculture of people who identify as not entirely human. Some otherkin believe their identity derives from reincarnation, a non-human soul, ancestry, symbolism, or metaphor. Others attribute it to unusual psychology and do not hold spiritual beliefs on the subject. Categories of otherkin include Fictionkin, those who identify as fictional characters; Conceptkin, who identify as abstract concepts; Weatherkin, who identify as weather systems; as well as a number of other more obscure categories.... A controversial but frequently made analogy is to the transgender condition and gender dysphoria, leading to the terms trans-species or trans-speciesism and species dysphoria.
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28 comments:
Hieronymus Bosch makes a lot more sense when you understand the prevalence of rye ergot poisoning during his lifetime.
Think medieval acid, but with a greater chance of horrific death and strong desire to burn witches. They say Joan of Arc loved the stuff.
If you are trying to be more obscure than people who identify as weather systems, you are just another trophy hunter.
I think Bosch was the real inventor of LSD...
Trump is gone. The shitshow continues and is worse. Somebody give Cold War Steve the word.
I will say this for him, though -- he's actually a step up from Steve Bell, the Guardian's old cartoonist.
he was ahead of the curve, by about 400 years,
We need more kids named Hieronymus...not enough of them these days...
Otherkin, Schmotherkin. Look up Furries and Yiffing, and see how letting weirdos connect over the internet was a really big mistake.
When I was a young child my mother would clean out my ears for me, and often exclaimed that I had so much dirt in my ears that she could grow a garden there.
However, she never said she could grow a TREE in them!
Reminds me of medieval illuminated manuscripts to the point it seems clear those were influences.
You might like weird medieval guys @WeirdMedieval on Twitter
“Meade linked a site full of Bosch info”
Just another reason to love Meade!
I’ve visited museums around the world for over a half a century. But my two most favorite visits were to the Prado in Madrid in 1999 and 2010 just after opening hours to view the amazing “Garden of Earthly Delights” in person. Its colors are much brighter and vivid than in any reproduction.
FYI: the lead detective character in TV’s (and crime novels) “Bosch” series is Hieronymus Bosch (but is shortened to “Harry”).
Taschen published a new and very gorgeous edition of its Bosch book. Buy it here:
https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/art/all/40708/facts.hieronymus_bosch_the_complete_works_40th_ed.htm?change_user_country=US&gclid=CjwKCAjw6MKXBhA5EiwANWLODKICV9St6CMHGnNYpZtYi-MVx25wMIRhr-493GgnTd14A5TdEQr9ORoC2NAQAvD_BwE
Geronimo!
A busy canvas, showing all the right figures in all the right lights--I assume, since my eyes no longer allow close scrutiny.
Back in 1964, when Time-Life was pumping their Science Library series through one of the supermarket chains, my mother brought home "The Mind."
I lived with that book for months. One of the dozens and dozens of lush illustrations was a panel from a Bosch tryptich. It haunts me to this day.
I didn't dig "The Scientist" or "Evolution" nearly as much as "The Mind."
It also talked about Albert Hoffmann and his lysergic acid. (Time-Life: Mainstreaming hallucinogenics for six decades!)
"Taschen published a new and very gorgeous edition of its Bosch book. Buy it here:"
Or at the Althouse Amazon Portal:
https://www.amazon.com/Hieronymus-Bosch-Complete-Works-40th/dp/3836587866
: )
I wonder which generation was most convinced that the end was nigh: The early or medieval Christians, the ban the bombers or the climate change activists....When I was younger, I read a pamphlet by Bertrand Russell. He presented an extremely convincing case for nuclear Armageddon that was much more reasoned and forceful than anything I've read by the Greta Thunberg....Be kind of funny if Putin has a bad day and initiates a nuclear war and thus ends humanity. Those climate activists would really look foolish....The people back in 1913 thought that the world wasn't going to end. They thought that things were good and were going to get better. The joke was on them. All my life I've thought that the world was just on the verge of collapse but, by just about every metric, life has gotten better....It would be kind of cool if the world ended a day or two after my death. My timing would be impeccable, and I wouldn't miss out on anything.
Visited the Prado in 1970, viewed the Garden of Earthly Delights in natural light (open window), with no ropes, no protective glass, and no visible guards. Years later, normal security measures were in force.
A local Orange County band, The Swamp Zombies had a song that went: "On the day that Hieronymus Bosch died, a funnel was placed on his head." The song is called, Happy, and it's on their album, Scratch and Sniff Car Crash. The Swamp Zombies were a really creative band. I was very sad when they broke up.
"FYI: the lead detective character in TV’s (and crime novels) “Bosch” series is Hieronymus Bosch (but is shortened to “Harry”)."
Bosch of the LAPD on TV is not who we are talking about here? Glad you tipped me off; I was really struggling to understand this post. Just shows how little I know about art.
I wonder which generation was most convinced that the end was nigh...
The apostle Sha'ul (Paul) was certain it was going to happen during his lifetime.
I notice the owl on top of the head.
I've read some of the Harry Bosch detective books. One novel explored the connection between owls, and Hieronymus Bosch, the medieval painter. As I was reading the novel, I thought for sure it was a plot device created by the writer Michael Connelly.......hmmmmm........maybe not!!
Back in 1964, when Time-Life was pumping their Science Library series
My daughter has latched onto my old collection.
I meant the other guy--Steve--in my earlier comment, not my man Hieronymus.
Lurker21 said...
Trump is gone. The shitshow continues and is worse.
The latest version of same:
Washington Examiner August 08, 2022 06:59 PM
Trump says FBI 'raided' Mar-a-Lago
'Former President Donald Trump said Monday night that the FBI had "raided" his home in Mar-a-Lago, claiming they even "broke into [his] safe."
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents," Trump said in a statement. "Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate. It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”
The Justice Department and the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.'
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/trump-says-fbi-raided-mar-a-lago
Off on a wild tangent, I look at the mouse approaching the left eye of the large head in the painting, and think of the Giant’s Cup game in “Ender’s Game”.
Boobies. Penises, not invited.
If you have access to virtual reality equipment, check out “Eye of the Owl—Bosch VR,” which allows a minute examination of “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” You can shrink yourself to the scale of the painting’s characters!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/420020/Eye_of_the_Owl__Bosch_VR/
I loved the Time/Life “The Mind” book, or anyway the illustrations. They printed a batch of Louis Wain’s cat paintings, which got progressively more psychedelic as (presumably) his schizophrenia intensified. There was a painting some psychiatric patient had done of his mind, represented as a labyrinth located in his head, with all sorts of bizarre things taking place down this or that dead end. All the pictures were great. It was an important book to me in retrospect because I decided (around the time I was 12) that I liked looking at Louis Wain’s cats and that I wasn’t interested in how crazy he was.
I love the Bosch books and tv series. Coincidentally, I just finished "A Darkness More Than Night" in which a murder is set using Bosch's (the artist) painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights" and the significance of owls!
I rather appreciate my set of Bosch tools when I am puttering in the garage. I am not an artist of any sort, despite the name on my tools.
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