The hell

Bosch, Hieronymus (ca. 1450-1516)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

1500-1505

Height:

220.0 cm  (86 5/8 in.)

Width:

97.0 cm  (38 3/16 in.)

size of right panel only

Technique / Medium:

oil on oak

Additional titles

Description

The right panel of this triptych is a hellscape and portrays the torments of damnation. The foreground is populated by a variety of distressed and tortured figures. Some are shown vomiting and excreting, others are crucified by harp and lute in allegory of music, thus sharpening the contrast between pleasure and torture. A choir sings from a score inscribed on a pair of buttocks, part of the group that has been described as the "Musicians Hell." Lust is symbolized by the gigantic musical instruments and by the choral singers in the left center of the panel. Musical instruments often carried erotic connotations in works of art of the period, and lust was referred to in moralizing sources as the "music of the flesh". There has also been the view that Bosch's use of music here might be a rebuke against traveling minstrels, often thought of as purveyors of bawdy song and verse.

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Lute [3394]
Harp [3285]
Hurdy-gurdy [3305]
Shawm [4258]
Flute [3955]
Cylindrical drum [2532]
Trumpet [4446]
Triangle [3005]

Musical works

legible music notation

Image URLs

image link 1
image link 2

Bibliographic references

Ember, Ildikó. Music in painting: Music as a symbol in Renaissance and Baroque painting. Trans. by Mary and András Boros-Kazai (Budapest: Corvina, 1984) plate 16. ISBN 9631317234. RILM 1984-6813.

RIdIM record id

3453