My prior Art posts can be found HERE.
How do we move away from being a civilization that produces art that causes comments like, “my five year old could make this,” back to being one that creates beauty and inspires deep questions? We must reject modernity and embrace tradition. To embrace tradition, we must first learn about it..
Let’s study art history together.
Ascent of the Blessed
| Artist | Hieronymus Bosch |
|---|---|
| Year | c. 1505-1515 |
| Medium | Oil on panel |
| Dimensions | 86.5 cm × 39.5 cm (34.1 in × 15.6 in) |
| Location | Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice |
I really love this painting. It was created right in the transition from Medieval art (which is often weird) into Renaissance art which really advanced the art form from a technique standpoint. This work blends the weirdness of the Middle Ages with the improved technique of the early 16th century.
This piece was part of a larger series, called a polyptych, divided into four panels. The four panels were named – altogether – Visions of the Hereafter. The other three individual panels were titled Terrestrial Paradise, Fall of the Damned into Hell and Hell. Obviously the painting here is the preferred human outcome. It shows people on their way to heaven.
There are a lot of really fascinating elements to the work. The painting appears to be depicting three separate scenes, stacked atop each other, and though it is implied, the sense that people are moving upward through the three scenes is ambiguous at best. Bosch is famous as a landscape painter, but we get almost zero landscape here. It’s darkness. The large circle of light at the top appears to be a tunnel. We see a tiny figure on the far side, with the human closest to passing through in a posture of prayer. It’s noteworthy that the humans seem to need less assistance from the angelic guides the closer they get to the tunnel.
The other interesting detail (that I noticed) is that the humans are all naked, while the angels are clothed. I am reminded of the verse from the Bible.
The Book of Ecclesiastes 5:15 As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.
(more on the painting, via wiki)
Ascent of the Blessed is a Hieronymus Bosch painting made between 1505 and 1515. It depicts angels helping human souls towards heaven. The attribution to Bosch is not universally accepted.
It is located in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, Italy. This painting is part of a polyptych of four panels entitled Visions of the Hereafter. The others are Terrestrial Paradise, Fall of the Damned into Hell and Hell.
Arrangement of the Polyptych
When hung in Venice in 2011, the order of the panels was Fall of the Damned into Hell, Hell, space, Terrestrial Paradise, and Ascent of the Blessed. The Terrestrial Paradise was placed on the left because it resembles other Eden panels by Bosch, especially with its landscape, fountain, and following biblical convention. Another possible arrangement is Ascent, Paradise, Hell and the Fall which takes inspiration from Matthew 25: 32–3 in the Bible. The Bosch scholar, Ludwig von Baldass, does not mention any other possible arrangements and feels that “the wings are divided into two portions, one above the other, representing on the left the figures of the saved being escorted by angels into Paradise and on the right the fall of the damned into Hell. Some scholars believe that Visions of the Hereafter are the wings to a missing middle panel which would presumably be the Last Judgement.
For a great review of this painting, please let me direct you to the following:
