songs of hell

by alex eckford

The most obvious part of this image is the humongous instruments taking up most of the foreground.  More specifically, a harp, lute, and a hurdy-gurdy. When I first saw the instruments in the image, it made me think about the name of the painting: “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” Indulging in music could have been seen as sinful back when the painting was made, had it been construed as selfish to do so simply for pleasure. In other words, seeing the instruments on a backdrop of hell makes it seem as if music itself is an “earthly delight” that has no place in heaven. Hurdy-Gurdy makers Alden and Cali Hackman agree with this stating that “Bosch and his contemporaries viewed music as sinful, associating it with other sins of the flesh and spirit.” Thus, the first piece of art I added was an abstract painting of a guitar painted by Picasso. While the instrument is somewhat defined there are plenty of unexpected curves and bends in the instrument, that lead you to feel as if you are viewing it from a sort of trance. I am using this feeling to try and replicate indulgence in an instrument, and how playing it is pleasurable and therefore sinful and selfish. The other aspect of the painting I noticed was how everyone in the image is at their most vulnerable, they are all naked, and no one person in particular is more apparent than anyone else. This reminded me of The Tempest in the opening scene when everyone on the boat is being tossed around, mariners and nobles alike. This scene, like the painting, shows the audience that no one person has more value than another, and that when it comes down to life and death, we are all alike. To show this idea in the image, I added a piece of Jan Van Eyck’s “The Last Judgment.” The scene depicts a ghostly sort of monster, likely representing death, carrying humans below it. Like Bosch’s piece, all the people appear similar and are represented in their most raw form, showing once more how everyone is more or less the same in death, and that materially speaking, who we are does not matter. The final image I added was “The Mouth of Hell” taken from the Hours of Catherine in Cleves. The painting depicts a giant monster devouring humans alive, and conjures up similar feelings of fear to the hurricane in “The Tempest.” Alike in the way that they are both out of mortal control, they both feel like biblical interventions, which like I stated before removes status and material goods from the picture, showing how everyone is equal in any scenario involving death.