Hieronymus Bosch

No one can look at the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch without amazementand bewilderment. Professor Gibson shows that what seems inexplicableto us today'”the canvases full of torture, monsters, and leeringdevils'”was perfectly intelligible to the fifteenth-century viewer. Thesubjects of Bosch's paintings were in fact the overwhelming concerns oflate medieval Europe: the Last Judgment, original sin, death,temptations of the flesh. The author describes each picture in detail,placing each work within the context of medieval folklore and religion,and explains that many of the acts portrayed in the pictures werevisual translations of verbal puns or metaphors.