The mysterious renaissance pioneer of surrealism + fantasy art.
It is often said, that there are no new ideas under the sun...yet during a time in which Europe was dominated by religious art and confined in terms of medieval subject matter, Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch was the first painter of his era to create art from within his own imagination, unseen by the world, described by psychologist Carl Jung as the “discoverer of the unconscious”.
Many chapters of the artist's life remain a mystery, however it is believed that he was indoctrinated into the esoteric mystery schools of the medieval era due to the symbolic representations of various occult imagery throughout his works, alongside being one of the foundational figures of the Dutch renaissance movement himself; a revival of hermetic knowledge in Europe from the 14th century onwards, transforming culture.
Some of the only records of his life confirm that as a teenager, Bosch witnessed a massive fire that destroyed more than 4,000 houses and killed countless people and livestock in his village of Den Bosch in which he was born and also died, at the age of 66.He was a member of the "Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady", a local Dutch Christian order in veneration of the Virgin Mary, the foundation for his religious art.
Hieronymus Bosch illuminated heaven and hell within his art, and the "monsters" of his work, must be considered within the time frame of the medieval Black Death which occurred during the painter's life, meaning Bosch was seeing literal portrayals of hell on earth. This re-occurring description of Bosch as a "painter of hell" does however seem unfair given the illuminating scope for "heaven" also represented within his art.
Hieronymus Bosch's art signifies arguably the most pivotal shift in art consciousness in the past 1000 years, breaking free from the paradigm in the time he lived to manifest the potential for imaginative exploration, essentially creating the artistic genre's of surrealism and fantasy art.
Leonardo Di Caprio featured the painting Garden Of Earthly Delights in his documentary Before The Flood as the main metaphor for the current climate crisis and global perspective disconnected from nature.
Hidden within the micro details of this famous triptych is a beautiful melodic medieval score that can be listened too, a clear example of Bosch's creative genius, easily overlooked, yet there for those who search deeper.
Bosch can be credited as one of the founding influences on our platform, and we aim to channel his same vision of unimagined possibilities.
- PSYCHIC GARDEN
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