The module will allow the viewer to actively confront the late medieval work of the master H. Bosch and enable reflection on the representation of love in art.

The motif of love is extremely often taken up in art, it runs through many works of painting, literature or film. It is impossible to name all the varieties of love, to close in one definition the phenomenon that is love. From the romantic or erotic one, through agape, the Christian variety of love, and ending with maternal and platonic love. It would be even more difficult to create a complete list of works that thematize love. This testifies to the power of this motif, to its importance in the context of the authentic experience of each person. Both today and in the past, the motif has been taken up by artists, but the intentions and motivations of the creator are not always clear. This is, among others, the case of Bosch and the triptych “Garden of Earthly Delights”.

Through participation in the lesson, the participant will actively confront the work of H. Bosch. He will make an attempt at his own statement on the status of love in the context of the most recognizable and at the same time intimidating work of H. Bosch, “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. He will consider traditional readings of the painting work, as well as its reinterpretations.

Bosch’s painting with its multiplicity of interpretations still arouses many emotions today, provokes new readings, stimulates the imagination, including that of contemporary viewers and artists. These try to look at Bosch’s painting through their interpretive filters, as exemplified by works that refer to “The Garden…” and make it an important point of reference.

Interpreters reflect on the essence of love, the intimate relationship that unites people in the central part of the triptych by H. Bosch. With dependent works, the continuators of Bosch’s legacy attempt to answer the question to what extent should the relations connecting the figures depicted in the painting be burdened by a religious context, and thus considered in terms of original sin and guilt? Researchers, viewers and interpreters spin fantasies related to the message of the painting. Everyone would like to believe that contemporaries also have the right to their own reading of this work, also ignoring the historical or religious context.

Bosch’s painting has found itself in the orbit of interest of literature, poetic texts, film images (both fictional and documentary transmissions). It is also an object of cultural history research exemplified by Antoni Ziemba’s interesting discussion and analysis in the study “Art of Burgundy and the Netherlands 1380-1500. Volume II. Dutch panel painting 1430-1500”.