Christianity and Homosexuality — ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ Has It All
Edition #39 - Decoding the most creative analogy of human vices
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Christianity and Homosexuality — ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ Has It All
Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights is a visual dictionary that talks about biblical narratives, religious sentiments and human morality.
Each element in this masterpiece is filled with symbolism, which is mind-boggling, unsettling and leaves us with many questions.
Let’s unravel the most elaborate depiction of the three panels.
Left Panel
Adam and Eve are in the garden of expulsion. In medieval times, the presence of Christ was common in the garden of Eden.
Behind them is the tree of life — the Dragon blood tree, which, when cut, releases dark red resin just like blood. The wafers of the Eucharist are present on this tree.
Eve is on the left side of Christ. Left depicted sinister in medieval times. The date palm present behind Eve symbolizes the tree of resurrection.
Ugly fantastical creatures are present in the pond. The 3-headed bird points to the Trinity. Peacock, duck, wild boar, elephant, monkey, unicorn, horse and giraffe are present. Many of these animals were seen for the first time in this painting.
The ‘Fountain of Paradise’ is on the vertical axis and matches the color of Christ’s robe. It is a Christian symbol associated with baptism and eucharist — the symbol of life and fertility.
The owl watches from the bottom circular hole.
The swan near the fountain represents purity and the virgin Mary.
An unusual rock formation is in the form of a weeping face called Golgotha — The Place of the Skull. It was believed that Adam’s skull was buried in a cave. This rock formation inspired Salvador Dali for his painting The Persistence of Memory.
Center panel
At first glance, this panel seems chaotic. But as we stare at it for a while and enlarge the panel, it depicts the pleasure zone.
Bosch depicted lust, homosexuality and sexual connotations of different fruits.
The fountain in this panel is broken and fragile. There are no direct sexual acts except the one in the hole of the fountain where a man shamelessly touches the crotch of a woman.
The crescent moon on the fountain shows the Turks — the enemy of Christianity in the middle ages.
The empty mussel shells, broken eggs and carcasses represent emptiness.
The hollowed-out fruits represent female genitalia. Two cherries on a naked woman show male genitalia.
On the left, a couple attached to the umbilical cord of a large flower is trapped in the circular glass showing that pleasure is transient.
The orange tent shows men turning their buttocks to the viewer. Sign of homosexuality and sodomy.
All fruits have sexual connotations. Blackberries with multiple seeds depict promiscuity.
Adam and Eve are present in the bottom right corner. Eve is encased in a cylindrical glass shield with a communion wafer gagged in her mouth. This portrayal is theologically controversial. It appears that eve’s voice is intentionally silenced.
Other mortals are encased in different glass shields.
Behind Adam, there is a man with wine leaves. He could be Noah.
The black-colored humans here and there represent Turks or Muslims.
Here’s decoding Bosch’s hell (the right panel of The Garden of Earthly Delights)