Rothe 1955
Hieronymus Bosch – Garten der Lüste (Hans Rothe) 1955
[R. Piper & Co Verlag, Munich, 1955, 14 pages + 53 ill.]
[Also mentioned in Gibson 1983: 95 (E136)]
According to Rothe Wilhelm Fraenger has convincingly demonstrated that Bosch belonged to the sect of the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit (also called ‘homines intelligentiae’): ‘The best thing to say about Fraenger’s approach is that it is both intelligent and convincing. In order to evaluate this approach, one has to have even more knowledge than Fraenger’.
The central panel of the Garden of Delights represents ‘Paradise gained’: humanity as it would have been if Eve had not listened to the snake. In other words: we see the descendants of Adam and Eve who have not been expelled from Eden. Not a single figure in the central panel is distorted in a ludicrous way, ‘and how fond was Bosch of distortion elsewhere’. The right interior panel represents hell, but it is not a very dangerous hell (sic!). Nevertheless, the message is: these tortures you will suffer, if you don’t lead the life of the faithful people who can be seen in the central panel.
[explicit]
