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DEVIL ON NIGHT-CHAIR
From the Tryptichon "The Garden of Earthly Delights", Prado, Madrid.
It is presumed that somehow Bosch had knowledge of the Visio Tungdali, a twelfth century handwriting that describes a vision of a journey through hell. This was possibly the basis for this devil, crowned with a cauldron, symbolising the diabolical inferno fire. He is sat on a night chair, which offers him the possibility of excreting the gorged souls. His curious footwear in the shape of pitchers symbolises dipsomania
Height: 15,5 cm
HIERONYMUS BOSCH (1450 -1516)
THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS Hiëronymus Bosch shows us how we mortal souls, arisen from earthly paradise, are on our way to the atrocious ordeals of hell via our unchaste lives on earth. The dark painting on the closed panels shows the Creation, surrounded by water, in accordance with mediaeval traditions.
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