Tag Archives: Medieval

Hey, I went to Philadelphia! (Medieval style)

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Yep, this is Philadelphia. I went to see the Van Gogh exhibition – completely sold out – and ended up browsing the Medieval section of the museum. Atmospheric, no?

I made a friend a few inches tall carved in ivory. She seems nice and devout. I quite like her.

But there’s another side to her – a darker side reminding one of death as much Medieval art does. 

There were some extraordinary works of art. There were also sea monsters.

Of course the sea monster here is a woman. Just like blaming Eve for that whole apple incident. I feel sure that there are an equal number of male and female seamonsters, but when do you ever see the male portrayed?

This picture depicts a typical angel crowning going on in the main room (you know how it is). 

However, who is the mystery man in boxer shorts at the door? Why is he included in this picture of St. Veronica and her husband being crowned by angels when he seems to be delivering wood? That’s what I like about these Medieval artists: You know they are going be absolute fanatics about details, so you get a sense of what it was truly like the day Veronica was crowned.

Dragon.
I also enjoyed the portraits of highly unattractive people.

Outside the museum, a fog hung low over the city.

Play Your Cards Right

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The Cloisters in Fort Tryon park, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is displaying a lovely set of fifty-two Medieval playing cards that constitute the only known complete deck of illuminated ordinary playing cards (as opposed to tarot cards) from the fifteenth century. The face cards are especially fun.

The Met says that their “exaggerated and sometimes anachronistic costumes suggest a lampoon of extravagant Burgundian court fashions.” Perhaps, but I think they look charming. The real question is: how did they survive this long?

Weird Earthly Delights: From Ensor to Bosch

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Ensor’s show at MoMA reminded me of yet another comparison: a similarly weird, awkwardly- figured, semi- allegorical/demonic painter: Bosch. Ensor’s work is deliberately bizarre as a method of self- fashioning, while Hieronymus Bosch– well, is anybody’s guess, but mine would be he couldn’t help himself. He was truly odd.

If you want a fun trip around the world, take Google Earth over to the Prado Museum in Spain where you can see Bosch’s masterful triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights in which a “religious” imagination runs riot.


Things are fairly normal on the left hand side, where God creates Adam and Eve. Hell is still recognizable in the right hand panel. In the center, the garden of earthly delights is full of nude cavorting men, women, birds and monsters who stick things in odd places rather than the more innocent pleasures of, say, board games and ice cream.

Check out some of Bosch’s earthly delights:


Each of these scenes are supposed to have an individual moral meaning, but they all seem centered on the pleasures of the flesh. Although the triptych form suggests it was intended as a altarpiece, the bizarre acts of the nude figures have convinced most art historians that it must have been intended for a lay person. (Or a swinging monastery perhaps??)


The difficult symbology of the central panel has often been interpreted as a warning over life’s temptations, and what a warning it is. Symbolism of this work is certainly open to interpretation and this worked in Bosch’s favor. Amazingly considering the subject matter, this panel was popular enough to generate many copies and Bosch flourished even under the sway of the Medieval Church. While I’m not sure of the particulars, I know what the works says to me:


Look at me! Look at all these happy, nude cavorting figures exploring their sexuality. What fun, with fruit and water and flowers and other naked people! This is so much more interesting than those two smaller, boring panels to the side. Wouldn’t you like to live here?