Hieronymus Bosch: The World as Hell / Hell as the World

When we say "Bosch," we mean "demons," "temptations," and "torments of hell." The master from the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch was, of course, not the first medieval artist to depict punishments after death and fiery landscapes of the otherworld. But the hell he imagined is very unlike the "standard" one.

Cities in flames; harps, knives, skates, and other objects that have suddenly grown huge and turned into tools of posthumous execution; demons who have formed into squads and gone to war against sinners. It seems that Bosch is depicting not hell, but a world that has become hell.

How are his infernal spaces arranged? Why have even musical instruments become instruments of torture? What do images of the underworld tell us about the everyday life of the 15th century? And how are the wars that Dutch cities and their lords regularly waged reflected in them?

Even the most inventive imagination (and Bosch had no equal here!) builds imaginary worlds out of elements of reality. Even the most terrible nightmare (Freud would agree!) is built according to certain rules. Let us try to find out which ones.

Speaker: Mikhail Maizuls, historian-medievalist, Candidate of Sciences in History. Areas of research: religious and cultural history of the Western European Middle Ages, medieval iconography, history of religious and political iconoclasm, visual anthropology. Two-time winner of the Enlightener Prize.

After the lecture, there will be a Q&A session.