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

Tuesday 28. January 2025 at 19:00 - 22:00

Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell • Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle 38, 75010 Paris, Île-de-France, France

When we say “Bosch,” we mean “demons,” “temptations,” and “torments of hell.” The master from the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch was certainly not the first medieval artist to depict posthumous punishments and fiery landscapes of the afterlife. However, the hell he envisioned was far from “standard.”

Cities engulfed in flames; harps, knives, skates, and other objects enlarged to monstrous proportions and turned into instruments of posthumous executions; demons forming battalions to wage war against sinners. It seems Bosch does not portray hell, but a world that has become hell.

How are his infernal spaces constructed? Why did musical instruments become tools of torture? What do his depictions of the underworld reveal about everyday life in the 15th century? And how did the wars frequently waged by Dutch cities and their overlords shape these visions?

Even the most inventive imagination (and Bosch had no equal here!) creates imagined worlds from elements of reality. Even the most terrifying nightmare (as Freud would confirm!) is built according to certain rules. Let’s explore what those rules are.

Speaker: Mikhail Maizuls – historian and medievalist, PhD in History. Areas of expertise: religious and cultural history of Western Europe’s Middle Ages, medieval iconography, history of religious and political iconoclasm, and visual anthropology. A two-time winner of the "Enlightener" prize.

A Q&A session will follow the lecture.

The event will be held in Russian at Le Petit Gymnase, Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell.
Google Maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/mgZDck1VAqFbgqubA

Doors open at 6:30 PM.

Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell • Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle 38, 75010 Paris, Île-de-France, France

Google Map of Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle 38, 75010 Paris, Île-de-France, France

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