Hieronymus Bosch in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Abstract

Bosch's vision of Hell resembles a popular late medieval text, 'Visio Tondali', a trip by an Irish knight to the afterlife, mostly Hell, widely translated from its Latin original (a 1484 Dutch text printed in Den Bosch). Like Bosch's Vienna triptych, in Tondale's Hell, the punishment fits the crime, and both fire and ice with beasts in gloom impose varied punishments on sinners. The Vision even includes a view of the gate of Hell and Lucifer, just as Bosch ends on Vienna's right wing with a dark, glowing, frontal figure with red limbs and a tail, who stands under an arch of noxious toads. While the artist does not literally illustrate the popular Tondal text, he too remains fascinated with Hell and with demons that punish sin. Yet in the Vienna triptych Heaven is much smaller than in Memling or most other Judgments, while the Tondale text also includes a visit to Heaven, where several different levels of goodness are justly rewarded.