Bosch’s <The Garden of Earthly Delights> and Renaissance : Focusing on the relevance of Dante’s Divine Comedy

This study attempted to reconstruct the full historical meaning of this work, which is the coexistence of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, by examining the Renaissance characteristics shown in Hieronymus Bosch’s <The Garden of Earthly Delights> (1503-4) with a focus on its relationship with Dante’s Divine Comedy (1320). <The Garden of Earthly Delights> has been discussed only within the scope of the Middle Ages because its theme warns against ‘lust’. However, the Bosch’s self-portrait in the work is a Renaissance characteristic of self-awareness, which Dante first raised. Accordingly, this article expanded the discussion of <The Garden of Earthly Delights> to the Renaissance, focusing on its relationship with Dante’s Divine Comedy’s “Inferno”. The reason Bosch wanted to go beyond the scope of the Middle Ages and include a new zeitgeist was fundamentally his extreme interest in humans and the world surrounding humans. This is the worldview of Renaissance humanism, which holds that human life must continue even though it is located in the midst of suffering. In this respect, the Renaissance characteristics of <The Garden of Earthly Delights> can be seen as recapturing historical significance.