Hieronymus Bosch: The concert in the egg (1480)

The figures emerge from the inside of an egg around a singing book.

Hyeronimus Bosch Netherlands , 1480

Original title: Zangers in music in een ei Museum: palaisbeauxartslille (Lille, France) Technique: Oil (365 x 126 cm.)

The work of Hieronymus Bosch is full of eggs and music. The symbolic potential of these elements is exploited in this painting by the artist, who, as always, fills everything with fantastic landscapes, demonic creatures and other elements of strong symbolism.

Ten strange characters led by a friar gather around a song book. The figures emerge from the inside of an egg as do two emaciated trees with a snake (the one on the right) and a basket with food next to a clay vase (left).

The book occupies a privileged place in the composition. According to several researchers, it corresponds to a secular love theme score from the time that read: “Toutes les nuits que sans vous je me couche”, (Every night I go to bed without you), a kind of feverish blues from the 15th century. The musicians who play this spicy melody seem to be quite crazy (see the faces and the funnel on the head of one of them), another classic of Hieronymus’ paintings : madness.

In other holes in the egg you can see a monkey with a kind of wind instrument, a thief who steals a bag from the religious, a creature playing the lute and an arm trying to reach a roasted fish cooked by a cat-man.

The thing doesn’t stop there. By narrowing your view a little, you can see other scenes: on the right, some gentlemen around a table and a naked woman, and three mysterious characters with masks carrying unidentified objects in their hands. To his right are other characters who seem to suffer while screaming and covering their ears.

It is the typical nightmare environment of Hieronymus Bosch: A hell, a dream, an apocalyptic delirium, a David Lynch film …

Strange people or infernal creatures often play music in the paintings of this visionary master, almost always suggesting crazy and strident melodies. If something is not missing in his painting, it is music or musical instruments, especially in hell.

And eggs also appear continually in his work: eggs on heads, people living in eggs, eating eggs, defecating eggs, cracking eggs, transparent eggs, giant ones, tiny ones… A whole archetype, the egg. An alchemical symbol of multiple interpretations, which of course delighted the surrealists and another illustrious egg obsessive: Salvador Dalí.

What does Hieronymus want to tell us here? That music is bad for the soul? Is it a sin…?

What do all those elements, those people, those scenes… mean?

And another mystery… What did Hieronymus Bosch smoke…?

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