THEY ROARED VINTAGE
THE SCARIEST PAINTING OF ALL TIME

By Tori via TRV Blog 4/30/12:

Art usually never scares me. Some of it offends me, some of it amazes me, and some confuses me, but rarely does it scare me.

The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch is an exception. This painting scares the bejeezus outta me. Why? Well, there’s the obvious: it is indeed a portrayal of Hell. But a lot of paintings of Hell don’t bother me. I think Garden unnerves me because it’s so weird and busy, and mainly because of this very correct observation from Peter S. Beagle: “Bosch is innovative in that he describes Hell not as a fantastical space, but as a realistic world containing many elements from day-to-day human life.” It’s true—the fact that half the characters in this painting are having a good time while the other half are losing their minds and being tortured is terrifying.

The victims being tortured are being punished in ways that look more humiliating than painful, and some of the scenes are so confusing that I can’t even tell…(continue)