Bosch and Freud - on Art and Madness
The rise of
Renaissance started in the Low Countries – called Flanders. Great artists appeared as the representatives
of the late medieval new thinkers. The
status of artist rose from those considered as craftsman – “Mechanic artist” to
a respectable free thinker, imaginative creator – “liberal Artist”.
The first of such
representative was Hieronymus Bosch whose paintings of demonic figures in the
guise of religious themes displayed his unbridled fantasies of the bestiality
and humanity, the corruption of both human and animals, in the chaos of the world
– reflecting the period in history where clashes between various continents and
ideology seemed to have come to the central stage of civilization in the 15th century. The Turkish Ottoman Empire took
over the Byzantine in the 11th century and occupied S.E.Europe, the Black Death wiped out half of the European population…
Bosch, artist of
the 15th century, marked a point of departure from the Dark Ages to the Age
of Enlightenment. As a northerner, with
his typical dark imagination, enhanced by witch’s oil (a type of drug) he found his
unique style of Gothic art – grotesque but realistic figures fornicating,
gorging, binge drinking, defecating at the same time… The symbolism mingled with
realistic figures created an exotic background evoking nightmarish scenes,
which exist neither in “Paradise” nor in “hell”.
Freud said that
man who is unhappy with reality tends to go on the path of “Regression” –
hoping to reverse back to the childhood dreams in order to escape the reality
and such a man becomes a neurotic individual… If he possesses artistic flair,
he can transform this negative force into an ability of a genius to create
great art works…
Many people in
the “Dark Ages” unhappy with the way of life resorted to heresy or hermitage
or in silent self-reflection to seek answers in religious meditation. Driven by fear or guilt, or feeling of
insecurity, those who would be misfits in normal social life went on pilgrimage or retreated to deep forest in remote mountains. Those who took refuge in austere monasteries
on the top of Montserrat (Franco-Spanish border), away from the rest of the
world, found solace in a life of
poverty, and self-punishment. But did
they find “Redemption”?
Related post:
"La grandeur de l’art véritable, au contraire de ce que M. de Norpois eût appelé un jeu de dilettante, c’était de retrouver, de ressaisir, de nous faire connaître cette réalité loin de laquelle nous vivons, de laquelle nous nous écartons de plus en plus au fur et à mesure que prend plus d’épaisseur et d’imperméabilité la connaissance conventionnelle que nous lui substituons, cette réalité que nous risquerions fort de mourir sans avoir connue, et qui est tout simplement notre vie.” (Proust, Le temps retrouvé)
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