Bosch Tarot

Jewel

As promised in the "Oh No!!! Not THAT deck!!!" thread here are a list of the cards from the Bosch deck that contain ... shall we say ... things LITERALLY up character butts or some other disturbing image:

3 of Chalices - character bent over ... you can figure out the rest by the the above note.

10 of Pentacles - looks like character is pooping money.

7 of Wands - OK this one is not as bad, but the character (a brid looking creature) looks as if it is about to gag itself with a wand.

Ace of Swords - Female character (not a human woman) is riding a sword as if she were riding a broom.

OK so there were not as many majorly disturbing images as I had originally thought in terms of things protruding from orifices, but I must say that overall the characters themselves are often times quite disturbing in and of themselves (heads with feet but not body and other monsters).

Now to say something good about the deck *LOL*. The colors are beautiful, and although disturbing the art itself is of good quality as are the cards.

That is all I have to say about this deck *LOL*.

Love & Light,

Kaz

sorry double posting server trouble

Kaz

The Bosch Tarot is based on the works of Jeroen Bosch, a belgian artist.

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516), one of the most famous of 16th-century Flemish artists, was known for his large, enigmatic panels illustrating complex religious subjects with fantastic, demonic imagery. The documents about Bosch indicate that he followed the predictable life of a prominent Roman Catholic artist in 's Hertogenbosch, a provincial but prosperous town located in the modern Netherlands close to the Belgian border.

His father and grandfather were both painters in the same town before him and apparently Bosch lived all his life there. He married a local woman and joined the lay organisation of the Confraternity of Notre Dame. Bosch was responsible for designing a stained-glass window, among several other works, for the town church. His art was well known outside 's Hertogenbosch during his own lifetime. Philip the Fair ordered a large panel, ?The Last Judgment? (location unknown), from him in 1504 and Margaret of Austria (1480-1530) owned ?The Temptation of Saint Anthony? (location unknown) by him in 1516.

References to astrology, folklore, witchcraft, and alchemy, in addition to the theme of the Antichrist and episodes from the lives of exemplary saints, are all woven together by Bosch into a labyrinth of late medieval Christian iconography. Scholars differ in their interpretation of Bosch's art, but most agree that his pictures show a preoccupation with the human propensity for sin in defiance of God, as well as with God's eternal damnation of lost souls in hell as a fateful consequence of human folly. Stylistically, Bosch worked in a manner called ?alla prima?, a method of applying paint freely on a preliminary ground of brownish paint. He was familiar with Dutch manuscript paintings and with foreign prints, and many of his images can be traced to these sources.

Dated works by Bosch do not exist and, of those panels that bear his signature, many may have been by followers. His pictures were widely imitated well into the later 16th century. During the 1550s, a veritable Boschian revival occurred in Antwerp that involved artists such as Pieter Huys (1520-1584) and even Pieter Brueghel the Elder, who openly made variations of his paintings. Descriptions of some of his works by Don Felipe Guevara, writing in 1565, among other sources, have aided modern art historians in determining Bosch's authentic works.

More about him and his paintings look here, and you will get an understanding why this deck has such cards.
http://www.3dresearch.com/bosch/

Kaz

Pollux

Hey Kaz! You are so accomplished!
I love the Arts too. But is there anyone who does not?

I've always been intrigued by this deck, and inclined to think I might buy it sooner or later.
But Jewel, you are putting me off, SO MUCH!
Is it really this disturbing in readings?

I found Bosch's Art ... unique.
If you have seen a painting "live", I'd understand that.
I went to Madrid last summer, and, may no one take it amiss and the Goddess forgive me, the only, really valuable scraps of art, worth the travel and the bother, where his.
The bad thing was that the walls were so infernally crowded with paintings!
Anyhow that added to the "grossness" feel of the works! ;p
The Garden of Delights is quite magnificent! And you must think it was created by a almost-16-th-century-man!
The first panel is awesome, it's full of miniatures and so carefully depicted! You can detect tons of details, and the proficiency of their author. WOW!

As for Tarots, the feel is like that of the rigth panel... Creepy! But so charmingly weird.
I doubt anyone belonging to these days would manage to imagine something more disgusting and eerie!

Let's be proud of Christian Art, for once!

Jewel

Kaz thanks for posting that, that has helped me understand this deck a bit more. I did enjoy seeing the Bosch paintings on the web site you provided. It sheds some light so to speak.

Quote

ollux (17 Jan, 2002 23:24):
I've always been intrigued by this deck, and inclined to think I might buy it sooner or later.
But Jewel, you are putting me off, SO MUCH!
Is it really this disturbing in readings?

As for Tarots, the feel is like that of the rigth panel... Creepy! But so charmingly weird.

Pollux I apologize for putting you off, I was only trying to share that for those that are very sensitive to the grothesque that they should shy away from this deck. You however have seen ACTUAL Bosch paintings and therefore will probably have a much better appreciation of it than someone like me who really knew nothing about Bosch. Knowledge can certainly help the understanding.

In terms of the deck in readings .... I have no clue as I have not read with it (nor do I intend to in the near future). I think that if I ever choose to pursue and understanding of this deck I will also have to do some reasearch on Bosch, and the period in history in which he lived in order to become more comfortable with the deck. This will take time and the Thoth deck is the next project on my list so the Bosch deck will just have to wait.

I will say this again, the quality of the art on the cards and the use of color are great! It is simply not a deck everyone is going to like. I am thiniking that at some point I will need to be more objective about this deck ... but not today *LOL*

Love & Light,

Pollux

Quote:Jewel (18 Jan, 2002 03:30):
This will take time and the Thoth deck is the next project on my list so the Bosch deck will just have to wait.

So you have a still more ambitious plan, right? 8)
Well, then: you need even more support and application with the Thoth, I think!
Good luck and good work! ;D

Kaz

Bumping this for Jade.

Kaz