(intense music)
- That's a scene from the music video for Buckethead's
Spokes for the Wheel of Torment by Syd Garon and Eric Henry,
which utilizes some of the more nightmarish imagery
of Hieronymus Bosch.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking.
Was this guy on drugs? Let's discuss.
Born in 1450, Hieronymus Bosch was an early
and highly influential Netherlandish painter
known for his surrealistic, nightmarish and cryptic imagery.
Even today, his work captivates both
the dedicated art critic and the casual observer alike.
Most of his work was religious in nature,
though he also displayed a keen interest in landscapes,
as well as the mundane and grotesque
details of medieval peasant life.
As such, his most famous works simply explode
with fantastic imagery that might seem,
especially to casual modern viewers, to emerge from
some sort of acid-breached chasm in the human imagination.
Now, of course, it's always important
to keep the intended audience in mind.
While there's no denying Bosch's imagination and skill,
he does make use of symbols and existing motifs
to communicate morality lessons and Christian narratives,
lessons and narratives that would have resonated
more clearly to viewers in a monastery
or the private quarters of a lay patron,
and all of this is complicated by the fact
that we just don't know much about Hieronymus Bosh.
His life and the thinking that went into his work
is largely lost to us, leaving art historians
to endlessly ponder the enigmatic
and cryptic nature of his designs.
It's also led some to wonder if Bosch's work
was the result of psychedelic vision.
One of the leading theories is
that Bosch might have experienced ergot poisoning
or ergotism at some point in his life,
as this ailment was epidemic in the medieval Netherlands.
Ergotism is a condition caused by the consumption
of toxic compounds produced by the fungus
Claviceps purpurea, which infects rye.
These compounds are similar to LSD
and in fact, the study of ergot led to the discovery of LSD.
Given the importance of rye bread at the time
and the increased likelihood that a small town
might depend on a single baker for all its bread,
it ravaged whole towns and forced the 1093 creation
of the Order of Hospitalers of St. Anthony
to help the afflicted.
Humans suffer from two varieties of ergotism.
First, there's gangrenous ergotism, which produces limb pain
and may cause the extremities to turn black and mummify,
causing infected limbs to spontaneously
break off at the joint.
And then there's convulsive ergotism,
characterized by painful seizures, spasms and convulsions
as well as mania, psychosis and hallucinations.
Now, Bosch was certainly familiar with ergotism,
known as St. Anthony's fire in the day.
Bosch's own The Temptation of St. Anthony triptych
features people with amputated and mummified feet,
as well as a half human, half vegetable,
and that half human vegetable may have represented
the mandrake root used in the treatment of ergotism.
Plus Bosch's The Procession of the Cripples features
a number of afflicted bodies, at least three of which
seems to be suffering from ergotism,
but did Bosch ever suffer from the effects
of convulsive ergotism himself?
We simply can't say, so it remains a controversial theory.
Art historian Lynda Harris, in her book,
The Secret Heresy of Hieronymus Bosh, even goes so far
as to suggest the artist might have taken
an ergot-derived substance, either recreationally
or as part of a secret heretical Cathar ritual.
So was Bosch a heretic, an acid head
or merely one of the most imaginative artists
ever to put brush to paper?
Maybe he really did suffer hallucinations
but of course, such visions can occur
for a vast variety of reasons.
We'll simply never know,
because the nearly 500 years dead artist
remains rather mute on the subject
and only his paintings continue to speak to us.
Hey, if you enjoyed this video,
be sure to check out these three videos as well.
- [Woman] And don't forget to visit us
at StuffToBlowYourMind.com.
- [Man] That's a modern, animated take
on Michelangelo's classic The Creation of Adam.
You know, just the story of a bearded god,
his clean shaven creation, and a little finger action.
- [Woman] But is there more going on here?
Did Michelangelo and others create a veiled message
that God is all in our head?
- [Man] Don't Hug Me I'm Scared
from the This Is It Collective is, in itself,
fabulously creative and weird.
- [Woman] But it brings up the question,
what exactly is creativity?
- [Man] So that's a scene from Italian shock meister
Dario Argento's 1996 film, The Stindhal Syndrome.
- [Woman] The movie dares to ask the question,
can a beautiful painting really make you faint?