Hieronymus Bosch vs. Salvador Dali

Thesis Statement: Hieronymus Bosch is like a 15th century version of Salvador Dali. Dali is a 20th century version of Bosch.

The Idea of fantasy and surrealism has been around as long as man has. Hieronymus Bosch, famous for his fantastical, often monstrous, hybrid creatures, might in some ways be seen as a forerunner of the Surrealists. However, while the Surrealists played in the realms of dreams and the unconscious, Bosch was steeped in the religiosity of his age and the worlds he conjured up demonstrated what were believed to be the very real, and sobering, consequences of earthly behavior.
The life of Bosch is an intriguing mystery – little is known of his early life, or where he studied in painting and arts. He wrote little in the form of letters and had no diaries accompanying his work – in fact all we know of him is either through his paintings, or through brief references to him through other people’s writing – we don’t even know for certain when he was born. Part of the Early Renaissance, Bosch lived all of his life in the Netherlands, and is known to have come from a family of artists and painters, though none of their works can be found today. But the mystery isn’t all that makes him so interesting – his art is a marvel to behold, and in my opinion his work is the most detailed and interesting I’ve ever seen. He was fond of triptychs, a series of paintings that slotted in beside each other to create a combined scene, the most famous of which is The Garden of Earthly Delights, which shows the garden of Eden along with Adam and Eve in the first panel, Paradise and the creatures and animals that inhabit it in the middle, and Hell and its sinner in the last. When the outer panels are closed they show God created the Earth.
A lot of contrasting meanings and interpretations have been given to Bosch’s paintings –