Giraffe and Two-Legged Dog Statue Set 2 Pieces by Bosch

A giraffe and a two-legged dog can be found on the left-hand panel of the Garden of Earthly Delights. They peacefully coexist with the other exotic animals in a fantastic paradise. In the foreground, where God is introducing Eve to Adam things are much less bucolic. The fall seems near.

THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS Hieronymus Bosch shows us how we mortal souls, arisen from earthly paradise, are on our way to the atrocious ordeals of hell via our unchaste lives on earth.

From an artistic point of view, the world famous brilliant forerunner of surrealism was, in his day, unique and radically different. Hieronymus (Jeroen for short) Bosch was born (ca. 1450-1516) during the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance in s-Hertogenbosch, in the Duchy of Brabant. Bosch places visionary images in a hostile world full of mysticism, with the conviction that the human being, due to its own stupidity and sinfulness has become prey to the devil himself. He holds a mirror to the world with his cerebral irony and magical symbolism, sparing no one. He aims his mocking arrows equally well at the hypocrisy of the clergy as the extravagance of the nobility and the immorality of the people. Hieronymus Boschs style arises from the tradition of the book illuminations (manuscript illustrations from the Middle Ages). The caricatured representation of evil tones down its terrifying implications, but also serves as a defiant warning with a theological basis.