The art of Bosch - a mirror to death and beyond

Abstract

Who really pays attention to poetry, philosophy, painting or other art form? We rather seek for what is immediately needed or quickly consumable, what doesn't bother nor disturb us. Emotions and cultural products are strongly linked. But the perception of art depends on how it impresses us. Art can confront us with a reality. In a civilization dominated by images, through the media, advertising and virtual worlds, art, like life and death, is rarely valued. We approached on this study, the way in which college students - of both sexes, from courses of management, history and psychology - interpreted the image/painting ‘Paradise: Ascent of the Blessed’, from Hieronymus Bosch, which alludes to death and beyond-death. We analyzed the thoughts, feelings, images and symbols that emerged from their answers, through open questions, after seeing the image/painting. Men revealed security, like they were watching for something they see as controllable and far away from them. Women expressed an active emotional involvement, as well as fear, belief in God and hope in finding a path through the darkness, revealing an intense feeling of proximity before death and immortality. Students of psychology, in particular, revealed a more emotional reaction to the image/death, than the future historians. The conceptions of the first ones are closer to the women's perspectives, while the others resemble those of men. This work invited us to reflect about ourselves, the power of images, death, and on what lies beyond death and life.