The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things

This article is about the Hieronymus Bosch painting. For other uses, see Seven deadly sins (disambiguation).

The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things
Artist	Hieronymus Bosch
Year	1485
Type	Oil on wood
Location	Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, completed in 1485. The painting is oil on wood panels. The painting is presented in a series of circular images. Four small circles, detailing "Death", "Judgement", "Hell", and "Glory", surround a larger circle in which the seven deadly sins are depicted: wrath at the bottom, then proceeding clockwise, envy, greed, gluttony, sloth, extravagance (later, lust), and pride. At the centre of the large circle, which is said to represent the eye of God, is a "pupil" in which Christ can be seen emerging from his tomb. Below this image is the Latin inscription Cave Cave Deus Videt ("Beware, Beware, God Sees").

Philip II of Spain took such a special interest in the painting that he had it brought to El Escorial in 1574 and kept it on the wall of his bedroom there.

According to the writer Lynda Harris in her book 'The Secret Heresy of Hieronymus Bosch', the work was originally only the floating eye, in a sea of darkness - the roundels illustrating the Four Last Things, the work of another artist. Harris believes that Bosch was a mystic who saw the world as a dark place, and further, that he was a Cathar. This variety of heretical Christianity took a relentlessly negative view of life on this earth - the realm of Satan - and believed the physical world was basically unsound. This painting, minus the roundels, would powerfully convey its heretical meaning, its Cathar point of view. The floating eye with its scenes of sin, examples of the low level at which humanity exists - and the Gnostic Saviour who looks out from the pupil of the eye, an emissary from the realm of Light, a stranger who has descended into the centre of Satan's world. The other ' god', Satan/Jehovah is also represented - one of Bosch's ever present owls, the hunter of the night - the overseer of this evil world whose creatures endlessly feed on each other - he stares out at the sinners in the Gluttony scene, just visible in a niche above the door. (An owl hiding and watching mankinds wretchedness can be seen in nearly every painting Bosch produced.) Mankind must choose between deities.

The vignette which depicts Sloth (deadly sin); A nun enters a room, holding out a rosary to a man , drowsy in a chair in front of a fire. Perhaps this could be read simply as a depiction of a lazybones reluctant to say his prayers. But is Bosch revealing a veiled heretical message? Why for example is the nun wearing a hot pink gown under her conventional black robe? Which order is that exactly? According to Lynda Harris again, the young 'nun' is in fact a temptress. She enters the room in a parallel position to the housewife who brings in the food in the Gluttony scene. She too offers temptation. Her face is erotically beautiful, and her rosary is of glowing red beads. Bosch's 'nun' is not an image of virtue. She represents Satan's trap of lust, promoted by the Church with its Biblical injunction to reproduce and multiply. The danger to the soul is made explicit by the objects in the niche above the drowsy mans head. A jug ( a female sexual symbol), and a crossbow, ( a male symbol). Two spindles protrude from the jug - traditional symbols of death and rebirth on earth and the recurrent entrapment of the soul in Satan's material world. The man is 'asleep' in the Gnostic sense - drugged by matter and desire - yet his soul is still alive; he can still choose between Jesus and Satan/Jehovah. This choice is indicated by the location of the shining pearl (his soul) which lies in a niche in the fireplace. Above it, a round golden plate with a candle in front - symbolic in miniature of Jesus surrounded by the spiritual sun. Below - the red flames of the fire - the heat and light of the fire belong to the world of Satan, with its passion, its desire, its suffering.

The vignette which depicts Envy; The scene is set by the city wall, in front of a toll collector's house. The rich man envies the young man flirting with the daughter of the house - the porter with the tattered jacket and heavy load envies the nobleman's leisure and expensive clothed elegance - the dogs envy the toll collector his bone..so it goes.

For the vignette which depicts Greed, latin avaritia, Bosch directs his gaze at the law. A judge sits under the judicial tree with the statute book before him, but of which he takes no notice. He can be bribed and gives his attention to the rich defendant who holds a full money-bag in his hand. The point being made is the one Shakespeare makes a century later in King Lear ;

                       'Plate sin with gold,
        And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
        Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it. (act 4 scene 6)

The judge threatens a poor man who approaches with a baton, but cynically allows himself to be bribed by him as well. The pages of the law book all the while are loose - a breath of wind will overturn them.

For the vignette which depicts Pride, latin superbia, Bosch directs his attention to women. The apple, symbol of Eve, is present. The Devil himself holds the mirror and in a grotesque head-dress himself, mocks the woman who is so pre-occupied with herself.

There are two banderols above and below the eye - both are quotations from the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy. The banderol beneath the eye is a speech given by Jehovah and the latin translates - 'I will hide my face from them...let me see what their end will be.' (Deut 32:20) These words are not the words of Jesus. Jesus does not hide his face. He faces the viewer directly. It is the owl, Jehovah/Satan , who hides and watches.