Hi everybody.

This blog is about our El Prado Museum and El Retiro Park activities on Friday July 15th.

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch 

Previous activities:

A. Something about Hieronymus Bosch.

Born Jheronimus van Aken, but little is known of Bosch's life, though there are some records. He spent most of it in the town of 's-Hertogenbosch, where he was born in his grandfather's house. 

He lived all his life in and near 's-Hertogenbosch, a city in the Duchy of Brabant. His grandfather, Jan van Aken (died 1454) was a painter. It is known that Jan had five sons, four of whom were also painters. Bosch's father, Anthonius van Aken (died c. 1478), was an artistic adviser to the Illustrious Brotherhood of our Blessed Lady. It is generally assumed that either Bosch's father or one of his uncles taught the artist to paint, but none of their works survive.

Bosch became a popular painter in his lifetime and often received commissions from abroad. In 1488 he joined the highly respected Brotherhood of Our Lady. Sometime between 1479 and 1481, Bosch married Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meerveen.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch

B. Something about Bosch's work

Bosch produced at least sixteen triptychs, of which eight are fully intact, and another five in fragments.^[14] Bosch's works are generally organized into three periods of his life dealing with the early works (c. 1470–1485), the middle period (c.1485–1500), and the late period (c. 1500 until his death).

His most famous triptych is the The Garden of Earthly Delights (1495–1505) whose outer panels are intended to bracket the main central panel between the Garden of Eden depicted on the left panel and the Final Judgement depicted on the right panel.

Source: http://supercurioso.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/el-jardin-de-las-delicias-el-bosco-1480.jpg

In the left hand panel God presents Eve to Adam; innovatively God is given a youthful appearance. The figures are set in a landscape populated by exotic animals and unusual semi-organic hut-shaped forms.

The central panel is a broad panorama teeming with socially engaged nude figures seemingly engaged in innocent, self-absorbed joy, as well as fantastical animals, oversized fruit and hybrid stone formations.

The right panel presents a hellscape; a world in which humankind has succumbed to the temptations of evil and is reaping eternal damnation. Set at night, the panel features cold colours, tortured figures and frozen waterways. The nakedness of the human figures has lost any eroticism suggested in the central panel as large explosions in the background throw light through the city gate and spill onto the water in the panel's midground.

The Museum visit.

At the El Prado Museum saw the exhibition or Bosch's work in order to find some details in his paintings.

Retiro Park activity

After activity in the museum, we walked to The Retiro Park to the next challenge: Speak with English-Speakers. In pairs, we tried to interview some people about the time that they was in Madrid, their opinion about weather, food, beer, wine, and their plans fro the next days.