Hieronymus Bosch Garden of Earthly Delights Figurines from a Surrealist Nightmare

Whilst, these days, game characters such as the Big Daddies from the Xbox smash hit Bioshock set gamers pulses racing, one can only imagine how truly unnerving the works of Hieronymus Bosch were in their time and, of these, his work The Garden of Earthly Delights serves as testament of his freakish visions borne, seemingly, on the fringes of a surrealist nightmare.

In truth – and without delving too deeply into the subject (and the politics) of fine art history – Hieronymus Bosch was not a Surrealist as he was producing work long before the likes Andre Breton (the founder of Surrealism) had arrived on the scene – Bosch died in 1516 – but the Surrealist movement certainly took a great interest in his work, and its not hard to understand why.

Now, you’re probably wondering why we are featuring these on TFTS?

Simply put, in an age where we seem so enamoured with curious, freakish and apocryphal computer game characters and comic strips it is hard to understand why the work of artists such as Hieronymus Bosch have not seen a renaissance. After all, if you are looking for characters that truly haunt the mind and that set the nerves on edge there isn’t a game or comic out there whose characters come anywhere near to the truly grotesque, nightmarish characters as conceived and painted by Bosch.

Hopefully, however, the release of these figurines of characters featured in Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights will serve to draw in a new, younger audience as far as his great and decidedly unsettling work is concerned.

At the time of writing, two figurines taken from painting The Garden of Earthly Delights are available – the Bird-Headed Monster and the Helmeted Bird Monster – with each being intricately hand painted and cast from resin and presented in a presentation box complete with a miniature print of the painting itself as well as a history of Bosch, his work and the inspiration and meaning behind the master’s work in four different languages.

Each figurine retails for 49000 South Korean Won – which is approximately $53 / £26 / €37.

Incidentally, by way of a footnote, whilst drafting this article, I happened across a host of further Hieronymus Bosch inspired collectible figurines that may be of interest.