中文简介：

本书全新诠释了博斯的杰作，将这幅三联画重新定位为人类和自然界的历史数世纪以来，希罗尼穆斯·博斯（Hieronymus Bosch）的《人间乐园》一直引发人们惊叹。它有十多英尺长，七英尺高，我们需要退后一步来欣赏它，而它的表面错综复杂，覆盖着令人眼花缭乱的奇异生物，又吸引我们走近它。在这本高度原创的重新评估中，玛格丽特·D·卡罗尔（Margaret D. Carroll）将这个乐园解读为对宇宙起源、地球生命史，以及人类从世界历史的**个时代到最后一个时代的转变的猜测。卡罗尔颠覆了对这幅画的传统解释，认为它是对上帝的愤怒、人类的罪孽和恶魔的道德化描述，代表了博斯对人类状况和自然界进步变化的探索。通过广泛研究和精美插图，这一突破性的世俗分析借鉴了博斯独特的绘画技术、对自然历史的好奇心、与勃艮第宫廷的联系，以及他对当代政治的体验的新发现。本书提供了对这位艺术家和他最令人喜爱和难以捉摸的绘画的新见解。

英文简介：

A new and exciting interpretation of Bosch’s masterpiece, repositioning the triptych as a history of humanity and the natural worldHieronymus Bosch’s (c. 1450–1516) Garden of Earthly Delights has elicited a sense of wonder for centuries. Over ten feet long and seven feet tall, it demands that we step back to take it in, while its surface, intricately covered with fantastical creatures in dazzling detail, draws us closer. In this highly original reassessment, Margaret D. Carroll reads the Garden as a speculation about the origin of the cosmos, the life-history of earth, and the transformation of humankind from the first age of world history to the last. Upending traditional interpretations of the painting as a moralizing depiction of God’s wrath, human sinfulness, and demonic agency, Carroll argues that it represents Bosch’s exploration of progressive changes in the human condition and the natural world. Extensively researched and beautifully illustrated, this groundbreaking secular analysis draws on new findings about Bosch’s idiosyncratic painting technique, his curiosity about natural history, his connections to the Burgundian court, and his experience of contemporary politics. The book offers fresh insights into the artist and his most beloved and elusive painting.