Online Talk · Hieronymus Bosch: Renaissance Prophet of Surrealism, with Art Historian Brenda Edgar
7pm ET (NYC time)
Monday, June 1, 2026
PLEASE NOTE: A link to a recording of this talk will be sent out to ticket holders after its conclusion. It will also be archived for our Patreon members. Become a MemberHERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanayomy.org. A temporary streaming link will be emailed after the event concludes.
Only about 25 works survive by this master of the late Flemish Renaissance, but they occupy an outsize place in the History of Art. Bosch’s inventive landscapes startle and amuse, populated as they are with fantastical and grotesque hybrid figures wearing giant strawberries on their heads, sleeping in eggs, or excreting pearls from between their legs. His art is truly exceptional; although his influences are clear, his ability to generate alternate universes through his painting was unmatched until the 20th century.
In this enchantingly illustrated talk, we’ll take a close look at Bosch’s painted visions of Earth, Heaven and Hell, and get familiar with the scant documentary evidence for his life. But we’ll also consider his influence on artists of future decades, and even future centuries, especially the Surrealists of the 1930s and 40s: both Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte saw Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights in the Prado, and they were deeply moved and inspired by his precocious embrace of the bizarre and the visionary.
Brenda Edgar is an art historian and yoga instructor in Louisville, KY. Her art history research interests include relics, reliquaries, and all things Roman Catholic; medieval medical manuscripts and depictions of disease in medieval art; and the historical role of altered states of consciousness in the creation of art. Her free monthly public talk series, “Art History Illustrated,” is presented at the Cultural Arts Center in New Albany, Indiana; she also offers regular virtual classes through Morbid Anatomy, and teaches for Indiana University. In addition, Brenda is a certified yoga instructor with a robust teaching schedule. She lives in Louisville, KY with her two senior rescue dogs.
Image: The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail),Hieronymus Bosch, 1490-1500, oil on oak panel.
7pm ET (NYC time)
Monday, June 1, 2026
PLEASE NOTE: A link to a recording of this talk will be sent out to ticket holders after its conclusion. It will also be archived for our Patreon members. Become a MemberHERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanayomy.org. A temporary streaming link will be emailed after the event concludes.
Only about 25 works survive by this master of the late Flemish Renaissance, but they occupy an outsize place in the History of Art. Bosch’s inventive landscapes startle and amuse, populated as they are with fantastical and grotesque hybrid figures wearing giant strawberries on their heads, sleeping in eggs, or excreting pearls from between their legs. His art is truly exceptional; although his influences are clear, his ability to generate alternate universes through his painting was unmatched until the 20th century.
In this enchantingly illustrated talk, we’ll take a close look at Bosch’s painted visions of Earth, Heaven and Hell, and get familiar with the scant documentary evidence for his life. But we’ll also consider his influence on artists of future decades, and even future centuries, especially the Surrealists of the 1930s and 40s: both Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte saw Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights in the Prado, and they were deeply moved and inspired by his precocious embrace of the bizarre and the visionary.
Brenda Edgar is an art historian and yoga instructor in Louisville, KY. Her art history research interests include relics, reliquaries, and all things Roman Catholic; medieval medical manuscripts and depictions of disease in medieval art; and the historical role of altered states of consciousness in the creation of art. Her free monthly public talk series, “Art History Illustrated,” is presented at the Cultural Arts Center in New Albany, Indiana; she also offers regular virtual classes through Morbid Anatomy, and teaches for Indiana University. In addition, Brenda is a certified yoga instructor with a robust teaching schedule. She lives in Louisville, KY with her two senior rescue dogs.
Image: The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail),Hieronymus Bosch, 1490-1500, oil on oak panel.
7pm ET (NYC time)
Monday, June 1, 2026
PLEASE NOTE: A link to a recording of this talk will be sent out to ticket holders after its conclusion. It will also be archived for our Patreon members. Become a MemberHERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanayomy.org. A temporary streaming link will be emailed after the event concludes.
Only about 25 works survive by this master of the late Flemish Renaissance, but they occupy an outsize place in the History of Art. Bosch’s inventive landscapes startle and amuse, populated as they are with fantastical and grotesque hybrid figures wearing giant strawberries on their heads, sleeping in eggs, or excreting pearls from between their legs. His art is truly exceptional; although his influences are clear, his ability to generate alternate universes through his painting was unmatched until the 20th century.
In this enchantingly illustrated talk, we’ll take a close look at Bosch’s painted visions of Earth, Heaven and Hell, and get familiar with the scant documentary evidence for his life. But we’ll also consider his influence on artists of future decades, and even future centuries, especially the Surrealists of the 1930s and 40s: both Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte saw Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights in the Prado, and they were deeply moved and inspired by his precocious embrace of the bizarre and the visionary.
Brenda Edgar is an art historian and yoga instructor in Louisville, KY. Her art history research interests include relics, reliquaries, and all things Roman Catholic; medieval medical manuscripts and depictions of disease in medieval art; and the historical role of altered states of consciousness in the creation of art. Her free monthly public talk series, “Art History Illustrated,” is presented at the Cultural Arts Center in New Albany, Indiana; she also offers regular virtual classes through Morbid Anatomy, and teaches for Indiana University. In addition, Brenda is a certified yoga instructor with a robust teaching schedule. She lives in Louisville, KY with her two senior rescue dogs.
Image: The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail),Hieronymus Bosch, 1490-1500, oil on oak panel.