The exhibition will be available until June 11 at the Phygital Gallery.
The Garden of Hell, a reinterpretation of Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights
join the conversation
Los video game They show every day that they are a new expression of art, more interactive and with digital resources. behind the development of Diablo IV there is a great team of artists with their own inspirations to create the hellish world of the game. On the occasion of its launch, Activision-Blizzard presented a painting in Madrid that they have called hell garden. A reinterpretation of the painting The Garden of Earthly Delights by El Bosco that is exhibited in the Prado Museum. This new exhibition opens to the public until June 11 at the Phygital Gallery in the Lavapiés district and the only requirement is Being over 18 years.
Behind this triptych is the study Black Madre who has collaborated with Blizzard into a piece of art based on the Diablo IV universe. They have been inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s most popular work, since “Diablo IV has a dark and medieval tone” as John Mueller, the game’s art director, said in a video. A look at “duality, the ambiguity of the late fifteenth century when El Bosco painted it in 1494″, explains Ana Monereo Mejías, an art historian and former restorer of the Prado Museum, on the original work. This reinterpretation has many references and parallels, beginning with a composition of 3 panels They represent heaven and hell, good and evil.
Lilith, representation of sin
The presentation of Diablo IV featured a video from the art director
In the center is Lilith as “the temptation, the demonic speech that attracts the peasants to evil”. The message of the Garden of Hell is very faithful to what El Bosco wanted to convey: the fate of mankind and the daily struggle between good and evil. In the words of the historian, The Garden of Earthly Delights “represents ordered madnessthe mix between the sacred and the profane, the chaos of life with an unspeakable imagination”, which has made him become a universal icon.
All this is perfectly reflected in the new Diablo IV triptychwhere the iconography of El Bosco is masterfully represented but with the look of the 21st century. About the latter, Icaro, an artist from Black Madre, spoke to us to tell us that “the reinterpretation was very natural.” “We talked about how we can bring the aspects of Hieronymus Bosch to the most contemporary suffering”, he highlighted about the process in which it took 30 days. It was a very handmade work with drawings and paint, using “the same process as El Bosco”.
Attendees playing Diablo IV at the presentation
Icaro lived in Madrid 12 years ago, a moment he took advantage of to visit the Sorolla house or the Prado Museum to see works such as El Jardín de las Delicias, precisely. So this Blizzard piece is like “come full circle for me.” Likewise, he recognized that the work of El Bosco “is like watching a movie and can keep you entertained for hours“. The hardest part was pooling the work of all the Black Mother artists who have participated in the triptych, each with their own specialty. Finally, the artist spoke of the central part as one of his favorites from the triptych for the character of Lilith and what she represents in the middle of the scene.
A work that leaves no one indifferent and now you can see this reinterpretation at the Phygital Gallery, in Madrid. will be exposed until June 11, days after the official release of the game. Players who are already playing can check the Complete guide to Diablo IV to find all the bosses, special weapons and missions of the campaign mode.
join the conversation