Lecture by medievalist historian Mikhail Maizuls "Enemies of Christmas. How Hieronymus Bosch invited the Antichrist to Bethlehem"

The name of Hieronymus Bosch, who so often and inventively painted the underworld, is not very associated with Christmas. However, he also depicted the newborn Christ several times, to whom the three wise men brought gifts. But Bosch would not be himself if he did not give this subject strange and even sinister features!

Behind the main characters, whom we can easily recognize, stands a bearded man, dressed in a red cloak on his naked body, wearing a crown with thorns and with a round wound on his leg. Under the golden gift of the eldest of the Magi, dark toads are hiding, and on the clothes of the servant who came with his younger comrade, "creatures" devouring each other are embroidered...

All these details, which we will not find in other artists of that time, speak of one thing: the Savior, who came into the world, is immediately surrounded by enemies. But who are they - the confidants of King Herod or the minions of the Antichrist? What is their conspiracy? How to interpret this scene and, in general, how to look at the images that Bosch left us? We will find out at the lecture!

Mikhail Maizuls - medievalist historian, PhD in history, co-author of the book "The Suffering Middle Ages"