that his works still elicit raise profound questions about the nature of
"ambiguity" in art of his period.
In recent years, art historians have added a further dimension again to the
subject of ambiguity in Bosch‟s work. They emphasized his ironic tendencies,
which are fairly obvious, for example, in the The Garden of Earthly Delights,
both in the central panel (delights),[13] and the right panel (hell).[14] By adding
irony to his morality arenas, Bosch offers the option of detachment, both from
the real world and from the painted fantasy world. By doing so he could gain
acceptance among both conservative and progressive viewers. Perhaps it was
just this ambiguity that enabled the survival of a considerable part of this
provocative work through five centuries of religious and political upheaval.
A recent study on Bosch's paintings alleges that they actually conceal a strong
nationalist consciousness, censuring the foreign imperial government of the
Burgundian Netherlands, especially Maximilian Habsburg. By systematically
superimposing images and concepts, the study asserts that Bosch also made his
expiatory self-punishment, for he was accepting well-paid commissions from the
Habsburgs and their deputies, and therefore betraying the memory of Charles the
Bold.