The Garden of Earthly Delights ft. some familiar faces.
The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch
from the book:
Crowley had got a commendation for the Spanish Inquisition. He had been in Spain then, mainly hanging around cantinas in the nicer parts, and hadn't even known about it until the commendation arrived. He'd gone to have a look, and had come back and got drunk for a week.
That Hieronymous Bosch. What a weirdo.
Hieronymus Bosch’s “500-Year-Old Butt Song From Hell”
“The album’s last track is an interpretation of music found in a painting by Hieronymus Bosch; the piece included what some ten years later would become famous as “Butt Music” or “Butt Song from Hell”. In the liner notes, the song was proudly presented thus:*”
“𝘏𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘩 (1450–1516) 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘝𝘰𝘹 𝘝𝘶𝘭𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳. 𝘈𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 500 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩, 𝘸𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 “𝘋𝘦 𝘫𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘢 𝘧𝘳ö𝘫𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘴 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘴” (“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴”), 𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘯’𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘺𝘤𝘩 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦.“
Jesus! How did I not see this before?!
I’ve just seen this brilliant post by @johnlockiseternal flit across my dash, in which @johnlockiseternal points out how the little owl in Ella’s (the therapist’s) odd office in s4 is a reference to the ‘Night Owl’ text exchange between John and the bus lady.
Well, I took a look at that owl and nearly fell out of my chair.
That bird looks so much like all those little owls Hieronymus Bosch loved to include in his paintings:
And we all know that Bosch’s paintings are basically dream(!)scapes. They are nightmares. They are nightmarish visions of hell and demons and God only knows what. They were the horror (!) stories of their time. His paintings are pretty much what s4 is like, aren’t they?
And we know the set designers know their art history, don’t we? They put a very famous bust in Ella’s office right at the start of the show in ASiP (as I pointed out here).
They cut the head off of a beautiful Canova statue and turned it into a bust, which they put in Magnussen’s ‘Mind Palace’ in s3 (as I pointed out here). The statue, by the way, is a sculpture of the Muse of Dancing, which pretty much confirms the theory that it was put there to represent Sherlock, the man who loves ‘dancing’.
And last but not least, never forget how they put the statue of a gay God between Sherlock and John in TBB (here).
These guys know their art history very well. They know what they’re doing.
And I find it extremely hard to imagine that anyone could put an owl like that on Ella’s sideboard, without realising that it looks exactly like Bosch’s famously nightmarish creatures.
So, if you’ve always thought that office with its curtain-like odd walls was weird as hell, well…then here’s another hint that what we’re seeing is not real (dare I say it?) EMP!
Gosh, my head hurts. They’re fucking me up with this. Please guys tell me I’m not seeing things. (Maybe I just need to go to bed. I haven’t had more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night in two weeks.)
More of my meta about the statues and paintings used on ‘Sherlock’: HERE.
All screencaps were taken from here.
What a discovery, @sagestreet!!! Personally, I don’t need anymore ‘evidence’ that EMP is at play, but I sure do love that we keep finding more and more things to support it. Hard to imagine anyone can look at all of this and still doubt. Thank you so much!!!
Nicely spotted, @sagestreet !! And I do love your meta about the statues. As for EMP, well, I really fail to see any other reasonable explanation of S4; it’s nightmarish and it happens inside Sherlock’s head.
Since there are so many of us that believe in different ‘start’ times for EMP (I’m still sold on the point where Mary shot Sherlock) maybe we should go back and look for these types of tells in episodes previous? @sagestreet @possiblyimbiassed @ebaeschnbliah @sherlockshadow @sarahthecoat @gosherlocked @mrskolesouniverse @kateis-cakeis
wow.
