Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud, hatch out

Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud, hatch out. -- Robert Graves, I Claudius

The Prince of Hell, Hieronymus Bosch, 

The Garden of Earthly Delights, detail from right panel.

I am comforted in these chaotic times by the notion that there can be no good without evil, no illumination without confusion, no progress without regress. The pendulum has swung toward the dark side. Who better to be our guide through the nether regions than Hieronymus Bosch? I originally posted these videos, animations based on the work of Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, for Halloween a few years ago. They’ve been on my mind, or rather, in the knot in my stomach, since Election Day.

We'll start with a jaunty video by Eli Rosen based on the drawing Big Fish Eat Little Fish by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

This next video, by Dobromil Nosek, is based on Bosch's Seven Sins. Unfortunately, we only get a glimpse of three of the seven.

Ray Koefoed's music video, A Plague on You, is based on Brueghel's Triumph of Death and ups the ante on the creepiness factor.

Ready for more? Andrey Zakirzyanov's edgy Break the Silence music video is a mash-up of Bosch and Brueghel imagery with a cameo appearance by a certain someone from the work of Leonardo da Vinci.

I've saved the most gruesome for last, Buckethead's video for Spokes for the Wheel of Torment. Based on several paintings by Bosch, it is not for the faint of heart. You have been forewarned.