Bate exhibits musical instruments of torture

Arts 04 Nov 10 The Bate Collection has opened an exhibition which displays the musical instruments of torture in Bosch's iconic painting of Hell. Andy Lamb, Museum Manager at the Bate, has put on display replica copies of the instruments in Hieronymus Bosch's famous triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights . But while trying to create exact copies of the medieval and Renaissance instruments, he found that Bosch's designs do not work and sound 'musically unpleasant.' 'I have tried to coax a few harmonious notes out of the wind instruments', he said. 'But the racket that comes out of them is horrible. We had been hoping to create a three-dimensional exhibition in which visitors to the Museum over Halloween could see exact replicas of the instruments in the painting and hear the instruments play haunting melodies, but we have had to accept defeat and change the designs of the instruments! Mr Lamb added: 'The hurdy gurdy would be difficult to hold as its strings are in the wrong position and there is even a superfluous string, while the trumpet has been coiled so many times that it is unfeasible to play and its intervals are almost certainly wrong. I am guessing modern musicians would struggle to hold the instruments properly, let alone play melodious tunes on them!' The iconic depiction of hell in the third panel of the triptych is believed to have been completed in 1505. The painting shows man's descent into hell after indulging in 'earthly delights', and musical instruments are used to torture the occupants of the underworld in the third panel.