Netherlands
painter. Documentary evidence connects him at various
periods between 1480 and 1516 with his birthplace
Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc), where he belonged to the
Brotherhood of the Holy Virgin; he designed the
stained-glass windows and a crucifix for the Chapel of
the Brotherhood (1511-12) and was presumably a highly
respected member of the community. He was referred to at
his death as the 'famous artist', which is borne out by
a commission in 1504 for a Last Judgment by Philip the
Handsome of Burgundy. B. was a religious painter with a
strong bent towards satire, pessimistic comment and
great interest in everyday life. This has made his work,
a unity in form and content, one of the last profound
expressions of the medieval world view. Landscape plays
an important part in his compositions, it sets the mood
and it is seen with directness. Religious iconography is
reinterpreted freely in the mood of popular prints, and
the unbridled fantasy of the artist explores, not so
much the world of the subconscious but every thematic
variation, allusion and symbol available to his
contemporaries. These were not puzzle pictures in their
time, but picture books which could be read and
understood. Only when the tradition and the
understanding were lost did they increasingly require
interpretation of some kind, until in our own time, with
the advent of Surrealism, attempts have been made to
'explain' B. by means of dream analysis. He was also
referred to as a heretic by later generations. It is
impossible to date and arrange his work in chronological
sequence as much of his original work is now lost, many
copies were made in his lifetime and even his signature
forged. The Haywain and The Garden of Delights are
triptychs fully authenticated and so is the table panel
of the Escorial, which once belonged to Philip II as one
of his intimate possessions. Other important paintings
by B. are: Christ Mocked, and a portrayal of the Ship of
Fools, a common contemporary theme.
Bosch was a pessimistic
and stern moralist who had neither illusions about the
rationality of human nature nor confidence in the
kindness of a world that had been corrupted by man's
presence in it. His paintings are sermons, addressed
often to initiates and consequently difficult to
translate. Unable to unlock the mystery of the artist's
works, critics at first believed that he must have been
affiliated with secret sects. Although the themes of his
work were religious, his choice of symbols to represent
the temptation and eventual ensnarement of man in
earthly evils caused many critics to view Bosch as a
practitioner of the occult arts. More recent scholarship
views Bosch as a talented artist who possessed deep
insight into human character and as one of the first
artists to represent abstract concepts in his work. A
number of exhaustive interpretations of Bosch's work
have been put forth in recent years, but there remain
many obscure details.
An exact chronology of
Bosch's surviving work is difficult because, of the
approximately 35 to 40 paintings attributed to him, only
7 are signed and none are dated. There exists little
documentary information on the early life of the artist,
other than the fact that he was the son and grandson of
accomplished painters. His name does appear on the
register of the Brotherhood of Our Lady, located in the
city of his birth, and there is mention of him in
official records from 1486 until the year of his death,
when he was acclaimed an Insignis pictor
("distinguished painter"). In addition to painting he
undertook decorative works and altarpieces and executed
designs for stained glass.
Works attributed to his
youthful period show an awkwardness in drawing and
composition and brushwork somewhat limited in its scope.
Such paintings as "The Cure of Folly," "Crucifixion,"
"The Adoration of the Magi," "The Seven Deadly
Sins," "The Marriage at Cana," "Ecce Homo," and "The
Conjurer" are representative of this period. The
presence of certain motifs, expanded in the more
sophisticated works of the artist's middle period, and a
limited technique, unsure yet bold, provide a beginning
from which to view Bosch's artistic origins. Between the
first painting in this early group, "The Cure of Folly,"
and the last, "The Conjurer," a steady development can
be seen. The iconography of the latter is more complex,
and the characteristic themes that received their
fullest expression in the great masterpieces of his late
period have begun to emerge.
In these early
paintings Bosch had begun to depict humanity's
vulnerability to the temptation of evil, the deceptive
allure of sin, and the obsessive attraction of lust,
heresy, and obscenity. In calm and prosaic settings,
groups of people exemplify the credulity, ignorance, and
absurdities of the human race. However, the imagery of
the early works is still relatively conventional, with
only an occasional intrusion of the bizarre in the form
of a lurking demon or a strangely dressed magician.
To Bosch's fruitful
middle period belong the great panoramic triptychs such
as the "Hay Wain," "The Temptation of St. Anthony", and
the "Garden of Earthly Delights." His
figures are graceful and his colours subtle and sure,
and all is in motion in these ambitious and extremely
complex works. These paintings are marked by an eruption
of fantasy, expressed in monstrous, apocalyptic scenes
of chaos and nightmare that are contrasted and
juxtaposed with idyllic portrayals of mankind in the age
of innocence. During this period Bosch elaborated on his
early ideas, and the few paintings that survive
establish the evolution of his thought. Bosch's
disconcerting mixture of fantasy and reality is further
developed in the "Hay Wain," the outside wings, or cover
panels, of which recall the scenes of "The Seven Deadly
Sins." The cursive style that he worked out for the
triptych resembles that of watercolour. In the central
panel, a rendition of the Flemish proverb "The world is
a haystack from which each takes what he can," Bosch
shows the trickery of the demon who guides the
procession of people from the earthly paradise depicted
on the left wing to the horrors of hell shown on the
right one.
Bosch's "The Temptation
of St. Anthony" displays his ascent to stylistic
maturity. The brushstrokes are sharper and terser, with
much more command than before. The composition becomes
more fluid, and space is regulated by the incidents and
creatures that the viewer's attention is focused on. His
mastery of fine brush-point calligraphy, permitting
subtle nuances of contour and movement, is fully
evident. Bosch portrays man's struggle against
temptation, as well as the omnipresence of the Devil, in
his "St. Anthony," one of the best keys to the artist's
personal iconography. The hermit saint in this work is
cast as the heroic symbol of man. In the central panel
St. Anthony is beset by an array of grotesque demons,
their horrible bodies being brilliantly visualized
amalgamations of human, animal, vegetable, and inanimate
parts. In the background is a hellish, fantastically
bizarre landscape painted with the most exquisite
detail. Bosch's development of the theme of the
charlatan deceiving man and taking away his salvation
receives its fullest exposition in the "St. Anthony,"
with its condemnation of heresy and the seductions of
false doctrines.
The "Garden of Earthly Delights," representative of Bosch at his
mature best, shows the earthly paradise with the
creation of woman, the first temptation, and the fall.
The painting's beautiful and unsettling images of
sensuality and of the dreams that afflict the people who
live in a pleasure-seeking world express Bosch's
iconographic originality with tremendous force. The
chief characteristic of this work is perhaps its
dreamlike quality; multitudes of nude human figures,
giant birds, and horses cavort and frolic in a
delightfully implausible, otherworldly landscape, and
all the elements come together to produce a perfect,
harmonious whole.
Bosch's late works are
fundamentally different. The scale changes radically,
and, instead of meadows or hellish landscapes inhabited
by hundreds of tiny beings, he painted densely compacted
groups of half-length figures pressed tight against the
picture plane. In these dramatic close-ups, of which
"The Crowning with Thorns" and the "Carrying of the
Cross" are representative, the spectator is so near the
event portrayed that he seems to participate in it
physically as well as psychologically. The most peaceful
and untroubled of Bosch's mature works depict various
saints in contemplation or repose. Among these works are
"St. John the Evangelist in Patmos" and "St. Jerome in
Prayer."
Bosch's preoccupation in much of his work with the evils
of the world did not preclude his vision of a world full
of beauty. His adeptness at handling colour harmonies
and at creating deeply felt works of the imagination is
readily apparent. Though a spate of imitators tried to
appropriate his visual style, its uniqueness prevented
his having any real followers.
Bibliography
Explications of Bosch's paintings include D. Bax,
Hieronymus Bosch: His Picture-Writing Deciphered
(1979), a pioneer Dutch study originally published in
1949; Wilhelm Fraenger, Hieronymus Bosch (1983),
a controversial viewpoint; and Carl Linfert, Bosch,
rev. ed. (1989). Walter S. Gibson, Hieronymus Bosch:
An Annotated Bibliography (1983).
Encyclopaedia Britannica
