Bosch
Hieronymus
Hiëronymus Bosch, also spelled
Jheronimus Bos, pseudonym of Jeroen van Aeken, Aeken also spelled
Aquen or Aken, also called Jeroen Anthoniszoon (born c. 1450,
’s-Hertogenbosch, Brabant [now in the Netherlands]—died Aug. 9,
1516, ’s-Hertogenbosch), brilliant and original northern European
painter of the late Middle Ages whose work reveals an unusual
iconography of a complex and individual style. Although at first
recognized as a highly imaginative “creator of devils” and a
powerful inventor of seeming nonsense full of satirical meaning,
Bosch demonstrated insight into the depths of the mind and an
ability to depict symbols of life and creation.
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.
Encyclopædia Britannica
