“Witches shape men as animals..”
Bosch’s diabolic scenes look like they have literally been taken from the Inquisition’s famous text
-Bosch, Great Art Masters, Franco DE POLI*
Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch artist, born c1450-1460 and died 1516 in the city of Hertogenbosch. I think I first saw some of his drawings as a teenager in the comic Dylan Dog* and later on the cover of an album by the band Dead Can Dance*, I then found his biography. I was stunned by his artwork, with its detailed creepy characters with all kinds of human flaws, and this sensation is still with me every time I see his work. The unusual way he presented the scene still raises the question as to what his real intention was while creating his works.
Very little is known about this artist. His grandfather, father and uncle were all painters. He married and became a member of Our Lady Society, events that allowed him to become a respectable man and to work as an artist. He lived his entire life in Hertogenbosch where he worked for the church producing work that was unlike any other. He paid taxes, took care of his estate and led a perfectly ordinary life. However, when you look at his paintings they are far from ordinary. Some believe he was a part of the occult society Homines Intelligentiae* because of his display of grotesque figures. He went as far as he could go in his art with the way he presented usual biblical themes. Before we draw any easy conclusions, we must take into account the time period Bosch lived in while creating his art. Hertogenbosch was a rich merchant centre before the Habsburgs and the devastation and plunder of German and Spanish mercenaries. The Habsburgs had a strong connection with the Inquisition and the Dominican Order.
The Dominicans in Hertogenbosch tried to increase the severity of the Inquisition’s punishment when the people rose up against it. Bosch joined them in their battle through his paintings, which often mocked the Dominicans. Maybe the characters of the people he painted represented what he saw in real life.
His paintings also include a variety of symbols. For example, a white swan, which is the symbol of the Society of Our Lady, as well as many others representing sin, lust, thievery…
Museo del Prado, Madrid
One of my favourite Bosch works is The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, the part of the segment where he paints Obesity, a fat boy who is trying to steal food from a table and eat the same amount as the elders do.
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam
Besides symbols, he painted so many details, some of which are not what you would expect to find in a painting commissioned by the Clergy, especially not in 1500. The Painting St Christopher is, at first glance, a standard painting from that time. However, some details in the background are far from standard. There is a bear hanged on a tree by a man, further in the background there is a small, naked figure running from a dragon! Today, this might not seem so strange but imagine its effects at that time.
Museo del Prado, Madrid
One of his most famous triptychs is The Garden of Earthly Delights, a work that represents the culmination of Bosch’s art and also the art of that time. The first part of the painting represents the Earthly Heaven with an organic shell tower. The second part of the triptych is The Garden of Delight, filled with naked figures, animals, fruit-like boats and all kinds of fantastic sights. The culmination comes with the third part of the painting, Musical Hell, in which there is torture by musical instruments, a devil-bird-fish eating a human and all sorts of unimaginable creatures. There is also a tree with a human head that is thought to represent the artist himself.
Museu Nacional de Antiga, Lisbon
Another work, The Temptation of St Anthony, is said to be his most mature work. Here, we can already distinguish the style of his unique, fantastic characters and his good sense of colour and composition shows a mature artistic style. I find all of his paintings monumental.
My intention here is to encourage you to discover more about the artist rather than to explain all of his work in detail.
I think Hieronymus Bosch is one of my absolute favourite artists of all time and I am amazed by his art every time I view it.
*I GENI DEL L’ARTE, Franco DE Poli: BOSCH
*DYLAN DOG & MARTIN MYSTÈRE. ULTIMA FERMATA L’INCUBO, Italian comic
*Dead Can Dance, Aion album
More about the artist:
Bosch Art Center
https://jheronimusbosch-artcenter.nl/
Museu Del Prado web site, The Garden of Earthly Delights
MNAA Museum, Temptation of St Anthony
The restoration of “Saint Christopher” by Hieronymus Bosch