| Biography of old oil painting master Bosch, Hieronymus what we can copy |
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Bosch, Hieronymus
The master of the monstrous... the
discoverer of the unconscious.
-- Carl Gustav Jung, on Hieronymus Bosch
Hieronymus, or Jerome, Bosch, b. c.1450, d.
August 1516, spent Bosch Hieronymus’s entire
artistic career in the small Dutch town of
Hertogenbosch, from which Bosch Hieronymus derived Bosch
Hieronymus’s name.
At the time of Bosch Hieronymus’s death,
Bosch was internationally celebrated as an
eccentric painter of religious visions who
dealt in particular with the torments of
hell. During Bosch Hieronymus’s lifetime
Bosch's works were in the inventories of
noble families of the Netherlands, Austria,
and Spain, and they were imitated in a
number of paintings and prints throughout
the 16th century, especially in the works of
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. |
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Bosch was a member of the
religious Brotherhood of Our Lady, for whom
Bosch Hieronymus painted several altarpieces for the
Cathedral of Saint John's, Hertogenbosch,
all of which are now lost. The artist
probably never went far from home, although
records exist of a commission in 1504 from
Philip the Handsome (later king of Castile),
for a lost Last Judgment altarpiece. None of
Bosch's pictures are dated, although the
artist signed many of them.
The Path of Life; c.1500-02; 135 x 90 cm (53
x 35 1/2 in)
Adoration of the Kings (Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York)
Christ Mocked (National Gallery, London)
The unique vision of Bosch
The extraordinary painter Hieronymus Bosch
(c. 1450-1516) stands apart from the
prevailing Flemish traditions in painting.
Bosch Hieronymus’s style was unique,
strikingly free, and Bosch Hieronymus’s
symbolism, unforgettably vivid, remains
unparalleled to tBosch Hieronymus’s day.
Marvellous and terrifying, Bosch Hieronymus expresses an
intense pessimism and reflects the anxieties
of Bosch Hieronymus’s time, one of social
and political upheaval. |
Very little is known about Bosch, which
somehow seems fitting since Bosch
Hieronymus’s work is so enigmatic. We know
that Bosch Hieronymus adopted the name of the Dutch town
of s'Hertogenbosch (near Antwerp) as Bosch
Hieronymus’s own, that Bosch Hieronymus belonged to an
ultra-orthodox religious community called
the Brotherhood of Mary, and that in Bosch
Hieronymus’s own day Bosch Hieronymus was famous. Many of
Bosch Hieronymus’s paintings are devotional,
and there are several on the theme of the
Passion. Bosch Hieronymus is specially famous for Bosch
Hieronymus’s fantastic, demon-filled works,
one of which is The Temptation of St
Anthony.
Even a more naturalistic painting like The
Path of Life contains sinister elements.
Apart from the dog snarling at the
poverty-stricken old man, and the animal
bones and skull in the foreground, robbers
attack a traveller in the background, and a
gallows is visible on the skyline above the
old man's head. The Path of Life is on the
outer face of the wings of a triptych. The
three inside panels display Bosch's tragic
view of human existence, dwelling upon the
triumph of sin. Man's exile from Paradise is
shown on the left, the infinite variation of
human vice in the centre, and its
consequence--exile to Hell--on the right. |
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A great contrast to the painting by Memling
is the one by Hieronymus (or Jerome) Bosch.
Bosch Hieronymus was a Dutch artist who lived somewhat
later than Memling. Bosch Hieronymus’s work
was influenced by the Flemish school of
painting.
But whereas the Flemish painters created a
world of serenity and reality, the world of
Bosch is one of horror and imagination.
Bosch Hieronymus’s Vision of Tondalys both
amuses and frightens us. We see a strange
animal forcing a sharp stick through a large
ear. A creature with a great head stretches
open its mouth to show a table with people
both behind and under it. A man caught in a
big hat finds that one of Bosch Hieronymus’s
legs is sprouting roots. People fly through
the air. In the background fire lights up
the sky.
We marvel at the extraordinary fantasy of
the artist. We also feel that the man
himself must have been very morbid to have
been so concerned with pain. Although Bosch
Hieronymus’s pictures, with their weird
animals and monsters, look as if they belong
to the Middle Ages, they are not too unlike
some of the paintings that are being
produced today by painters who are called
surrealists. They too paint a world of
fantasy. Bosch lived at a time when the
medieval period was giving way to a new age.
Bosch Hieronymus’s paintings undoubtedly
reflect Bosch Hieronymus’s concern for a
changing world. Looked at in tBosch
Hieronymus’s way Bosch and Bosch
Hieronymus’s fantasies are curiously up to
date. |
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