Hieronymus Bosch

Dutch painter

• Born: c. 1450
• Birthplace: 's-Hertogenbosch, North Brabant (now in the Netherlands)
• Died: August 9, 1516
• Place of death: 's-Hertogenbosch, North Brabant (now in the Netherlands)

Bosch produced strikingly original paintings, whose brilliant style, flickering brushstrokes, and fantastic, nightmarish visions influenced twentieth century Surrealists. Bosch’s message, however, is rooted in the preoccupations of the early sixteenth century. His obsessions sin, death, and damnation reflect orthodox Christian concerns.

Early Life

Hieronymus Bosch (hihr-AHN-uh-muhs BAHSH) was a fascinating early Netherlandish painter, in part because he was most puzzling. Little is known about his life. Like most northern Renaissance artists, he left no self-portraits, letters, diaries, or theoretical writings. Contemporary sources mention several works by him, but none of these survives. Conversely, the paintings that are attributed to him are all undocumented. Hundreds of works bear his name, but few of these signatures are authentic.

The two principal archival sources for Bosch are the city records of his hometown, ’s-Hertogenbosch, and the account books of one of the town’s confraternities, the Brotherhood of the Blessed Virgin. These documents reveal that Bosch’s family had settled in ’s-Hertogenbosch by the year 1426 and that Bosch entered the family business: His grandfather, three uncles, his father, and his brother were all painters, and Bosch was probably trained by a family member, most likely his father. Since Bosch’s name does appear with regularity in the ’s-Hertogenbosch archives, he must have lived there throughout his life. His family name was van Aeken (possibly a reference to the city of Aechen), but by 1504 he adopted Bosch as his surname, to refer to the town where he lived and worked.

Bosch, like his grandfather, uncles, and father, was a member of the Brotherhood of the Blessed Virgin, a large and wealthy confraternity devoted to the worship of the Virgin Mary. Much of Bosch’s work for the brotherhood was created for their new chapel in the cathedral of ’s-Hertogenbosch. He painted a panel of living and dead members, offered advice on gilding and polychroming a sculpted altarpiece, and designed a crucifix, a chandelier, and a stained glass window. None of this work survives.

Sometime between the years 1479 and 1481, Bosch was married to a wealthy woman, Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meervenne, the daughter of pharmacists. It has often been noted that alchemical equipment appears to underlie many of the forms in Bosch’s most important work. Bosch could have become acquainted with such apparatuses through his in-laws.

There was no active court life in ’s-Hertogenbosch, but documents show that the nobility elsewhere were patrons of Bosch. In 1504, Philip the Handsome, duke of Burgundy, commissioned an altarpiece of The Last Judgment, now lost, and Henry III of Nassau owned Bosch’s most famous work, The Garden of Earthly Delights , by 1517. Margaret of Austria’s inventory of 1516 includes paintings by Bosch, and in the middle of the sixteenth century Philip II, king of Spain, favored his works.

Life’s Work

Bosch’s art stands outside the mainstream of early Netherlandish painting. While Bosch’s holy figures are plain and at times awkward, most Netherlandish artists, such as Jan van Eyck , Rogier van der Weyden, and Hans Memling, idealize and dignify the Holy Family and saints. While Bosch tended to paint thinly and rapidly, most Netherlandish painters used a painstaking technique of multilayered glazes and meticulous brushwork. Whereas Bosch showed little interest in the individual, portraiture is a hallmark of the early Netherlandish school. In addition, Bosch depicted themes that were new to large-scale painting, such as the Haywain and The Ship of Fools , and he interpreted traditional themes, such as Hell or Christ Carrying the Cross , in a strikingly original way. More fundamentally, evil and corruption dominate Bosch’s world. Hermit saints, such as Saint Anthony, strive to resist temptation through the contemplative life, but, as scholar Max J. Friedländer observed, with Bosch, “innocence was pale.” God is small and passive, humankind weak and sinful, and the Devil powerfully seductive. The disturbing quality of Bosch’s works is far from the grace, beauty, and serenity that typify early Netherlandish painting.

Bosch’s obsession with sin, death, and corruption expresses an undercurrent that is easily detected in northern Europe. Some in the North accepted new ideas, such as the Humanistic belief in the dignity of humanity; however, for others, the time around 1500 produced only fear, conflict, and uncertainty. Millennial fears were widespread; the Malleus maleficarum (1486; English translation, 1928), a handbook on witchcraft, was a best-seller. The disturbing quality sensed in Bosch’s paintings can also be found, for example, in the contemporary work of German artists such as Matthias Grünewald, Hans Baldung Grien, and Hans Burgkmair and in sculptures of Death, alone or with a lover.

Dating early Netherlandish paintings is notoriously hazardous. None of Bosch’s works can be dated with certainty. Scholars generally agree that the early works, generally dated before 1485, such as the Adoration in Philadelphia, are characterized by an uncertain sense of foreshortening and perspective, timid brushwork, and simple, traditional compositions. As Bosch matured, his brushwork became freer, more painterly; his perspective and foreshortening improved; and his paintings achieved a power, an immediacy not seen earlier. The Landloper in Rotterdam, the Adoration triptych in Madrid, and The Crowning with Thorns in London are generally viewed as late works, dating after 1500.

Scholars have suggested varying theories to explain Bosch’s art. Some explanations, such as one that holds that Bosch was a member of a heretical sect, must be rejected as totally lacking in evidence. Others are more convincing. Astrology, alchemy, and Netherlandish folklore have been shown to be among the sources to which Bosch turned for his imagery. The widespread use of Netherlandish proverbs in Bosch’s oeuvre has also been noted.

Bosch used a pictorial language that is largely lost to modern viewers. For example, his Saint John the Baptist shows an upright bear beneath a tree, a well-known symbol of the desert, used, for example, by Andrea Pisano on the Campanile and by the Limburg brothers (Pol, Hermann, and Jehanequin) in the Belles Heures. The saint’s pose seems at first glance inappropriate; he seems to lounge on the ground. Yet his recumbent position, head in hand, refers to his dreamlike state, favorable for visions.

Modern scholarship has tried to place Bosch’s art in its historical context. His images of Saint Anthony should, in part, be seen against the large numbers of victims suffering from Saint Anthony’s Fire, a disease that produced hallucinations. Scholar Walter S. Gibson suggested that Bosch’s works may have appealed to members of the societies of rhetoric and to the rich intellectual community of ’s-Hertogenbosch.

Most scholars agree that Bosch held traditional, orthodox Christian views. For example, some of his works, such as the Philadelphia Adoration and the Madrid Adoration triptych, show Eucharistic symbolism. In the interior of the latter work, Bosch uses Old Testament prototypes and alludes to the Virgin as altar; on the exterior, he depicts The Mass of Saint Gregory . Many of his works moralize against sin, specifically lust (The Ship of Fools and The Garden of Earthly Delights) or avarice (The Death of the Miser and Haywain). Others point the way to a devout life. The numerous images of Christ Carrying the Cross suggest that one should imitate Christ, as the writings of the fifteenth century Dutch theologian Thomas à Kempis had advised. Bosch recommends the contemplative life through his depictions of hermit saints such as Saint Anthony.

Bosch’s work remains, to a great extent, a puzzle. No literary or visual precedents are known. There is also considerable disagreement as to the interpretation of individual motifs. For example, the letter “M” that appears on the knives in Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights has been explained alternately as referring to the painters Jan Mandyn or Jan Mostaert; to Malignus, the Antichrist; to the word “mundus,” meaning “the world”; to the male sex organ; and to a cutler of ’s-Hertogenbosch.

The Garden of Earthly Delights reveals the artist’s variety of sources, fertile imagination, brilliant style, and moralizing message. The title dates from a later time; the contemporary title is unknown. The interior left wing shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Bosch makes their identity clear by their nudity, the apple orchard behind, the serpent coiled around the palm tree in the left middle ground, and the animal-filled garden. The moment depicted is rare in large-scale painting: the introduction of Adam to Eve. Adam’s position, seated on the ground, seems inappropriate, but it refers to an earlier incident, his creation from the earth. Adam gazes eagerly at Eve, who modestly casts down her eyes. The rabbit to her right refers to her fertility.

This is clearly not the typical Garden of Eden. Creepy, slimy animals crawl out of the pool in the foreground. Animals fight, kill, and devour one another. Monstrous animals and bizarre rock formations further indicate that this is a corrupt Earth. The central panel shows hordes of naked young men and women frolicking in an outdoor setting. Both blacks and whites are included to suggest all humankind. Bosch indicates their lust in several ways; directly, by depicting embracing couples; metaphorically, through oversize strawberries and fish; and by association, through references to fruits, animals, gardens, dancing, and bathing.

Bosch condemns these amorous activities. Genesis I:28 had advised: “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Clearly, humankind has disobeyed God. No children are shown, and the oversize fish and birds overwhelm the people. The mouse about to enter the bubble that holds an embracing couple suggests that their act is unclean. The owl, which was thought to be evil in contemporary Dutch folklore because it attacked day birds, is embraced by a lustful youth. The hollowness and fragility of earthly things are indicated by the numerous egg shapes, glass tubes, shells, and bubbles, as well as by such motifs as the figures standing on their heads, precariously balanced on a narrow ledge encircling a cracked globe that bobs in the water.

The right interior wing depicts Hell, a nightmarish vision with fire and ice, monstrous devils, and countless tormented souls. A literary source for this wing is known. The anonymous Vision of Tundale , which was published in ’s-Hertogenbosch in 1484, describes a monster who ingests and excretes damned sinners. Bosch also illustrates traditional punishments for specific vices. The glutton vomits; the avaricious excrete coins; the proud woman admires her reflection in the polished rear end of a demon.

Another traditional motif is the world upside down: The rabbit, dressed in a hunting jacket, blows a hunter’s bugle as he carries, hanging by the feet from a pole, his booty: a man. Bosch reflects a popular Dutch saying with the woman whose arm is burned by a candle (the modern equivalent is “burning the candle at both ends”). The man who coasts on an oversized skate into a hole in the ice suggests the saying “to skate on thin ice.”

Significance

Although much of the content is traditional, Bosch’s work stands apart, to some extent because of his wide variety of sources. Yet, more important, Bosch was able through his technical skill to translate his strikingly imaginative visions into visual form. His ability, for example, to express textures convincingly, whether ice or fire, metallic sheen or watery bubble, the strings of a lute or the smoke of Hell, made his visions believable. Bosch convinces one of the impossible. One accepts as reality, for example, the Tree-Man with barren trunks for legs, a broken eggshell body, and a face that wistfully directs its gaze at the viewer. Irrational visions haunt and frighten because they seem so real.

Bosch’s message is moral: Beware the consequences of sin. His worldview is pessimistic: Humankind goes straight from a corrupt Eden to a world full of sinners, to a nightmarish Hell. No alternative is offered; the power of his art is overwhelming.

Bosch had a tremendous impact on his age. Hundreds of works dating from 1500 to 1530 show the imprint of his style. His nightmarish visions continue to haunt later generations. The Surrealists were his children; indeed, even in the 1980’s a play based on The Garden of Earthly Delights was performed in New York.

Bibliography

Belting, Hans. Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights. New York: Prestel, 2002. Book-length study of one of Bosch’s most famous and enigmatic works. Includes foldout illustration of the complete triptych, as well as many detail photographs. Also included are reproductions of related works.

Bosch, Hieronymus, et al. Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings. Translated by Ted Alkins. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. Definitive catalog of all paintings and drawings attributed to Bosch and his workshop, as well as reproductions of works by his contemporaries and by later artists who were influenced by him. Includes detail insets of every painting, as well as three essays by European scholars on Bosch’s culture and the meaning of his work. Bibliographic references and index.

Dixon, Laurinda. Bosch. New York: Phaidon, 2003. Detailed interpretation of Bosch’s works based on various aspects of his contemporary culture, including religion, science, medicine, alchemy, and new developments in the technology of painting. Includes color illustrations, map, bibliographic references, index.

Friedländer, Max J. Geertgen tot Sint Jans and Jerome Bosch. Vol. 5 in Early Netherlandish Painting. Edited by G. Lemmens. Translated by Heinz Norden. Leiden, the Netherlands: Sijthoff, 1969. The English translation of the 1927 edition. This is the fundamental discussion of Bosch’s style and character. Includes a section on Bosch’s drawings and engravings. Contains high-quality photographs of many works by Bosch and his school. Extremely well written.

Gibson, Walter S. Hieronymus Bosch. Reprint. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2001. A thoughtful, balanced survey of Bosch’s life and art.

Koldeweij, Jos, Bernard Vermet, and Barbera van Kooij, eds. Hieronymus Bosch: New Insights into His Life and Work. Translated by Beth O’Brien et al. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, 2001. Anthology of original essays by leading Bosch scholars, designed to be read by both laypeople and art historians. Includes illustrations, bibliographic references.

Snyder, James. Northern Renaissance Art. New York: Abrams, 1985. Includes one chapter on Bosch. Less cautious than Gibson. Good introductory text, meant for college undergraduates.