Hieronymus Bosch
Master of nightmares and fantasy.
Hieronymus Bosch painted heavens and hells filled with monsters, hybrid creatures and sinners. The Garden of Earthly Delights remains a mystery.
Hieronymus Bosch’s real name was Jheronimus van Aken, and he was born around 1450 in the town of ’s-Hertogenbosch in the present-day Netherlands. He took his artistic name from the town. His father, grandfather and several relatives were painters, and he probably learned the trade in the family workshop. He very rarely left his home town.
Around 1480 he married Aleid van de Meervenne, who came from a wealthy family. The marriage gave him financial independence. He was a member of a pious and venerable confraternity dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which shows that he held a respected position in the town. About twenty-five paintings are attributed to him today, though scholars do not always agree. None of his works is dated.
His best-known work is the triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, painted around 1490–1510 and now in the Prado in Madrid. On the left is Paradise, in the centre a world full of naked people, giant fruits and birds, and on the right a dark hell where musical instruments serve as instruments of torture. No one knows for certain what the picture means. Other important works are The Haywain in the Prado, The Temptation of St Anthony in Lisbon and The Last Judgement in Vienna.
Bosch worked within a tradition of moralising art, and much in his pictures is based on proverbs, sermons and folk belief. He painted sin and its punishment with an inventiveness that has no equal. Monsters made up of animals, humans and objects swarm across the surface. His technique is light and quick, often with thin layers of paint applied directly over the ground.
Bosch died in 1516. He was already famous in his lifetime and widely imitated. The Spanish king Philip II collected his works, which is why several of them are in Spain. In the 20th century the Surrealists saw him as a precursor, and his fantastical world still fascinates.