Hieronymus Bosch (Jerun Antonison van Aken) is an outstanding Dutch painter who whimsically combined the features of medieval fantasy, folklore, philosophical parable and satire in his paintings. One of the founders of landscape and genre painting in Europe.

Biography of Hieronymus Bosch

Jeroen van Aken was born around 1453 in 's-Hertogenbosch (Brabant). The van Aken family, which originated from the German city of Aachen, has long been associated with the art of painting - the artists were Jan van Aken(grandfather Bosch) and four of his five sons, including father Jerome, Anthony. Since nothing is known about Bosch's development as an artist, it is assumed that he received his first painting lessons in the family workshop. The van Aken workshop carried out a wide variety of orders - first of all, these were wall paintings, but also gilding wooden sculpture and even the manufacture of church utensils. So " Hieronymus the painter”, as he was first mentioned in a document of 1480, took a pseudonym from the abbreviated name of his hometown ( Den Bosch), apparently out of the need to somehow stand apart from other representatives of their kind.

Bosch lived and worked mainly in his native 's-Hertogenbosch, which at that time was part of the Duchy of Burgundy, and is now the administrative center of the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. In accordance with the information about the life of the artist, preserved in the city archive, his father died in 1478, and Bosch inherited his art workshop. He entered into Brotherhood of Our Lady ("Zoete Lieve Vrouw") - a religious society that arose in 's-Hertogenbosch in 1318 and consisted of both monks and laity.

The Brotherhood, dedicated to the cult of the Virgin Mary, was also engaged in works of mercy. In archival documents, Bosch's name is mentioned several times: as a painter, he was entrusted with various orders, from decorating festive processions and ritual sacraments of the Brotherhood to painting the altar doors for the Brotherhood's chapel in the Cathedral of St. John (1489, lost) or even a candelabra model. In the same chapel, the funeral of the painter, who died on August 9, 1516, was also performed. The solemnity of this ceremony confirms Bosch's closest connection with the Brotherhood of Our Lady.

This was followed by training in the Dutch cities of Haarlem and Delft, where the young artist introduced the art of Rogier van der Weyden, Dirk Bouts, Gertgen tot Sint Jans, whose influence was felt later in different periods his creativity. In 1480, Bosch returned to 's-Hertogenbosch as a free master painter.

The following year he married Aleid Goyarts van der Meerwenne (Merwei). This girl from a rich and noble family brought a solid fortune to her husband's dowry, giving him the right to dispose of it at his discretion.
Jerome's marriage was not particularly happy (they had no children), but he gave the artist material well-being, position in society and independence: even fulfilling orders, he could afford to write the way he wanted.

None of Bosch's surviving works are dated by himself.

Therefore, presumably, the first known paintings of him, which were of a satirical nature, date back to the mid-1470s. Created in 1475-1480. the paintings “The Seven Deadly Sins”, “Marriage at Cana”, “The Magician” and “Removing the Stones of Stupidity” (“Operation Stupidity”) have a pronounced moralizing character with elements of irony and satire.

It is no coincidence that the Spanish king Philip II ordered the Seven Deadly Sins to be hung in the bedroom of his residence-monastery in Escorial in order to indulge in reflections on the sinfulness of human nature at his leisure. Here you can still feel the uncertainty of the stroke of the young artist, he uses only individual elements of the symbolic language, which later fill all his works.

They are also not numerous in the films “Operation of Stupidity” and “The Magician”, ridiculing the human naivety used by charlatans, including those in monastic attire.

Bosch ridiculed the clergy even more sharply in the painting “Ship of Fools” (1490-1500), where a tipsy nun and a monk bawl a song in the company of commoners on a fragile boat driven by a jester.

Sharply condemning the depravity of the clergy, Bosch was still hardly a heretic, as the modern German art critic V. Frangler. Although he was looking for his way to comprehend God outside the official church.

Creativity of the artist

Who would have been able to tell about all those amazing and strange thoughts that wandered in the head of Hieronymus Bosch, which he conveyed with the help of a brush, and about those ghosts and hellish monsters that often frightened more than delighted the beholder! — Karel van Mander. "The Life of Remarkable Dutch and German Painters"

Bosch's work It began with paintings on the details of various altars and chapels. One of the first outstanding works of Hieronymus Bosch was the painting of the altar doors in the Cathedral of St. John. It should be noted that Philip the Handsome, who later became the king of Castile, really liked this work.

Bosch was a cheerful and sociable person, but Oeroshort left his village very rarely and not far, where he settled after his marriage.

Paintings by Hieronymus Bosch still remain a mystery to art critics. About 40 paintings are recorded on his account. Perhaps there were more, but the artist never signed his work.

In addition to drawing, Bosch was engaged in the manufacture of engravings, was a good blacksmith. He once made a huge painting on glass in a church and also made an excellent metal frame.

Bosch's paintings hung in many royal courts and were admired by his contemporaries. Bosch's life ended on August 9, 1516, in the city where he was born.

On the canvases of the artist there are often monsters, funny or diabolical figures that came out of folk legends, allegorical poems, moralized religious literature, as well as the trends of the late gothic art. Works in Hieronymus Bosch's biography such as "Garden of Earthly Delights" confuse allegories. However, the symbolism of these works is incomprehensible, causing various interpretations.

Bosch was interested in the grotesque, the diabolical, the rich and the deadly.

He was one of the first artists in Europe to depict scenes of everyday life on his canvases, although often with abnormal elements.

King Philip II of Spain collected some of Bosch's finest creations. "Temptation of St. Anthony" (Lisbon), "The Last Judgment" are frequently encountered themes in the artist's work. Other Bosch paintings are on display at the Escorial, Brussels. Examples of Adoration of the Magi are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Philadelphia, which also houses Mocking of Christ.

The biography of Bosch was deeply influenced by the work of Pieter Brueghel. In the 20th century, Hieronymus was perceived as a harbinger of surrealism. Bosch's work still impresses contemporary artists. Bosch's paintings were often forged and the style copied. The artist himself sold only 7 paintings in his entire life. Over time, scientists began to attribute less and less to Bosch's hand. less work previously considered his work. By the beginning of the 21st century, only 25-30 paintings have been named that are definitely the creation of Bosch.

His technique is called alla prima. This is an oil painting technique in which the first strokes create the final texture. Based on the results contemporary research Art historians attribute Bosch's work to the surviving legacy of Hieronymus Bosch 25 paintings And 8 drawings. Pictures are triptychs, fragments of triptychs and separate, independent pictures. Only 7 creations of Bosch are signed. History has not preserved the original names of the paintings that Bosch gave to his creations. The names known to us were assigned to the paintings by catalogs.

Researchers still cannot confidently speak about the creative evolution and chronology of Bosch's works, since none of them has a date, and the formal development of the creative method does not represent a progressive movement and is subject to its own logic, involving ebb and flow.

• In view of the artist's creativity and his unusual vision, it was customary among colleagues to call Bosch the "honorary professor of nightmares."
• Passion for painting came to the artist from male relatives. He did not even have to study art at a specialized school - he acquired all the skills in his family's workshop.
• Bosch was not poor. A good fortune and position in society gave him a successful marriage.
• The creations of Jerome cannot be called corresponding to the spirit of that time. Mostly he was engaged in works of religious subjects. But at the same time, his vision of religion strongly contradicted the existing at that time. The strangest thing is that the Church accepted his paintings without any criticism, despite many nuances.
• Death famous artist shrouded in mystery. After all, his body was buried with triumph and honors in the chapel of the church, in hometown. Centuries later, Bosch's grave was opened, but, to great surprise, it turned out to be empty, and did not contain the remains of either the artist or anyone else. Further excavations were hastily halted after examining a fragment of a tombstone from his grave, which began to heat up and glow under a microscope.

Art historians confidently attribute only 25 paintings and 8 drawings to the surviving heritage of Hieronymus Bosch. There are many fakes and copies.

The main masterpieces of Bosch, which provided him with posthumous fame, are large altar triptychs. Parts of the triptychs have also survived to our time.

After Bosch, many artists in painting created canvases based on the subjects of his paintings (for example, “The Temptation of St. Anthony”).

Hieronymus Bosch was born in Netherlands in the city 's-Hertogenbosch around 1450.

His the present name - Jeroen Antonison van Aken. The artists were Bosch's grandfather, Jan van Aken, and four of his five sons, including Jerome's father, Anthony.

Jerome took pseudonym by the abbreviated name of his hometown (Den Bosch), apparently out of the need to somehow separate himself from other representatives of his kind.Bosch lived and worked mainly in his native 's-Hertogenbosch. There he joined the religious society Brotherhood of Our Lady.

Around 1480 the painter marries on Aleith Goyart van der Meerveen. She came from a noble 's-Hertogensbos family. Thanks to her money Bosch is on a par with richest the people of their hometown. After death, the entire fortune of Aleith Goyarts passed to her husband. They didn't have children.

For the Netherlands at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, hard, rough times. In the country she ruled like at home, ferocious Spanish Inquisition; later, under Philip II, the terrorist regime of the Duke of Alba was established. Gallows were erected everywhere, entire villages were on fire, bloody feasts were completed by an epidemic of plague. Desperate people clutched at ghosts - appeared mystical teachings, savage sects, witchcraft for which the church persecuted and executed even more. For a whole century, indignation boiled in the Netherlands, which then turned into a revolution. This was the era memorably described by de Coster in "The Legend of Thiel Ulenspiegel".

Netherlands and Italy in the 15th century determined the development path Western European art, but these paths were different: Italy sought to break with the traditions of the Middle Ages, the Netherlands preferred the path of evolutionary transformations. In Italy, the revolution in the field of culture received name of the renaissance because he relied on ancient heritage. In Northern Europe it is referred to as "new art". When you look at the paintings of Bosch, you can hardly believe that he was a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. Bosch did not use the method of working from nature, was not interested in the problems of accurate representation human body(anatomy, proportions, angles), as well as the construction of a mathematically verified perspective. painters Northern Europe were still inclined to isolate the human figure from its environment, every figure and every object was supposed to be interpreted as a kind of symbol. The main thing for Bosch was the content of his works, expression, emotional expressiveness.

Unlike other Dutch masters, Hieronymus Bosch focused on depicting not the righteous and Paradise - Heavenly Jerusalem, but the sinful inhabitants of the earth. Some of his works ("Hay Carriage", "Garden of Earthly Delights", "Seven Deadly Sins", "The Temptation of St. Anthony" and a number of others) have no analogues either in contemporary art or in the art of the previous time.
Bosch created a special world of images, where evil and suffering reign. This world, inhabited by sinners, disgusting monsters, demons, appears before us as the "Kingdom of Antichrist", "New Babylon", deserving destruction and death.

Bosch is an atypical artist in the panorama of Dutch painting and the only one of its kind in European painting XV century.

Previously it was thought that "devilry" in the paintings of Bosch is intended only to amuse the audience, tickle their nerves, like those grotesque figures that the masters Italian Renaissance woven into their ornaments. Modern scientists have come to the conclusion that Bosch's work has a much deeper meaning, and have made many attempts to explain its meaning, find its origins, and give it an interpretation. Some consider Bosch to be something like Surrealist of the 15th century, who extracted his unprecedented images from the depths of the subconscious, and, calling his name, they invariably remember Salvador Dali. Others believe that Bosch's art reflects medieval "esoteric disciplines" - alchemy, astrology, black magic.

Most of the plots of Bosch's paintings are connected with episodes from the life of Christ or saints who resist vice, or are gleaned from allegories and proverbs about human greed and stupidity.

His technique called "a la prima". This is an oil painting technique in which the first strokes create the final texture.

Most complete collection works of the artist are kept in the museum Prado.

Reviews about Bosch in the literature of the XVI century. quite few, and the authors pay their attention primarily to the presence in his paintings of various monsters and demons, to the incredible combination of parts of the human body, plants and animals, called by one Venetian "evil spirits".

For Bosch's contemporaries, his paintings had much more meaning than for the modern viewer. Medieval people received the necessary explanations for the plots from the various symbols that abound in Bosch's paintings.

A significant number of Bosch's symbols are alchemical. The alchemical stages of transformation are encrypted in color transitions; jagged towers, trees hollow inside, fires, being symbols of Hell, at the same time allude to fire in the experiments of alchemists; a hermetic vessel or a melting furnace are also emblems of black magic and the devil.

Bosch uses and generally accepted in the Middle Ages symbolism of the bestiary- "unclean" animals: in his paintings meet camel, hare, pig, horse, stork and many others. Toad, in alchemy, denoting sulfur, it is a symbol of the devil and death, like everything dry - trees, animal skeletons.

Other common characters:

inverted funnel - attribute fraud or false wisdom;

owl- in Christian paintings it can be interpreted not in the ancient mythological sense (as a symbol of wisdom). Bosch depicted an owl in many of his paintings, he sometimes brought it in contexts to persons who behaved insidiously or indulged in mortal sin. Therefore, it is generally accepted that the owl serves evil as a night bird and predator and symbolizes stupidity, spiritual blindness and ruthlessness of everything earthly.

Bosch's painting style is many copied as soon as it turned out that this guaranteed a profitable sale of paintings. Bosch himself oversaw the production of copies of some of his works,

The central part of the triptych "The Temptation of St. Anthony". National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon

In the central part of the triptych, the space is literally teeming with fantastic implausible characters. White bird turned into a real winged ship plowing the sky.

Central stage - making black mass. Here, exquisitely dressed female priests celebrate a blasphemous service, they are surrounded by a motley crowd: after a cripple, a mandolin player in a black cloak with a boar's snout hurries to the impious communion and owl on the head (the owl here is a symbol of heresy).

From a huge red fruit(an indication of the phase of the alchemical process) a group of monsters appears, led by a demon playing a harp - a clear parody of an angelic concert. The bearded man in the top hat, depicted in the background, is considered warlock, who leads the crowd of demons and controls their actions. And the demon-musician saddled a strange suspicious creature, resembling a huge plucked bird, shod in wooden shoes.

The lower part of the composition is occupied by strange ships. Floats to the sound of the demon's singing headless duck, another demon peeps out of the window in place of the duck's neck.

Another of Bosch's most famous paintings is part of a triptych called The Ship of Fools. The picture was the upper part of the fold of a triptych that has not survived, the lower fragment of which is now considered to be the Allegory of Gluttony and Lust.

The ship traditionally symbolized the Church, leading the souls of believers to the heavenly pier. In Bosch, a monk and two nuns are wandering along with the peasants on a ship - a clear hint of a decline in morals both in the Church and among the laity. The waving pink flag depicts not a Christian cross, but a Muslim crescent, and an owl peeps out of the thick foliage. The nun plays the lute and both sing, or maybe they are trying to grab a pancake hanging on a cord with their mouth, which is set in motion by a person with his hand raised up. The lute, depicted on the canvas as a white instrument with a round hole in the middle, symbolizes the vagina, and playing on it means debauchery (in the language of symbols, the bagpipe was considered the male equivalent of the lute). The sin of voluptuousness is also symbolized by traditional attributes - a dish of cherries and a metal jug of wine hanging overboard. The sin of gluttony is unambiguously represented by the characters of a merry feast, one of whom reaches with a knife for a roast goose tied to a mast; another in a fit of vomiting hung overboard, and the third is rowing with a giant scoop like an oar. The monk and the nun sing songs with rapture, not knowing that the Ship of the Church has turned into its antipode - the Ship of Evil, without a rudder and sails, dragging souls to Hell. The ship is an outlandish structure: its mast is a living, leaf-covered tree, a broken branch is its rudder. Opinions have been expressed that the mast in the form of a tree corresponds to the so-called maypole, around which folk festivities take place in honor of the arrival of spring - the time of the year when both the laity and the clergy tend to transgress moral prohibitions.

Bosch's works are not in the Hermitage, but there is a small painting "Hell" * of the beginning of the 16th century - the work of an unknown follower of the great artist.

In the middle of the 16th century, decades after Bosch's death, a broad movement began to revive the bizarre creations of the fantasy of the Dutch painter. This hobby lasted for several decades. Success engravings made by motives of Bosch's "evil spirits", immediately brought to life all sorts of imitations and replicas (up to deliberate fakes). All these images were at least partially sustained in the spirit of Bosch - with an abundance of wonderful and monstrous creatures. Of particular success were engravings illustrating proverbs and scenes from folk life. Even Pieter Brueghel deliberately used Bosch's name for commercial purposes, "signing" engravings based on the master's drawings, which immediately increased their value.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder. The Seven Deadly Sins.

It is difficult to judge how much the artist was understood by his contemporaries. It is only known that during the life of Bosch, his works were widely popular.
The greatest interest in the artist's work was shown in Spain and Portugal. There are the most large collections his canvases. The fantastic, terrible scenes of Bosch's paintings were close and interesting to the Spanish audience, full of religious feelings.

IN last years of life artist drawn exclusively to stories about Christ("Adoration of the Magi", "Crowning with Thorns", "Carrying the Cross"). In them, he moves away from the image of the fantastic monsters of the underworld, but who came to replace them real images executioners and witnesses of the tragedy - malicious or indifferent, cruel or envious - are much more terrible than Bosch's fantasies. In the painting “Christ Carrying the Cross”, Christ, as if unable to look at this raging bacchanalia of evil, is depicted with his eyes closed. This was the last work of Bosch.

Carrying the cross. 1490-1500. Museum of Fine Arts. Ghent

The central part of the triptych is a panorama of the fantastic « garden of love», inhabited by many naked figures of men and women, unprecedented animals, birds and plants. Lovers shamelessly betray love pleasures in the reservoirs, in incredible crystal structures, are hidden under the peel of huge fruits or in shell valves. Magnificent in painting, the picture resembles a bright carpet woven from radiant and delicate colors. But this beautiful vision is deceptive, for behind it hide sins and vices presented by the artist in the form of numerous symbols, borrowed from popular beliefs, mystical literature and alchemy. In the picture » depicts strange birds: very realistic, but incredible, gigantic creatures, against which swarm tiny naked men. Although there seems to be nothing terrible in the image of these birds, they make a terrible impression. It is enhanced by the view of the huge red berry, brought in the beak of one of the birds.

Or the so-called melancholy monster: the "legs" are made of tree trunks, and the "body" is a punctured egg. In the gaping hole, as in a dark abyss, a tavern is visible, filled with drinking and chewing people. You can spend hours looking at what each of the figures idly having fun inside is doing. And moving away, you notice that the egg-shaped creature has its own “face” - a mask frozen in patient expectation, which seems to be ready to absorb this little world inside it at any moment.

The first to decipher this work was one Spanish monk in 1605. He believed that it was given collective image the earthly life of a person who is mired in sinful pleasures and who has forgotten the primordial beauty of the lost paradise and is therefore doomed to perish in hell.

Extraction of the stone of stupidity. 1475-1480. Prado. Madrid

Artist's grave, located in his hometown in the aisle of the church of St. John painted by him, after centuries added to the list of secrets associated with his name . During archaeological work in the temple, it turned out that the burial was empty. Hans Gaalfe, who led the excavations in 1977, told reporters that he came across a flat stone that did not look like ordinary granite or marble, from which tombstones were made. Studies of the material led to an unexpected result: a fragment of the stone, placed under a microscope, began to glow faintly, and the temperature of its surface suddenly increased by more than three degrees. Despite the fact that no external influence was made on him.

Church intervened into research and demanded an urgent end to the abuse: since then Bosch's grave in the Cathedral of St. John is inviolable. The name of the artist and the years of his life are only engraved on it: 1450-1516. And above the grave is a fresco of his hand: a crucifix illuminated by a strange greenish light.

Still, it's best to judge Bosch by his work. They are indeed full of mysteries: their inhabit myriads fantasy creatures as if born on other planets or in parallel worlds. The fog covering the life of the great painter has provoked a considerable amount of literary and historical speculation in our time. He was ranked among the sorcerers and magicians, heretics and alchemists engaged in the search for the philosopher's stone, and even accused of colluding with himself. Satan, which in exchange for immortal soul gave him a special talent to look into other worlds and skillfully depict them on canvas.

A special place in his work is occupied by End of the world: a plot in which his contemporaries did not just believe - they were waiting for him. Nevertheless, on the canvases of Bosch, he is strikingly far from church dogma. So, in one of the cathedrals of 's-Hertogenbosch, painted by Bosch, preserved mysterious fresco: Crowds of the righteous and sinners, stretching their hands up, are watching a green cone rapidly approaching them with a bright white ball of light inside. Dazzling white rays are especially noticeable against the backdrop of darkness that has gripped the world. A strange figure looms in the center of this ball: if you look closely at it, you can see that it has not quite human proportions and is devoid of clothes. Many modern researchers, including the Dutch professor of history and iconography Edmund Van Hoosse, consider the fresco to be evidence that Bosch may have personally observed the approach of foreign technology to our planet with representatives of other worlds on board.

Others go even further. They believe that the artist himself was an alien from the galactic depths and simply described on the canvas what he saw while traveling through the vast universe (something similar, by the way, they say about Leonardo da Vinci). For some reason, he lingered on Earth and left us a pictorial evidence that is not inferior to modern cinematic masterpieces such as Star Wars ...

Paintings by Hieronymus Bosch

Bosch, Bos (Bosch) Hieronymus [actually Hieronymus van Aeken, Hieronymus van Aeken] (circa 1450/60-1516), a great Dutch painter. He worked mainly in 's-Hertogenbosch in North Flanders. One of the brightest masters of the early Northern Renaissance.

Hieronymus Bosch in his multi-figured compositions, paintings on themes folk sayings, proverbs and parables combined sophisticated medieval fantasy, grotesque demonic images generated by boundless imagination with realistic innovations unusual for the art of his era.
Bosch's style is unique and unparalleled in the Dutch painting tradition.
The work of Hieronymus Bosch is both innovative and traditional, naive and sophisticated; it captivates people with a sense of some secret known to one artist. "Eminent master" - this is how Bosch was called in 's-Hertogenbosch, to whom the artist remained faithful until the end of his days, although his lifetime fame spread far beyond the borders of his native city.

The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things

1475-1480 years. Prado Museum, Madrid.

It is believed that this is an early work of Bosch: between 1475 and 1480. The painting "The Seven Deadly Sins" was in Brussels in the collection of De Guevara around 1520 and was acquired by Philip II of Spain in 1670. The painting "The Seven Deadly Sins" hung in the private chambers of King Philip II of Spain, apparently helping him to violently pursue heretics.

A composition of symmetrically arranged circles and two unfolding scrolls, where quotations from Deuteronomy with deep pessimism prophesy about the fate of mankind. In the circles - Bosch's first image of Hell and the interpretation of Heavenly Paradise that exists in the singular. The seven deadly sins are depicted in the segments of God's all-seeing eye in the center of the composition, they are given in an emphatically didactic manner.

This work is one of the clearest and most moralizing works of Bosch and is provided with detailed, clarifying quotations from Deuteronomy depicted. Inscribed on the scrolls are the words: "For they are a people who have lost their minds, and there is no sense in them" And “I will hide my face from them, and I will see what their end will be.”- determine the theme of this pictorial prophecy.

"Ship of Fools" is without a doubt a satire
In the painting "Ship of Fools", a monk and two nuns are shamelessly having fun with the peasants in a boat with a jester as a helmsman. Perhaps this is a parody of the ship of the Church, leading souls to eternal salvation, or perhaps an accusation of lust and intemperance against the clergy.

The passengers of the fantastic ship, sailing to the "Country of Glutland", personify human vices. The grotesque ugliness of the heroes is embodied by the author in shining colors. Bosch is both real and symbolic. By itself, the world created by the artist is beautiful, but stupidity and evil reign in it.

Most of the plots of Bosch's paintings are connected with episodes from the life of Christ or saints who resist vice, or are gleaned from allegories and proverbs about human greed and stupidity.

Saint Anthony 1500s. Prado Museum, Madrid.

"The Life of St. Anthony", written by Athanasius the Great, tells that in 271 AD. still young, Antony retired to the desert to live as an ascetic. He lived for 105 years (c. 251 - 356).

Bosch depicted the "earthly" temptation of St. Anthony, when the devil, distracting him from meditation, tempted him with earthly blessings.
His round back, pose, closed with fingers woven into a lock, speak of an extreme degree of immersion in meditation.
Even the devil, in the form of a pig, calmly froze next to Antony, like a tamed dog. So does the saint in Bosch's painting see or not see the monsters that surround him?
They are visible only to us sinners, for "what we contemplate is what we are".

In Bosch, the image of the internal conflict of a person reflecting on the nature of Evil, about the best and the worst, about the desired and the forbidden, resulted in a very accurate picture of vice. Anthony, with his strength, which he receives by the grace of God, resists a flurry of vicious visions, but can an ordinary mortal resist all this?

In the painting "The Prodigal Son" Hieronymus Bosch interpreted his ideas about life
The hero of the picture - skinny, in a torn dress and different shoes, withered and as if flattened on a plane - is presented in a strange stopped and yet continuing movement.
It is almost written off from nature - in any case, European art before Bosch did not know such an image of poverty - but in the dry emaciation of its forms there is something of an insect.
This is the life that a person leads, with which, even leaving it, he is connected. Only nature remains pure, infinite. The dull color of the painting expresses Bosch's idea - gray, almost grisaille tones unite both people and nature. This unity is natural and natural
.

Bosch in the picture depicts Jesus Christ among the raging crowd, densely filling the space around him with vicious, triumphant physiognomies.
For Bosch, the image of Christ is the personification of boundless mercy, spiritual purity, patience and simplicity. He is opposed by the powerful forces of evil. They subject him to terrible torments, physical and spiritual. Christ shows man an example of overcoming all difficulties.
In terms of its artistic qualities, Carrying the Cross contradicts all pictorial canons. Bosch depicted a scene whose space has lost all connection with reality. Heads and torsos emerge from the darkness and disappear into the darkness.
Deformity, both external and internal, he translates into some higher aesthetic category, which six centuries later continues to excite the minds and feelings.

In the painting by Hieronymus Bosch “The Crowning with Thorns”, Jesus, surrounded by four tormentors, appears before the viewer with an air of solemn humility. Before execution, two warriors crown his head with a crown of thorns.
The number "four" - the number of depicted tormentors of Christ - stands out among the symbolic numbers with a special richness of associations, it is associated with the cross and the square. Four parts of the world; four Seasons; four rivers in Paradise; four evangelists; four great prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel; four temperaments: sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic.
The four evil faces of the tormentors of Christ are the bearers of the four temperaments, that is, all varieties of people. The two faces above are considered the embodiment of a phlegmatic and melancholic temperament, below - a sanguine and choleric one.

The impassive Christ is placed in the center of the composition, but the main thing here is not him, but the triumphant Evil, who has taken the form of tormentors. Evil appears to Bosch as a natural link in some prescribed order of things.

Hieronymus Bosch Altar "The Temptation of St. Anthony", 1505-1506
The triptych summarizes the main motifs of Bosch's work. The image of the human race, mired in sins and stupidity, and the endless variety of hellish torments awaiting it, is joined here by the Passion of Christ and scenes of the temptation of the saint, who, by the unshakable firmness of faith, allows him to resist the onslaught of enemies - the World, the Flesh, the Devil.

The painting "The Flight and Fall of St. Anthony" is the left wing of the altar "The Temptation of St. Anthony" and tells about the struggle of the saint with the Devil. The artist returned to this theme more than once in his work. Saint Anthony is an instructive example of how to resist earthly temptations, to be on your guard all the time, not to accept everything that seems to be true, and to know that seduction can lead to God's curse.

The Capture of Jesus and the Carrying of the Cross 1505-1506 years. National Museum, Lisbon.

The outer doors of the triptych "The Temptation of St. Anthony"
Left outer wing "The taking of Jesus into custody in the Garden of Gethsemane." Right outer wing "Carrying the Cross".

The central part of the "Temptation of St. Anthony". The space of the picture is literally teeming with fantastic implausible characters.
In that era, when the existence of Hell and Satan was an immutable reality, when the coming of the Antichrist seemed completely inevitable, the intrepid steadfastness of the saint, looking at us from his chapel filled with the forces of evil, should have encouraged people and instilled hope in them.

The right wing of the triptych "Garden of Earthly Delights" got its name "Musical Hell" because of the images of tools used as instruments of torture

The victim becomes the executioner, the prey the hunter, and this is the best way to convey the chaos that reigns in Hell, where the normal relationships that once existed in the world are reversed, and the most ordinary and harmless objects of everyday life, growing to monstrous sizes, turn into instruments of torture.

Hieronymus Bosch Altar "The Garden of Earthly Delights", 1504-1505

The left wing of the triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights" depicts the last three days of the creation of the world and is called "Creation" or "Earthly Paradise".

The artist inhabits a fantastic landscape with many real as well as unreal species of flora and fauna.
In the foreground of this landscape, depicting the antediluvian world, is not a scene of the temptation or expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, but their union by God.
He holds Eve by the hand in the manner of a wedding ceremony. Here Bosch depicts the mystical wedding of Christ, Adam and Eve

In the center of the composition rises the Source of Life - high. a thin, pink structure, decorated with intricate carvings. Glittering in the mud gems, as well as fantastic beasts, probably inspired by medieval performances about India, which captivated the imagination of Europeans with its miracles since the time of Alexander the Great. There was a popular and fairly widespread belief that it was in India that Eden, lost by man, was located.

The altar "Garden of Earthly Delights" - the most famous triptych of Hieronymus Bosch, which got its name from the theme of the central part, is dedicated to the sin of voluptuousness - Luxuria.
Do not assume that a crowd of naked lovers, according to Bosch's plan, was to become the apotheosis of sinless sexuality. For medieval morality, the sexual act, which in the 20th century was finally learned to be perceived as a natural part of human being, was more often proof that a person had lost his angelic nature and fell low. At best, copulation was viewed as a necessary evil, at worst, as a mortal sin. Most likely, for Bosch, the garden of earthly pleasures is a world corrupted by lust.

World creation 1505-1506. Prado Museum, Madrid.

The outer doors of the "Creation of the World" altar "Garden of Earthly Delights". Bosch depicts here the third day of creation: the creation of the earth, flat and round, washed by the sea and placed in a giant sphere. In addition, newly emerged vegetation is depicted.
This rare, if not unique, plot demonstrates the depth and power of Bosch's imagination.

Hieronymus Bosch Altar "Hay Cart", 1500-1502

The left shutter of Hieronymus Bosch's triptych "The Hay Cart" is dedicated to the theme of the fall of the forefathers, Adam and Eve. The traditional, cult character of this composition is beyond doubt: it includes four episodes from bible book Genesis - the overthrow of the rebellious angels from heaven, the creation of Eve, the fall, the expulsion from Paradise. All scenes are distributed in the space of a single landscape depicting Paradise.

Carriage of hay 1500-1502, Prado Museum, Madrid.

The world is a haystack: Everyone gets as much as they can. The human race appears to be mired in sin, completely rejecting the divine institutions and indifferent to the fate prepared for it by the Almighty.

Hieronymus Bosch's triptych "Hay Carriage" is considered the first of the great satirical-legal allegories of the mature period of the artist's work.
Against the background of an endless landscape, a cavalcade is moving behind a huge hay cart, and among them are the emperor and the pope (with recognizable features of Alexander VI). Representatives of other classes - peasants, townspeople, clerics and nuns - grab armfuls of hay from the cart or fight over it. Christ, surrounded by a golden radiance, is indifferently and aloofly watching the feverish human bustle from above.
No one, except for the angel praying on top of the wagon, notices either the Divine presence or the fact that demons are pulling the cart.

The right shutter of Hieronymus Bosch's triptych "Hay Cart". The image of Hell is found in Bosch's work much more often than Paradise. The artist fills the space with apocalyptic fires and the ruins of architectural buildings, making one think of Babylon - the Christian quintessence of the demonic city, traditionally opposed to the "City of heavenly Jerusalem". In his version of Hell, Bosch relied on literary sources, coloring the motifs drawn from there with the play of his own imagination.

The outer shutters of the altar "Hay Cart" have their own name " life path”and in terms of craftsmanship are inferior to the image on the inner doors and were probably completed by apprentices and students of Bosch
The Path of Bosch's pilgrim runs through a hostile and treacherous world, and all the dangers that it poses are presented in the details of the landscape. Some threaten life, embodied in the images of robbers or an evil dog (however, it can also symbolize slanderers, whose evil tongues are often compared to dog barking). Dancing peasants are an image of a different, moral danger; like lovers on top of a hay cart, they were seduced by the "music of the flesh" and submitted to it.

Hieronymus Bosch "Visions" afterlife", part of the altar " Last Judgment", 1500-1504

Earthly Paradise, composition Vision of the afterlife

In the mature period of creativity, Bosch moves from the image visible world to the imaginary generated by his indefatigable fantasy. Visions appear to him as if in a dream, because the images of Bosch are devoid of physicality, they whimsically combine enchanting beauty and unreal, like in a nightmare, horror: ethereal phantom figures are devoid of earthly gravity and easily fly up. The main characters of Bosch's paintings are not so much people as grimacing demons, scary and at the same time funny monsters.

This is a world beyond common sense, the realm of the Antichrist. The artist translated the prophecies that spread in Western Europe by the beginning of the 16th century - the time when the End of the World was predicted,

Ascension to the Empyrean 1500-1504, Doge's Palace, Venice.

The Earthly Paradise is directly below the Heavenly Paradise. This is a kind of intermediate step, where the righteous are cleansed of the last stains of sin before they appear before the Almighty.

Depicted, accompanied by angels, march to the source of life. Those who have already been saved look up to heaven. In Ascension to the Empyrean, disembodied souls, having got rid of everything earthly, rush to bright light shining above their heads. This is the last thing that separates the souls of the righteous from eternal merging with God, from "the absolute depth of the revealed divinity."

The overthrow of sinners 1500-1504, Doge's Palace, Venice.

"The overthrow of sinners" sinners, carried away by demons, fly down in the darkness. The contours of their figures are barely highlighted by flashes of hellfire.

Many other visions of Hell created by Bosch also seem chaotic, but only at first glance, and upon closer examination, they always reveal logic, a clear structure and meaningfulness.

hell river, composition Visions of the underworld 1500-1504, Doge's Palace, Venice.

In the painting "Hell's River" from the top of a steep cliff, a column of fire beats into the sky, and below, in the water, the souls of sinners helplessly flounder. In the foreground is a sinner, if not yet repentant, then at least thoughtful. He sits on the shore, not noticing the demon with wings, which pulls him by the hand. The Last Judgment is the main theme that runs through all of Bosch's work. He depicts the Last Judgment as a world catastrophe, a night illuminated by flashes of hellish flames, against which monstrous monsters torture sinners.

In the time of Bosch, clairvoyants and astrologers argued that before the second coming of Christ and the Last Judgment took place, the Antichrist would rule the world. Many then believed that this time had already come. The Apocalypse became extremely popular - the Revelation of the Apostle John the Theologian, written during the period of religious persecution in Ancient Rome, a vision of horrific catastrophes to which God will subject the world for the sins of people. Everything will perish in the cleansing flame.

The painting “Removing the stones of stupidity”, which illustrates the procedure for extracting the stone of madness from the brain, is dedicated to human naivety and depicts the typical quackery of healers of that time. Several symbols are depicted, such as a funnel of wisdom, put on the surgeon's head in mockery, a jug on his belt, a patient's bag pierced by a dagger.

Marriage at Cana

In the traditional plot of the first miracle created by Christ - the transformation of water into wine - Bosch introduces new elements of mystery. A psalm-reader who stands with his hands upraised in front of the bride and groom, a musician in an improvised gallery, a master of ceremonies pointing to fine workmanship ceremonial dishes on display, a servant who faints - all these figures are completely unexpected and unusual for the depicted plot.

Magician 1475 - 1480s. Museum Boymans van Beiningen.

Hieronymus Bosch's "Magician" board is a picture full of humor, where the faces of the characters themselves and, of course, the behavior of the main characters are ridiculous: an insidious charlatan, a simpleton who believed that he spat out a frog, and a thief, with an indifferent look dragging his bag.

The painting “Death and the Miser” was written on the plot, possibly inspired by the well-known in the Netherlands didactic text “Ars moriendi” (“The Art of Dying”), which describes the struggle of devils and angels for the soul of a dying person.

Bosch captures the climax. Death crosses the threshold of the room, the angel calls out to the image of the crucified Savior, and the devil tries to take possession of the soul of the dying miser.

Hieronymus Bosch is a medieval artist who is fashionable even today, in particular, because of his apocalyptic ideas. Fragments of his work called "The Garden of Earthly Delights" can now be seen even on leggings and in children's coloring, a modern musical group. Why?

Some fanatical, if you can call it that, the artist's paintings late medieval were popular for their nightmarish details: a man playing a flute sticking out of his anus, with the help of releasing gases, or a monster bird devouring sinners and defecating them into a pit for sewage, etc. King Philip II of Spain, the patron of the Inquisition, hung one from paintings by Bosch ("The Seven Deadly Sins") in his bedroom. Perhaps she helped him to better tune in to the fight against heretics.

The most famous picture Bosch - triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights". On the left side of the triptych God, Adam and Eve are depicted in paradise, on the central one: the garden of pleasures, on the right side: degradation, sinners, hell.

Despite the fact that the plot of this picture at first glance seems far from childish, a coloring book for children aged 6 years and over was created from its fragments. The Coloring Book Hieronymus Bosch introduces children to amazing landscapes, fantastic fruits and flowers, and the fabulous animals that Bosch painted. According to the author, the coloring book was published to help children develop creatively and inspire them to create own works art in the future.

Also in 1991, the fiction book "Pish Posh, Said Hieronymus Bosch" ("Pah, pah, said Hieronymus Bosch") was published. The plot of the book is the story of Bosch's disgruntled housekeeper, who is already fed up with the mess that his wild monsters (winged fish and the like) make around the house.

These two products show that even though Hieronymus Bosch died 500 years ago, the images from his work and his vision seem to be more popular than ever. About all his paintings came out A new book from the world famous TASCHEN publishing house. In 2007, an art center dedicated to his work was opened in Bosch's hometown of 's-Hertogenbosch. Prints of his paintings adorn Doc Martens shoes, T-shirts and sweatshirts, surfboards and skateboards. Why is this happening?

Bosch enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime. He has inspired so many imitators that it is sometimes difficult to determine his original canons. But after all, so much time has passed since then: the days of the counter-reformation, the baroque style ...

"The Catholic Church is reclaiming its position and it would like to emphasize the church, salvation and the saints, which was not exactly what Bosch was focusing on," Larry Silver, an art history professor at Pennsylvania State University, said by phone. "Take Rubens. Then, it simply could not be that both Bosch and Rubens could be in demand at the same time. This is one of the circumstances that put an end to his popularity at that time, it was, as it were, a turn from pessimism to the bright side."

This state of affairs continued until the beginning of the 20th century. Art historians such as Carl Justi did not show special interest to the painting of Bosch, in contrast to the founders and theorists of surrealism, such as, for example, Andre Breton, who began new wave interest in the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Surrealists and lovers of surrealism appreciated his imagination and "unconscious painting". They were enthusiastic about his ideas against organized religion and bourgeois morality.

Bohemian delight of this kind became a constant presence in the stories of Jerome. There is a thesis, first put forward by Wilhelm Franger in 1947, that Bosch was a member of a cult called the Free Spirit Brothers. In this interpretation, the central part of the garden shows not a world that is slipping into sinfulness, but the enjoyment of the sexual tantric delights of free love, harmony with nature. There is another interesting reference to the Garden of Earthly Delights in The Da Vinci Code, chapter 37.

There is also a version, no less popular than about the sex cult, that Bosch had bad trips from eating moldy rye bread. According to author Walter Bosing, for Bosch, it “worked like a miracle cure to help make up for the lack of education and scholarships in higher education.” educational institutions and contributing to the creation of paintings that satisfy the sensational appetites of viewers.” Next funny example- philosopher, publicist of the 60s Norman Oliver Brown, who combined Freud's theories of anal eroticism with Martin Luther's doctrine of justification by faith, illustrated his work with the Garden of Earthly Delights.

Such interpretations correspond to modern stereotypes about the psychedelic paintings of an artist with an upset psyche, but for modern experts they are nothing more than jokes, academics only laugh at them. Bosing calls them "scientific nonsense". It is more likely that Bosch was simply an artist completely out of his time, and not a crazy drug addict who attends sectarian orgies and paints them after using LSD.

Either way, now Bosch is a muse to some of the most important creators. Director Guillermo del Toro (films Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak...) cites Bosch as the inspiration for his famous surreal imagery. The late Alexander McQueen used Jerome-printed fabrics to create his final collection. Best-selling writer Michael Connelly named the protagonist of his most popular detective novel after the painter. Above his desk is a copy of Bosch's Inferno.

Its current popularity comes from the fact that modern people his ideas are close and interesting. To date, films about the apocalypse are on the lists of the most box office films. Among ordinary people, art lovers and artists, not only Jerome's paintings are very popular, but also his style in general, his unique approach to art. The paintings of Hieronymus Bosch equally attract both our compatriots and foreign viewers. Bosch was a very interesting person. His paintings are very multifaceted and ambiguous, they can be understood in different ways. Therefore, it may turn out that his work will not lose its relevance soon, it will live for a very long time after us.

The painting "Ship of Fools" was made in oil on a board, approximately in 1495 - 1500. Its size: 33 cm. 58 cm. The painting is in the Louvre, in Paris.

The painting "Carrying the Cross" (Ghent) was made in oil on a board, around 1490 - 1500. Its size: 83.5 cm. 77 cm. The painting is in the Museum of Fine Arts, in Ghent.

The painting "Carrying the Cross" (Vienna) was made in oil on a board, approximately in 1515 - 1516. Its size: 32 cm. 57 cm. The painting is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

"Carrying the Cross" (Madrid) - side panel from a triptych that has not survived, made in oil on board, around 1505. Its size: 94 cm. 150 cm. The painting is in the Royal Palace, in Madrid.

The triptych "The Temptation of St. Anthony" was made in oil on wood, around 1505-1506. Its size: 225 cm. 131.5 cm. The painting is in the National Museum of Ancient Art, in Lisbon.

The panel "The Temptation of St. Anthony" is made in oil on wood, not earlier than 1490. Its size: 52.5 cm. 73 cm. It is located in the Prado National Museum, in Madrid.

The painting "The Prodigal Son" was made in oil on board, around 1510. Its diameter: 70 cm. The painting is in the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.

The painting "The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things" was made in oil on a board, around 1475 - 1480. Its size: 150 cm x 120 cm. The painting is in the Prado National Museum, in Madrid.

The painting "Saint Christopher" was made in oil on a board, around 1504 - 1505. Its size: 71.5 cm x 113 cm. The painting is in the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.

The Last Judgment triptych was made in oil on wood, around 1504. Its size: 247 cm. 164 cm. The painting is in the Academy fine arts, in Vienna.

The painting "The Crowning with Thorns" (London) was made in oil on a board, approximately in 1508 - 1509. Its size: 59 cm x 73 cm. The painting is in the National Gallery, London.

The painting "The Crowning with Thorns" (Escorial) was made in oil on board, around 1510. Its size: 195 cm x 165 cm. The painting is located in the Escorial Monastery, in the city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, in Spain.

The Hay Cart triptych was made in oil on wood, around 1500-1502. Its size: 190 cm. 135 cm. The painting exists in two copies. One is in the Prado National Museum, in Madrid. The second is in the Escorial Monastery, in the city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, in Spain.

The painting "Extracting the stone of stupidity" was made in oil on a board, around 1475 - 1480. Its size: 35 cm x 48 cm. The painting is in the Prado National Museum, in Madrid.

The Adoration of the Magi triptych was made in oil on wood, around 1510. Its size: 138 cm. 138 cm. The painting is in the Prado National Museum, in Madrid.

The art of Hieronymus Bosch has always been the subject of talk and gossip. They tried to decipher him, but most of his works are still fraught with mysteries, the answers to which we are unlikely to receive in the near future.

The Garden of Earthly Delights. The triptych is dedicated to the sin of voluptuousness.
Initially, it was believed that Bosch's paintings served to entertain the crowd and did not carry great sense. Modern scientists have come to the conclusion that something more is hidden in the works of Bosch and many secrets have not yet been revealed.

Last Judgment
Bosch is considered by many to be a surrealist of the 15th century. His technique is called alla prima. This is an oil painting technique in which the first strokes create the final texture.

Carriage of hay
For Bosch's contemporaries, his paintings meant much more than for the modern viewer. For the most part, this is due to the symbolism of the paintings, most of which has been lost and cannot be deciphered, since the symbols have changed over time and what they meant during the life of Bosch is now, if not impossible, then at least quite difficult to say.

Carrying the Cross
Most of Bosch's symbols were alchemical. At the same time, Bosch gives alchemy a sinister connotation.

Prodigal son. The painting signifies final stage in the artist's work and is distinguished by a strict and balanced composition, subtle nuances of a subdued and laconic range of colors.
Bosch worked on the edge of the imagination, and although he is considered a master of the "inimitable", many subsequent artists tried to copy him.

The Adoration of the Magi is the last of Hieronymus Bosch's triptychs, named after the plot of the central part.

Hell.

Concert in an egg.

Death of a whore.