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 much meaning. 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 marks the last 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.
Hieronymus Bosch, real name Jeroen Antonison van Aken (Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken), was born around 1450 in 's-Hertogenbosch (Brabant). 's-Hertogenbosch is one of the four largest cities in the Duchy of Brabant, located in the south of modern Holland.
It was from the abbreviated name of his hometown (Den Bosch) that the pseudonym of the painter was later taken, apparently from the need to somehow separate himself from other representatives of his kind. After all, the van Aken family, which originated from the German city of Aachen, has long been associated with the pictorial craft and numbered at least four generations - the artists were Jan van Aken (Bosch's grandfather) and four of his five sons, including Jerome's father, Anthony. It is assumed that he received his first lessons in painting in the family workshop, which carried out a wide variety of orders - first of all, these were wall paintings, but also gilding wooden sculptures and even making church utensils.
Unfortunately, there is very little information about the biography of the artist. There are no letters, no fixed memoirs of the artist and his relatives, and none of his paintings bears a date. Bosch's biographers have at their disposal only meager documents from the city archive. In addition, in the twentieth century, a lot of pseudo-biographies appeared, which only confuse and misinform. In the aforementioned documents, the name of Jeroen van Aken appears for the first time in 1474: Bosch is mentioned along with his two brothers and sister.
Bosch lived and worked mainly in his native 's-Hertogenbosch. According to information from the city archive, his father died in 1478, and Bosch inherited his art workshop. Around that time, Jeroen van Aken married Aleith Goyarts van der Meerveen. She came from a very wealthy family and was much older than her husband. About fourteen documents written between 1474 and 1498 speak of his financial situation: by the end of the 15th century, Bosch was considered one of the richest residents of 's-Hertogenbosch. Thus, he is conditionally separated from those artists who created for the sake of money, because Bosch did not need them.
In the image: the monument to Hieronymus Bosch in Hetogenbosch
It is also known that the artist joined the Brotherhood of Our Lady (“Zoete Lieve Vrouw”), a religious society that arose in 's-Hertogenbosch in 1318. It is from the surviving documents of the Brotherhood that several accurate facts from the life of the artist are known.
The Brotherhood of the Virgin, which exists to this day, in the time of Bosch played a very important role in the life of 's-Hertogenbosch. The miraculous image of the Mother of God, located in the city church, was an object of worship for members of the Brotherhood. By the way, the majestic St. John's Cathedral still adorns the central square of 's-Hertogenbosch.
According to the documents, Bosch appeared in the lists of members of the Brotherhood in 1486. But even earlier, in 1480, his name is mentioned with regard to the purchase by Bosch of two wings of the old altar, work on which his father did not have time to complete.
In 1488, he was invited as a guest of honor to the annual feast of the Brotherhood and at the same time became an honorary member of the organization. Jeroen van Aken was the only artist to have been elected an honorary member of the Brotherhood in the entire history of the organization, and there is no doubt that he enjoyed great respect among the adherents of the Brotherhood. (According to the official rules of the Brotherhood, only a person with the education of a theologian could become an honorary member, but there were exceptions).
The central part of the triptych "The Temptation of St. Anthony"
In 1498 or 1499, Bosch presided over the annual feast of the "Swan Brothers", on whose order he performed some work from decorating the festive processions and ritual sacraments of the Brotherhood to painting the altar doors for the Brotherhood Chapel in the Cathedral of St. John. Unfortunately, Bosch's work for the Brotherhood has not survived.
Through his membership in the Brotherhood, Bosch acquired various connections and was the first to receive orders from noble compatriots. For example, from the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Handsome, who, in the year of his accession, ordered the artist a large altarpiece. Of this triptych, called The Last Judgment, only a deformed fragment has survived. The artist worked for the Spanish Queen Isabella of Castile, and for the sister of Philip and the regent of the Netherlands Margaret of Austria.
The name of the artist disappears from city documents for four years - from 1499 to 1503, it is assumed that the artist spent this time in Italy. In confirmation of this, the assumptions of some researchers testify that the painting “Three Philosophers” (circa 1500, Venice) by Giorgione depicts the author himself, Leonardo da Vinci and Hieronymus Bosch.
Bosch most likely spent the last years of his life in 's-Hertogenbosch and devoted them to work for the Brotherhood. The last mention of the artist in the books of the Swan Brothers is dated August 9, 1516. On this day, in the Cathedral of St. John, a solemn funeral mass was held for "Brother Jerome". The solemnity of this ceremony confirms Bosch's closest connection with the Brotherhood of Our Lady.
Fragment of the triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
Bosch's art has always had a tremendous attraction. And today, some consider Bosch to be something like a surrealist of the 15th century, who extracted his unprecedented images from the depths of the subconscious, others believe that Bosch's art reflects medieval "esoteric disciplines" - alchemy, astrology, black magic.
Art historians attribute 25 paintings and eight drawings to the surviving heritage of Hieronymus Bosch, which are stored in various museums around the world. He had copyists, followers, imitators. But the world in Bosch's paintings still defies any explanations and theories, and remains atypical for European painting of the 15th century.
Hieronymus Bosch is the most mysterious artist of all time. His paintings are still trying to decipher. But we will not come close to their complete solution.
Because Bosch spoke several languages. In the language of religious symbolism. In the language of the alchemists. Also Dutch proverbs. And even astrology.
It's hard not to get confused. But thanks to this, interest in Bosch will never dry up. Here are just a few of his masterpieces, which are so captivating with their mystery.
1. Garden of earthly delights. 1505-1510
Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights. 1505-1510 Prado Museum, Madrid. wikimedia.commons.org The Garden of Earthly Delights is Bosch's most famous work. It can be viewed for hours. But so nothing to understand. Why all these naked people? Giant berries. Weird fountains. Outlandish monsters.
In a nutshell. Paradise is depicted on the left wing. God just created Adam and Eve. But Bosch's paradise is not so heavenly. Here we see Evil. A cat drags a mouse in its teeth. And nearby, a bird is pecking at a frog.
Why? Animals can do evil. This is their way of survival. But for a man this is a sin.
Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights. Fragment of the left wing of the triptych. 1505-1510 Prado Museum, Madrid In the middle part of the triptych, many naked people lead an idle lifestyle. They care only about earthly pleasures. The symbols of which are giant berries and birds.
People indulge in the sin of voluptuousness. But conditionally. We understand this through symbols. You will not find explicit erotica. Only one pair does not look very decent. Try to find her.
If it doesn’t work out, you will find it in close-up in the article.
But did you know that a copy of the central part of the famous triptych is stored in it? Created 50 years later by a follower of Bosch. The postures and gestures are the same. Only Mannerist people. With beautiful torsos and languid faces.
Bosch's characters are more flat and bloodless. Like blanks, blanks of people. And why write real people if their life is empty, aimless.
Top: Follower of Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights. Fragment. 1556-1568 , Saint Petersburg. Below: Hieronymus Bosch. The central part of the triptych. 1505-1510 Prado Museum, Madrid
On the right wing we see Hell. Here are those who were fond of idle music or gluttony. Gamblers and drunkards. Proud and miserly.
But even here there are no less mysteries. Why are we meeting Eve here? She sits under the chair of a bird-headed monster. What kind of notes are depicted on the backside of one of the sinners? And why did poor musicians end up in Hell?
2. Ship of fools. 1495-1500
Hieronymus Bosch. Ship of fools. 1495-1500 . wikimedia.commons.org Painting “Ship of Fools”. Why a ship? A common metaphor in Bosch's time. This is what they said about the Church. She must “carry” her parishioners through worldly fuss to spiritual purity.
But something is wrong with Bosch's ship. Its passengers indulge in empty fun. They bawl, they drink. Both monks and laity. They don't even notice that their ship isn't sailing anywhere. And so long ago that a tree sprouted through the bottom.
Pay attention to the jester. A fool by profession behaves more seriously than others. He turned away from the merry and drinks his compote. Without him, there are enough fools on this ship.
“Ship of Fools” is the upper part of the right wing of the triptych. The lower part is stored in another country. On it we see the coast. The bathers threw off their clothes and surrounded the barrel of wine.
Two of them swam to the ship of fools. Look, one of them has the same bowl as the bather next to the barrel.
Hieronymus Bosch. Allegory of gluttony and lust. 1500 Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, USA. 3. Temptation of St. Anthony. 1505-1506
. 1500 National Museum of Old Art in Lisbon, Portugal. wikimedia.commons.org Temptation of Saint Anthony. Another fantastic Bosch triptych. Among the heap of monsters and monsters - four stories from the life of a hermit.
First, demons torment the saint in heaven. Satan sent them. It haunted him that he was struggling with earthly temptations.
The demons threw the tormented saint to the ground. We see how his exhausted lead under the arms.
In the central part, the saint is already kneeling among the mysterious characters. It is the alchemists who are trying to make him the elixir of eternal life. As we know, nothing came of them.
Hieronymus Bosch. Temptation of Saint Anthony. Fragment of the central part of the triptych. 1500 National Museum of Old Art in Lisbon, Portugal And on the right wing, Satan made another attempt to seduce the saint from his righteous path. Coming to him in the form of a beautiful queen. To seduce him. But even here the saint resisted.
The triptych “The Temptation of St. Anthony” is interesting for its monsters. From such a variety of unknown creatures, the eyes run wide.
And sheep-headed monsters with the body of a plucked goose. And half-humans, half-trees with fish tails. Bosch's most famous monster also lives here. An absurd creature with a funnel and a bird's beak.
Hieronymus Bosch. Fragment of the left wing of the triptych "The Temptation of St. Anthony". 1500 National Museum of Old Art in Lisbon, Portugal You can admire these entities in detail in the article.
Bosch liked to portray St. Anthony. In 2016, another painting with this saint was recognized as the work of Bosch.
Yes, the little monsters look like Bosch's. There is nothing wrong with them. But fantasy is more than enough. And a funnel on the legs. And a scoop nose. And a walking fish.
Hieronymus Bosch. Temptation of Saint Anthony. 1500-1510 Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, USA. wikimedia.commons.org 4. Prodigal son. 1500
Hieronymus Bosch. Prodigal son. 1500 Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. wikimedia.commons.org In the picture “Prodigal Son”, instead of a huge number of characters, there is one main character. Wayfarer.
He's pretty beat up with life. But he has hope. Leaving the world of debauchery and sin, he wants to return home to his father. In the world of righteous life and spiritual grace.
He looks back at the house. Which is an allegory for a dissolute lifestyle. Tavern or inn. Temporary shelter full of primitive amusements.
The roof has leaked. The shutter is warped. A visitor urinates right around the corner. And two have mercy in the doorway. All this symbolizes spiritual degradation.
Hieronymus Bosch. Prodigal son. Fragment. 1500 Boijmans-Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands But our traveler has already woken up. He realized that he needed to leave. A woman is looking at him from the window. She doesn't understand what he's doing. Or jealous. She does not have the strength and ability to leave this “leaky”, miserable world.
The "prodigal son" is like another traveller. Which is depicted on the closed doors of the triptych "Who hay".
Hieronymus Bosch. Wanderer. Closed sashes of the triptych "Wag the Hay". 1516 Prado Museum, Madrid Here the meaning is similar. We are travelers. On our way there is much to rejoice. But there are also many dangers. Where are we going? And will we get somewhere? Or will we wander like this until death overtakes us on the road?
5. Carrying the Cross 1515-1516
Hieronymus Bosch. Carrying the cross. 1515-1516 Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium. wga.hu An unexpected job for Bosch. Instead of distant horizons and many characters - a very close approximation. Foreground only. The faces are so close to us that you can even feel an attack of claustrophobia.
There are no more monsters. The people themselves are ugly. All their vices are read on their faces. Gloat. condemnation of another. Soul deafness. Aggression.
Note that only three characters have normal traits. Repentant thief in the upper right corner. Christ Himself. And Saint Veronica in the lower left corner.
Hieronymus Bosch. Carrying the cross. Fragment. 1515-1516 Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium. wikipedia.org They closed their eyes. Having renounced this world, which is filled with a screaming and angry crowd. Only the thief and Christ go to the right, towards death. And Veronica to the left, in the direction of life.
On the handkerchief of Veronica appeared the image of Christ. He looks at us. Sad calm eyes. What does he want to tell us? Did we see ourselves in this crowd? Are we ready to become human? Freed from aggression and judgment.
Bosch was an artist. Yes, he was a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Therefore, its main character is a man. Which he considered from all points of view. And from afar. Like in The Garden of Earthly Delights. And very close. Like in Carrying the Cross.
His verdict is not comforting. People are mired in vices. But there is hope. Hope that each of us will find a way to salvation. The main thing is to look at yourself from the outside in time.
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Jeroen Antonison van Aken, better known as Hieronymus Bosch, is a Dutch Renaissance artist who combined fantastic, folklore, philosophical and satirical motifs in his paintings.
Childhood and youth
Hieronymus Bosch was born around 1453 in 's-Hertogenbosch (province of Brabant). His family, which originated from the German city of Aachen (from where he got his surname), has long been associated with creative craft. Jerome's grandfather, Jan van Aken, as well as four of his five sons, including the father of the future artist Anthony, were painters.
The van Aken family workshop carried out orders for wall painting, gilding wooden sculptures and making church utensils. Probably, in this forge of painting, Hieronymus Bosch received his first creative lessons. In 1478, when his father dies, Bosch becomes the owner of an art workshop.
The first mention of Jerome is dated 1480. Then he, wanting to start his own business and separate himself from the surname Aken, took the pseudonym Hieronymus, a painter by the surname Bosch, which comes from the name of his native city.
Engraving by Hieronymus Bosch In 1486, a turning point comes in the biography of Hieronymus Bosch: he joins the Brotherhood of Our Lady, a religious society dedicated to the cult. He performs creative work - draws up festive processions and ceremonies, paints the altar for the Brotherhood Chapel in the Cathedral of St. John. From that moment on, religious motifs run like a red thread through the work of Jerome.
Painting
Bosch's first known paintings, which are vividly satirical in nature, presumably date back to the mid-1470s. So, for example, in the period 1475-1480, the works “The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things”, “Marriage in Cana”, “The Magician” and “Removing the Stones of Stupidity” (“Operation of Stupidity”) were created.
These works hypnotize contemporaries. For example, King Philip II of Spain even hangs a painting of The Seven Deadly Sins in his bedroom to make reflections on the sinfulness of human nature more acute.
In the first paintings, Jerome ridicules human naivety, their vulnerability to charlatans, including those in monastic attire. In the years 1490-1500, Bosch creates an even more cruel picture of the "Ship of Fools", which depicts monks. They sing songs surrounded by commoners, and the jester rules the ship.
Has a place in the work of Bosch and landscape. For example, in the triptych "Garden of Earthly Delights" Jerome depicts the world on the third day of God's Creation. In the center of the picture are naked people, frozen in a blissful half-sleep, and around them are animals and birds, striking in their size.
The most ambitious of the surviving works of Bosch is considered the triptych "The Last Judgment". In the central part, the Last Judgment is depicted directly, where the righteous in the blue sky are opposed to sinners pierced by arrows and spears. On the left wing - Paradise in dynamics. In the foreground is the creation of Eve, in the middle is a scene of temptation and a bone of contention, and in the background is a cherub who drives them out of Eden. Hell is depicted on the right wing of the triptych.
Bosch tended to present creativity through a triptych. For example, the painting "Hay Carriage" also consists of three parts. In the central part, a distraught crowd is depicted, dismantling a large load of hay into bundles. Thus the artist denounces greed.
In addition, pride can be found on the canvas in the form of secular and spiritual rulers, lust in couples in love and gluttony in a plump monk. The left and right wings are decorated with already familiar motifs - Hell and the fall of Adam and Eve.
From the paintings of Bosch, it cannot be said that he gravitated towards a certain genre of painting. Portraits, landscapes, architectural painting, animalistics and decor were reflected in his canvases. Nevertheless, Jerome is considered one of the progenitors of landscape and genre painting in Europe.
A distinctive feature of the work of Hieronymus Bosch is that he became the first of his compatriots who created sketches and sketches before moving on to a full-fledged creation. Some sketches have seen the light in the form of paintings and triptychs. Often the sketches were the product of the painter's imagination, inspired by the images of Gothic monsters that he saw on engravings or church frescoes.
It is also characteristic that Hieronymus Bosch did not sign or date his works. According to art historians, only seven paintings were signed by the master's hand. Those names that the canvases have today may not have been invented by the author himself, but have been preserved according to museum catalogs.
Hieronymus Bosch worked using the a la prima technique (from it. a la prima - “in one sitting”), which consists in the fact that the oil layer is finished before it dries completely. In the traditional method of painting, the artist waits for a coat of paint to dry before laying down the next one.
Personal life
With all the madness of artistic designs, Hieronymus Bosch was not alone. In 1981, he married Aleith Goyarts van der Meervene, whom he supposedly had known since childhood. She was from a wealthy and noble family and brought her husband a substantial fortune.
The marriage left no descendants, but provided Jerome with financial well-being. From the moment of his marriage to Aleith, he took on those orders that brought him moral, not material pleasure.
Death
The painter died on August 9, 1516. The funeral service took place in the same chapel of St. John, which Bosch painted, being an adherent of the idea of the Brotherhood of Our Lady. The cause of death, unlike the work of Jerome, cannot be called mystical - at that time the artist was 67 years old. However, centuries after the burial, historians testify to amazing events.
In 1977, the grave was opened, but there were no remains there. Historian Hans Gaalfe, who led the excavations, said that a piece of stone was found in the grave. When put under a microscope, it began to heat up and glow. Because of this interesting fact, it was decided to stop the excavations.
Artworks
Bosch's works are kept in galleries and museums around the world - in the Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, etc.
- 1475-1480 - "The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things"
- 1480-1485 - "Crucifixion with a donor"
- 1490-1500 - "Allegory of Gluttony and Lust"
- 1490-1500 - "Crowning with thorns"
- 1490-1500 - "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
- 1495-1505 - "Last Judgment"
- 1500 - "Death of a miser"
- 1500-1502 - "Hay Carriage"
- 1500-1510 - "The Temptation of St. Anthony"
- 1505-1515 - "Blessed and Damned"
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 cash, 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, they determined the paths of development of 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 an accurate image of the human body (anatomy, proportions, angles), as well as in building a mathematically verified perspective. The painters of 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 certain 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 the Antichrist", the "New Babylon", deserving destruction and death.
Bosch is an atypical artist in the panorama of Netherlandish painting and the only one of its kind in European painting of the 15th century.
Previously it was thought that "devilry" in the paintings of Bosch, it is intended only to amuse the audience, tickle their nerves, like those grotesque figures that the masters of the Italian Renaissance wove 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.
The most complete collection of the artist's works is 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 a 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 symbols:
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. The white bird is 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 were the largest collections of his paintings. 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 avoids depicting the fantastic monsters of the underworld, but the real images of executioners and witnesses of the tragedy that came to replace them - 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
Especially many mysteries to this day are fraught with another Bosch triptych - "The Garden of Earthly Delights"(About 1510-1515), in which the artist appears fully armed with his skill. Indeed, nothing works better for an artist than countless monsters.
"The Garden of Earthly Delights" Hieronymus Bosch's most famous triptych
Fragment of the triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights". Prado. Madrid
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 characters, borrowed from folk 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.
One Spanish monk was the first to try to decipher this work in 1605. He believed that it gave a collective image of the earthly life of a person who was mired in sinful pleasures and who forgot about the primordial beauty of the lost paradise and therefore was doomed to death in hell.
Extraction of the stone of stupidity. 1475-1480. Prado. Madrid
Only one of Bosch's paintings was brought from the Prado Museum to Emtage "Retrieving the Stone of Stupidity" ("Operation Stupidity"). This picture represents the folklore line in the artist's work. At first glance, this depicts a common, albeit dangerous, operation, which the surgeon for some reason performs in the open air, placing a funnel(here it most likely serves as a symbol of deception). According to another version, closed book on the head of a nun and a surgeon's funnel, respectively, symbolize that knowledge is useless when dealing with stupidity, and that healing of this kind is quackery. The inscription above and below reads: « Master, remove the stone. My name is Lubbert Das». In Bosch's time, there was a belief that a madman could be cured by removing the stones of stupidity from his head. Lubbert is a common noun, denoting an imbecile. In the picture, contrary to expectations, not a stone is removed, but a flower, another flower lies on the table. It has been established that this tulips, and in medieval symbolism, the tulip meant foolish credulity.
WashingtonArtist'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 inhabited by myriads of fantastic 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, who in exchange for an 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, a mysterious fresco has been preserved: crowds of righteous and sinners, stretching their arms up, observe 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 ...
