Hieronymus van Aken, who called himself Bosch, is considered one of the most mysterious masters of painting. Researchers of the artist's paintings, giving him the most opposite characteristics, considered him either a religious fanatic, or a heretic who doubted everything, or a severe ascetic, or a lover of life, or an obsessed science fiction writer, or a sober researcher of reality. And no wonder: it is very difficult to determine the true character of the artist due to the extreme limitations biographical information about him. Even the date of Bosch's birth is determined around 1450.
Bosch came from a family of hereditary Dutch artisans and artists.
Several generations of the van Akens built and decorated the cathedral of their hometown of 's-Hertogenbosch. A thriving trading town was located at the intersection of various cultural trends. South of 's-Hertogenbosch reigned light art the founders of the Dutch Renaissance Masters from Flemal and Jan van Eyck, carrying new ideas about nature and man, while to the north it is more provincial, close to the Middle Ages. It is assumed that Hieronymus van Aken studied painting in the north in Haarlem or Delft, but was also well acquainted with the discoveries of the great innovators of Flanders and Brabant.
By marrying a girl from the local nobility, Bosch, along with material security, received a certain freedom of creativity.
In addition, Bosch gained the ability to freely satisfy his constant interest in various fields of knowledge. Manifestations of this can be seen in all his works, where, as in the science of that time, the inquisitiveness of serious research coexists with the mysticism of astrology and alchemy. It was precisely the intermediate position between the aristocracy and artisans, between learned doctors and an uneducated, but full of age-old wisdom people, whose traditions entered into his flesh and blood, that made Bosch the most versatile painter of the Netherlands. And the most difficult. The fantasticness of the master's creations formed an aura of mystery that surrounded him during his lifetime and increased after his death.
Since Bosch did not leave a single dated work, the beginning of his work is attributed to approximately the mid-seventies of the 15th century.
Heroes early paintings wandering magicians, comedians, doctors-charlatans. Without them, at the time of the painter, not a single fair, not a single national holiday could do. In the edifying plot of the Seven Deadly Sins, the author not so much exposes as admires the living immediacy of condemned sinners. While even at major representatives Italian Renaissance, scenes real life still largely remain part of traditional church plots, with Bosch they acquire compositional independence in The Magician and Operation Stupidity. It opens up the attractiveness of an independent everyday genre for European art.
pinnacle of painting early period in the work of Bosch, the famous "Ship of Fools" is considered, where, behind the irony of chicanery and stupidity, there is an artistic generalization of many life issues. They excited such thinkers of the era as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Sebastian Brant (author of the eponymous satirical poem). Passengers of a fantastic ship, sailing to the country of Glupland, personify human vices. It is no coincidence that the center of the picture is a monk and a nun, whose attention is by no means occupied by prayers. Skeptical and daring mockery of the hypocrisy of the clergy is noticeable in many of Bosch's paintings. Something else is also characteristic: the grotesque ugliness of the characters is embodied by the author in shining colors. Bosch is both real and symbolic. By itself, the world created in the artist's paintings is beautiful, but stupidity and evil reign in it.
In his mature years, Bosch performed frescoes for the city's St. John's Cathedral.
The artist was a member of the religious Brotherhood of the Virgin, one of the semi-legal heretical sects that spread widely across Europe. Despite the repressions of the clergy and the curses of the Pope, sectarian heretics questioned many provisions of the medieval worldview, advocating their moral and ideological renewal. Subsequently, this movement led to a church reformation in Europe, accompanied by long wars. Gradually, the theme of the Last Judgment becomes the main one in Bosch's painting. In complex reflections on the causes of good and evil, the master addressed her at least ten times.
Bosch's famous altarpiece "The Hay Cart" is a detailed illustration of the Dutch folk saying "The world is a hay cart, and everyone tries to snatch as much as they can from it." In pursuit of the blessings of life - wealth, power, fame, love, embodied in the image of a giant cart of hay, the painter's entire humanity is drawn into a cruel and tragic struggle, from which no one comes out alive. At the head of a crazy crowd of people chasing, crushing, killing each other, the emperor and the pope are depicted. The action, however, takes place against the background of a beautiful, majestic landscape, whose eternal calm is opposed to transient worldly passions.
In the depiction of paradise and, especially, the underworld on the side wings of the altar triptychs, the richness of Bosch's imagination, as well as knowledge in the field of the diversity of natural forms, was manifested. His hell in a wagon of hay is endowed with signs of the surrounding everyday life. It looks like a giant construction site. In another altar triptych, the Last Judgment, hell, depicted on right wing more like a colossal kitchen. Fantastically ugly devils are busily wielding ordinary objects - skewers, ladles, frying pans, pots and other household utensils. And in the next triptych, musical instruments serve as instruments of torture for sinners. In the guise of hellish builders, cooks or musicians, it would seem that everything most incompatible is mixed up. Medieval masters before presented in their works a combination of dissimilar parts, animals and birds to create awesome chimera monsters. But no one had yet imagined such a mixture of human flesh, fish scales, bird feathers, claws and animal hair, the juxtaposition of the organic with the inorganic, the inanimate with the living, before Bosch's painting.
The reliability of science fiction was born in Bosch not only from a careful study of diverse natural phenomena, but from a deep knowledge of life.
The artist was sensitive to historical upheavals surrounding reality, full of conflicts and contradictions, which led to tragic character his works. In the hellish glow of Bosch's "Last Judgments", the images of Dutch cities and villages burning during the wars are clearly recognizable, right down to the architectural and landscape details of the area.
At the turn of two centuries, during a period of religious conflicts, Bosch creates a cycle of the life of holy hermits.
In it, the artist embodies the power that can withstand cruelty and superstition, and finds it not so much in heaven as in the human soul. His Saint Anthony embodies the ideal of the heroic personality. In the paintings of the holy life, the gloomy fantasy of the artist's visions increases, but at the same time the finest skill of the landscape painter is manifested. Landscapes are becoming more and more extensive and, moving to the foreground, cease to be just a background. In Bosch, to an even greater extent than in his great predecessor Jan van Eyck, nature becomes the real environment of his heroes.
In Bosch's last pictorial cycle, The Passion of the Christ, the landscape disappears altogether, giving way to man. It would be more accurate to say that the paintings come to the fore human faces close to the viewer and presented close-up. In the tragic scenes of the suffering of Christ, Bosch refers to the origins of morality, betrayal and heroism. One of the first he tries to reveal the secret, full of contradictions, the inner life of man. Already shrewd contemporaries noted that others are trying, as far as possible, to paint a person as he looks from the outside, while he (Bosch) has the courage to paint him as he is inside. Bosch's world is confused, special and unique. Even in the most fantastic images, he is full of serious problems that are relevant not only for his age.
At the end of his life, Bosch was so famous that he began to receive orders from the nobility and the ruling Burgundian court.
Engravings from his work were widely known and popular far beyond the borders of the Netherlands. After the death of the artist in 1516, the young Pieter Brueghel became one of the authors of engravings on his subjects. He was destined to continue Bosch's discoveries in the pictorial knowledge of the world. The artist's understanding of life as a continuous cosmic movement, as the cycle of man and nature, was developed in his work by Peter Brueghel the Elder (Peasant), Albrecht Dürer, and Lucas Cranach.
The multidimensionality of the content of Bosch's works, reflecting the delusions and insights of his critical era, even centuries later allows various masters draw from the legacy of the artist's paintings what is close to everyone: the vision of the honorary professor of nightmares or the sharpness of a realist and the subtlety of a poet. Its popularity in the 20th century Hieronymus Bosch largely due to his inherent anxiety of conscience and awareness of the connection of the present with the future.
In preparing the publication, the materials of the article were used
"The mysterious world of Bosch" O. Petrochuk, M. 1985
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 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. 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 earthly pleasures”, “The 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 Dutch 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 contains much more deep meaning, and made many attempts to explain its meaning, find its origins, 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 the method oil painting, in which the first strokes create the final texture.
The most complete collection of the artist's works is kept in the museum Prado.
Bosch's reviews literature XVI V. 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. Necessary explanations for the plots medieval man received from a variety of 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 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 one of the most famous paintings Bosch is part of a triptych called "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 small picture"Hell" * of the beginning of the 16th century is 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 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
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.
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
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 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, 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, preserved mysterious fresco: Crowds of 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 ...
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 the themes of 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.
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 circles - Bosch's first image of Hell and existing in singular interpretation of Heavenly Paradise. 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.
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Saint Anthony1500s. Prado Museum, Madrid. |
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
Bosch has an image internal conflict of a person thinking about the nature of Evil, about the best and the worst, about the desired and the forbidden, resulted in a very accurate picture 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?
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
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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.
He translates ugliness, both external and internal, into a certain higher aesthetic category, which, even six centuries later, continues to excite 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.
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The Capture of Jesus and the Carrying of the Cross1505-1506 years. National Museum, Lisbon. |
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 Everyday life, growing to monstrous proportions, 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. Gems sparkling in mud, as well as fantastic beasts, are probably inspired by medieval ideas 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.
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World creation1505-1506. Prado Museum, Madrid. |
This rare, if not unique, plot demonstrates the depth and power of Bosch's imagination.
Hieronymus Bosch Altar "Hay Cart", 1500-1502
Paradise, triptych Carriage of hay |
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 nature of this composition is beyond doubt: it includes four episodes from the biblical Book of 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.
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Carriage of hay1500-1502, 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 cart, notices either the Divine presence or the fact that the cart is being pulled by demons.
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 Ada 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
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Earthly Paradise, composition Vision of the afterlife |
IN mature period Bosch's creativity moves from 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,
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Ascension to the Empyrean1500-1504, 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 rid themselves of everything earthly, rush to the bright light that shines 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."
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The overthrow of sinners1500-1504, 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.
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hell river,composition Visions of the underworld1500-1504, 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.
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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.
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Magician1475 - 1480s. Museum Boymans van Beiningen. |
Hieronymus Bosch's "Magician" board is a picture filled with humor, where the faces of the characters themselves and, of course, the behavior of the main actors: an insidious charlatan, a simpleton who believed that he spat out a frog, and a thief, with an indifferent look dragging a bag from him.
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.
The painting "Allegory of gluttony and lust" or otherwise "Allegory of gluttony and lust", apparently, Bosch considered these sins to be one of the most disgusting and inherent primarily in monks.
Painting "The Crucifixion of Christ". For Bosch, the image of Christ is the personification of mercy, purity of soul, 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. It is followed by both saints and some ordinary people.
The painting "The Prayer of St. Jerome". Saint Jerome was the patron saint of Hieronymus Bosch. Maybe that's why the hermit is portrayed rather reservedly.
Saint Jerome or Blessed Jerome of Stridon is one of the four Latin Fathers of the Church. Jerome was a man of powerful intellect and fiery temperament. He traveled extensively and in his youth made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Later, he retired for four years to the Chalkis desert, where he lived as an ascetic hermit.
In the painting "St. John on Patmos" by Bosch, John the Evangelist is depicted, who writes his famous prophecy on the island of Patmos.
Around the year 67, the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse) of the holy Apostle John the Theologian was written. In it, according to Christians, the secrets of the fate of the Church and the end of the world are revealed.
In this work, Hieronymus Bosch illustrates the words of the saint: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
John the Baptist or John the Baptist - according to the Gospels, the closest predecessor of Jesus Christ, who predicted the coming of the Messiah. He lived in the desert as an ascetic, then he preached the baptism of repentance for the Jews. He baptized Jesus Christ in the waters of the Jordan, then was beheaded due to intrigues Jewish princess Herodias and her daughter Salome.
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Saint Christopher1505. Museum Boijmans van Beiningen, Rotterdam. |
Saint Christopher is depicted as a giant carrying a blessing Child across the river - an episode that follows directly from his life
Saint Christopher is a holy martyr, revered by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, who lived in the 3rd century.
One of the legends says that Christopher was a Roman of enormous stature, who originally bore the name Reprev.
One day he was asked to be carried across the river by a little boy. In the middle of the river, he became so heavy that Christopher was afraid that they would both drown. The boy told him that he was Christ and was carrying with him all the burdens of the world. Then Jesus baptized Repreva in the river, and he received his new name - Christopher, "carrying Christ." Then the Child told Christopher that he could stick a branch into the ground. This branch miraculously grew into a fruitful tree. This miracle converted many to faith. Enraged by this, the local ruler imprisoned Christopher in prison, where, after long torment, he found a martyr's death.
In the composition, Bosch significantly enhances the role of the negative characters surrounding Christ, bringing to the fore the images of robbers. The artist constantly turned to the motive of saving the complete evil of the world through the self-sacrifice of Christ. If at the first stage of creativity main theme Bosch was a criticism of human vices, then, being a mature master, he seeks to create the image of a positive hero, embodying it in the images of Christ and the saints.
In front of the dilapidated hut, the Mother of God sits majestically. She shows the baby to the magi, dressed in luxurious clothes. There is no doubt that Bosch deliberately gives the adoration of the Magi the character of a liturgical service: this is evidenced by the gifts that the eldest of the "eastern kings" Belthazar lays at the feet of Mary - a small sculptural group depicts Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac; it is a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Hieronymus Bosch often chose the lives of saints as the theme of his paintings. In contrast to the traditions of medieval painting, Bosch rarely depicts the miracles they created and the winning, spectacular episodes of their martyrdom, which delighted the people of that time. The artist glorifies "quiet" virtues associated with introspective contemplation. Bosch has no holy warriors, no gentle virgins desperately defending their chastity. His heroes are hermits, indulging in pious reflections against the backdrop of landscapes.
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Martyrdom of Saint Liberata1500-1503, Doge's Palace, Venice. |
Saint Liberata or Vilgefortis (from Latin Virgo Fortis - Persistent Virgin; II century) is a Catholic saint, the patroness of girls seeking to get rid of annoying admirers. According to legend, she was the daughter of the Portuguese king, an inveterate pagan who wanted to marry her off as the king of Sicily. However, she did not want to marry any kings, since she was a Christian and took a vow of celibacy. In an effort to keep her vow, the princess prayed to heaven and found miraculous deliverance - she grew a thick long beard; the Sicilian king did not want to marry such a fearsome man, after which the angry father ordered her to be crucified.
From the trust of Christ in all their cruelty are presented in the picture " Ecce Homo"("Son of man in front of the crowd"). Bosch depicts Christ being led to a high podium by soldiers whose exotic headdresses are reminiscent of their paganism; the negative meaning of what is happening is emphasized traditional symbols evil: an owl in a niche, a toad on the shield of one of the warriors. The crowd expresses their hatred for the Son of God with threatening gestures and terrible grimaces.
The vivid authenticity of Bosch's works, the ability to depict the movements of a person's soul, the amazing ability to draw a moneybag and a beggar, a merchant and a cripple - all this assigns him an important place in the development of genre painting.
Bosch's work seems strangely modern: four centuries later, his influence suddenly appeared in the Expressionist movement and, later, in Surrealism.
Jeroen Antonison van Aken (Dutch. Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken), better known as Hieronymus Bosch (Dutch. Jheronimus Bosch [ˌɦijeˈroːnimʏs ˈbɔs], lat. Hieronymus Bosch; around 1450-1516) - Dutch hereditary artist, one of the greatest masters of the Northern Renaissance period. Of the artist's work, about ten paintings and twelve drawings have been preserved. He was ordained a member of the Brotherhood of Our Lady (Dutch Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap; 1486); considered one of the most mysterious painters in history Western art. In Bosch's hometown, 's-Hertogenbosch, Holland, the Bosch Art Center has been opened, displaying copies of all of his works.
Jeroen van Aken was born around 1450 in 's-Hertogenbosch (Brabant). The van Aken family, which originated from the German city of Aachen, has long been associated with the pictorial craft - the artists were Jan van Aken (grandfather of Bosch, d. 1454) and four of his five sons, including Jerome's father, 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.
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. The first mention of Bosch in archival documents dates back to 1474, where he is called "Jheronimus".
According to information about the life of the artist, preserved in the city archive, his father died in 1478, and Bosch inherited his art workshop. The van Akens' workshop carried out a wide variety of orders - primarily wall paintings, but also gilding. wooden sculpture and even the manufacture of church utensils. “Hieronimus the painter” (according to a document of 1480) took a pseudonym for the abbreviated name of his hometown - Den Bosch - during the period of change of power in the country: after the death of Charles the Bold (1477), power in the Burgundian Netherlands passed by 1482 from Valois to the Habsburgs.
Around 1480, the artist marries Aleith Goyarts van der Meervene, whom he apparently knew from childhood. She came from a wealthy merchant family in 's-Hertogenbosch. Through this marriage, Bosch becomes an influential burgher in his hometown. They didn't have children.
In 1486 he joined the 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 involved in charity work. 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 models of a candelabra.
In 1497 his elder brother Gossen van Aken died. In 1504, Bosch received an order from the governor of the Netherlands, Philip the Handsome, for the Last Judgment triptych.
The painter died on August 9, 1516, the funeral service was performed in the aforementioned chapel of the cathedral. The solemnity of this ceremony confirms Bosch's closest connection with the Brotherhood of Our Lady.
Six months after Bosch's death, his wife distributed to the heirs what little was left after the artist. There is every reason to believe that Hieronymus Bosch never owned any real estate. Bosch's wife survived her husband by three years.
Bosch's art has always had a tremendous attraction. Previously, it was believed that the devilry in the paintings of Bosch was intended only to amuse the audience, to 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 a surrealist of the 15th century, who extracted his unprecedented images from the depths of the subconscious, and, calling his name, invariably recall Salvador Dali. Others believe that Bosch's art reflects medieval "esoteric disciplines" - alchemy, astrology, black magic. Still others try to connect the artist with various religious heresies that existed in that era. According to Frenger, Bosch was a member of the Brotherhood of the Free Spirit, whose adherents were also called Adamites, a heretical sect that arose in the thirteenth century but flourished throughout Europe several centuries later. However, this hypothesis is rejected by most scholars, since there is no evidence to support the existence of a sect in the Netherlands during Bosch's lifetime.
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For five centuries, this name either ascended to heaven, or dissolved into oblivion. Bosch, whose paintings are now declared to be either extracted from the depths of the subconscious, or simple horror stories, or caricatures, remains a mystery, a mystery that attracts ...
Hereditary artist
There is little exact information about the life of the master. His real name is Jeroen Antonison van Aken.
From the name of his hometown on the border of Holland and Flanders (Belgium) - Hertogenbosch - came his nickname - Bosch. The artist's paintings are presented in the form of copies in the museum of the town, where he spent his whole life: from birth (about 1450) to burial (1516).
He chose, apparently, according to the artists were his grandfather, father and uncles. A successful marriage saved him from material problems, all his life he was a member of the Brotherhood of Our Lady, performing painting commissions for him.
Contemporary of Leonardo
He lived in the Renaissance, but how unique and original was Bosch! The master's paintings have nothing to do with what happened in the south of Europe, not in form, not in content. Most of the master's surviving pictorial masterpieces are folding triptychs or parts of them. The outer sashes were usually painted in grisaille (monochrome), and opening them, one could see an impressive full-color image.
This is exactly what the main masterpieces look like, the author of which is recognized by Hieronymus Bosch: the paintings "Hay Carriage" (1500-1502), "The Garden of Earthly Delights" (1500-1510), "The Last Judgment" (1504), "The Temptation of St. Anthony" (1505) and others. That is, these are as many as four canvases, or rather, boards, united by a common theme. The surviving parts of the folds have a high independent artistic value.
"Ship of Fools"
This is the surviving part of the triptych - the central one, the other two were supposedly called "Gluttony" and "Voluptuousness". It is these defects that are discussed in the surviving image. But like any genius, there is no simple, unambiguous edification here. “Ship of Fools” is a painting by Bosch, in which there is no endless series of symbols and complex ciphers, but it cannot be called a simple illustration for a sermon either.
A strange boat through which a tree sprouted. A cheerful company sits in it, including a monk and a nun, everyone sings selflessly. Their faces - without signs of special mental activity, they are similar and terrible with a special emptiness. It is no coincidence that there is another character here - a jester who has turned away from them alone. Is it one of Shakespeare's tragedies?
fantasy genius
The Garden of Earthly Delights is the rise of Bosch's fantasy and the greatest mystery of world art. On the outer doors in shades of gray - the world on the third day of creation: light, earth and water, and a man is presented on the spread. Bosch is a very complex matter, and this work is like a giant symphony, overflowing with details and images.
The left part is devoted to the origin of life: the Lord introduces the first woman to Adam, inhabited. But evil has already settled among them - a cat strangles a mouse, a doe is killed by a predator. Is this how the Lord intended?
In the center is a multi-figure composition, which is called a false paradise. Above the cycle of life in the form of a closed cavalcade of riders is a fantastically beautiful lake with four channels, with a sky in which birds and people fly. Below - an amazing mass of people, incomprehensible mechanisms, unprecedented creatures. All of them are busy with some kind of terrible fuss, in which some see immeasurable lust, others - pretentious hieroglyphs denoting the most terrible sins.
On the right is a hell inhabited by the most monstrous images - horrors and hallucinations come to life. This composition is also called "Musical Hell": there are many images associated with sounds and musical instruments. There is a theory that this is dictated by the Brotherhood of Our Lady, of which Hieronymus Bosch was a member. Pictures of hell filled with cacophony are the result of the inclusion of musical accompaniment in the church service, against which the Brotherhood protested.
Bosch Mystery
People have always wanted to solve the riddle named Bosch. Pictures painted by a fantastically gifted painter excite even psychologists. Some modern psychoanalysts prove that the images in the artist's paintings can only be born by a mentally ill consciousness. Others believe that in order to portray the variety of human sins in this way, one must have a vicious nature.
Some historians consider Bosch's compositions to be a record of alchemical recipes, where components and manipulations for obtaining precious elixirs and potions are encrypted in the form of fantastic creatures. Others record the artist as a member of the secret sect of Adamites - supporters of the return to innocent nature - Adam and Eve, who called for greater sexual freedom.
We have to admit that the mystery of the artist's images and symbols is forever buried in the river of time, and everyone will have to guess it on their own. This opportunity to find your own answers to the riddles of the master is the best gift of Hieronymus Bosch to posterity.
