Bosch, Bos (Bosch) Hieronymus [actually Hieronymus van Aeken, Hieronymus van Aeken], the 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-figure compositions, paintings on themes folk sayings, proverbs and parables (“The Temptation of St. Anthony”, National Museum old art, Lisbon; triptychs "Garden of Delights", "Adoration of the Magi" - all in the Prado Museum; “Ship of Fools”, Louvre Museum) combined sophisticated medieval fantasy, grotesque demonic images generated by boundless imagination with folklore-satirical and moralizing tendencies, with realistic innovations unusual for the art of his era. Poetic landscape backgrounds, bold life observations, aptly captured by the artist Hieronymus Bosch folk types and everyday scenes paved the way for the formation of the Dutch household genre and landscape; craving for irony and allegory, for the embodiment in a grotesque-satirical form of a broad picture folk life contributed to the formation of the creative manner of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and other artists.

Bosch's style is unique and unparalleled in the Dutch painting tradition. The painting of Hieronymus Bosch is not at all like the work of other artists of the time, such as Jan van Eyck or Rogier van der Weyden. 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. And after death, it increased immeasurably and did not decrease for a long time; the painting of the master found an ardent admirer in the person of Philip II, King of Spain. 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.

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 takes him important place in the development of genre painting. In the future, the world of bizarre images of Bosch was fed by the fantastically romantic searches of many artists of the 19th-20th centuries. Bosch's work seems strangely modern: four centuries later, his influence suddenly appeared in the Expressionist movement and, later, in Surrealism. Many artists of these trends in painting created canvases based on the plot of the painting “The Temptation of St. Anthony”.

(Jeronymus Antoniszon van Aken)
Part 1

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

The work of this outstanding Dutch painter remains exciting, mysterious and surprisingly modern. Four centuries after his death, the Surrealists dubbed Bosch "Honorary Professor of Nightmares", believing that he "presented a picture of all the fears of his time ... embodied the delusional worldview of the late Middle Ages, full of magic and devilry."

None of Bosch's surviving works are dated by himself. Therefore, presumably, the first known paintings of him, which were of a satirical nature, date back to the mid-1470s. Created in 1475-1480. the paintings “The Seven Deadly Sins”, “Marriage at Cana”, “The Magician” and “Removing the Stones of Stupidity” (“Operation Stupidity”) have a pronounced moralizing character with elements of irony and satire.

It is no coincidence that the Spanish king Philip II ordered the Seven Deadly Sins to be hung in the bedroom of his residence-monastery in Escorial in order to indulge in reflections on the sinfulness of human nature at his leisure. Here you can still feel the uncertainty of the stroke of the young artist, he uses only individual elements of the symbolic language, which later fill all his works.
They are also not numerous in the films “Operation of Stupidity” and “The Magician”, which ridicule the human naivety used by charlatans, including those in monastic attire.

Even sharper Bosch. ridiculed the clergy in the painting "Ship of Fools" (1490-1500), where a tipsy nun and a monk bawl a song in the company of commoners on a fragile boat driven by a jester.
Sharply condemning the depravity of the clergy, Bosch is still unlikely to be a heretic, as the modern German art historian W. Frangler argued. Although he was looking for his way to comprehend God outside the official church.

The section is based on:

"100 famous artists 14-18th centuries", (Kharkiv, publishing house "Folio", 2001)
Louvre-"OLMA-PRESS", Moscow-2003
Prado-"OLMA-PRESS", Moscow-2003
Bosch: Between Heaven and Hell (Basic Series: Art) by Walter Bosing. TASCHEN America, 2000.
The Secret Heresy of Hieronymus Bosch by Lynda Harris. Floris Books, 2002.
Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings by Jos Koldeweij, Paul Vandenbroeck. Harry N. Abrams, 2001.
Sites of museums where the paintings are located

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 early work 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.

Saint Anthony 1500s. Prado Museum, Madrid.

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

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

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?

In the picture " Prodigal son» Hieronymus Bosch interpreted his ideas about life
The hero of the picture - skinny, in a torn dress and different shoes, withered and as if flattened on a plane - is presented in a strange stopped and yet continuing movement.
It is almost written off from nature - in any case, European art before Bosch did not know such an image of poverty - but in the dry emaciation of its forms there is something of an insect.
This is the life that a person leads, with which, even leaving it, he is connected. Only nature remains pure, infinite. The dull color of the painting expresses Bosch's idea - gray, almost grisaille tones unite both people and nature. This unity is natural and natural
.
Bosch in the picture depicts Jesus Christ among the raging crowd, densely filling the space around him with vicious, triumphant physiognomies.
For Bosch, the image of Christ is the personification of boundless mercy, spiritual purity, patience and simplicity. He is opposed by the powerful forces of evil. They subject him to terrible torments, physical and spiritual. Christ shows man an example of overcoming all difficulties.
In terms of its artistic qualities, Carrying the Cross contradicts all pictorial canons. Bosch depicted a scene whose space has lost all connection with reality. Heads and torsos emerge from the darkness and disappear into the darkness.
Deformity, both external and internal, he translates into some higher aesthetic category, which six centuries later continues to excite the minds and feelings.

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

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

Hieronymus Bosch Altar "The Temptation of St. Anthony", 1505-1506
The triptych summarizes the main motifs of Bosch's work. The image of the human race, mired in sins and stupidity, and the endless variety of hellish torments awaiting it, is joined here by the Passion of Christ and scenes of the temptation of the saint, who, by the unshakable firmness of faith, allows him to resist the onslaught of enemies - the World, the Flesh, the Devil.
The painting "The Flight and Fall of St. Anthony" is the left wing of the altar "The Temptation of St. Anthony" and tells about the struggle of the saint with the Devil. The artist returned to this theme more than once in his work. Saint Anthony is an instructive example of how to resist earthly temptations, to be on your guard all the time, not to accept everything that seems to be true, and to know that seduction can lead to God's curse.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The altar "Garden of Earthly Delights" - the most famous triptych of Hieronymus Bosch, which got its name from the theme of the central part, is dedicated to the sin of voluptuousness - Luxuria.
Do not assume that a crowd of naked lovers, according to Bosch's plan, was to become the apotheosis of sinless sexuality. For medieval morality, sexual intercourse, 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, intercourse was viewed as a necessary evil, at worst, as a mortal sin. Most likely, for Bosch, the garden of earthly pleasures is a world corrupted by lust.

World creation 1505-1506. Prado Museum, Madrid.

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

Hieronymus Bosch Altar "Hay Cart", 1500-1502

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 character of this composition is beyond doubt: it includes four episodes from bible book Genesis - the overthrow of the rebellious angels from heaven, the creation of Eve, the fall, the expulsion from Paradise. All scenes are distributed in the space of a single landscape depicting Paradise.

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

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

Hieronymus Bosch's triptych "Hay Carriage" is considered the first of the great satirical-legal allegories of the mature period of the artist's work.
Against the background of an endless landscape, a cavalcade is moving behind a huge hay cart, and among them are the emperor and the pope (with recognizable features of Alexander VI). Representatives of other classes - peasants, townspeople, clerics and nuns - grab armfuls of hay from the cart or fight over it. Christ, surrounded by a golden radiance, is indifferently and aloofly watching the feverish human bustle from above.
No one, except for the angel praying on top of the 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 "Hay Cart" altar have their own name "Life Path" and are inferior in craftsmanship to the image on the inner wings and were probably completed by Bosch's apprentices and students
The Path of Bosch's pilgrim runs through a hostile and treacherous world, and all the dangers that it poses are presented in the details of the landscape. Some threaten life, embodied in the images of robbers or an evil dog (however, it can also symbolize slanderers, whose evil tongues are often compared to dog barking). Dancing peasants are an image of a different, moral danger; like lovers on top of a hay cart, they were seduced by the "music of the flesh" and submitted to it.

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

Earthly Paradise, composition Vision of the afterlife

AT mature period Bosch's creativity moves from the image of the visible world to the imaginary one, generated by his indefatigable imagination. 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 control common sense, the kingdom of the Antichrist. The artist translated the prophecies that spread in Western Europe by the beginning of the 16th century - the time when the End of the World was predicted,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marriage at Cana

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

Magician 1475 - 1480s. Museum Boymans van Beiningen.

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

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

Bosch captures the climax. Death crosses the threshold of the room, an 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.

Saint Christopher 1505. 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.

Once he was asked to be carried across the river 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 those around Christ. negative characters, bringing to the fore 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 has been criticized human vices, then, being a mature master, he strives to create an image goodie, 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. Unlike tradition medieval painting Bosch rarely depicts the miracles they performed 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.

Martyrdom of Saint Liberata 1500-1503, 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, 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 the manufacture of 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, in the biography of Hieronymus Bosch, crucial moment: 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 chapel of the Brotherhood in the Cathedral of St. John. From that moment on, religious motifs run like a red thread through the work of Jerome.

Painting

First famous paintings Bosch, which are brightly satirical in nature, presumably belong to the mid-1470s. So, for example, in the period 1475-1480, the works “Seven Deadly Sins and Four last things”, “Marriage at Cana”, “The Magician” and “Removing the Stones of Stupidity” (“Operation Stupidity”).

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. However, Jerome is considered one of the progenitors of the 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 images gothic monsters, which he saw in 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.

Jerome Bosch created in the a la prima technique (from it. a la prima - “in one sitting”), which consists in the fact that the oil layer is finished to be applied until it is completely dry. AT traditional method drawing, the artist waits for a coat of paint to dry before putting on 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"

Hieronymus Bosch (nederl. Jheronimus Bosch, lat. Hieronymus Bosch; around 1450-1516, born and died in the city of Hertogenbosch) - the brightest representative of the Northern Renaissance, an artist whose personality does not cease to remain a mystery even 500 years after his death, and creativity - a source of inspiration for contemporary artists, designers, filmmakers.

Features of the artist Hieronymus Bosch: densely populated paintings; bold, unbridled fantasy in the depiction of monsters and hell is realized in canonical religious subjects; a clever combination of bright visuals with moralizing content.

Famous paintings and triptychs by Hieronymus Bosch:"The Garden of Earthly Delights", "The Temptation of St. Anthony". "Carrying the Cross".

's-Hertogenbosch - the city after which the artist Hieronymus van Aken took the pseudonym Bosch - has long been famous for the production of bells and organs. In the 15th century, bells and organs drowned out everything here. Every sixth inhabitant of 's-Hertogenbosch belonged to some religious community. If, greeting a passerby on the street, you smiled, it was considered a grave sin. Death, suffering, the burden of Catholic guilt - these are the "trends" of those years that completely owned the pious minds of 's-Hertogenbosch. And if someone strayed from the righteous path, the fires of the Inquisition illuminated the path in the darkness.

In part, all this explains the emergence of such a peculiar and frightening genius as Bosch. But only in part.

The paintings of the artist Hieronymus Bosch are the most complex multi-figure puzzles, over the solution of which generations of art historians are struggling. His identity is just as much of a mystery, and an honest biographer has to use the word "probably" more often than he'd like.

Bells and organs

Jerome's ancestors probably had German roots. Judging by their surnames, they probably came from the city of Aachen. In the van Aken family, almost all the men were artists. The artists were Jerome's grandfather Jan, his father Anthony, his brother Goossen, and three of his uncles. So Jerome learned the craft in his home workshop. Probably.

He was supposedly born in 1453 (most biographers are cautious about the 1450s) in 's-Hertogenbosch, one of the centers of Brabant county in the south of Holland. It was a large trading city with a lively market square. However, music - not only that which was performed on bells and organs - was ordered by the Catholic Church in 's-Hertogenbosch. The local economy revolved around it, with it, one way or another, any manifestations of the local cultural, intellectual or secular life were connected. One of the main city-forming elements was the Brotherhood of Our Lady, an influential secular and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 14th century. The Van Akens served the Brotherhood for two centuries: Jan van Aken is credited with the authorship of the frescoes in the Cathedral of St. John, Anthony van Aken also fulfilled many orders from the Brotherhood. The family did not live in poverty: working for the Brotherhood, Anthony managed to build a stone mansion on the main square of the city. As for Jerome, the first mention of him as an artist is found in the archives of the Brotherhood of Our Lady only in 1481. By the standards of those years, 28 is more than mature for an artist. This (also supported by Bosch's far from superficial familiarity with theology) allows some biographers to conclude that painting was not his first choice: Jerome was originally preparing to become a priest.

Be that as it may, the genes have taken their toll. Jerome inherited the "family business" and collaborated with the Brotherhood all his life - he painted altars, decorated solemn processions, made sketches of stained-glass windows, ambos and other chandeliers.

Around the same time, Hieronymus Bosch married Aleit van den Meerveen, who came from an influential and wealthy family. It was a profitable party - Jerome became a wealthy landowner and even took part in litigation with a brother-in-law who considered himself deprived. The court ruled in favor of the artist.

Of course, he immediately entered the Brotherhood of Our Lady - already with the rights of an honorary member. Documents have been preserved in the archives, testifying that Jerome more than once presided over the meetings of the Brotherhood, which were held in his house. He still wrote a lot - for a nominal fee and not for the sake of it. The paintings of the artist Hieronymus Bosch, meanwhile, were less and less consistent with the image of a respectable burgher. They showed more and more noticeably what the surrealists would later call Bosch "honorary professor of nightmares."

King of Terror

It is hard not to notice that for all its iconography, the style of Hieronymus Bosch's paintings goes far beyond any canons. There is such a phenomenon in the modern pop industry as "Christian rock" - many "pious" bands sound louder than hell, and darker than the apocalypse. AT in a certain sense they can be considered followers of Bosch. Bosch also glorified God, but became famous due to the Devil present on his canvases.

He was definitely a misanthrope. Perhaps the worst of the sins Bosch considered frivolity and gullibility. His famous works (“Hay Cart”, “Magician”, “Ship of Fools”), reproductions of which are presented on our portal, are by no means a praise of stupidity. However, Bosch did not make discounts for anyone. A simpleton is no less sinful than a thief who puts his hand in his pocket. A priest who sells indulgences will burn in hellfire along with the murderer who bought forgiveness. Humanity is doomed and there is no hope.

Of course, such a peculiar view of the world order, combined with such a bright talent, could not go unnoticed.

Some researchers believe that around 1500 Hieronymus Bosch visited Italy. This opinion is fueled by the painting “The Crucified Martyr” painted by the artist (a reproduction and description of this painting by Hieronymus Bosch can be viewed on our website), supposedly dedicated to St. Juliana, whose cult was especially widespread in northern Italy. In addition, art historians see the influence of Hieronymus Bosch in the works of Giorgione and even Leonardo da Vinci.

Other biographers are sure that Bosch never left 's-Hertogenbosch, while his paintings, his fame, during his lifetime, spread not only beyond the borders of his native city, but also beyond the borders of the Netherlands. That is why he began to sign his work "Jheronimus Bosch"*.

Among his customers (in addition to the invariable Brotherhood of Our Lady) there were many noble nobles. The paintings by the artist Hieronymus Bosch were owned by the Duke of Burgundy Philip I the Handsome, Duke of Nassau-Bred Henry III, King Philip II of Spain. It is unlikely that contemporaries understood Bosch. At best, instead of edification and satire, they saw theological puzzles. At worst - "horror stories" that invigorate and tickle the nerves. The artist was a horror maker for them. If such a technology had been known in the 15th century, showing the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, the hosts would have served popcorn to the guests.

devil inside

Since little is known about Bosch, judging the personality of this amazing artist according to his paintings. There are many wonderful, often opposite versions about who Hieronymus Bosch really was. Zealous Catholic. Secret heretic. Visionary. Practicing alchemist, antichrist, messiah, alien, schizophrenic, seer. Indeed, a man whose mind was filled with such monstrous images must have been at least a little insane. There is no reliable confirmation of any of these versions. Rather, on the contrary - apparently, Hieronymus Bosch lived a surprisingly calm and normal life. A life that at the time of Clive Barker and Hans Rudi Giger seems too measured and even boring. If he was a blasphemer, then he was extremely lucky - the most zealous inquisitors of those years patronized him. Bosch's "secret heresy" was only talked about in the 16th century. And until the era of the Reformation, Hieronymus Bosch did not live safely.

He died in 1516 and was solemnly buried as "an outstanding master" in the Cathedral of St. John.

Now in the house where Jerome lived, there is a shop menswear. On the streets of 's-Hertogenbosch you won't find bird-headed monsters, giant toads, or crucified martyrs. Nothing in this quiet "sleeping" province will give you a hint where Bosch drew inspiration from.

However, this riddle was solved in the 17th century by the Spanish monk José de Siguenza, who wrote: "While other artists depicted a person as he is on the outside, only Bosch had the courage to paint him as he was on the inside."

* 's-Hertogenbosch and 500 years ago and now in colloquial speech abbreviated to Den Bosch.

We have also prepared for you two fascinating tests on the work of Hieronymus Bosch:

1. "Bosch in Detail": Guess which Bosch paintings the fragments with demons and saints are taken from.

2. Bosch or not Bosch? »: in each pair of paintings, only one belongs to Bosch - the choice is yours.