Background

Ethnicity: Bosch's ancestors came from the Netherlandish cities of Nijmegen and Aachen.

Hieronymus Bosch came to the world in about 1450 in 's-Hertogenbosch, North-Brabant, Netherlands (the Duchy of Brabant at the time). Born in the house of his grandfather, a painter Jan van Aken whose four of five sons were also painters, including Hieronymus's father, Anthonius van Aken, Bosch is mentioned in the surviving records dated to 1474 along with a sister and two other brothers.

Education

Although there are few documentary sources on the life, early years and training of Hieronymus Bosch, it is generally supposed that he was trained in art by one of his family members. That fact is quite plausible as his grandfather, father and four uncles were painters, according to brief municipal records.

Career

Hieronymus Bosch's artistic path is as much shrouded in mystery as his works, that are so strange and difficult to decrypt. Only about 35 to 40 paintings are attributed to the artist, 7 are signed and none are dated – that's why the exact chronology of these surviving works is difficult to determine. However, the mentions of him in the register of the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, a philanthropic religious association which he joined about 1486, describe Bosch as an Insignis pictor ("distinguished painter").

According to these accounts, in addition to painting, the artist undertook decorative works and altarpieces, including those for the St. John's Cathedral in his native city, and executed designs for stained glass, all of which have disappeared, as did his Last Judgment commissioned in 1504 by Philip the Handsome, Archduke of Austria. It is also known that Bosch managed an atelier where he taught drawing and painting.

Bosch's works can be conditionally divided into three periods generally accepted in historical context. The Cure of Folly, Crucifixion, The Adoration of the Magi, The Seven Deadly Sins, The Marriage at Cana, Ecce Homo and The Conjurer represent his youthful period which stands out for awkwardness in drawing and composition, as well as for a brushwork somewhat limited in its scope.

In those early paintings the artist had begun to depict humanity's vulnerability to the temptation of evil, the deceptive allure of sin and the obsessive attraction of lust, heresy and obscenity. However, the imagery of these works is still relatively conventional, with only an occasional intrusion of the bizarre in the form of a lurking demon or a strangely dressed magician. The Conjurer panel is a bright example of the artist's transition from immediacy and direct observation to a strange visionary quality.

The middle period of Bosch's artistic path can be counted from the great panoramic triptychs, such as the Haywain, The Temptation of St. Anthony and The Garden of Earthly Delights. His figures are graceful and his colors subtle and solid, and all is in motion in those ambitious and extremely complex works, which establish the evolution of his thought. The Haywain, that perhaps opened the middle period, can be decrypted as an allegory of the evils of the world. The most enigmatic of Bosch's paintings, the Garden of Earthly Delights, is at once the best representation of Bosch's artistic maturity. The work expresses Bosch's iconographic originality with a tremendous force.

The late paintings of Hieronymus Bosch are completely different from the previous works. The events depicted in the dramatic close-ups, including The Crowning with Thorns and Christ Carrying the Cross, are so close to the viewer that seem to involve him in the portrayed situation both physically and psychologically. There are also some canvases among Bosch's late works showing various saints in contemplation or repose, like St. John the Evangelist on Patmos and St. Jerome in Prayer. The first and the last self-portrait of the artist also dates to the same late period.

Achievements

• Considered to be the most eminent representative of the Early Netherlandish painting school, Hieronymus Bosch made an invaluable contribution to the world of art.
  
  Although Bosch's works were widely collected and copied in his lifetime throughout many European countries, including the Netherlands, Austria and Spain, his popularity wasn't so strong in the years after his death if compared with the Renaissance painters. However, he had a significant impact on several 16th-century artists, of which Pieter Bruegel the Elder is the best-known and the most real follower.
  
  His firm rejection of using canvas as the way to show the known exterior reality and his aspiration to bring on the canvas the interior one instead, with its unconscious ideas, gained him reputation of the forerunner of the Surrealism among the representatives of this art movement. Carl Jung called Bosch the original "discoverer of the unconscious." The impact of Bosch's legacy in surrealistic context is more apparent in the works of Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, who borrowed the dream qualities of Bosch's paintings, and Leonora Carrington.
  
  There are many echoes of Hieronymus Bosch's art in totally different pop cultural fields as well. The Garden of Earthly Delights was widely used as iconic symbol by psychedelic hippie circles of the 1960s, and applied as an album cover by The Deep Purple at the end of the same decade.
  
  Such notable moviemakers, as Terry Gilliam, George Lucas and Guillermo del Toro were inspired by the artist in their productions, as can be seen in the movie Hellboy of the latter director, for example. The references to Bosch's visions can be also found in The Simpsons, the fashion collections of outstanding designers Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior and Valentino, and in books, as exemplified by one of Michael Connelly's personages, Hieronymus 'Harry' Bosch.

Works

More photos

• drawing

  • Mary and John

    (also known as St. John and the Virgin, Mourning)

  • The Hearing Forest and the Seeing Field

  • Two Caricatured Heads

  • Figure in a Beehive and a Monster

  • Various Sketches and a Beggar

  • Sketch of a Man

  • The Temptation of Eve by the Serpent

  • Fox and Rooster

  • Witches

  • Sketches for the Temptation of St. Anthony

  • Beggars

  • Studies

  • The Ship of Fools in Flames

  • Christ Carrying the Cross

  • A Peasant and Three Bustlength Figures

  • Death and the Miser

  • Beehive and Witches

  • Studies of Monsters

  • Study of Monsters

  • Animal Studies

  • Temptation of St. Anthony

  • Cripples

  • The Entombment

  • Two Monsters

  • Saint Christopher

  • The Owl's Nest

  • A Comical Barber Scene

  • Turtle and a Winged Demon

  • Moorish Battle Two

  • Tree Man

  • Scenes in Hell

  • Two Witches

  • Group of Male Figures

• painting

  • Mankind Beset by Devils

    (reverse of Rebel Angels panel)

  • Mankind Beset by Devils

    (reverse of Noah panel)

  • Hermit Saints Triptych

    (right panel)

  • Hermit Saints Triptych

    (left panel)

  • Last Judgment

    (right wing)

  • Last Judgement Triptych

    (left wing)

  • St. John the Evangelist on Patmos

    (reverse)

  • Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat

    (obverse)

  • The Adoration of the Magi

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Haywain Triptych

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • The Last Judgement

    (detail)

  • The Adoration of the Magi

    (detail)

  • Death and the Miser

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • Death and the Miser

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • The Last Judgment

    (detail)

  • Death and the Miser

    (detail)

  • The Last Judgement

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • Haywain

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • Death and the Miser

    (detail)

  • The Last Judgement

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

    (detail)

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

    (detail)

  • Ascent of the Blessed

  • Haywain

  • This is a Human

  • St. John the Baptist in Meditation

  • Christ Crowned with Thorns

  • The Carrying of the Cross

  • Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos

  • Christ Carrying the Cross

  • Head of a Halberdier

  • The House of Ill Fame

  • The Extraction of the Stone Madness

  • Two Male Heads

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

  • St. Jacob and the Magician

  • Adoration of the Magi

  • St. Jerome Praying

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony Triptych

  • The Marriage Feast at Cana

  • Group of Victims

  • Last Judgement

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

  • The Last Judgement

  • St. Anthony. St. Giles

  • Passion of the Christ

  • Head of an Old Woman

  • Hell

  • Passion of the Christ

  • Crucifixion with a Donor

  • The Carrying of the Cross, Christ and St. Veronica

  • Adoration of the Magi

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony Triptych

  • St. Liberata Triptych

  • Fall of the Damned

  • Christ Child with a Walking Frame

  • The Fall of the Rebel Angels

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights

  • The Adoration of the Magi

  • Temptation of St. Anthony

  • Adoration of the Magi

  • Hermit Saints Triptych

  • Saint Christopher

  • The Legend of the Mass of St. Gregory

  • Paradise

  • Death and the Miser

  • The Concert in the Egg

  • Adoration of the Magi

  • Adoration of the Child

  • The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things

  • The Temptation of St. Anthony

  • Allegory of Gluttony and Lust

  • Christ Carrying the Cross

  • Temptation of St. Anthony

  • Crowned with Thorns

  • St. James and the Magician Hermogenes

  • Terrestrial Paradise

  • The Conjuror

  • The Ship of Fools

  • Adoration of the Magi

  • The Last Judgement Triptych

  • Death of Whore

  • The Wayfarer

  • The Prodigal Son

Religion

The numerous references of Hieronymus Bosch's paintings to the orthodox religious concepts of his time seem to suggest that he truly believed in the existence of God and believed that violence and offensive activities could lead to hell and suffering.

On the other hand, his choice of symbols to represent the temptation and eventual ensnarement of humans in earthly evils caused many critics to view the artist as a practitioner of the occult arts or as the person affiliated with secret sects. Author Dirk Bax holds the opinion that Bosch's paintings are often visual interpretations of verbal metaphors and puns taken from both biblical and folkloric sources.

Views

Though Hieronymus Bosch didn't leave after him notebooks or letters which could shed some light on his interests and thoughts on art, it is assumed that he could be in contact with classical Roman art as his native city was a part of the Roman Empire. That is why some scholars suppose that Bosch could be somewhat impacted by the Renaissance and other European schools of painting of the period, including the art of the Flemish painters.

Quotations: "Poor is the mind that always uses the inventions of others and invents nothing itself."

Membership

Hieronymus Bosch joined the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, the highly respected confraternity of the time, in about 1486-1487.

• Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady , Netherlands

  1486

Personality

Although brief references to Hieronymus Bosch in the surviving records give no information on his personality, the fact that he spent all his life in or near his native city in the Duchy of Brabant gives reason to assume that he didn't much like traveling. Even the pen name was derived by him from his birthplace, 's-Hertogenbosch, which is colloquially named "Den Bosch" that means "the forest" in translation.

Quotes from others about the person

• Wendy Beckett, British religious sister and art historian: "Eccentric and secret genius that he was, Bosch not only moved the heart but scandalized it into full awareness. The sinister and monstrous things that he brought forth are the hidden creatures of our inward self-love: he externalizes the ugliness within, and so his misshapen demons have an effect beyond curiosity. We feel a hateful kinship with them. The Ship of Fools is not about other people. It is about us."
  
  Edward Dahlberg, American novelist, essayist and autobiographer: "Bosch is great because what he imagines in color can be translated into justice."
  
  Ingrid D. Rowland, art critic: "Because the records regarding Bosch are so scant and the surviving works are so few and so strange, every aspect of his career is debated and debatable."
  
  Alastair Sooke, art critic: "It is easy to understand why Bosch continues to fascinate us today: the apocalyptic tone of his work resonates during our era of global conflict and international terrorism."

Connections

According to surviving notes, Hieronymus Bosch married Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meerveen, a Dutch woman from a prosperous family who was a few years his older, probably between 1479 and 1481. After the marriage, the couple took up residence in a town of Oirschot, not far from Bosch's native city of 's-Hertogenbosch (also known as Den Bosch), where they lived in his wife's inherited house.

Father:

Anthonius van Aken

(born about 1420 – died about 1478)

Anthonius van Aken served as an artistic counsellor to the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady.

Mother:

Aleid van der Mynnen

(born about 1423)

Grandfather:

Jan van Aken

(born about 1380 – died 1454)

Wife:

Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meerveen

(born about 1453 – died about 1523)

References

• Hieronymus Bosch: Complete Works This large-scale monograph presents the complete Bosch oeuvre, celebrating the artist's staggering compositional scope and most bizarre and intricate details through full-page reproductions, abundant details and a fold-out spread drawn from The Last Judgement.
  2016
• Hieronymus Bosch The book on the artist by Larry Silver contains 310 illustrations, most in full and high quality color, a vast bibliography and index.
  1970
• Hieronymus Bosch: Visions of Genius An accessible survey on Bosch, published to accompany the 500th anniversary of a genius artist's death.
  2016
• Hieronymus Bosch: Garden of Earthly Delights The book explores Hieronymus Bosch's masterpiece Garden of Earthly Delights, the world-famous triptych by Netherlandish master.
  2002
• Hieronymus Bosch: Visions and Nightmares Analyzing Bosch's life and paintings against the backdrop of contemporary Dutch culture and society, Nils Büttner offers one of the clearest biographical sketches alongside beautiful reproductions of some of the artist's most important work.
  2016
• Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman This catalogue raisonné of all of Bosch's extant paintings and drawings was compiled by members of the Bosch Research and Conservation Project and published to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the artist's death.
  2016
• Hieronymus Bosch: Coloring Book Published to mark the 75th year since the Prado in Madrid acquired the Garden of Earthly Delights triptych and the quincentenary of Bosch's death in 2016, this delightful children's activity book introduces children to the amazing landscapes, fantastic fruits and flowers and fabulous animals which the artist painted more than 500 years ago.
  2014
• Hieronymus Bosch: The Unauthorised Biography The fictionalised biography of the iconic Medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch by respected Dutch artist Marcel Ruijters was published to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the artist's death in 2016.
  2015
• Hieronymus Bosch Walter S. Gibson, the author of the book, describes each Bosch's picture in detail, placing each work within the context of medieval folklore and religion, and explains that many of the acts portrayed in the pictures were visual translations of verbal puns or metaphors.
  1973
• Hieronymus Bosch The book traces the life and artistic vision of the late 15th-century painter, presenting selected works to examine the fantastic, haunting world Bosch created on canvas.
  1957