Hieronymus Bosch paintings in Word. Hieronymus Bosch – biography and paintings of the artist in the Northern Renaissance genre – Art Challenge

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

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

Last Judgment
Many consider Bosch to be a 15th century surrealist. His technique is called alla prima. This is the method oil painting, in which the first strokes create the final texture.

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

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

Prodigal son. The painting marks last stage in the artist’s work and is distinguished by a strict and balanced composition, subtle nuances of a muted and laconic range of colors.
Bosch created on the edge of imagination, and although he is considered a master of the “inimitable,” many subsequent artists tried to copy him.

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

Hell.

Concert in an egg.

Death of a minx.

Hieronymus Bosch, Dutch artist Renaissance, still remains the most mysterious person in the history of medieval painting. Surrealism, which emerged in the 20th century, pulled Bosch's works out of storage. art galleries, where they lived until the right moment, and, accompanying them with pseudo-biographical data, presented them to the judgment of a modern viewer. In comments to his works, Bosch was presented as either a sorcerer, a heretic, or an alchemist. But upon closer examination of the work of this artist, all such speculation can be attributed to the wild imagination of the authors of such comments. His real name is Jeroen Antonisson van Aken, and the pseudonym by which he became known is Bosch, which is his birthplace. The artist was born in 's-Hertogenboss, one of the four largest cities in the Duchy of Brabant. Now it is located in the south of modern Holland.

Brief biography of Bosch

The very small amount of information about the life of Hieronymus Bosch does not make it possible, without too much speculation, to retell the biography of this unusual artist, even for a non-standard environment, who is difficult for the modern average person to perceive. This is especially difficult for those who do not consider themselves adherents of any religion. Although for those interested in culture medieval Europe, the subjects of Bosch’s paintings will not seem like the delirium of a madman, captured by him in a feverish delirium. It’s no secret that this is exactly how most art connoisseurs view the work of Hieronymus Bosch. It is quite certain that Bosch, under the name Jeroen Antonisson van Aken, was born around 1450 into a family of hereditary painters, whose craft was passed on through generations. Since history has not preserved the work of Bosch’s relatives, it is difficult to talk about the preservation of traditions, or oppositions in his family. Biographers were able to find mentions that Bosch had two more brothers and a sister.

In 1480, in documents from the city archive, he was already mentioned as an independent artist who married Aleit Goyaerts Van der Meerveen. The artist's wife was much older than her husband and belonged to a wealthy family. It can be assumed that the husband received a substantial dowry and did not need money, which is confirmed by financial documents from the same archives. In them, Bosch is mentioned as one of the wealthiest people in the city. This is confirmation that the artist did not create for the sake of earning money, like most of his fellow painters. A very atypical case for an artist.

Bosch and the Brotherhood of the Virgin Mary

In 1486 Jeroen van Aken became a member religious organization the city of the Brotherhood of the Virgin Mary, founded in 1318 and still existing today. In the 15th century this organization played a very important role, both in the political and financial life of the city. The worship of the members of this society was the image of the Mother of God, which was located in the main city church. In the entire history of the Brotherhood, Bosch was the only artist among its members, and, moreover, without a theological education. Being a member of such a serious and authoritative religious organization is not only prestigious for social status, but also quite beneficial from a practical point of view. Bosch was able to acquire excellent connections through his membership and receive lucrative orders not only from rich and noble compatriots, but also from government officials. The artist's work was greatly respected by the Burgundian Duke Philip the Fair, the future King of Castile, Philip I. It was Bosch, who began to sign his works in this way, who commissioned him to paint a large altar image, called “The Last Judgment.”

Bosch also worked for other crowned heads - for the Spanish Queen Isabella of Castile, and for the regent of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria. Thanks to these eminent customers, the name Bosch becomes famous in Europe. It can be assumed that the artist spent from 1499 to 1503 in Italy, because during this period he is not mentioned in the documents of the Brotherhood. And then, it is likely that in the famous painting by the artist Giorgione “The Three Philosophers”, Bosch is depicted together with the author and the great Leonardo da Vinci. According to the documents of the Brotherhood famous master died on August 9, 1516.

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 stern ascetic, or a lover of life, or an obsessed science fiction writer, or a sober explorer of reality. And no wonder: determine true character artist is very difficult due to the extreme limitations biographical information about him. Even Bosch's birth date is determined to be around 1450.

Bosch came from a family of hereditary Dutch artisans and artists.

Several generations of van Akens built and decorated the cathedral of their hometown's-Hertogenbosch. A thriving market town found itself located at the crossroads of various cultural trends. To the south of 's-Hertogenbosch reigned the bright art of the founders of the Dutch Renaissance, the Master of Flemal and Jan van Eyck, bringing new ideas about nature and man, while to the north it was more provincial, close to the Middle Ages. It is believed 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.

Having married a girl from the local nobility, Bosch, along with material security, received a certain freedom of creativity.

In addition, Bosch gained the opportunity 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 is precisely the intermediate position between the aristocracy and artisans, between learned doctors and the uneducated, but fulfilled age-old wisdom a people whose traditions became part of his flesh and blood, made Bosch the most universal painter of the Netherlands. And the most difficult. The fantastic nature of the master’s creations formed an aura of mystery that surrounded him during his life and increased after his death.

Since Bosch did not leave a single dated work, the beginning of his work dates back to approximately the mid-seventies of the 15th century.

Heroes early paintings traveling magicians, comedians, charlatan healers. In the time of the painter, not a single fair, not a single folk holiday. In the edifying plot of the Seven Deadly Sins, the author does not so much expose as admire the living spontaneity of the condemned sinners. While even the largest representatives Italian Renaissance, scenes real life still largely remain part of traditional church plots; in Bosch they acquire compositional independence in “The Magician” and “Operation Stupidity”. He opens for European art attractiveness of an independent everyday genre.

The pinnacle of painting early period Bosch's works include the famous "Ship of Fools", where behind the irony over trickery and stupidity lies an artistic generalization of many life issues. They worried such thinkers of the era as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Sebastian Brant (author of the same name satirical poem). The passengers of the fantastic ship, sailing to the country of Stupid Land, personify human vices. It is no coincidence that the center of the picture is a monk and a nun, whose attention is not occupied by prayers. Skeptical and impudent mockery of the hypocrisy of the clergy is noticeable in many of Bosch's paintings. Another thing is also characteristic: the grotesque ugliness of the heroes is embodied by the author in shining colors. Bosch is both real and symbolic. The world itself, created in the artist’s paintings, is beautiful, but stupidity and evil reign in it.

In his mature years, Bosch completed frescoes for the city's Cathedral of St. John.

The artist was a member of the religious Brotherhood of the Virgin Mary, one of the semi-legal heretical sects that spread widely throughout Europe. Despite the repression of the clergy and the curses of the Pope, heretical sectarians questioned many provisions medieval worldview, advocating their moral and ideological renewal. Subsequently, this movement led to 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 thoughts about the causes of good and evil, the master turned to her at least ten times.

Bosch’s famous altar painting “A Wagon of Hay” is an extensive illustration of the Dutch folk proverb “The world is a wagon of hay, and everyone tries to grab as much as they can from it.” In pursuit of everyday blessings - 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 emerges alive. The emperor and the pope are depicted at the head of a mad crowd of people pursuing, crushing, and killing each other. The action, however, takes place against the backdrop of a beautiful, majestic landscape, whose eternal calm is contrasted with the transitory passions of the world.

In the depiction of paradise and, especially, the underworld on the side doors of the altar triptychs, the wealth of Bosch’s imagination was revealed, as well as his knowledge of the diversity of natural forms. His hell in the Wagon of Hay is endowed with signs of the surrounding everyday life. It resembles a giant construction site. In another altar triptych, The Last Judgment, hell, depicted on the right wing, looks more like a colossal kitchen. Fantastically ugly devils are busily working with everyday objects - skewers, ladle, 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 all the most incompatible things were mixed. Medieval masters had previously presented in their works combinations of dissimilar parts, animals and birds to create frightening chimera monsters. But no one had ever imagined such a mixture of human flesh, fish scales, bird feathers, claws and animal fur, the pairing of the organic with the inorganic, the inanimate with the living before Bosch’s painting.

The reliability of fantasy 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 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 from the lives of holy hermits.

In him, the artist embodies a force capable of resisting 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 holy life, the dark fantasticality of the artist’s visions increases, but at the same time the subtle skill of the landscape painter is revealed. Landscapes become more and more extensive and, moving to the foreground, cease to be just a background. Bosch still has to a greater extent than with his great predecessor Jan van Eyck, nature becomes the real environment of his heroes.

In Bosch’s last painting cycle, “The Passion of the Christ,” the landscape disappears completely, giving way to man. It would be more accurate to say that human faces come to the foreground of the paintings, close to the viewer and presented close up. In the tragic scenes of the suffering of Christ, Bosch turns to the origins of morality, betrayal and heroism. He is one of the first to try to reveal the secret, full of contradictions, the inner life of a person. Already insightful contemporaries noted that others are trying, as far as possible, to paint a person as he looks on the outside, while he (Bosch) has the courage to paint him as he is on the inside. Bosch's world is turbulent, special and unique. Even in the most fantastic images it is filled with serious problems that are relevant not only for his century.

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 works were widely known and popular far beyond the Netherlands. After the artist’s death in 1516, the young Pieter Bruegel became one of the authors of engravings of 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 Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Muzhitsky), Albrecht Dürer, and Lucas Cranach.

The multidimensional content of Bosch's works, reflecting the misconceptions and insights of his turning point, even centuries later allows various masters to draw from the legacy of the artist's paintings what is close to everyone: the vision of an honorary professor of nightmares or the sharpness of a realist and the subtlety of a poet. Hieronymus Bosch owes his popularity in the 20th century largely to his inherent restlessness of conscience and awareness of the connection between the present and the future.

In preparing the publication, materials from the article were used
« Mysterious world Bosch" by O. Petrochuk, M. 1985

Hell - Hieronymus Bosch (Part of the triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights”). 1500-1510. Wood, oil. 389 x 220 cm

Hell is the right wing of the artist’s famous triptych called “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” Under this lyrical name lies a far from sweet and idyllic picture. In fact, the triptych is made quite in the style of Bosch - eerie visions, grotesque figures, terrible images are almost everywhere here.

In the artist's vision, hell appears as a monstrous surreal place. The right wing of the triptych is often called “Musical Hell” by critics due to the fact that many different musical instruments. However, one should not hope that they are used for their intended purpose. In fact, even the devils don’t play them, as one might suspect. Bosch decided to use methods of using them that were completely far from the direct purpose of musical instruments. In most cases, they act as torture devices.

For example, the artist’s harp plays the role of a cross for a crucifixion or a rack - an unfortunate sinner is stretched out on it. The innocent lute became the object of torture for another poor fellow, who lies prone. Interestingly, on his buttocks are printed the notes on which a completely unimaginable choir sings - the damned, led by a conductor with a fish “face”.

The foreground of the picture is capable of shocking even those seasoned with horror films. modern man. A rabbit is dragging a man with his belly cut open, who is tied to a pole. At the same time, a stream of blood literally pours out of the poor fellow. The predatory rabbit looks very peaceful, and this is a truly monstrous contrast to what he does and what his action should imply in the future.

The abnormality of this place is emphasized by the incredible size of the berries and fruits scattered here and there throughout the building. When you look at this, it’s not clear who is eating whom here – people’s berries or people’s berries? The world turned upside down and became hell.

A frozen pond with a wormwood, where a sinner rushes astride a huge skate, people flying towards the light like mindless midges, a man sharpening door lock– all these images are allegorical and were certainly understandable to the artist’s contemporaries. Some of what was seen can be interpreted and interpreted even today, but from the point of view of a person of our time, and not of the late Middle Ages.

Interestingly, a researcher of Bosch’s work was able to decipher the notes engraved on the sinner’s fifth point. It turns out that the artist recorded a completely coherent melody that can be played and listened to. But this is the only normal, real element in the delusional world of his hell.

So, the number of originals, the cost of beard care, the scope of anniversary celebrations and other important things...

They say that the biography of Hieronymus Bosch is a secret behind 7 seals, his paintings are an anthology of 7 deadly sins and another 777 venial sins, and to understand them adequately, you need at least 7 spans of brainpower. This is partly true. However, Arthive also has some other numbers at its disposal that shed light on the life, work and posthumous glory of Bosch.

5 sons Bosch's grandfather, Jan van Aken, had it. At least 4 of them (including Jerome's father, Anthony van Aken, who died around 1478) became artists.

Not a single painting by Bosch did not remain in 's-Hertogenbosch - the city in which the artist was born and died and which, most likely, he never left.

Every 19th of the inhabitants In the time of Bosch, 's-Hertogenbosch belonged to one of the religious congregations, and Bosch himself was a high-ranking (or, as they would say now, elite) member of the 's-Hertogenbosch Brotherhood of Our Lady. The same one that has existed since 1318 to this day, and at whose meetings it is customary to feast on roasted swan.

At least 14 documents, giving an idea of financial situation Hieronymus van Aken, who adopted the pseudonym "Bosch", is available to his biographers. Having married his much older and far from poor Aleit Goyaerts van der Meerveen, the artist was never short of money, and by the beginning of the 16th century he was considered one of the richest residents of the city.

None of Bosch's works not dated by the author himself.

Not a single name of Bosch's paintings doesn't belong to him. All names - and even the names of the characters in the paintings - are later descriptions and interpretations.

5 by 13 centimeters- the smallest painting attributed to Bosch known to date. This is the "Portrait of an Old Woman" from the Boeysmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. However, researchers are inclined to think that this is most likely not an independent portrait, but only a fragment of one of the unsurvived works. The female profile is reminiscent of the singing nun from another famous Louvre painting by Bosch, so it is assumed that the Rotterdam old woman could well be part of an unknown author's version of The Ship of Fools.

Hieronymus Bosch. Ship of Fools

Hieronymus Bosch. Head of a Woman (Head of an Old Woman)

Only 1 time female became the main character altar triptych by Bosch. We are talking about the “Crucified Martyr” from the Doge’s Palace in Venice, also known by at least 3 other names: “Crucifixion of Saint Julia”, “Crucifixion of Saint Liberata” and “Crucifixion of Saint Vilgefortis” (from the Latin Virgo Fortis - steadfast Virgo).

Hieronymus Bosch. Crucified Martyr
1500s, 104×119 cm

300 thousand euros It was worth restoring the beard on the face of the heroine of Bosch’s triptych “The Martyrdom of St. Vilgefortis." According to legend, the Christian saint begged for a beard so as not to be forcibly married to a pagan king. It took specialists almost 8 months to completely restore the beard.

9 years old lasted a large-scale “Project for the Study and Restoration of Bosch’s Works” (The Bosch Research and Conversation Project, BRCP) under the leadership of Jos Koldewey and Mathijs Ilsink - the beard of St. Vilgefortis was revived within its framework. One of the results of the Project, which ended in 2016, the year of the 500th anniversary of Bosch’s death, was the reattribution of some of the artist’s works. For example, “The 7 Deadly Sins and the 4 Last Things” and “Extracting the Stone of Folly” from the Prado, as well as “Carrying the Cross” from Ghent are considered by Dutch researchers to be the works of Bosch’s followers.

A total of 24 paintings and 20 drawings belong to the hand of Bosch, according to BRCP findings.

608 pages compiles a catalog raisonné of Bosch's works, published by the Mercatorfonds publishing house as a result of the work of the Dutch research project. You can purchase the catalog for 125 euros.

17 paintings and 19 drawings Bosch, through unprecedented negotiating efforts, managed to get from different museums world Charles de Moey, director of the North Brabant Museum for retrospective exhibition"Hieronymus Bosch. Visions of a genius", which took place in 's-Hertogenbosch from February to May 2016.

The organizers estimated the costs of the exhibition in 's-Hertogenbosch at 7 million euros, and preliminary research cost another 3 million.

More than 420 thousand people visited the exhibition “Hieronymus Bosch. Visions of a genius" in the artist’s homeland. Entrance ticket cost 22 euros.

"Three Philosophers" called famous painting Giorgione, which, according to art critic Linda Harris, author of the book “The Secret Heresy of Hieronymus Bosch,” depicts Leonardo, Giorgione himself and Bosch, who secretly visited Venice (in the center).

Giorgione. Three philosophers
1504, 125.5×146.2 cm

80 years old held in the storerooms of the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City a plaque “The Temptation of St. Anthony” with the attribution of “follower/imitator of Hieronymus Bosch,” until in 2016 the status of the painting was sensationally upgraded: the work is now considered to have been painted by Bosch himself.

Hieronymus Bosch. Temptation of Saint Anthony
1500s, 38.1×25.4 cm

220 by 390 centimeters— the dimensions of the “Garden of Earthly Delights.” This is the largest work of Bosch that has survived to our time, not only in depth artistic design and craftsmanship, but also simply in size. The second largest Bosch triptych is “The Last Judgment” (163.7 by 247 cm, Vienna), the third is “The Temptation of St. Anthony” (131.5 by 225 cm, Lisbon).

Hieronymus Bosch. Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch. Last Judgment
Hieronymus Bosch. Temptation of Saint Anthony. Triptych

3 paintings by Bosch with the same name “Carrying the Cross” are kept in museums in three cities: the first in Vienna, the second in Madrid, and the third and most famous (although now not considered the original) in Ghent.

Hieronymus Bosch. Carrying the cross

3 versions of "Adoration of the Magi" attributed to Bosch: a triptych stored in the Prado (Madrid), and two paintings - from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and Art Museum Philadelphia.

Hieronymus Bosch. Adoration of the Magi. Triptych

Hieronymus Bosch. Adoration of the Magi

2 wanderers, very similar to each other, wrote in different times Bosch. One is on the outer flaps of the triptych “A Wagon of Hay”, the second is on a board that is now on display in Rotterdam (perhaps these were also the flaps of the lost triptych). Some scientists are inclined to believe that Bosch generously endowed both wanderers with his own facial features. “This nose cannot be attributed to anyone else!” notes researcher Nicholas Bohm, author of the popular science film “The Mysteries of Hieronymus Bosch,” filmed by the BBC.

Hieronymus Bosch. A cart of hay. External doors of the triptych.

Hieronymus Bosch. Wanderer

4 types of temperament researchers discovered in Bosch's painting "The Crowning of crown of thorns" The sanguine person stretches his hands from the lower right corner, the choleric person puts his fingers into the wounds, the phlegmatic person puts a crown of thorns on Christ, and in the upper right corner the melancholic person puts his hand sympathetically on His shoulder. Many believe that the latter is a self-portrait of the artist.

Hieronymus Bosch. Crowning with thorns
1510, 73.8×59 cm

More than 40 Bosch characters available in the iOS and Android app called Bosch Camera, released by the organizers of the Bosch Year celebrations in 's-Hertogenbosch. With its help, the user can transfer Bosch's heroes into their photographs and collages.

3 dollars 99 cents you need to pay extra to get the opportunity to fly on a flying fish among the heroes of the central and right wings of Bosch’s triptych in the simulator application for iOS and Android “Bosch: virtual trip through the Garden of Earthly Delights." The left wing "Paradise" can be explored for free.

500 years ago, August 9, 1516, according to Bosch, a funeral mass was celebrated in the Cathedral of St. John.

Only 12 years before death artist, in 1504, the pseudonym “Bosch” first appears in documents.