Jheronimus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch, born Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken, (c. 1450 – August 9, 1516) was an Early Dutch (Netherlandish) painter. His work is known for its use of fantastic imagery to illustrate moral and religious concepts and narratives.

Life

Hieronymus Bosch was born Hieronymus (or Jeroen, respectively the Latin and Middle Dutch form of the name "Jerome") van Aken (meaning "from Aachen"). He signed a number of his paintings as Bosch (pronounced Boss in Middle Dutch). The name derives from his birthplace, 's-Hertogenbosch, which is commonly called "Den Bosch".

Little is known of Bosch’s life or training. He left behind no letters or diaries, and what has been identified has been taken from brief references to him in the municipal records of 's-Hertogenbosch, and in the account books of the local order of the Brotherhood of Our Lady. Nothing is known of his personality or his thoughts on the meaning of his art. Bosch’s date of birth has not been determined with certainty. It is estimated at c. 1450 on the basis of a hand drawn portrait (which may be a self-portrait) made shortly before his death in 1516. The drawing shows the artist at an advanced age, probably in his late sixties.

Bosch was born and lived all his life in and near ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the capital of the Duchy of Brabant. His grandfather, Jan van Aken (died 1454), was a painter and is first mentioned in the records in 1430. It is known that Jan had five sons, four of whom were also painters. Bosch’s father, Anthonius van Aken (died c. 1478) acted as artistic adviser to the Brotherhood of Our Lady. It is generally assumed that either Bosch’s father or one of his uncles taught the artist to paint, but none of their works survive. Bosch first appears in the municipal record in 1474, when he is named along with two brothers and a sister.

's-Hertogenbosch was a flourishing city in fifteenth century Brabant, in the south of the present-day Netherlands, at the time part of the Burgundian Netherlands, and during his lifetime passing through marriage to the Habsburgs. In 1463, 4,000 houses in the town were destroyed by a catastrophic fire, which the then (approximately) 13-year-old Bosch presumably witnessed. He became a popular painter in his lifetime and often received commissions from abroad. In 1488 he joined the highly respected Brotherhood of Our Lady, an arch-conservative religious group of some 40 influential citizens of 's-Hertogenbosch, and 7,000 'outer-members' from around Europe.

Sometime between 1479 and 1481, Bosch married Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meerveen, who was a few years older than the artist. The couple moved to the nearby town of Oirschot, where his wife had inherited a house and land, from her wealthy family.

An entry in the accounts of the Brotherhood of Our Lady records Bosch’s death in 1516. A funeral mass served in his memory was held in the church of Saint John on 9 August of that year.

Art

Bosch produced several triptychs. Among his most famous is The Garden of Earthly Delights. This painting, for which the original title has not survived, depicts paradise with Adam and Eve and many wondrous animals on the left panel, the earthly delights with numerous nude figures and tremendous fruit and birds on the middle panel, and hell with depictions of fantastic punishments of the various types of sinners on the right panel. When the exterior panels are closed the viewer can see, painted in grisaille, God creating the Earth. These paintings—especially the Hell panel—are painted in a comparatively sketchy manner which contrasts with the traditional Flemish style of paintings, where the smooth surface—achieved by the application of multiple transparent glazes—conceals the brushwork. In this painting, and more powerfully in works such as his Temptation of St. Anthony (Lisbon), Bosch draws with his brush. Not surprisingly, Bosch is also one of the most revolutionary draftsmen in the history of art, producing some of the first autonomous sketches in Northern Europe.

Bosch never dated his paintings. But—unusual for the time—he seems to have signed several of them, although other signatures purporting to be his are certainly not. Fewer than 25 paintings remain today that can be attributed to him. In the late sixteenth-century, Philip II of Spain acquired many of Bosch's paintings, including some probably commissioned and collected by Spaniards active in Bosch's hometown; as a result, the Prado Museum in Madrid now owns The Garden of Earthly Delights, the circular tabletop of The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, the The Haywain Triptych and The Stone Operation.

Interpretation

In the twentieth century, when changing artistic tastes made artists like Bosch more palatable to the European imagination, it was sometimes argued that Bosch’s art was inspired by heretical points of view (e.g., the ideas of the Cathars and putative Adamites) as well as of obscure hermetic practices. Again, since Erasmus had been educated at one of the houses of the Brethren of the Common Life in S-Hertogenbosch, and the town was religiously progressive, some writers have found it unsurprising that strong parallels exist between the caustic writing of Erasmus and the often savage painting of Bosch. "Although the Brethren remained loyal to the Pope, they still saw it as their duty to denounce the abuses and scandalous behaviour of many priests: the corruption which both Erasmus and Bosch satirised in their work". Others, following a strain of Bosch-interpretation datable already to the sixteenth-century, continued to think his work was created merely to titillate and amuse, much like the "grotteschi" of the Italian Renaissance. While the art of the older masters was based in the physical world of everyday experience, Bosch confronts his viewer with, in the words of the art historian Walter Gibson, "a world of dreams [and] nightmares in which forms seem to flicker and change before our eyes." In one of the first known accounts of Bosch’s paintings, in 1560 the Spaniard Felipe de Guevara wrote that Bosch was regarded merely as "the inventor of monsters and chimeras". In the early seventeenth century, the Dutch art historian Karel van Mander described Bosch’s work as comprising "wondrous and strange fantasies"; however, he concluded that the paintings are "often less pleasant than gruesome to look at."

In recent decades, scholars have come to view Bosch's vision as less fantastic, and accepted that his art reflects the orthodox religious belief systems of his age.[citation needed] His depictions of sinful humanity, his conceptions of Heaven and Hell are now seen as consistent with those of late medieval didactic literature and sermons. Most writers attach a more profound significance to his paintings than had previously been supposed, and attempt to interpret it in terms of a late medieval morality. It is generally accepted that Bosch’s art was created to teach specific moral and spiritual truths in the manner of other Northern Renaissance figures, such as the poet Robert Henryson, and that the images rendered have precise and premeditated significance. According to Dirk Bax, Bosch's paintings often represent visual translations of verbal metaphors and puns drawn from both biblical and folkloric sources. However, the conflict of interpretations that his works still elicit raise profound questions about the nature of "ambiguity" art of his period.

Some writers see Bosch as a proto-type medieval surrealist, and parallels are often made with the twentieth century Spanish artist Salvador Dalí. Other writers attempt to interpret his imagery using the language of Freudian psychology. However, such theses are commonly rejected; according to Gibson, "what we choose to call the libido was denounced by the medieval church as original sin; what we see as the expression of the subconscious mind was for the Middle Ages the promptings of God or the Devil."

Debates on attribution

The exact number of Bosch's surviving works has been a subject of considerable debate. He signed only seven of his paintings, and there is uncertainty whether all the paintings once ascribed to him were actually from his hand. It is known that from the early sixteenth century onwards numerous copies and variations of his paintings began to circulate. In addition, his style was highly influential, and was widely imitated by his numerous followers.

Over the years, scholars have attributed to him fewer and fewer of the works once thought to be his, and today only 25 are definitively attributed to him.

See also:

• List of paintings by Hieronymus Bosch
• Hieronymus Bosch drawings

Jheronimus Bosch, postuum ook Jeroen Bosch of Hiëronymus Bosch genoemd, geboren als Jheronimus van Aken, was een Zuid-Nederlands kunstschilder behorend tot de Noordelijke renaissance. Hij ging de geschiedenis in als 'den duvelmakere' (de schepper van duivels) en als schilder van satirische voorstellingen, maar hij is vooral van betekenis als vernieuwer van de beeldtraditie. Hij gaf op vindingrijke wijze invulling aan gangbare motieven en bedacht een reeks van nieuwe composities. Het gevolg hiervan is dat de precieze betekenis van een deel van zijn werk onbekend is gebleven. Hoewel hij al tijdens zijn leven een beroemd schilder was en hij opdrachten van het hertogelijk hof in Brussel kreeg, is er vrij weinig over hem bekend (bron: Artikel Jheronimus Bosch op Wikipedia)

bron: gezinsblad Jheronimus van Aken (Bosch)‏‎‏‎ op Genealogy Dortmans-Steverink

3 januari 1481: Jheronimus geheten Joen, schilder, zoon wijlen Anthonis van Aken, schilder, heeft opgedragen aan zijn broer Goossen 1/4 deel in huis en erf - van wijlen Anthonis - aan de Markt tussen Jan Goyarts heer, vleeshouwer, en Dirk van den Eynde, kannegyter, van de Markt tot Aert van Gogh, gewandsnijder.
Herbertken, dochter wijlen Anthonis van Aken geeft ook 1/4 deel in dit huis over aan Gossen.
(bron: Stadsarchief 's-Hertogenbosch, Schepenprotocol 's-Hertogenbosch, inv. nr. 1250, fol. 222v)

1487. Rekeningpost Jheronimus Anthonissoen van Aken. intredegeld (bron: Stadsarchief 's-Hertogenbosch, Archief van de Illustere Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap, inv. nr. 122, fol. 42v)

okt 1492 – sept 1493: Jheronimus Anthoniss van Aken man van Aleijt dochter wijlen Goijart van den Mervenne en van Postulijn Rutgers van Arkel (bron: Stadsarchief 's-Hertogenbosch, Schepenprotocol 's-Hertogenbosch, inv. nr. 1262, fol. 147r)

okt 1495 – sept 1497:
Goijart van den Merevenne
Jan Bruijstens
Jeronimus van Aken man van Aleijt Goijarts van den Mervenne
(bron: Stadsarchief 's-Hertogenbosch, Schepenprotocol 's-Hertogenbosch, inv. nr. 1265, fol. 250v)

1517. Rekeningpost Jheronimus Anthonissoen van Aken, schilder en gezworen broeder. doodschuld betaald na de dood (bron: Stadsarchief 's-Hertogenbosch, Archief van de Illustere Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap, inv. nr. 126, fol. 159v)

29 april 1531: Erfscheiding tussen Paulus filius quondam Winandi filii quondam Pauli dicti Wynantz ab eodem quondam Winando et quondam Gertrude van den Mervenne alias dicta Brants sua uxore pariter genitus en Willme dictus Spaen filium quondam Johannis tamquam maritus et tutor legitimus ut dicebat Domicelle Postelune sue uxoris filie quondam Rutgeri die Man et dicte quondam Gertrudis van den Mervenne alias Brants van de goederen nagelaten door Aleydis van Merevenne alias Brant Godefridsdr., weduwe van Jheronimus van Aken, tante van de comparanten in haar leven. Willem Spaen ontvangt namens zijn vrouw Posteluna de Man onder meer het goet te Rodeken situs in prochia de Oirschot ad locum dictum Aerle, videlicet domus, horrium et ortus cum hereditate sibi adjucente quatuor lopmatas terre (bron: Stadsarchief 's-Hertogenbosch, Schepenprotocol 's-Hertogenbosch, inv. nr. 644, fol. 388 e.v.; op citaat W. Wijnaendts van Resandt. "Posteluna de Man. Een voorbeeld van willekeurige naamsverandering." in: De Nederlandsche Leeuw, XXXIIe Jaargang, 1914, kol. 132)