Hieronymus Bosch is not only one of the strangest painters that lived in the Middle Ages, but also in the whole history of world art. Although at first he was most well known for being an imaginative “creator of devils”¹and a painter of apparent nonsense, he was later recognized for his ability to depict various realistic scenes of creation of the world and man, of human suffering, and of human sins.

Bosch was born sometime in the 1450’s in the town of s’Hertogenbosch (now in The Netherlands). His name was originally Jhieronymus van Aken. The last name Aken was from the city of Aachen in Germany, which is where Hieronymus’s family originally came from.²The painter later changed his name to Bosch, meaning either “woods”, or as a part of s’Hertogenbosch.³The master painter died in his hometown in 1516.⁴

All of Bosch’s works are painted in a style called alla prima, during which the painter applies paint on a background of brown paint.⁵What is interesting about his paintings is that they are often like visual sermons, addressing religious questions. Some critics believe that Bosch might have been a member of some sort of secret religious sect. Although the themes of his work were mostly religious, his wide array of symbols to represent the temptation of man by evil makes some people believe he may have been a practitioner of the occult arts.⁶

Among Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings, my favorites are “Cure of Folly,” “Ship of Fools”, and “The Temptation of St. Anthony”.

In the painting “Cure of Folly” (also called “The Operation for the Stone”), a group of people are standing around a man sitting on a chair near a table. Around the painting is a fancy border and the writing “Master, cut out the stone; I am called the Tricked, Cuckolded, Impertinent Badger.” The main scene is a surgeon cutting a hole in the sitting man’s head, from which sprouts a flower or, to be more precise, a tulip. Some interesting details are that the sitting man is tied to his chair, as if with a straitjacket. This leads some art experts to believe that maybe the man portrayed is a madman.⁷

The next painting, “The Ship of Fools”, is one of Bosch’s most famous paintings. In this interesting work of art, Bosch portrayed a ship full of people, with a mast that is a living tree. The people in the ship (among them a nun, monk, and jester) are eating food, playing music, and acting in strange ways. Art historians aren’t too sure whether the painting was meant to represent lunacy or gluttony. However, it is more probable that the painting is about madmen, because in the time of Bosch, the patients of asylums were sometimes housed on barges floating down the river.⁸Another symbolic detail is the pancake hanging in front of the noses of the boat passengers, and pancakes are symbolical of the Shrovetide festival, which happens the day before Lent.⁹

The last of my three most favorite paintings is “The Temptation of St. Anthony”. However, this painting is in fact a triptych, so I will only describe one tiny detail in the left wing, which is almost as interesting as the whole painting. This interesting detail is a small, birdlike creature wearing skates, and ice-skating on the ice under a bridge. It has no arms, and its legs are humanlike, but its head is most definitely that of a long-beaked bird. In its beak, the creature has a letter, and the bird is dressed in a seemingly uniform yellow outfit, because of the black badge on the shoulder. On its head is a metal strainer with a twig sticking out of the end. All in all, this probably mostly unnoticed part of the painting is a good example of Hieronymus Bosch’s fantastic imagination and the absurd, surreal creatures he draws in all of his paintings.

Thus, Bosch’s talent for managing color harmonies and creating works based completely on his imagination is what makes him truly unique. Even though many imitators (among them was Pieter Breughel the Elder) tried to copy his style of painting, Bosch’s unique imagination prevented him from having any real followers. There are many different interpretations of Bosch’s art, but most people believe that his paintings show an “obsession with the human tendency to sin when trying to defy God, as well as with the eternal damnation of sinful souls in Hell.” In my opinion, Bosch, in a way, began the Renaissance in Northern Europe.

1. W. John Campbell, The Essential Hieronymus Bosch (New York: The Wonderland Press, 2000), p. 28.
2. "Bosch, Hieronymus." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001
3. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. (1994-2001)
4. Campbell, The Essential Hieronymus Bosch, p.11
5. "Bosch, Hieronymus." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001
6. H.W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson, History of Art for Young People (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997), p.362
7. W. John Campbell, The Essential Hieronymus Bosch, (New York: The Wonderland Press, 2000) p.11
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid