Biography of Hieronymus Bosch
9 August 1516
Hieronymus Bosch (whose real name is Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken) was born on 2 October 1453 in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands South location near Tilburg, at the time possession of the Dukes of Burgundy, from a family of German origins probably (the surname van Aken suggests a coming from Aachen), where both his father Anton that Grandpa Jan are artists (and these will also become the brothers Thomas and Goossen). After witnessing the fire in 1463 destroys about 4 thousand houses in his city, Bosch began studying painting, probably learning the rudiments from relatives: work to painting in fresco in the family workshop, dedicated to the production of furniture and the gilding of wood statues. After meeting, at least indirectly, Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck, masters of southern Flanders, develop a style quite different from that of the times, choosing instead of refined details and volumes, pictorial graphics, but not run flat, on the basis of the illuminated illustration. His beginnings as a painter goes back to the period between 1470 and 1475:1479, instead, you have to give his marriage to Aleid van de Meervenne, daughter of a nobleman, which brings him some land that allow it to earn a relatively wealthy economic condition. Starting from 1486 Hieronymus is part of the confreres of Lieve-Vrouwe Broedershap, our beloved Lady, an Association for clergy and laity dedicated to charitable works and sacred representations based on the cult of the Virgin. Within a few years he became one of the notables of the brotherhood, aided by a social ascent quite fast, which translates into a wealthy economic condition, contemporary to the growing fame as an artist. In 1480 Bosch realizes the "extraction of the stone of madness", currently preserved at the "Prado", in which a surgeon wearing a headdress that, Messeturm is stupidity, is shaped like a funnel: a criticism of those who think they know but are more ignorant of fools. Shortly thereafter gives birth to "Epiphany" (now the "Museum of Art" by Fildadelfia), a work that reveals an obvious influence of late Gothic art, as can be deduced from the tortuous of lines, and the "crucifixion", which shows in the background a city that can be identified with his birthplace. At the same period was the "Ecce homo" (now you can see it at the Stadelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt "), serving Christ and Pilate one in front of the other in front of the crowd. In 1490 the Dutch painter paints the "procession to Calvary", also starring Jesus: once again surrounded by the crowd, while at the back a child, probably image of Christ as a child, has committed to play.
"Hayride", "Ship of fools" and "death of a miser's other three paintings made during that time. You do not have documents relating to the artist, however, with regard to the years between 1500 and 1504: it is likely, therefore, that in that time he has moved to Italy, in Venice, since since the early decades of the sixteenth century many private collections of the lagoon city will host his works. In the same period, the style of Hieronymus is characterized by a rather obvious change, moving towards a Renaissance style, with airy landscapes and monumental figures. In those years is painted the "triptych of Santa Giuliana," produced in conjunction with the "earthly paradise", "Inferno", "fall of the damned" and "ascent to the Empyrean". Between 1503 and 1504 Bosch achieves another "procession to Calvary", a table composed based on two diagonals that cross on the visa of Christ: an artwork in which evil is not offered through the symbols, but through the deformation and the grotesque. At 1504 is traced the "triptych of judgment", commissioned by Philip the fair; a few months later the "Saint John the Baptist in meditation", located today in Madrid, and the "St. John on Patmos", a lost triptych considered as the first of the so-called meditative paintings, with strokes that evoke the Giorgione. After the "St. Christopher" from Rotterdam, the artist dedication to "procession to Calvary" which now appears in the Royal Palace of Madrid. The "triptych of judgement" that today you see in Bruges at the "Groeninge Museum" anticipates the creation of the coronation of thorn, in which there is a strong Italian influence. Bosch in 1510 realizes the "triptych of the Passion" that is now located in Valencia at the "Museo de Bellas Artes", and "the temptations of St. Anthony" (now always in Spain, but the "Prado"). Hieronymus Bosch died on 9 August 1516 in Hertogenbosch, after painting "the prodigal son" from Rotterdam: his funeral is celebrated solemnly in the chapel of our Lady of the brotherhood.
Sometimes referred to as El Bosco, or more often as Van Aken (from "Bois le Duc", namely the French translation of the word "Hertogenbosch", which means "Forest Ducale" in Dutch), Bosch produces works inventive, sometimes visions are real, not far from religious doctrines of the time. The cataloguing of his paintings over time was found to be very difficult due to the lack of news concerning him: none of his works is dated, and the links between commissions and paintings are almost never testified. To these problems, we must add a style that did not develop in a linear fashion, which made complicated highlight a logical progression-and chronological-then final.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.