For most who hear the name “Hieronymus Bosch,” their thoughts go to The Garden of Earthly Delights or the fantastical figures birthed from the artist’s imagination. When considering the number of works cataloged in museums around the world, it stands to reason that viewers often associate artists with a few distinct pieces or common elements within their bodies of work in order to categorize and remember information. Let’s dig deeper to learn more about Bosch’s personal life, his work, and the social and political shifts of his day that influenced him.
1. He Was a Married Man
While some artists in Renaissance Europe who remained unmarried have been dubbed “lone geniuses” or portrayed as reclusive and tortured masterminds, Hieronymus Bosch was married. Although there are no known portraits that he created of his bride, records show that Bosch wed Aleid van de Meervenne sometime between 1477 and 1481.
His wife was the daughter of a wealthy man in ‘s-Hertogensbosch, and the marriage afforded the artist a comfortable home in a respectable part of town. From what historians have gathered, he was also several years her junior. While that might make for gossip fodder in a similar scenario today, it is important to remember that Hieronymus Bosch was highly respected and financially successful in his lifetime.
Although the date of 1481 would have been early in his artistic career, he was certainly a working artist by this time, and his father and uncles had also been successful painters. So why is his marriage relevant to his career? Some art historians believe that Bosch’s marriage provided the kind of financial stability that made him less dependent on commissions and the whims of patrons and allowed him the flexibility and freedom to experiment with his art, ultimately leading to the fantastical style for which he is best known.
2. Almost All of His Paintings Are Moralizing Works, Some More Overt Than Others
Bosch was active during a period of great religious and societal upheaval in Europe. From the early first millennium until the Middle Ages, Christianity had been inextricably woven into the very fabric of society, but by the 1400s, the foundation of the Catholic Church was being shaken, and its loudest critics would ultimately birth the Protestant Reformation.
Many scholars believe that Bosch’s moralizing works were a commentary on the perception that questioning Catholicism had resulted in rampant sin. Regardless of the exact motivation behind them, it is undeniable that the artist’s paintings are heavily focused on morality, temptation, judgment, creation, and hell.
The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things (depicting the Church’s list of the seven deadly sins: greed, pride, lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, and envy) is a rather overt warning against certain behaviors.
In other cases, however, Hieronymus Bosch’s messaging is more sophisticated and seems to depict not only sin but the sinful inner thought life of man and its effects. Perhaps the most famous example of this is his Garden of Earthly Delights, which the Museo del Prado refers to as the artist’s “most complex and enigmatic creation.”
3. No Social Class Was Safe From His Scrutiny
Bosch’s otherworldly scenes and creatures might be what the artist is most known for, but following closely behind is his criticism of societal issues of the day. While not all of his works did so, many called out the behavioral flaws that Bosch saw in the world around him.
He was particularly fond of pointing out the hypocrisy of the clergy, the greed and avarice of the rich, and the impropriety and debauchery of the middle and lower classes. One noteworthy example is The Haywain, in which nuns and monks enjoy drinks and their stockpile of hay (representing worldly goods) while the masses fight one another in the greedy throng, trying to grab even a few small pieces. A wealthy couple is perched on top of the hay, making music and oblivious to the fact that they are crushing everyone below them. In this particular work, Bosch even went as far as depicting the pope, the emperor, and various other royals and nobles following behind the haywain, unaware of their fate as they are led to the hellscape on the right side panel.
In some ways, Bosch might be considered a forerunner to contemporary artists whose work aims a spotlight at social issues, wealth inequality, and overconsumption but who still manage to maintain thriving careers despite creating works that could alienate their wealthiest clients.
4. He Was a Favorite of the Aristocracy
Given the artist’s blatant disdain for the indifference of the wealthy to the plight of the poor, it might come as a surprise that he had some rather well-to-do patrons. In fact, the list of nobles who either certainly or probably owned some of Bosch’s works is quite long and includes Philip the Fair, Duke of Burgundy, Count Hendrick III of Nassau, and Margaret of Austria. The National Gallery of Art notes that documentary evidence indicates Bosch’s work was also commissioned by wealthy secular clients and religious institutions, as well.
It is Philip II of Spain, though, who is largely considered to be Bosch’s most enthusiastic collector, with scholars estimating that he owned up to 26 works by the artist at various points in his life. Philip II was an avid patron of the arts, and it is his voracious collecting to which the Museo del Prado in Spain owes many of its impressive holdings today.
Unsurprisingly, the earliest records tracing the ownership of Bosch’s paintings indicate that the aristocracy did not typically own the works critiquing wealth disparity. More often, they were prone to purchase the works with visual references to Christianity, sin, and judgment which would have been considered less controversial subject matter.
5. He Did Not Date His Work
Not all artists in the sixteenth century signed or dated their work, and those who did were not always consistent in doing so. Even a few dated works by an artist, however, can help form the framework of a timeline into which other paintings can reasonably be placed. Bosch did not date any of his paintings or drawings that survive today, leaving experts with a hefty burden to determine the rough order of his oeuvre.
While certain works can be grouped by style or subject matter, the results are rather speculative as the artist might have shifted the manner of creation and types of scenes he painted within very short periods based on patrons’ demands. However, what can be used to definitively place some of Bosch’s works in chronological order are inventories of royal art collections which contained his paintings, as well as the age dating of the oak panels onto which many of his works were painted.
While all dates should be considered approximations, most historians group Bosch’s extant paintings into early (1470-1485), middle (1486-1500), and late (1501-1516) periods, with the subject matter becoming increasingly unusual as time passes. Organizing Bosch’s work within a loose timeline allows viewers to observe a progression in his style, assuming that the dated groupings are largely accurate.
6. Despite His Wide Influence, Bosch Likely Never Lived Outside of His Hometown
Studying art abroad was rather standard practice for Renaissance artists in Bosch’s day, particularly traveling to view the classical ancient masterpieces in Italy and Greece. But based on what we know about the life of Hieronymus Bosch, there is no evidence that he spent extended time away from his hometown.
He was not cut off from the world beyond his community, though. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the town of ‘s-Hertogensbosch was the second largest city in the present-day Netherlands and was a flourishing center for art, music, and trade. Ideas and goods flowed into and out of the city. Thanks to the invention and popularity of engraving, many of Bosch’s most famous works circulated throughout Europe while he himself did not.
Several engravers looking to capitalize on the demand for the artist’s work even produced prints in his style and attributed them to Bosch. Whether these ambitious engravers were intentionally misleading buyers or they truly thought they were reproducing Bosch’s work, it was the popularity of these engravings that cemented his reputation and spawned a generation of artists who were inspired by his unique methods of visual representation.
7. If You Want to See His Work in Person, Make Sure Your Passport is up to Date
While the oeuvres of some artists are growing as new works are “discovered,” Bosch’s is shrinking as a result of technological research methods that have helped identify some earlier erroneous misattributions. At this point, around 25 paintings by Hieronymus Bosch are generally agreed upon by most experts, and they are scattered throughout a number of museums, primarily located in Europe.
Some of the most famous pieces are held at Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain; Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, Italy; Akademie für Bildenden Künste in Vienna, Austria; National Gallery in London, England; and Groeningemuseum in Bruges, Belgium, among others.
For an opportunity to see a Bosch painting in North America, plan a visit to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The Temptation of St. Anthony at the Nelson-Atkins is one of the paintings recently added to Bosch’s catalog raisonné, rather than removed from it, based on underdrawings discovered by the Bosch Research and Conservation Project.
8. Most of Bosch’s Life & Art Is Still a Mystery—and People Love a Mystery
Part of the enduring allure of Hieronymus Bosch is our inability to fully explain many of his larger triptychs and complicated compositions, coupled with the lack of detail surrounding his biography. When was he actually born, and who trained him? What inspired him to break with tradition and communicate his ideas in groundbreaking ways? Did people in his day understand his paintings any better than we do today?
Hundreds, if not thousands, of other questions about the artist and his well-known paintings, will likely remain unanswered, but the ongoing quest for information has kept Bosch’s name top of mind for art historians for the last 500 years and shows no sign of slowing down.
