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Bosch: The Complete Paintings (Basic Art)

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Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) was a Dutch painter - and that is about all we really know about this man who left behind little in the way of history to judge him. We are left with only his paintings, and there are not very many of those, to try to figure out just who he was and from whence came his florid imagination. He is generally accepted by art historians to be the father of fantasy and medieval magical realism. Most of his works are in the manner of triptychs such as his most famous work 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', and seem to spill out of the canvas with endless imagination. Where he found the inspiration of the strange part animal/part human demons, or how he was able to paint some of the near naughty scenes he reveled in is up for conjecture.

This book is rather short in length: there is little to write about Bosch except form an vantage of the historical incident surround his rather nebulously defined time on earth. The plates of his paintings are rather bargain basement in quality - unusual for Taschen - but at least for a small amount of money we can indulge in the fantasy that played out on his canvases. This inexpensive book is worth the investment as an introduction to the mysterious Hieronymus Bosch! Grady Harp, September 10

Biographical information about the 15th Century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch is sparse. However, the relative silence of the records at least has the virtue of encouraging us to concentrate on his art. Most striking and most famous are Bosch's depictions of hell; demonic monsters inflicting all manner of tortures and torments on those consigned there by the doctrines of the mediaeval church. Besides conjuring up the demons, Bosch invents some interesting machines to assist them in their work. The basic vision of Hell and its torments may be influenced by Dante and other mediaeval writers, but so far as we know the artistic vision was wholly original.

Although in tune with the prevailing doctrine of the church, it may be that Bosch's graphic detail proved too much for the potential clientele of his day, for the paintings by which we know him best were relatively few. They were from what is believed to have been his middle period, though none of his work is dated. Before and afterwards he worked on more conventional subjects such as the Creation, Christ before Pilate, Christ's Passion, and depictions of well-loved saints. However, conventional as at first sight many of those paintings might be, still the devils creep in. Also pervasive is evidence of what we might take to be Bosch's own belief; that the numbers carried off to hell will be far greater than those raised to heaven.

Lest we might be at risk of missing the demon lurking in a picture of St John the Evangelist at Patmos, the malign significance of owls and toads seen in other biblical scenes, or the scandalously incongruous goings-on in the background of the Marriage Feast at Cana, Walter Bosing in his valuable contribution to the splendid Taschen art series is particularly helpful. More than half of the 96 pages in this book carry full-color reproductions of Bosch's paintings, and many text pages are adorned with marginal sketches and drawings. Even so, in at least one instance a feature described by Bosing has largely been cropped from the picture reproduced. That is unfortunate, but the wealth of description and illustration should be sufficient for all but those who wish to make a specialist study of Bosch's work, and for more they will probably have to make a tour of the many European and other galleries that hold the paintings.

My husband expressed an interest in Hieronymous Bosch some time ago and when it came time for his birthday I remembered. This is his first foray into this artist and it fulfilled all his requirements as an introduction. He is now able to refine his path on where to go next due to the extensiveness of the book. I am enjoying reading it as well as prior to my husband's comment I had not heard of him but I am a fan of Bruegel.

Do not buy this version, buy the original: Hieronymus Bosch (World of Art)
The original book is written by Walter Gibson.
Taschen republished this book by Gibson, but used an anagram of his name to create a fictional "Bosing". The copyright to the text published by Taschen is held by Thames & Hudson. One wonders what it was that prevented Walter Gibson asserting his "moral rights".
It is great to see that this publication by the cynical opportunists, Taschen, is no longer in print!