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Hieronymus Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch; alleged self-portrait (around 1516)
Birth name	Jheronimus van Aken
Born	c. 1450
Died	9 August, 1516 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
Field	Painting, drawing
Movement	Renaissance
Famous works	The Garden of Earthly Delights The Temptation of St. Anthony The Ship of Fools
Influenced	Pieter Brueghel the Elder Surrealism

Hieronymus Bosch, (Latinised Jheronimus Bosch; real name Jeroen van Aken) (c. 1450 – August 9, 1516) ^[1] was an Early Netherlandish painter of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many of his works depict sin and human moral failings. Bosch used images of demons, half-human animals and machines to evoke fear and confusion to portray the evil of man.^[1] The works contain complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic figures and iconography, some of which was obscure even in his own time. He is said^{[attribution needed]} to have been an inspiration for the surrealist movement in the twentieth century.

Hell, the right panel from the triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights

He was born was Jheronimus (or Jeroen) van Aken (meaning "from Aachen"), but signed some of his paintings with Bosch (pronounced Boss in Dutch), derived from his birthplace, 's-Hertogenbosch.^[1]

Born to a family of Dutch and German painters, he spent most of his life in 's-Hertogenbosch, a flourishing city in fifteenth century Brabant, in the south of the present-day Netherlands. In 1463, some 4000 houses in the town were destroyed by a catastrophic fire, which the then (approximately) 13-year-old Bosch may have witnessed. He became a popular painter and even 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 some 7000 'outer-members' from all over Europe.

Bosch produced several triptychs, works of three paintings on wooden panels that are attached to each other. Among his most famous is The Garden of Earthly Delights.^[1] This triptych 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 have a rough surface from the application of paint; this contrasts with the traditional Flemish style of paintings, where the smooth surface attempts to hide the fact that the painting is man-made.

Bosch never dated his paintings and may have signed only some of them (other signatures are certainly not his). Fewer than 25 paintings remain today that can be attributed to him. Philip II of Spain acquired many of Bosch's paintings after the painter's death; as a result, the Prado Museum in Madrid now owns several of his works, including The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder was influenced by Bosch's work and produced several paintings in a similar style, for instance the 1562 work The Triumph of Death.

Main article: Works of Hieronymus Bosch

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Hieronymus Bosch.", Encyclopædia Britannica Concise, 2007, <http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9357761/Hiëronymus-Bosch>. Retrieved on August 16, 2007

• Jos Koldeweij/Bernard Vermet/Barbera van Kooij: Hieronymus Bosch. New Insights Into His Life and Work, NAi Publishers, Rotterdam 2001, ISBN 90-5662-214-5.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Hieronymus Bosch

• Hieronymus Bosch "Between Heaven and Hell" in the "A World History of Art"
• Hieronymus Bosch Gallery at ibiblio
• Bosch Universe
• VA Tech English Dept. Project - Details Hieronymous Bosch paintings and allows for close examination
• Hieronymus Bosch at Panopticon Virtual Art Gallery