The Life and Works of Hieronymus Bosch

by Trewin Copplestone

Copplestone, Trewin

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Ann Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hieronymus Bosch was one of the most unusual and creative painters in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. His work portrays both the divine and the unending pestilence and suffering of Hell. Bosch used symbolism like a master and created unique characters who were both human and bird, fish or demon. His detailed oils are so complex and populated with all manner of beast, human, saint and demon that they require intense study and contemplation. This book showcases a little of his intense imagery, brilliant color and composition and is a must for librarians and students of art in all its forms.

[iosephvs bibliothecarivs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bosch is fantastic in the truest sense of the word, but this book doesn't do him very much justice. First of all, there really is not much on his 'life' so why put that in the title? Second, the author's analysis of Bosch's works were, quite frankly, boring and repetitive. After all, how often can one remark, 'Look at the the depiction of the seven deadly sins,' or 'No one has yet been able to figure out what Bosch meant when he painted [fill in the blank].' Thirdly, the book was too small to present Bosch's paintings in all their intimate detail and glory. I'll be looking for a longer and larger book on Bosch in the future.

[Amber the Human · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely too small a book to do justice to this paintings, but I learned things for sure. I'd never even heard of Bosch before I was in The Prado about seven years ago and I saw his Garden of Earthly delights triptych. I was like "what on earth is this?" and was totally blown away by the year in which it was created. Crazy crazy. So yeah, good book, but if you have access to something bigger, go for the bigger one.

[James Hurley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, interesting and well illustrated.