Hieronymus Bosch

by Virginia Pitts Rembert

Hieronymus Bosch was painting frightening, yet vaguely likeable monsters long before computer games were ever invented, often including a touch of humour. His works are assertive statements about the mental illness that befalls any man who abandons the teachings of Christ. With a life that spanned from 1450 to 1516, Bosch experienced the drama of the highly charged Renaissance and its wars of religion. Medieval tradition and values were crumbling, thrusting man into a new universe where faith lost some of its power and much of its magic. Bosch set out to warn doubters of the perils awaiting any and all who lost their faith in God. His favourite allegories were heaven, hell, and lust. He believed that everyone had to choose between one of two heaven or hell. Bosch brilliantly exploited the symbolism of a wide range of fruits and plants to lend sexual overtones to his themes, which author Virginia Pitts Rembert meticulously deciphers to provide readers with new insight into this fascinating artist and his works.

Genres: Art

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Daniel Polansky]

Two things about Jerome that cut against his Christian message and give his art a (probably unfairly) reputation for transgression. The first is that the characters in the hellish portions of his paintings don't seem usually to be that bothered by being shat out they sphincter of an anthropomorphic organ grinder (or whatever). The other is that the paradisaical portions of his paintings tend themselves to be so weird and horrifying, with crystalline towers and odd animals, that looking at it you're kind of going 'shit man, if that's paradise maybe I am better off with monkey-faced whores, drinking drafts of hellfire and playing dominoes with an obese cat-man.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pictures were amazing to look at; I’ll pass on the writing though, reads like an elongated essay.

[D-Vid · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 stars. Some parts of the book were very interesting to read but most of the chapters didn't give me enough appetite for reading. This has neither anything to do with the content of the text nor with the research conducted but only with the style of writing.

Another point of attention is the layout. I'm expecting that, when an artwork is described, the artwork is displayed somewhere near the topic about this artwork. But it's rather scattered, so I had to keep flipping the pages throughout the whole reading.